ABSTRACT
As we have seen, standards have been in use from the earliest historic times but as far as we know they were not classified as such for many centuries. Our word standard comes to us from the common Roman estend-ere (Latin extend-ere to stretch out). In England, the word first appears in reference to the Battle of the Standard. This was a battle of David I of Scotland against Stephen of England. David had conquered most of Northumberland and Cumberland but was defeated by the English nobles and militia at the Battle of the Standard in 1138; the standard being the flag flown from a ship's mast mounted on a wheeled cart and dragged onto the field of battle. The standard was the principal rallying point for the English army (1).
