Joe...I love it...nice grouping with your picture...I have always liked the red cross Crusade figures...MK01-02-04-8-17...part of 25 and 46-49-52-62-63-72 and 73 wouldn't look bad added to this group...I like that K&C has used the red cross in so many of it's figures...
these are all adopted from the St. George's Cross aren't they?
ooooh...and we can't forget MK78 either...
Hi Mike,
Thank you! I have some of the other figures you mentioned, and I'm going to try them with this little set up as well. Thanks for the suggestions!
It is my understanding that in a round about way, yes, the red Crusader cross was adopted from St. George's cross, I'm just not sure who was the first to fly this flag. But in terms of how it applies to the beginning of the Crusades, it is a very neat story.
Someone please correct me if I'm not altogether right. (I sometimes find myself reconstructing history on accident!). I'm sure there are others who know much more about this on the forum.
But as I understand it, upon formation of the first crusade, Pope Urban II assigned crosses to be worn by all of those who accepted the cross and who were going to participate in the Crusade to the Holy Land. He designated different colors of the cross to be worn by those representing their nations of origin. The French ended up with the red cross on white background, but the English wanted the red cross. It made sense because after all, the English, and I think several others as well, were among those who had actively been using St. George's Cross to some degree as their flag, the French not being one of them prior to this point in history. (Not only had the English already been using St. George's cross on some of their flags, the actual color combo they used was red on white!) At some point, the red cross on white background was restored back to the English. I do not know of the details of the exchange or when it exactly occurred. It must have been confusing at the time because many of the French continued to wear the red cross on white after it had been reallocated back to the English. This is why I believe many people think today that any knight from the era who bore the red cross on white background was French, but this was not always the case.
