Coat of arms of Spain

Coat of arms of Spain
Versions
Armiger	Kingdom of Spain[a]
Adopted	5 October 1981
Crest	Spanish Royal crown
Shield	Quarterly: Castile, León, Aragon, and Navarre; enté en point: Granada; inescutcheon: House of Bourbon
Supporters	Pillars of Hercules with a top of supporters: Dexter An Imperial crown (Holy Roman Empire, Austrian version); Sinister A Spanish Royal crown
Motto	Plus Ultra (English: Further Beyond)

The coat of arms of Spain represents Spain and the Spanish nation, including its national sovereignty and the country's form of government, a constitutional monarchy. It appears on the flag of Spain and it is used by the Government of Spain, the Cortes Generales, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and other state institutions. Its design consists of the arms of the medieval kingdoms that would unite to form Spain in the 15th century, the Royal Crown, the arms of the House of Bourbon, the Pillars of Hercules and the Spanish national motto: Plus Ultra. The monarch, the heir to the throne and some institutions like the Senate, the Council of State and the General Council of the Judiciary have their own variants of the coat of arms; thus the state coat of arms is not an arms of dominion.

The blazon of the Spanish coat of arms is composed as follows:

Quarterly, first quarter Gules a triple-towered castle Or masoned Sable and ajoure Azure (for Castile); second quarter Argent a lion rampant Purpure crowned Or, langued and armed Gules (for León); third quarter Or, four pallets Gules (for the former Crown of Aragon), fourth quarter Gules a cross, saltire and orle of chains linked together Or, a centre point Vert (for Navarre); enté en point Argent a pomegranate proper seeded Gules, supported, sculpted and leafed in two leaves Vert (for Granada); overall an escutcheon Azure bordure Gules, three fleurs-de-lys Or (for the regnant House of Bourbon-Anjou); for a Crest, a circlet Or, jewelled with eight breeches of bear or oyster plant leaves, five shown, with pearls on points Or inserted and above which rise arches decorated with pearls and surmounted by a monde Azure with its equator, its upper half-meridian and a latin cross Or, the crown capped Gules (the Spanish royal crown); for Supporters, two columns Argent with capital and base Or, standing on five waves Azure and Argent, surmounted dexter by an imperial crown and sinister the Spanish royal crown, the columns surrounded by a ribbon Gules charged with the Motto 'Plus Ultra' written Or (the Pillars of Hercules).^[1][2][3]

The contemporary Spanish coat of arms, featured in the national flag of Spain, was approved by law in 1981, in replacement of the interim coat of arms that replaced the official arms of Spain under Franco (1939–75).^[4]

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