Put the Templar cross and the St George’s Cross side by side and the confusion is instant: both are red on a white field, both are tied to the crusades, and both have been carried into battle by Christian soldiers. Yet they are not the same symbol. The fastest way to tell them apart is the shape of the arms: the classic Templar cross has flared, splayed arms (the cross pattée), while the St George’s Cross is a plain, straight-armed cross that runs right to the edges of the flag. This guide breaks down the visual differences, the history behind each, and why the two are so often mixed up.
Both are red on white — here is the confusion
The shared colour scheme is no accident. Red on white was a common crusading livery, chosen for high visibility and rich Christian symbolism: red for the blood of Christ and martyrdom, white for purity. Because so many crusader emblems drew on the same palette, telling them apart at a glance means looking past the colours to the geometry.
That is the lesson to hold onto before we go further: the colour tells you the world these crosses came from; the shape tells you which one you are actually looking at. The Templars themselves used more than one cross form over their history, as our guide to the Templar cross types explains, but a single shape became their signature.
It also helps to remember what a cross did in this period. On a battlefield or a banner, an emblem had to be legible at a distance and in motion, which is why bold, high-contrast designs won out. Both of our crosses excel at that job — and that shared purpose is part of why they ended up looking like cousins rather than strangers.
The Templar cross: the flared cross pattée
The emblem most people mean by “the Templar cross” is the cross pattée — a cross whose four arms are narrow at the centre and flare outward at the ends. Around 1147, Pope Eugenius III granted the Knights Templar the right to wear a red cross on their white mantles, and this splayed form became their defining badge.
Symbolically the pattée carried the familiar red-and-white meaning writ large, and its distinctive flared shape made it unmistakable on a mantle or shield. Just as importantly, the Templar cross is a discrete emblem: it sits on the garment or banner as a self-contained motif, never stretching to the edges. To go deeper on the order’s wider visual language, see our overview of Templar symbols and their enduring meanings.
It is worth adding a note of nuance here, because history is rarely tidy. Medieval heraldry was not standardised the way a modern logo is, and depictions of the “Templar cross” in art, seals and later illustration vary. Plain crosses, splayed crosses and other forms all appear in association with the order at different times and places. The flared pattée is the shape that came to stand for the Templars in the popular and heraldic imagination — a well-earned reputation, even if the medieval reality allowed more variety than a single neat emblem suggests.
Eagle and Symbol of Knights Templar
Wear the order’s own flared cross pattée — not a generic red cross — front and centre.
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The St George’s Cross: a plain red cross
The St George’s Cross is far simpler: a plain red cross with straight, even arms on a white ground, extending all the way to the edges of the field. On a flag it divides the white into four clean rectangles. It takes its name from St George, the soldier-saint and dragon-slayer venerated across medieval Christendom.
Its associations are broad. It became the emblem of England (and remains the English flag today), was used by the maritime republic of Genoa, and was worn by crusaders of many nationalities. Unlike the Templar pattée, it was never the badge of a single order — it was a widely shared Christian and civic symbol.
The English link tightened gradually over the later Middle Ages, as St George rose to become the country’s patron saint and English soldiers increasingly took his red cross as their field sign. Popular tales that tie the cross to a single moment — a crusade of Richard the Lionheart, say — are best treated as later romantic embroidery rather than firm history. What is certain is that the plain red-on-white cross belonged to no exclusive brotherhood; it was common property across much of Christendom.
Heralds have precise words for the difference in reach. A cross that runs to the edges of the field, as St George’s does, is described as throughout; one that floats free with cut-off ends, as many depictions of the Templar cross do, is couped. You do not need the vocabulary to use your eyes — but it neatly captures the core visual distinction between the two emblems.
Side by side: five visual differences
Here is the quick comparison to lock it in:
- Arm shape. Templar: flared, splayed arms (pattée). St George: straight, parallel-sided arms.
- Reach. The Templar cross sits as a contained emblem; the St George’s cross runs to the very edges of the field.
- Proportion. The pattée looks fuller and heavier at the tips; the St George’s cross is uniform in width.
- Attribution. The pattée signals a specific order (the Templars); the St George’s cross signals a saint, a nation, and crusaders broadly.
- Use today. The pattée survives as a heraldic and decorative motif; the St George’s cross is a living national flag.
Why they get mixed up
Beyond the shared colours, the confusion has deep roots. During the crusades a great many Christian fighters wore red crosses on white, and later romantic art and film flattened these distinctions, dressing every crusader in near-identical livery. Add the fact that the plain red cross and the pattée sometimes appeared in overlapping contexts, and it is easy to see why casual observers treat them as one and the same.
They are not the only red-and-white crosses in the family, either, which adds to the muddle. The Knights Hospitaller, the Templars’ great rivals, are linked to a white cross rather than a red one; later chivalric orders and even national flags borrowed the same palette. Against that crowded backdrop, the two crosses in this comparison stand out precisely because their shapes are so distinct once you know what to look for.
The takeaway is simple. If the arms flare, you are almost certainly looking at a Templar-style cross pattée; if they are straight and reach the edges, it is the St George’s Cross. If you enjoy this kind of decoding, our explainer on the Jerusalem Cross and its crusader meaning untangles another emblem that people routinely confuse with both.
Wear the difference
Once you can see the distinction, a good Templar design becomes far more satisfying to wear, because you know exactly what the shape is saying. Our Eagle and Symbol of Knights Templar shirt puts the order’s own cross front and centre, so you are carrying the pattée, not a generic red cross that could belong to anyone.
Wear the cross itself — the Templar Cross — Distressed Crusader Tee, printed on demand and shipped to the US and EU.
Two crosses, one colour scheme, very different stories. The Templar cross pattée is the flared badge of a specific brotherhood; the St George’s Cross is the plain, edge-to-edge emblem of a saint and a nation. Learn the shapes, and you will never mistake one for the other again.
Templar Uniform Editorial
