The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and AssociationsHulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
History
The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and Associations
Hulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
Flags
The Royal Standard of Spain, Fig. 194, is of very elaborate character, and
many of its bearings are as inappropriate to the historic facts of the
present day as the retention in the arms of Great Britain of the French
fleurs-de-lys centuries after all claim to its sovereignty had been lost.
In the upper left hand part of the flag we find quartered the lion of Leon
and the castle of Castile.[74] At the point we have marked "C" are the arms
of Arragon. "D" is the device of Sicily. The red and white stripes at "E"
are the arms of Austria; we have already encountered these in Fig. 213. The
flag of ancient Burgundy, oblique stripes of yellow and blue within a red
border, is placed at "F." The black lion on the golden ground at "G" is the
heraldic bearing of Flanders, while the red eagle "H" is the device of
Antwerp. At "I" we have the {112} golden lion of Brabant, and above it at
"J" the fleurs-de-lys and chequers of ancient Burgundy. The upper small
shield contains the arms of Portugal, and the lower contains the
fleurs-de-lys of France.[75]
The Portuguese were an independent nation until Philip II. of Spain overran
the country, and annexed it in the year 1580 to his own dominions, but in
the year 1640 they threw off the Spanish yoke, which had grown intolerable,
and raised John, Duke of Braganza, to the throne. The regal power has ever
since remained in this family.
The Royal Standard bears on its scarlet field the arms of Portugal,
surmounted by the regal crown. These arms were originally only the white
shield with the five smaller escutcheons that we see in the centre of the
present blazon. Would the scale of our illustration (Fig. 195) permit it,
each of these small escutcheons should bear upon its surface five white
circular spots. Portugal was invaded by the Moors in the year 713, and the
greater part of the country was held by them for over three centuries. In
the year 1139 Alphonso I. defeated an alliance of five great Moorish
princes at the Battle of Ourique, and the five escutcheons in the shield
represents the five-fold victory, while the five circles placed on each
escutcheon symbolise the five wounds of the Saviour in whose strength he
defeated the infidels. The scarlet border with its castles was added by
Alphonso III., after his marriage in 1252 with the daughter of Alphonso the
Wise, King of Castile, the arms of which province, as we have already seen
in discussing the Spanish Standard, are a golden castle on a red field.
In an English poem, written by an eye-witness of the Siege of Rouen in the
year 1418, we find an interesting reference to the arms of Portugal, where
we read of
"The Kyngis herandis and pursiuantis,
In cotis of armys arryauntis.
The Englishe a beste, the Frensshe a floure
Of Portyugale bothe castelle and toure,
And other cotis of diversitie
As lordis beren in ther degre."[76]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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