Coat of arms of Spain

Heraldic design of the Spanish shield.

The shield of Spain is the heraldic symbol that represents Spain.

The coat of arms of Spain is governed by Law 33/1981, enacted on October 5, which emblazons it in the following terms:

Article one. - The shield of Spain is barracks and tied to the tip. In the first barracks, of gules or red, a castle of gold, almond, cleared of blue or blue and mazonado of sable or black. In the second, of silver, a rampant lion, of purple, flaxed, nailed, armed with gluttons and crowned with gold. In the third, gold, four sticks, gules or red. In the room, of gules or red, a chain of gold, set on cross, aspa and orla, loaded in the center of a emerald of its color. Entire of silver, a natural grenade, gull or red, carved and leafed of two siple or green leaves.

Accompanied by two columns of silver, with the base and capital of gold, on waves of blue and silver, surpassed by imperial crown the right, and of a royal crown the sinister, both of gold, and surrounding the columns a ribbon of gules or red, loaded with letters of gold, in the right "Plus" and in the sinister "U Plustra", (the More there). To the bell, Crown Royal closed, which is a circle of gold, encased of precious stones, composed of eight florons of acant leaves, visible five, interpolated of pearls and of whose leaves come diadem paths added of pearls, which converge in the world of blue or blue, with the semi-meridian and the equator in gold, added of golden cross. The crown lined with gules or red.

Article 2 - The coat of arms of Spain, as described in the previous article, bears scuson of blue or blue, three lises of gold set two and one, the smooth embroidery of gules or red, typical of the reigning dynasty (Borbón-Anjou).

The legislative initiative did not originate from a government project, but from a bill promoted by the Socialist Parliamentary Group in Congress. The report of the presentation that was constituted for this purpose records “that its criterion has been to faithfully reproduce the Historical Coat of Arms of Spain, with a description that, in heraldic terms, is at the same time intelligible to the people. To this end, through the Presidency of the Congress, the opinion of the Royal Spanish Academy of History was obtained, whose conclusion faithfully follows the text proposed by the Paper”.

As an institutional symbol, it is regulated and used by the Government and related institutions. The Presidency of the Government, the different ministries and the Administration of Justice use the same symbol, while the King and Princess of Asturias display other shields also officially regulated by law. Some institutions such as the Senate, the Congress of Deputies, the Council of State, the General Council of the Judiciary, the General Council of Lawyers, the State Lawyers Corps, the National Police Corps or the Customs Surveillance Service also They use their own shields, based on the shield of Spain.

Official model of the shield

The law that legislated the coat of arms was quickly accompanied by two Royal Decrees that specified the design, uses, size and coloration for a single official representation of this coat of arms.

• Royal Decree 2964/1981 of 18 December establishing the official model of the Spanish shield, its use and size.
• The Royal Decree 2267/1982 of 3 September in which the technical specification of its colours is made.

Chromatism of the official model of the coat of arms

The colors of the Coat of Arms of Spain were legally defined by Royal Decree 2267/1982, of September 3, in the CIELAB and CIE-1931 international systems. The color of the pomegranate is not defined.

Note: The only official values expressed in the Royal Decree of technical specifications are those related to CIELAB and CIE 1931. The rest of the values have been obtained approximately, but they do not faithfully represent the color, because they are not can correctly convert values from earlier standards to RGB or CMYK.

The Digital Communication Guide for the General State Administration of 2014, without legislative character, indicates that "colors may be used in one formulation or another, depending on the medium or support used, but for web use it is recommended to use RGB color formulation".

Elements and quarters of the shield

First quarter. Weapons of the Kingdom of Castile. Second quarters. Weapons of the Kingdom of Leon. Third barracks. Weapons of the Kingdom of Aragon. Fourth barracks. Weapons of the Kingdom of Navarra.

Pointed. Weapons of the Kingdom of Granada. Escusón: arms of the dynasty of Borbón-Anjou. Timbre: the Royal Crown symbolizes the Spanish Monarchy. Supports: Hercules Columns flank the shield and support the motto Plus Ultra. The columns are crowned by the imperial crowns of the Sacro Empire and the Spanish royal, respectively, which represent the history of the country as empire and kingdom.

History of the shield

Ferdinand III of Castile and León (1230)

Escudo de Fernando III de Castilla.

The use of the partition of the coat of arms in quarters to combine two armories was an invention of Ferdinand III of Castile for the symbols of León and Castilla in the year 1230, and resulted in an immediate acceptance in the Iberian Peninsula by the armories of Aragon and Navarra, and it was also widely distributed in Europe.

The Catholic Monarchs (1469-1516)

Coat of the Catholic Kings (since 1492).

The first of the shields of Spain is the one that, with the eagle of San Juan as a support, was chosen by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castilla as common arms in 1475. This shield represented the two largest existing political entities in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 15th century: the Crown of Castile, which stretched from the north to the south of the peninsula, from the Cantabrian Sea to the Mediterranean, and which included the territories of the current autonomous communities of Galicia, the Principality of Asturias, and Cantabria, Basque Country, La Rioja, Castilla y León, Madrid, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Region of Murcia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands; and the Crown of Aragon, which brought together the current autonomous communities of Aragon, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, as well as other extra-peninsular territories, spread over the Mediterranean basin.

The coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs was formed by a barracks in which the arms of Castile alternated (gules, and a gold castle, crenellated with three battlements, with three tributes, the one in the middle greater and each tribute also with three battlements, masonry of sable and cleared of azure) and Lion (of silver and a purple lion, crowned with gold, sole and armed with gules); with those of Aragon (of gold and four gules sticks) and the Two Sicilies (partitioned and flanked, head and points of gold and four gules sticks, flanks of silver and a sable eagle, crowned with gold, chopped and membered with gules). Later, after the conquest of Granada in 1492, the emblem of this kingdom was added (silver and a natural pomegranate, split gules, carved and leafed with two sinople leaves). The shield is frequently accompanied by two gules insignia: the yoke with the Gordian knot cut with Fernando's nickname "Tanto monta" and Isabel's bundle of arrows. Each of these emblems honored the consort with his initial: "F" for Fernando on Isabel's arrows and "Y" for the queen —Ysabel, as usual in the spelling of the time— on the Fernandino yoke.

House of Austria (1516-1700)

Arms shield of Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany.

Shield of Philip II from 1580.

Escudo de Carlos I en la muralla de Viana, Navarra, con las armas españolas de la Monchy y las de Navarra en lugar preferente.

Philip II Shield from 1556 to 1580 and Charles II from 1668 to Felipe V.

As a result of the policy of matrimonial alliances of the Catholic Monarchs, on the death of Fernando in 1516, the crowns of Castile and Aragon inherited his grandson Carlos de Habsburgo, son of Juana I “la Loca" and Felipe I "the Handsome", and grandson of Emperor Maximilian of Austria on his paternal line.

The arms of Carlos I add to those of Castilla, León, Aragón, Dos Sicilias and Granada, present in the previous coat of arms, those of Austria (gules and a silver sash), old Burgundy (band of gold and azure with gules border), modern Burgundy (azur, strewn with gold fleurs-de-lys and field border, silver and gules border), Brabant (sable and a gold lion, crowned with the same, sole and armed with gules), Flanders (of gold and a lion of saber, sole and armed of gules) and Tirol (match of silver and an eagle of gules, crowned, chopped and membered of gold, loaded the chest with a crescent trefoil of the same). Carlos I also incorporates the Pillars of Hercules with the legend "Plus Ultra", representing the Overseas Empire, and surrounds the shield with the Golden Fleece necklace, as sovereign of said Order.

When he was crowned emperor in 1519, he crowned the shield with the imperial crown and tailed the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1520 he added to the quarter corresponding to Aragon and Sicily, another in which the arms of Navarra and the Kingdom of Naples (formed by the coats of Jerusalem and Hungary) were incorporated.

The successors of Carlos I downloaded the coat of arms from external ornaments, replaced the imperial crown with the open royal one (or with four rosettes and four diadems, three of them visible), keeping the Fleece, which from then on will remain in all the royal shields.

In 1580, Philip II of Spain proclaimed himself King of Portugal (silver and five azure escutcheons placed in a cross with five bezantes or silver money placed in a sotuer, gules border with seven gold castles) and incorporated the arms from the new kingdom to the shield, which were maintained until the recognition of Portuguese independence in 1668, reigning Carlos II, the Bewitched.

House of Bourbon (1700-1808)

Great coat of arms used from Felipe V to Carlos III (1761).

Simplified Shield of Felipe V, the first monarch of the Bourbon dynasty.

Great coat of arms used from Carlos III to 1931.

Simplified shield with all the dynastic weapons from Carlos III.

The Bourbon Dynasty was established in Spain after the War of Succession that broke out when Charles II died without an heir and pitted the supporters of Archduke Charles of Austria, son of Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg, with those of Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV of France and great-grandson of Philip IV of Spain who would eventually be crowned King of Spain as Philip V.

The shield of Felipe V (1700-1759) maintains all the elements of the previous one, but changes their design and distribution: the arms of Flanders and Tyrol now appear in separate quarters, at the tip of the shield, instead of in the escutcheon in which they previously appeared, and a new central escutcheon is added with the lis of the House of Bourbon, with the border in gules, used by the Dukes of Anjou, and which since then allowed them to distinguish themselves from the French. He continues using the Golden Fleece (considering himself entitled to hold the leadership of the Order and causing the split in it) and adds to this that of the French Order of the Order of the Holy Spirit. Often the shield adopts an oval or rounded shape, following the French fashion. The design of the crown is modernized, adopting the current form of eight rosettes (five seen), and the four (three seen) is reserved for the Prince of Asturias. An ornate version in the image and likeness of the one used by the French Bourbons was also developed, with a royal mantle, crest and angels as supports, among other elements.

Felipe V, with the brief reign of Luis I in between (9/2/1724-21/8/1724), was succeeded by Ferdinand VI, following the Castilian ordinal (the previous one was Ferdinand the Catholic —II of Aragon — crowned as Ferdinand V of Castile) and Carlos III.

Charles III (1759-1788) carried out, in 1760, an important reform in the coat of arms: apart from introducing in it the arms of the Duchies of Parma-Farnese (gold and six fleurs-de-lis of azure distributed from top to bottom, one, two, two and one) and Tuscany-Médicis (gold and five roels gules distributed in the field from top to bottom, two, two and one, a tortillo of azur in chief loaded with three gold fleurs-de-lis), representing her Italian heritage; he also replaced the Collar of the Order of the Holy Spirit with that of the Order of Carlos III, created by himself, maintaining the Golden Fleece. Frequently the coat of arms appears on the reverse of the coins without the collar of the Order of Carlos III and endowed with a peculiar shape: notched to a point, with a central ridge at the top and half-square-shaped terminations at the two upper ends. This form can be most clearly distinguished on the later coat of arms of King Joseph I Bonaparte (1808-1814). He will continue to be endowed in this way until the reign of Elizabeth II (1833-1868). It is also customary to give the coat of arms a circular shape, eliminating the collar of the Order of Carlos III, especially in the mandate of Isabel II.

With these additions, Carlos III establishes what would be from that moment on the Royal Arms of Spain.

Charles III is succeeded by Charles IV, who does not introduce any changes to the coat of arms, except for purely ornamental ones.

The new dynasty grants greater preeminence to the Crown of Castile in all aspects, and this is also manifested in Heraldry: since the reform of Carlos III, the arms of Castilla y León occupy the central position on the shield, and, Frequently since the reign of Felipe V, all the others are dispensed with in a simplified model (known as the "small shield") that only bears those of Castilla, León and Granada, added to the escutcheon bordered gules with the Bourbon lilies and surrounded sometimes of the Golden Fleece or the Pillars of Hercules. Often, like the full coat of arms, it is given the characteristic shape seen on the shield of Joseph I Bonaparte, as it appears on the reverse of certain Charles IV coins. On coins of the same time a very simplified variant appears, introduced by Carlos III that, without a royal crown, only consists of the arms of Castilla y León with the Bourbon escutcheon, divided by the so-called "Cross of the Infante Don Pelayo"; all surrounded by a laurel wreath. The small shield was used regularly until the end of the reign of Elizabeth II (1868) and, very occasionally, from 1875 to 1931 during the II Bourbon Restoration.

Small shield of the king of Spain with the Columns of Hercules. He appeared during the reign of Philip V and was used until 1868. This shield format was the origin of the current one. Small shield of the king of Spain, version with branches of laurel. Small Shield of the King of Spain, version with the Golden Toy. Small shield of the king of Spain, oval version with the Golden Toy and mantle.

Escudo de José Bonaparte (1808-1813).

Joseph I Bonaparte (1808-1813)

José I (1808-1813) introduced substantial changes to the shield: he divided the shield into six quarters: 1st Castilla, 2nd León, 3rd Aragón, 4th Navarra, 5th Granada and 6th Las Indias, represented by two terrestrial spheres flanked by the Pillars of Hercules (design based on the one that appeared on the back of the reales de a 8 known as "columnarios"), and adds an azure escutcheon on top with the Bonaparte eagle in gold.

Escudo de la Flag española entre 1785 y 1873 y entre 1875 y 1931 en la placa de la Plaza de la Marina Española (Madrid).

The outline of the coat of arms is the same as that clearly seen on the reverse of coins since Carlos III.

Absolutist restoration and the reign of Elizabeth II (1813-1868)

When the Bourbon dynasty was reinstated in 1813, Fernando VII recovered the full coat of arms of Carlos III, which his daughter, Isabel II, would keep.

The simplified version is frequently used with the arms of Castilla, León and Granada and the dynastic escutcheon.

Provisional Government (1868-1870) and First Republic (1873-1874)

Escudo del Gobierno Provisional (1868-1870) y de la I República (1873-1874).

Shield of the Republic with civic crown, according to the report of the Royal Academy of History.

Shield of the naval pavilion during the I Republic (1873-1874) that removes the crown of the monarchy.

Following the revolution of 1868 that overthrew Queen Elizabeth II, the Provisional Government chaired by General Serrano requested a report from the Royal Academy of History for the development of a new coat of arms, of a national nature, since it Until then, the coat of arms of the Spanish monarchs had been used as such. In this coat of arms, the first of a national character, the quarters foreign to Spain that corresponded to historical titles of the Crown and other territories that it had dominated in the past (the duchies of Parma and Tuscany) did not appear. In addition, the coat of arms of Navarre, which Fernando VII had withdrawn, was reinstated when the Bourbon coat of arms was recovered. The divisions of the shield that were removed corresponded to Naples-Sicily, Austria, Brabant, Flanders, Tyrol, Parma, Tuscany and the "old" and modern Burgundy. Spanish monarchs had kept them as a symbol of their dynastic ties and not as a sign of territorial claims. The central escutcheon of the reigning dynasty in Spain with the three fleurs-de-lis and the gules border also disappeared. The royal crown was replaced by a mural crown (since they did not want to prejudge the political form of the State), and the representations of the collars of the orders of the Golden Fleece and of Carlos III and the Cross of Burgundy were also removed.

Next to the shield were placed the Pillars of Hercules, elements that figured in the heraldry of King-Emperor Carlos I of Spain and V of the Holy Empire.

The heraldic description of the new coat of arms, which appears in the report issued by the Royal Academy of History, is as follows:

Shields on the cross: first, of gules and a castle of gold, piled of three battlements, and donated of three towers, the one of the largest half; each one also with three battlements, the whole of gold, stud and adjury of blue: second, of silver and a lion of gules, crowned of gold, armed and lampased of the same: third, Acostadas, one on each side, the two columns of Hercules, silver, with the base and the golden capital, sanded with a list of gules, loaded with the Ultra Gold Plus.

This version of the shield was in force during the provisional government that followed the monarchy (1868-1870), the First Republic (1873-1874) and the provisional government that succeeded it (from January 3 to December 29, 1874).

Reign of Amadeo of Savoy (1870-1873)

In 1870, with the proclamation of Amadeo de Saboya as King of Spain, the mural crown was again replaced by the real one and the coat of arms of the House of Savoy was incorporated, a flat silver cross on a field of gules (red), in the central part of the shield (surrounded in some versions by the personal border of Amadeo himself as Duke of Aosta).

Version of the Escudo de España (1870-1873) with the Columns of Hercules. Escudo de España (1870-1873) version with the Golden Toy. (Also used as personal weapons of the monarch). An oval version of the Escudo de España (1870-1873) with the Toysón de Oro y manto. (Also used as personal weapons of the monarch).

Bourbon Restoration (1874-1931)

When the Bourbon Dynasty was restored in 1874, its shield was recovered in the central part of the Spanish shield. The old royal arms that disappeared in 1868 were also recovered, which coexisted with the simplified versions, generating great confusion when defining the national coat of arms. During this period, the external decorations of the shield were diverse (the Pillars of Hercules, the necklace of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a royal mantle or laurel branches among others) giving rise to numerous versions.

Version of the Escudo de España (1874-1931) with the Columns of Hercules. Escudo de España (1874-1931) version with laurel branches. Version of the Spanish Shield (1874-1931) with the Golden Toy. Version of the Escudo de España (1874-1931) with the Toyon de Oro y manto.

The reform of Elías Tormo and Monzó

The real weapons with the reform of Elías Tormo, which allowed the introduction of national weapons in the central part (scuson).

On July 3, 1922, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, at the request of the Ministry of State, asked the Royal Academy of History for a report to clarify which of the arms then in force should be considered the only coat of arms of the nation given the existing confusion. On January 9, 1923, after holding several sessions, the Academy of History sent its report to the President of the Council, reaching the conclusion that the quartering adopted in 1868 should be considered a national coat of arms, with the dynastic escutcheon added in 1874. The coat of arms with all the dynastic arms, adopted by Carlos III and called the grand blazon, would be limited to the Royal House and the chancellery documents headed with the grand title of the King of Spain. With the establishment in September of that year of the Military Directorate, this report was shelved, requesting other opinions from the Central University and from Félix de Rújula y Martín-Crespo, dean of the Corps of Kings of Arms, in November. The university appointed Professor Elías Tormo y Monzó as speaker. He agreed to consider the arms of 1874 a small coat of arms. However, he was not in favor of relegating the royal arms to such a residual use and advocated considering them as a great coat of arms of the nation. To make the two versions coherent, Elías Tormo proposed several changes to the big guns. The barracks escutcheon of Castilla y León would be replaced by that of 1874. The rest of the barracks would remain intact, with the exception of those of Aragón and Sicily: the first, since the one of Aragón had been moved, would be located in the first barracks and It would be replaced in the second by that of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which until then had not been represented despite standing out among the historical titles of the Crown.

On October 9, 1924, the Ministry of State sent a report to the President of the Directory stating that the arms of 1874 should make up the national coat of arms, keeping the real arms also in embassies and other legations. The dean of the Corps of Kings of Arms agreed with regard to the small shield, but disagreed on the royal arms, going so far as to request their repeal even in the Royal House to be replaced only by the dynasty's lists.

Although the government did not introduce any regulations that would correct the existing situation, the French heraldist Hervé Pinoteau assured that the king began to use the new large arms with Navarre from 1924, with the royal crown and surrounded by the Golden Fleece. Well, on the part of Alfonso XIII, it really came in 1929 with a favorable report from the Academy of History and other organizations, but, again, they were not officially promulgated and neither did any reference to them appear in the Estatuto Nobiliario of that year. In the Palace documentation, the large coat of arms with the shield of castles and lions was maintained until 1931, although some examples have been preserved in which it appears reproduced with its new design. This is the case of the polychrome diplomas that the Infantry Weapon delivered to captains Rafael Martínez Esteve and Eduardo González Gallarza on July 10, 1926 for their participation in the air raid of the "Patrulla Elcano" and to commander Ramón Franco Bahamonde. He also illustrated the first page of the Libro de Oro, for the signatures of illustrious visitors, preserved in a display case of the Museum of the General Military Academy and whose first signature was the one stamped by Alfonso XIII himself on the 5th of June 1930. Other examples are found in the photograph of a Civil Guard officer, carrying on his shoulder a flag embroidered with the new coat of arms, which appeared on April 2, 1930 in the magazine Mundo Gráfico and a flag of Spain from the somatenes armed groups of the First Region (Madrid), embroidered between 1925 and 1930.

In his exile, Alfonso XIII was able to dedicate more time to these matters and began to use Tormo's weapons more frequently, as he did not require legal procedures. This circumstance would explain why some know them as the royal arms of 1931. His son and successor, the Count of Barcelona, continued to use them from 1941 until his death in 1993.

Second Republic (1931-1939)

Shield of the Second Republic (1931-1939).

With the proclamation of the Second Republic (1931-1939), the coat of arms of 1869 was restored, but with the difference that the crown that girded the lion of the second quarter disappeared.

Franco's dictatorship and democratic transition (1938-1981)

Ticket of the sublevado band dated October 1937 that shows the great personal shield of the King of Spain.

After the coup d'état of July 1936, which gave rise to the Spanish Civil War, the various military and political forces in revolt initially used different flags and shields.

Escudo de España en tiejo en Sevilla.

Decree n. From that coat of arms, the Sicilian barracks were replaced by that of Navarra, which already appeared on the coat of arms of Spain since the Provisional Government. The Pillars of Hercules and the ribbon with the motto “Plus Ultra” from previous versions of the national coat of arms, and the motto of the Catholic Monarchs, “Tanto Monta”, were incorporated. it was replaced by the words “Una Grande Libre”. There were two official models during the dictatorship: the 1938 model (approved on February 2, 1938 in the rebel zone) and the 1945 model (approved on October 11, 1945). A third model would be adopted already in full democratic Transition, that of 1977 (approved on January 21, 1977).

(1938-1945). Version called "abbreviated" of the 1938 model. (1945-1977). (1977-1981).

Shields and emblems derived from the national one

Senate shield. Scope of the Congress of Deputies Escudo del Consejo General del Poder Judicial de España. State Council shield.

Shield reproduced in the plates of judges, judges and prosecutors. State Bar Corps Shield. Emblem of the National Police Corps. Customs Surveillance Service shield. Escudo del Consejo General de la Abogacía Española.