Last modified: 2005-02-26 by
Keywords: royal | king | coat of arms: quartered (castle: yellow) | coat of arms: quartered (lion: red) | cross: saltire (red) | cross: burgundy | order of the golden fleece |
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![[Royal Standard (Spain)]](../images/e/es^royal.gif)
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by Luis Miguel Arias, exported to GIF by Santiago Dotor
Flag used unofficially since 22nd November 1975, adopted 21st January 1977
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Both the King's standard and the former one for the Heir Prince can be found in Calvo and Grávalos 1983. They are square flags, dark blue field with the coat-of-arms in the middle. The King's coat-of-arms can be seen at the Spanish Royal Household Website. The lion should be purpure (dark, purplish red) instead of gules (red) though.
François Velde says (cf. History of the Spanish Arms), "Juan Carlos uses as personal arms those of the last kings of Spain, Alfonso XII and Alfonso XIII, with the closed crown and the collar of the Golden Fleece". This not fully correct. The current royal arms have only the quarterings in the modern national arms and incorporate the Burgundian saltire (with several interpretations, one of which is to show that King John Charles joins both the official and the Carlist claims to the throne), the yoke and arrows of the Catholic Kings (Elisabeth and Ferdinand) and the Golden Fleece collar.
Santiago Dotor, 12 November 1998
The guión is a particular version size 80 x 80 cm, gold fringed, nailed to a mast and carried nearby the king of the standard or estandarte. Guión has a similar root to the English guidon. In Spanish, however, the term is reserved nowadays for the positional flag of a king or chief of state, even if in ancient times it was synonimous with the English meaning (nowadays cavalry and armoured units' flags are called estandartes).
Santiago Dotor, 21 October 1999
[On his yachts] the King usually flies the normal yachting flag, that is the well known bicolour flag with a blue royal crown in the centre of it. Most time he flies the burgee of the local sailing club too (i.e. Palma de Mallorca). However, he may fly at the stern on special occasions the flag of the Spanish Sailing Federation, which is similar to the yacht flag. Until 1931, the King (i.e. Alfonso XIII, and before him his father Alfonso XII) always used at the stern on his royal sailing yacht Giralda the flag of the Spanish Federation of Nautical Clubs.
Emil Dreyer, 25 June 2000
The King's yachts (all named Fortuna) fly at the stern the ensign for recreational boats, and the royal standard at the boat's centre.
José Carlos Alegría, 25 June 2000
It is strange that even though the yoke and arrows, as well as the Burgundy cross, were incorporated to the prince's (later king's) standard in 1971 as "symbols of the National Movement" (the name given to the single party of General Franco's regime), they have remained there after the transition to democracy.
Santiago Dotor, 31 October 2000
For some strange reason, the Navarrese emerald is missing from the arms on the royal standard, as described in the 1971 and 1977 decrees. This is a mistake in my GIF, since I added the emerald to the royal standard. Also my GIF shows a slightly big coat-of-arms indeed. The correct proportion of the coat-of-arms height to flag height should be 11:20.
Santiago Dotor, 4 September 2001
![[Royal Coat-of-Arms (Spain)]](../images/e/es)royal.gif)
by Luis Miguel Arias, exported to GIF by Santiago Dotor
Coat-of-arms used unofficially since 22nd November 1975, adopted 21st January 1977