Battle of the Standard

August 22, 1138

On a moor above Northallerton, an English levy rallied around a ship's mast bearing consecrated banners and shattered a Scots army that had crossed the border in support of Empress Matilda. David I of Scotland survived but his territorial ambitions in Yorkshire were broken. The unusual standard, hung with the banners of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Wilfrid, gave the battle its name and its curious medieval pageantry.