[74] This quarter of the flag, the arms of Leon and Castile, was the entire flag of the time of Columbus. Isabella gave the great explorer a personal flag, a white swallow-tailed ensign having in its centre a green cross and the letters F.Y. The quartered arms of Leon and Castile are sculptured upon the monument in Westminster Abbey of Alianore, the daughter of Ferdinand III., King of Leon and Castile, and the wife of Edward I. of England. The date of the tomb is 1290. [75] The following chronological items may prove of assistance. Crown of Navarre passes to France, 1276. Ferdinand of Arragon re-conquers Navarre, 1512. Accession of House of Austria to throne of Spain, 1516. Spain annexed Netherlands, 1556, and, shortly after Philip II., husband of our Queen Mary, annexed Burgundy. Portugal united to Spain, 1580. Portugal lost, 1640. Philip V. invades Naples, 1714. Charles III., King of the Two Sicilies, succeeds to Spanish crown, 1759. [76] The various heralds and pursuivants in their tabards blazoned with the lions of England, the fleurs-de-lys of France, or the castles of Portugal. [77] Az. three crosses in pale or. [78] The Turks, originally an Asiatic people, overran the provinces of the Eastern, or Greek Empire, about the year 1300, but did not capture Constantinople until 1453. Thirty years afterwards they obtained a footing in Italy, and in 1516 Egypt was added to the Empire. The invading hosts spread terror throughout Europe, and in 1529 and in 1683 we find them besieging Vienna. Rhodes was captured from the Knights of St. John, Greece subdued, Cyprus taken from the Venetians: but later on the tide of war turned against them, and frequent hostilities with England, France, and Russia led to the gradual weakening of the Turkish power. [79] There is such a general impression that officials are so very much bound up in highly-starched red tape that we gladly take this opportunity of acknowledging the extreme consideration with which all our enquiries have been met. The libraries of the Admiralty, the Royal United Service Museum, the Guildhall, South Kensington, etc., have been placed unreservedly at our service. The authorities of the Board of Trade, of Lloyds, of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, of the Royal Naval Exhibition, the Agents-General of the Colonies, have all most willingly given every possible information, and we have received from all to whom we have applied for information the greatest readiness to afford it, and the most courteous responses. [80] The position of Sultan, though one of great dignity, has its serious drawbacks. This all-conquering Murad was, after all, assassinated; his son and successor, Bajuzet, died in prison. Isa Belis the next holder of the throne, Solyman who succeeded him, and Musa, who succeeded Solyman, were all in turn murdered by their brothers or other relatives.