Flag, emblem and coat of arms

Flag, emblem and coat of arms II

None of those elements were present in the official ensigns since the first moment. During the reconquest process against the Muslims, and until the end of the XI century, the Christian kings of the Iberian Peninsula used in their coat of arms and ensigns the cross sign. Even that this was not always the same- different shapes and colours- there was a predilection for the Latin or Greek cross, and the red, white and yellow colours.

Since the XII century, the monarchs started to change the traditional cross for a lion (Alfonso VII) or a castle with three towers (used by Alfonso VIII in his stamps and coins). The definitive flag was designed once the two kingdoms are together (year 1230) under Fernando III called El Santo (the Saint). It will be a symbol of the union of both kingdoms.

When due to territory legacies and marriages between noble people, two kingdoms had the same monarch- even they had independent institutions, law, language, and customs-, the heraldic law established that the flag or coat of arms had to be divided in two. In each part had to be the colours or figures of the kingdoms. If the union between two kingdoms was considered as definitive, like the case of Castilla y León, then the flag or coat of arms had to be divided in four equal parts and the figures and colours of both kingdoms had to be alternated. That aimed at symbolising the union, and that if they used to be two kingdoms, they were now just one.