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Today is St George's Day. 🏴
Your patron saint wasn't English. Your flag wasn't English either.
Here's why we claimed them both. 🏴🇬🇧
He was from Cappadocia. Modern Turkey.
A Roman soldier. The Praetorian Guard. Diocletian's personal bodyguard.
303 AD. The Emperor orders him to persecute Christians.
He refuses. Walks into the throne room. Tells the Emperor his order is cruel.
They offer him his life back. Gold. Land. His old command.
He refuses again.
23rd of April, 303. They behead him.
1,723 years ago today.
The flag was Genoese. 1099. Their navy was so feared that Barbary pirates turned home at the sight of it.
In 1190, Richard the Lionheart signed a treaty. English ships could fly the cross for protection.
We flew it so long we forgot it wasn't ours.
In 2018, the Mayor of Genoa wrote to the Queen asking for 247 years of back rent.
She didn't reply.
Edward III makes George our patron saint.
Henry V cries his name at Agincourt.
A Roman soldier from Cappadocia became the name Englishmen died for.
We didn't inherit our patron saint. We chose him. And we chose a soldier who refused.
That is your history.
This is who we are. 🇬🇧
We find what Britain has forgotten. And we tell it properly.
proudofus.co.uk/support
Be part of us. Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧
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