Coat of arms of Spain

Coat of Arms of Spain

The current Coat of Arms of Spain was approved by law in 1981, when the present established replaced the interim version which, in turn, replaced the official flag of Francoist Spain. It is the one appearing in the Flag of Spain.

Features

The Spanish coat of Arms is composed of six other arms:

• First quarter, for Castile: Gules, a three towered castle Or, masoned sable and ajouré azure;
• Second quarter, for León: Argent, a lion rampant purpure(sometimes blazoned gules) crowned Or, langued and armed gules;
• Third quarter, for Aragon: Or, four pallets gules;
• Fourth quarter, for Navarre: Gules, a cross, saltire and orle of chains linked together Or, a centre point vert;
• Enté en point, for Granada: Argent, a pomegranate proper seeded gules, supported, sculpted and leafed in two leaves vert;
• Overall an inscutcheon for the reigning House of Bourbon: Azure, three fleurs-de-lys Or within a bordure gules.

On either side of the Arms are the Pillars of Hercules, an ancient name given to the Straits of Gibraltar. The motto plus ultra means 'further beyond' in Latin, and in this context it means beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, referring to America and the former Spanish territories. (Before the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the motto was Ne plus ultra, nothing more beyond, because the Pillars marked a limit of the known world.) Over the pillars, an Imperial Crown on the left and a Royal Crown on the right. The symbol of the Pillars was first used by King Charles I of Spain who was also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, which explains the presence of the Imperial Crown. The coat of arms is crowned with a crown of the same metal and precious stones, with eight rosettes, five visible, and eight pearls interspersed, closed at the top by eight diadems also adorned with pearls and surmounted by a cross on a globe, which is the royal crown of Spain.

The present design is regulated by:

• Act 33/1981, dated 5th October, on the Coat of Arms of Spain (Official Gazette nº 250, dated 19th October)
• Royal Decree 2964/1981, dated 18th December, approving the official Coat of Arms of Spain (Official Gazette nº 221, dated 15th September)
• Royal Decree 2267/1982, dated 3rd September, technically specifying the colours of the Arms of Spain (Official Gazette nº 221, dated 15th September)

The Monarch has a his privative Arms.

Historical Spanish Coats of arms

During history, the Arms of the Kingdom of Spain was the official coat of arms of the Monarch of Spain since the Catholic Monarchs, and was used as the official arms of the Kingdom until the First Spanish Republic in 1873. Afterwards, the arms became an integral part of the Coat of Arms of Spain. The different governments since (whether republicans or monarquics) have led to the arms being changed in various occasions.

Catholic Monarchs

Arms of the Catholic Monarchs before 1500

The arms of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage unified Spain, were:

• Quarterly, 1 and 4. quarterly Castile-Leon,
• 2 and 3. per pale Aragon and Argon-Sicily.
• The arms were born by the eagle of San Juan, sable, with an open royal crown.
• The conquest of Granada was symbolized by the addition enté en point of a quarter for Granada

Ferdinand himself often used different arms, namely tierced per pale Castile-Leon, Aragon-Naples-Sicily, and Aragon. The annexation of Navarre brought about the final change in the arms of the Rey Católico: the second quarter was changed to: per pale, 1. per fess Aragon and Navarra, 2. per fess Jerusalem and Hungary.

The arms as used in Navarra (until 1700) were Quarterly:

• 1. quarterly Castile and Navarra;
• 2. per pale Aragon and per pale Leon and Jerusalem;
• 3. per pale, a. per pale Hungary and Aragon, b. Aragon-Sicily;
• 4. quarterly Castile and Leon; enté en point Granada.

The arms used in Aragon were either Aragon, or per pale, Castile-Leon and Aragon or tierced per pale, Aragon-Sicily, Aragon and tierced per pale Hungary, Anjou-Naples and Jerusalem.In Naples, the arms were Quarterly, 1 and 4. Castile-Leon, 2. per pale Aragon and per pale Jerusalem-Hungary; 3. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily.

Charles I

Coat of Arms of Charles I

Charles I, from 1516, used as arms a quarterly of Spain (quarterly Castile-Leon and Aragon-Aragon-Sicily, with Granada enté en point) and Austria (quarterly Austria, Bourgogne modern, Bourgogne ancient and Brabant) with an escutcheon overall per pale Flanders and Tyrol. In 1520, the quarter of Aragon and Aragon-Sicily was replaced with a tierced per pale Aragon, Jerusalem and Hungary . At the same time, especially in Flanders, a simplified version appears, which places the Spanish quarters and the Austrian quarters per fess. In this case the Spanish quarters are: per pale, Castile-Leon with Granada and per fess, a. tierced per pale Aragon, Jerusalem and Hungary, b. per pale Aragon-Sicily and Navarra.

The imperial arms used after 1530 were:

quarterly: 1 and 4. Spain, which is quarterly A and D. Castile-Leon, B. per pale a. per fess Aragon and Navarra, b. per pale Jerusalem and Hungary; C. per pale a. per fess Aragon and Navarra, b. Aragon-Sicily. 2 and 3. Austria, which is quarterly Austria, Bourgogne modern, Bourgogne ancient and Brabant. Enté en point Granada. Overall an escutcheon per pale Flanders and Tyrol.The arms are borne by an imperial double-headed eagle sable, surmounted by an imperial crown, surrounded with the collar of the Golden Fleece and accompanied by the pillars of Hercules and the motto PLUS ULTRA.

In Sicily Charles I used Quarterly 1 and 4. Castile-Leon, 2. per pale Aragon and per pale Jerusalem and Hungary, 3. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily. enté en point Granada. Overall in chief a double-headed eagle sable crowned or bearing an escutcheon of Austria. Later, he used quarterly, 1 Castile-Leon, 2. quarterly Aragon, Aragon-Sicily, Navarra and Aragon, 3. quarterly Austria, Bourgogne modern, Bourgogne ancient and Brabant, overall an escutcheon per pale Flanders and Tyrol; 4. per pale Jerusalem and Hungary. Enté en point Granada, these arms borne by an imperial eagle.

Phillip II

Arms of Phillip II

With his son Phillip II came the adoption of the form per pale Spain and Austria, with the Spanish quarters further simplified. The resulting arms were:

per pale: Spain, which is quarterly , 1 and 4 Castile-Leon and 2 and 3 per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily; enté en point Granada; Austria, which is quarterly Austria, Bourgogne modern, Bourgogne ancient and Brabant. Overall an escutcheon per pale Flanders and Tirol. From 1580 to 1666 an escutcheon of Portugal was added in honor point, and the escutcheon of Flanders-Tyrol shifted to nombril point. In Sicily, the arms used were: per pale, 1. per fess Castile-Leon and Austria (Austria, Bourgogne modern and ancient and Brabant, overall Flanders and Tyrol); 2. quarterly Aragon, Aragon-Sicily and Hungary. These arms remained in use in Sicily until 1700.

Phillip V

Arms of Phillip V

Philip was born in Versailles. He was made the Duc d'Anjou upon his birth. He was the second son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin. In the year 1700, the King of Spain, Charles II, died. Charles' will named the 17-year old Philip, the grandson of Charles' sister Maria Theresa, as his successor. Upon any possible refusal the Crown of Spain would be offered next to Philip's younger brother Charles, duke of Berry, or to Archduke Charles of Austria. Both claimants had a legal right due to the fact that Philip's grandfather, King Louis XIV of France and Charles's father, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold, were both the husbands of Charles' older half sisters and sons of Charles' aunts. Philip had the better claim because his grandmother and great-grandmother were older than Leopold's. However the Austrian branch claimed that Philip's grandmother had renounced the Spanish throne for her descendants as part of her marriage contract. This was countered by the French branch's claim that it was on the basis of a dowry that had never been paid.

After a long council meeting where the Dauphin spoke up in favor of his son's rights, it was agreed that Philip would ascend the throne but would forever renounce his claim to the throne of France for himself and his descendants. It was not difficult to see whether Louis would have refused anyway as a Habsburg ruler in Spain would've put a possible enemy on three frontiers.

The arms of Bourbon-Anjou were added in 1700 when Phillip V became king of Spain. He introduced changes in the royal arms of Spain. The king's new arms were designed by the French heraldist Clairambault in November 1700, and were as follows:

per fess: 1. per pale, quarterly Castile and Aragon, enté en point Granada, and per pale, Aragon and Aragon-Sicily; 2. Quarterly, Austria, Bourgogne ancient, Bourgogne modern and Brabant; enté en point, per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Overall an escutcheon Anjou. The abbreviated arms were quarterly Castile and Leon, enté en point Granada, overall Anjou.

Charles III

Arms of Charles III

Charles III was the first son of the second marriage of Philip V with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, he was one of the so-called "enlightened monarchs".

In 1761 Charles III modified the arms as follows:

Quarterly of six (in three rows of two each): 1. per pale Aragon and Aragon-Sicily; 2. per pale Austria and Bourgogne modern; 3. Farnese 4. Medici; 5. Bourgogne ancient; 6. Brabant; enté en point per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Overall an escutcheon quarterly of Castile and Leon enté en point of Granada, overall Anjou. Around the shield are the collars of the Golden Fleece and of the French Saint-Esprit (After the Order of Carlos III).

The abbreviated arms remained the same (they form the escutcheon en surtout of the state arms). They are accompanied by the Pillars of Hercules and the motto PLUS ULTRA and crowned with the royal crown, but do not show the collars. Already at this time the Anjou escutcheon was sometimes represented without its bordure gules.

Joseph Bonaparte

Arms of Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph Napoleon I, king of Spain (1808-1813), was Joseph Bonaparte (born Corte 1768, died Firenze 1844), younger brother of the Emperor Napoleon I. Following his conquests, the Emperor placed members of his family on the throne of various European states, some of them being created accordingly. Joseph was first king of Naples (1806). When Napoleon expelled the Bourbons from Spain, he placed Joseph on the throne and gave the throne of Naples to Marshal Murat, former Commander-in-Chief of the French troops in Spain and husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. The long and difficult Spanish War of Independence or Peninsular War, famously illustrated by the painter Goya, ended with the overthrow of Joseph in 1814.

In 1808, Joseph Napoleon proclaimed a new coat of arms:

Quarterly of 6, in three rows of two each, 1. Castile; 2. Leon; 3. Aragon; 4. Navarra; 5. Granada; 6. Indies (Azure, the old and the new world or between the pillars of Hercules argent). Overall an escutcheon with Imperial France's eagle.

Ferdinand VII

Arms in Mid-nineteenth century Spain

In 1813 the Allies returned Ferdinand VII of Spain to Madrid. The Spanish people, blaming the liberal, enlightened policies of the Francophiles (afrancesados) for incurring the Napoleonic occupation and the Peninsular War, at first welcomed Fernando. Ferdinand soon found that while Spain was fighting for independence in his name and while in his name juntas had governed in Spanish America, a new world had been born of foreign invasion and domestic revolution. Spain was no longer an absolute monarchy under the liberal Constitution of 1812. Ferdinand, in being restored to the throne, guaranteed the liberals that he would govern on the basis of the existing constitution, but, encouraged by conservatives backed by the Church hierarchy, he rejected the constitution within weeks (May 4) and arrested the liberal leaders (May 10), justifying his actions as rejecting a constitution made by the Cortes Generales in his absence and without his consent. Thus he had come back to assert the Bourbon doctrine that the sovereign authority resided in his person only. Ferdinand VII of Spain reestablished the arms of Charles III, both the state arms and the abbreviated arms. The Anjou escutcheon became increasingly frequently an escutcheon of France.

First Spanish Republic

Arms of Spain during the First Spanish Republic

The First Spanish Republic started with the abdication as King of Spain on February 10 1873 of Amadeo I, following the Hidalgo Affair, when he had been required by the radical government to sign a decree against the artillery officers. The next day, February 11, the republic was declared by a parliamentary majority made up of radicals, republicans and democrats. It lasted twenty-three months, between February 11 1873 and 29 December 1874 and had five presidents: Estanislao Figueras, Pi i Margall, Nicolás Salmerón, Emilio Castelar and Francisco Serrano.

The Provisional Government of 1868 adopted the following territorial arms: party per pale, Castile, Leon.

The crown was a mural crown. During the brief reign of Amadeus of Savoia, the crown was a royal crown and an escutcheon of Aosta (Argent, a cross gules within a bordure compony azure and or) was placed en surtout.

Bourbonic Restoration

File:Coat of arms of Spain during Bourbon restoration.png

Arms of Spain under the Restoration

When the Bourbons were restored with Alfonso XII of Spain, a decree (8 Jan 1875) restored the use of the coat of arms as it stood until September 29, 1868. In practice the Anjou escutcheon (actually called Borbón in Spanish) was displayed without the bordure, because the bordure was considered inessential, and the escutcheon an indication of lineage from the French Bourbon dynasty. With the death of Henri, comte de Chambord in 1883, Alfonso XII became the senior male representative of the French royal dynasty, and thus bore its arms without difference. A striking example is given by the royal arms as they appear on the reverse of a 5 pesetas coin of Alfonso XII (1885). The king also used the grand as well as the abbreviated arms of Charles III as personal arms. Alfonso XIII of Spain did away with the distinction between state and personal arms by combining the two. He took the arms of Charles III, substituted the Aragon quarter with Jerusalem, and replaced the escutcheon with the former national arms:

Quarterly of 6, in three rows of two each: 1. per pale Jerusalem and Aragon-Sicily; 2. 2. per pale Austria and Bourgogne modern; 3. Farnese 4. Medici; 5. Bourgogne ancient; 6. Brabant; enté en point per pale Flanders and Tyrol. Overall an escutcheon quarterly of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarra enté en point of Granada, overall France.

Second Spanish Republic

Coat of the Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic is the name of the regime that existed in Spain between April 14 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country, and April 1 1939, when the last of the Republican (Loyalist) forces surrendered to Francoist (Nationalist) forces in the Spanish Civil War. This article deals mainly with the period between 1931 and 1936; for the period between 1936 and 1939,

The Republic of 1931 used again the territorial arms,described as: "Es un escudo cuartelado y entado en punta. En el primer cuartel, de gules o rojo, un castillo de oro, almenado, aclarado de azur o azul y mazonado de sable o negro. En el segundo, de plata, un león rampante, de púrpura, linguado, uñado, armado de gules. En el tercero, de oro, cuatro palos, de gules o rojo. En el cuarto, de gules o rojo, una cadena de oro, puesta en cruz, aspa y orla. Entado de plata, una granada al natural, rajada de gules o rojo, tallada y hojada de dos hojas de sinople o verde. Acompañado de dos columnas de plata, con la base y capitel de oro, rodeando las columnas una cinta de gules o rojo, cargada de letras de oro, en la diestra Plus y en la siniestra Ultra. Al timbre, Corona Mural aclarada de gules y mazonada de sable o negro."

Franco's years

Arms of Spain (1939-1981)

The Spanish Civil War officially ended on 1 April 1939, the day Francisco Franco announced the end of hostilities. The Republican regime had been defeated and Franco was now undisputed leader of Spain. He ruled Spain until he died on November 20, 1975. The Nationalist senior generals held an informal meeting in September 1936, where they elected Francisco Franco as leader of the Nationalists, with the rank of Generalísimo (sometimes written in English as Generalissimo, after the Fascist Italian fashion). He was originally supposed to be only commander-in-chief, but after some discussion became head of state as well with nearly unlimited and absolute powers.

Franco adopted in 1938 a variant of the Coat of Arms:

Quarterly, 1 and 4. quarterly Castile and Leon, 2 and 3. per pale Aragon and Navarra, enté en point of Granada. The arms are crowned with an open royal crown, placed on an eagle displayed sable, surrounded with the pillars of Hercules, the yoke and the bundle of arrows of the Reyes Catolicos.

See also

• Spanish heraldry
• Coat of arms of the King of Spain
• Coat of arms of the Prince of Asturias

External links

• Web of the Spanish Presidency of the Government - The National Coat of Arms