LEEK

1st March 2024

QUOTATION

Your Majesty says very true. If your Majesties is remembered of it,

the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow,

wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, which your Majesty know,

to this hour is an honourable badge of the service.

And I do believe, your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek

Upon Saint Tavy’s Day.

FLUELLEN: Henry V, Act 4, Scene 7

LEEK (Allium porrum)

The Leek as the symbol of the Welsh and its associations with Saint David’s Day on the 1st March is a recurrent theme in Henry V. Leeks also make one appearance in a Midsummer Night’s Dream, where Pyramus’ eyes are described as ‘green as leeks’.

There are several stories and legends associated with the Welsh and the Leek. Cadwaladyr an ancient Welsh king was advised by Saint Davy to order his men to wear Leeks in their helmets before a battle with the Saxons. The reference in Henry V is to the Battle of Crecy is 1346 when the Welsh, under the Black Prince, fought the French in a field of Leeks.

As well as their many culinary uses Gerard (1597) lists a range of ‘hurts’ caused by Leeks, they ‘engendreth naughty bloud, causeth troublesome and terrible dreames, offendeth the eies, dulleth the sight, hurteth those that are by nature hot and cholerick, and is noysome to the stomache and causeth windiness’.

Leeks have been grown in Britain since at least the medieval period and were cultivated in the Mediterranean for millennia. Leeks are members of the Onion Family.

More Information

BBC Blogs: Why do we wear daffodils and leeks?

BSBI Plant Atlas 2020: Allium porrum

Folger Shakespeare Species: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Gerard, J. 1597, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (1636 edition accessed via Archive.org)

Museum Wales: St Davids Day