Under this banner it was that the Reform Bill was fought and won.
Here also Owen Glendower unfurled the banner of Welsh independence; from here, in 1401, he harassed the country, sacking Montgomery, burningWelshpool, and destroying Cwm Hir (long "combe," or valley) abbey, of which some columns are said to be now in Llanidloes old church..
The banner of the church waves above the camp of those who aim at positive prosperity and republican equality.
In the War of 1812 Frederick, Havre de Grace, and Frenchtown were burned by the British; but particularly noteworthy were the unsuccessful movements of the enemy by land and by sea against Baltimore, in which General Robert Ross (c. 1766-1814), the British commander of the land force, was killed before anything had been accomplished and the failure of the fleet to take Fort McHenry after a siege of a day and a night inspired the song The Star-spangled Banner, composed by Francis Scott Key who had gone under a flag of truce to secure from General Ross the release of a friend held as a prisoner by the British and during the attack was detained on his vessel within the British lines.
It was his function also to display and guard in battle the banner of the baron or banneret or the pennon of the knight he served, to raise him from the ground if he were unhorsed, to supply him with another or his own horse if his was disabled or killed, to receive and keep any prisoners he might take, to fight by his side if he was unequally matched, to rescue him if captured, to bear him to a place of safety if wounded, and to bury him honourably when dead.
