The six-nation rugby tournament is under way and already it’s been a trial. Defeat of Wales by Ireland in the first match was a bitter blow and, honestly, Wales did not play well.

Then came the nail-biting match against Scotland which Wales just managed to hold on to and win. I’m not sure my nerves can take much more.

As I looked at the crowds there were plenty of national symbols from red dragons as hats, or painted on faces, to shamrocks, thistles, daffodils, and leeks. A sprinkling of red roses topped off the home nation’s symbols. France has its stylised lily or fleur de lis and even Italy has an olive and oak branch as part of its national symbol. The stories behind our national symbols are an interesting mix of myth and history.

The symbol on Welsh rugby shirts is three ostrich feathers emerging from a coronet, the Prince of Wales feathers. The writing on the banner is not Welsh, but German, “ich dien”, which translates as I serve. The feathers have been associated with the prince since the 17th century. Their origin, however, does not lead back to the last genuine Welsh-born Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndŵr. The feathers really represent the Duke of Cornwall. So how did an English heraldic badge, with a German motto become a national symbol for Wales?

It dates to the eldest son of Edward III, Edward “the Black Prince”. He may have inherited the standard and motto from his mother, Queen Phillipa of Hainault. Another idea is that the Black Prince took the symbol from John I of Bohemia, killed in the Battle of Crécy in 1346. John’s helmet was supposedly lined with ostrich feathers.

The motto was and still is seen as oppressive by some, being a reminder of the time that England ruled over Wales. However, ich dein sounds very similar to the Welsh phrase “eich dyn” meaning “your man”, reputedly linking the Welsh archers who devastated the enemy at the Battle of Crécy to the Black Prince. In the 1990s the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) removed the motto, replacing it with WRU and stylising the design of the coronet and feathers.

Leeks became a Welsh symbol after the 7th century king of Gwynedd, Cadwaladr ordered soldiers to wear them on their helmets to identify who was the enemy and who was friendly on the battlefield.

Daffodils have a much more recent association with Wales, dating back only to the 19th century. As a flower that blooms close to St David’s day it was favoured by David Lloyd George, the only Welshman to become Prime Minister and it was rumoured that he asked for daffodils to decorate the 1911 investiture of the future Edward VIII as Prince of Wales.

The thistle is somewhat problematic as the species we associate with Scotland is not a native one. Onopordum acanthium, the Scottish thistle, was probably introduced from Europe in the 15th century, but it’s now naturalised in many areas. Sir Walter Scott chose this thistle as the emblem for George IV’s visit to Scotland in 1822, but another native species of thistle, the spear thistle, was found on very early Scottish coins. Mary Queen of Scots had a spear thistle image incorporated into the Great Seal of Scotland thereby making it a national emblem.

In Ireland the shamrock, or three leaf clover, has a history that dates to its patron saint, St Patrick, who was not Irish but was probably from Wales. He had been captured by pirates and taken to Ireland. After converting to Christianity, he was said to use the shamrock as a visual aid for teaching about the Holy Trinity.

A shamrock is a type of clover and should not be confused with the “lucky” four leaf clover. Experts are divided on the exact species that is a shamrock as there is no one species native to Ireland and they are found across Europe. The word shamrock comes from the Irish seamróg, which translates as young clover.

The rose has been used symbolically by several countries and cultures to symbolise love and beauty. Elizabeth I, the virgin queen, adopted the rose as a symbol of virginity. Two famous feuding houses, the House of York and the House of Lancaster had two different coloured roses. Red for Lancaster and white for York. The feud resulted in the aptly named War of the Roses. At its conclusion Henry VII was crowned King of England and he married Elizabeth of York combining both houses. The two roses were combined to form the Tudor Rose, becoming the flower of England.

Although we associate flowers with peace and tranquillity, their origins as national symbols invariably derive from war, apart from the thistle and shamrock.