ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: What are the national flowers of Europe?
by Charles Legge · Mail OnlineQUESTION: What are the national flowers of Europe?
A national flower is a symbol of a country’s heritage, culture and natural beauty. In the UK, Scotland has the thistle, representing strength and resilience, Wales the daffodil, and Northern Ireland the flax flower, after its traditional linen industry.
England has the Tudor Rose, created by Henry VII to symbolise the end of the Wars of the Roses, uniting the Red Rose of Lancaster with the White Rose of York.
The rose is a popular motif across Europe: the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Bulgaria all have roses as their national symbol.
Iconic national flowers include the Belgian red poppy, known for its association with Flanders and the losses of the First World War, the Dutch tulip and the Irish shamrock, linked to its national saint, Patrick.
Austria has the edelweiss and France the iris or fleur-de-lis, a symbol of purity. Denmark has the marguerite daisy, Finland the lily of the valley, Iceland the white dryas and Poland the corn poppy.
Twinflower or Linnaea is the national flower of Sweden. It is named after Carl Linnaeus, the ‘father of taxonomy’ (the scientific classification of living things).Norway has two national flowers.
Although pyramidal saxifrage was chosen at a congress in 1935, most Norwegians regard the ubiquitous heather as their national flower.
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Some national flowers have a romantic background story.
When Napoleon forced Queen Louise of Prussia from Berlin, she hid her children in a cornfield and kept them quiet by weaving cornflower wreaths.
When her son, Wilhelm I, became the first German Emperor, remembering his mother’s bravery, he made the cornflower the national emblem of unity.
Jean Campbell, Weston-super-Mare
QUESTION: Why wasn’t the North End tube station completed?
Construction of North End station began in 1903 as part of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, later part of London Underground’s Northern Line.
It was to be positioned on the line between Hampstead and Golders Green stations, in an area of farmland that was expected to be a future housing site.
However, in 1904 the land was sold to a conservation body and the prospect of housebuilding diminished.
Nevertheless, building continued until 1906, when the station was abandoned. North End almost had a second lease of life in the 1950s when it was selected to house London’s floodgate control system, installed during the Second World War.
Gates would close if tunnels under the Thames were breached in a bombing, allowing part of the network to function. Initially operated from Leicester Square station, this was not considered deep enough during the Cold War and it was moved to North End.
But the government had planned for a Hiroshima-sized bomb. In the wake of the 1954 H-bomb tests, where blasts were 1,000 times bigger than Hiroshima, it was recognised that the system was obsolete and today the station remains vacant.
The platform is used for storage and the staircase acts as an emergency exit for the Northern Line. George Wallace, London SE13
QUESTION: Did the Feast of the Swans depicted in Outlaw King actually take place?
The Feast of the Swans did take place. It was held on May 22, 1306, at Westminster Abbey to accompany King Edward I’s knighting of his son (later Edward II) and other nobles.
The timing and elaborate pageantry were deliberate.
In Scotland, Robert the Bruce had declared himself King of Scots in defiance of English rule, following his assassination of John Comyn, a rival claimant.
Edward I saw Bruce’s uprising as a direct challenge to his authority and used the feast to garner patriotic support against Bruce.
The name Feast of the Swans came from the dramatic vow made by the king to crush the rebellious Scots.
The Flores Historiarum, a chronicle of the time, bears the testimony of a monk who was present: ‘Then two cygnets or swans, ornamented with golden nets or gilded pipings, were brought in in showy splendour before the king... the king vowed a vow to God in heaven and on the cygnets (or swans) that he purposed to set out for Scotland, to avenge the injury done to the Holy Church, the death of John Comyn and the broken faith of the Scots’.
The significance of the swans is disputed. According to medieval bestiaries, the swan’s song is sweetest when it is dying. Perhaps, for the ailing king, this act of vengeance was to be his ‘swan song’.
Despite Edward’s vow, his campaign did not go well.
His death in 1307 left the task unfinished, and Bruce routed Edward II’s forces at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, securing Scottish independence.
Paul Murray, Stirling