“But St George is the patron saint of the English!” you must be exclaiming, possibly with indignation.And of course that’s correct,except that St Edmund was also our patron saint, well before St George was.
The night before King Richard the Lionheart won the battle of Lydda in 1199 during the Crusades he had prayed at the tomb of St George so, after his victory, he adopted George as his own personal patron saint. Before long, English soldiers were wearing the cross of St George into battle and by 1348 he was officially the patron saint of England.