Heraldry of Castile

Historian Michel Pastoureau says that the original purpose of heraldic emblems and seals was to facilitate the exercise of power and the identification of the ruler, due to what they offered for achieving these aims.

[3] The Spanish heraldist Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués wrote that there is no evidence that there was a consolidated Castilian emblem before the reign of King Alfonso VIII or that these arms had pre-heraldic history as the heraldry of León.

By the year 1163 a single side with an equestrian image of Alfonso VIII holding a lance without a standard was used; this element allowed the determination of the royal device used at that time.

[citation needed] Concerning the colours of the arms (tincture according to heraldry), the combination of "Or on a Gules field", was already fixed at least since the reign of King Ferdinand III, who was known as the Saint.

[citation needed] This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that the marriage of Alfonso VIII and Eleanor was celebrated from 1170 to 1176, immediately prior to the adoption of the emblem according to preserved sources.

Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués defends as another possible reason for this combination of colors for appearing more frequently in the arms.

This devic can be seene on the tomb of Alfonso VIII and Queen Eleanor, in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas (Burgos).

But one of the most prominent example occurred in Portugal, when Afonso III added a bordure Gules charged with castles to the royal arms and remaining these until 1910, when the country became a republic.

[5] Even older, the coat of arms of Puerto Rico was granted by the Spanish Crown on November 8, 1511, making it the oldest heraldic achievement still currently in use in the Americas.

King John II (1406–1454) adopted this crest was, its use is documented in ten and twenty doblas coins, minted in the city of Seville.

In the same study, the author recalls that the Crest of the Castle and the Lion is also represented at an image of King John II, an equestrian portrait of the Armorial of the Golden Fleece, preserved in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (Paris).

[7] Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués noted that, previously, the Castilian monarchs had used a crest, consisting of the figure of a nascent griffin Or.

[8] After the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, there is evidence of its usage by Philip I in some versions of his achievement adopted as King jure uxoris of Castile.

There are two prominent examples in his seal[citation needed] and the book of the Order of the Golden Fleece, illustrated by Simon Bening.

Since the 18th century, full royal armorial achievements were used occasionally and the crest of the Castle and lion practically fell into disuse[11] until its demise in 1975, when the Spanish monarchy was restored.

[13] The lions as supporters were displayed until the reign of Philip V[citation needed] and, after 1868, in some ornate versions of the national arms of Spain.

They have their origin in the representation of the arms of the Castilian monarch on cloth to be used as flag and, by extension were emblem of the Kingdom and the Historic Region of Castile.

The quartering of Ferdinand III was also displayed on his standard and it has served as the basis for current flags of autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha.

One of the assumptions made is supported by the fact that with the passage of time many cloths, that originally were crimson, worn may become confused with other tones, as the purple.