After nearly two centuries of waving proudly, many still don’t know the history of the Spanish flag.
A survey by the 1785 Project found that 55% of Spaniards have no idea where the flag actually came from.
Long before Spain had a flag, its ancestors had banners; stiff, heavy standards carried into battle by Romans and other ancient armies.
Cloth came later, wafting in from the East thanks to the Arabs in Al-Andalus and the Crusaders across Europe. The first true flags to fly over the Iberian Peninsula were, in fact, Muslim ones.
History of the Spanish flag: King not kingdom
Christians soon caught on, although their banners initially stood for monarchs rather than nations. A flag meant the king himself, not the kingdom. It wasn’t until the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, that these royal symbols began to merge into something resembling the idea of Spain.
Pennant of the Catholic Monarchs (until 1492). Image: Wikimedia.
Their standard combined the coats of arms of Castile, León, and Aragon, a patchwork of power that reflected their newly united realms.
Their successor Carlos I, better known in Europe as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, adopted the Cross of Burgundy. The red X-shaped cross on a white background became a hallmark of the Spanish Empire.
Cross of Burgundy. Image: Wikimedia.
Though technically the red cross was the monarch’s emblem rather than Spain’s. It was used across the empire’s armies and fleets from Flanders to the Philippines. Later Habsburg kings played with its colours, Philip II even gave it a yellow background, but the cross remained the empire’s calling card for centuries.
When the Bourbons replaced the Habsburgs on the Spanish throne in the early 18th century, the royal flag turned white again, featuring the family’s coat of arms.
Bourbonic ensign (1701–1760). Image: Wikimedia.
Unfortunately, that made Spanish ships look rather like everyone else’s. So, King Carlos III decided enough was enough. In 1785, he ordered his navy minister to design something more distinctive. Out of twelve proposals, two were chosen: one for the merchant fleet and one for the navy.
The two flags chosen by Carlos II. Image: Wikimedia.
The naval ensign, with a wide yellow band between two red stripes, became the instantly recognisable flag we know today.
Queen Isabella II made it official in 1843, unifying all military and civil banners under the red and yellow Rojigualda (the flags nickname). It has survived monarchies, republics, dictatorships, and a fair few redesigns of the coat of arms, but the colours have stayed.
The Spanish flag today
The flag’s coat of arms tells Spain’s story in miniature. It is divided into four parts, representing the historic kingdoms of Castile (a golden castle), León (a red lion), Aragon (red and gold stripes) and Navarre (golden chains on red). At its centre sits the Bourbon fleur-de-lis, flanked by the Pillars of Hercules bearing the motto Plus Ultra “Further Beyond” a nod to Spain’s expansion across the seas, all crowned by Spain’s royal crown.
After nearly 240 years, Spain’s flag remains what Carlos III intended, bright, bold, and impossible to mistake for anyone else’s.
Article 4.1 of the Spanish Constitution states that “the Spanish flag is formed by three horizontal stripes, red, yellow and red, the yellow being twice as wide as each of the red”.
Spanish flag. Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash.
