Oriflamme

The Oriflamme (from Latin aurea flamma, "golden flame"), a pointed, blood-red banner flown from a gilded lance, was the sacred battle standard of the King of France and a symbol of divine intervention on the battlefield from God and Saint Denis in the Middle Ages.

When the oriflamme was raised in battle by the French royalty during the Middle Ages, most notably during the Hundred Years' War, no prisoners were to be taken until it was lowered.

[3] According to legend, Charlemagne carried it to the Holy Land in response to a prophecy regarding a knight possessing a golden lance from which flames would burn and drive out the Saracens.

It is recorded as having been carried at the following battles/campaigns:[citation needed] The Oriflamme was lost at least four times during its medieval history: Mons-en-Pévèle,[8] Crécy, [9] Poitiers,[10] and during the campaigns of the Seventh Crusade under King Louis IX.

[15][16] In the 15th century, the fleur-de-lis on the white flag of Joan of Arc became the new royal standard replacing both the symbol of royalty and the Oriflamme on the battle field.

[18] The bearer of the standard, the porte-oriflamme, became an office, like that of the Marshal or Constable and a great honour, as it was an important and very dangerous position to take charge of such a visible symbol in battle.

[19]In Canto XXXI of Paradiso, Dante describes the Virgin Mary in the Empyrean as pacifica oriafiamma (Musa's translation, "oriflame of peace"):[21] so there, on high, that oriflame of peace lit up its center while on either side its glow was equally diminishing The 19th-century poet Robert Southey refers to the Oriflamme and its reputation in his poem Joan of Arc: "Dark-minded man!"

An excerpt reads: Undulating innocent all the juices rising in the lust of the earth all the poisons distilled by the nocturnal alembics in the involucres of the Malvaceae all the thundering of the Saponaria are like these discordant words written by the flames of pyres over the sublime oriflammes of your revolt The Oriflamme is depicted in season 2 episode 6 of the History Channel series Knightfall, being risen by Philip IV at the start of a siege on a Templar castle.