Saltire Jewellery have created a design based on the Scottish Salitre flag or St-Andrews Cross. We can offer Silver Saltire Kilt Pins, Saltire Cufflinks, Saltire Pendants and Saltire Tie Tacks. Please read the Historical story that made the Saltire into the National flag of Scotland. All Saltire designs from our own range are supplied with a Saltire card insert with the text below:
The flag of St Andrew, Patron Saint of Scotland. St Andrew is supposed to have been crucified on two diagonal beams known as the Saltire.
In the 8th Century (736AD) King Angus defeated the Saxons under a blue sky with the white cross of St Andrew. After the Battle King Angus appointed the cross of St Andrew as the badge of the Picts.
In Medieval times, nations used the banners of national Saints and before long the acceptance of the Saltire as the national flag of Scotland became common. In 1385 as the Scots prepared to invade England, an order was issued that every man should wear the Saltire before and behind.
A Saltire is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a Salitre cross. In the Russian Orthodox tradition, the phrase Saint Andrew's Cross is often equated with the Orthodox Cross, because of the tradition that Saint Andrew used such a cross when preaching in the respective regions.
The saltire appears in numerous flags worldwide, including those of Scotland and Jamaica, and other coats of arms and seals. A variant, also appearing n many past and presnet flage and symbols, is the Cross of Burgundy Flag.