The Welsh Dragon Is Ancient. England Put It on Their Flag Too.

The Welsh dragon is one of the most recognisable national symbols in the world. It is also a great deal more complicated than it looks.
It did not begin as a Welsh symbol. It began as a Roman military banner. Roman cavalry carried a windsock-style standard called a draco, shaped like a dragon, designed to ripple and writhe when it caught the wind. Celtic troops carried it. When Rome withdrew from Britain in 410 AD, local leaders kept it. In a period of fragmentation and invasion, the dragon meant one thing: legitimate power.
Over centuries it became attached to the Britons of Wales, the people holding the western edge of the island against Anglo-Saxon expansion. It appeared in Merlin's prophecy at Dinas Emrys. It flew above Owain Glyndwr's rebellion against English rule in the early fifteenth century. It was the symbol of resistance.
Then in 1485, Henry VII marched to the Battle of Bosworth under a red dragon banner. He was of Welsh descent. He won. He took the English crown. The dragon entered the royal heraldry of England.
The symbol Welsh rulers had used for a thousand years to resist English power now flew above the English throne. Whether that is triumph or erasure depends entirely on who is telling the story.

Read the full investigation: https://historiesandcastles.com/blogs/welsh-dragon/red-dragon-of-wales-history
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