The national heraldry of Portugal evolved from the royal heraldry, with the royal coat of arms gradually coming to be considered a national coat of arms. The Portuguese coat of arms itself is the result of almost a millennium of modifications and alterations. Starting with the cross
azur on field
argent, which constituted the putative shield of
Henry,
Count of Portugal in the 12th century, successive elements were added or taken, culminating with the complex heraldic design that was officially adopted in 1911 (after the
Republican Revolution of 1910).
Evolution The main and constant element of the coat of arms of Portugal is and has always been the Portuguese shield. This resulted from around 300 years of evolution, from the 12th to the 15th centuries. The heraldic shield used by
Afonso Henriques, who became the first King of Portugal, is believed to have been
Argent, a cross azure (a blue cross on a white field), apparently the same as that used by his father, Count Henry. The original shield evolved to
Argent, five escutcheons crosswise the dexter and sinister ones pointing to the center azure each semée of plates (a field
argent with five
escutcheons
azure forming a cross, the
dexter and
sinister ones pointing to the center, with each escutcheon
semée of
plates). This is the earliest verifiable form of the Portuguese shield. Apparently it was introduced during the reign of Afonso Henriques (Afonso I) and definitely was used during the reign of his successor King
Sancho I (1185–1211), during the period in which heraldry came into widespread use throughout western Europe.
Inescutcheons There are several legends which seek to explain the significance of the five escutcheons and of the plates. The escutcheons are said to represent either the
Five Holy Wounds of Christ on the Cross, the five wounds suffered by Afonso Henriques in the
Battle of Ourique or the five Moorish kings defeated by him in that battle. The plates are supposed to represent either the
pieces of silver received by
Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus or the sovereignty of the Portuguese Kings, symbolized by the right to issue their own money. A more mundane theory suggests that the heraldry represents merely the physical fabric of the battle-
shield of Afonso Henriques, which may have comprised two blue leather bands nailed to a white base; after having been repeatedly hit in battle, most of the bands had become cut off, except for the five pieces on top of the clusters of
nails. These remaining five pieces of blue leather with the bright heads of the nails showing through, are thus proposed as the origin of the five escutcheons
azur, each
semée of plates.
Bordure When the future
Afonso III of Portugal asserted his claim to the throne occupied by his brother Sancho II, he adopted as his coat of arms the Portuguese shield
differenced by the addition of a bordure
gules semée of castles or. When Afonso III eventually became King in 1247, he retained use of this differenced shield, instead of reverting to the original shield without the bordure. There are several theories which seek to explain the significance of the castles within the bordure, the most popular one being that they represent the last castles conquered in the Algarve from the Moors by that king, completing the Portuguese
Reconquista. However, the most common presently accepted theory is that the bordure was merely a mark of
cadency to signify that Afonso was not the head of the Royal family, the castles probably having been suggested as suitable elements from the
arms of his mother
Urraca of Castile. Later the number of castles within the bordure became fixed at seven, this being the version of the shield still in use today.
Cross of Aviz During the
1383–1385 Portuguese interregnum, one of the emerging candidates to the throne was
John, master of the
Order of Aviz, an illegitimate son of King
Peter I of Portugal. John was elected Regent and Defender of Kingdom in 1383 and
acclaimed King of Portugal in 1385, as
John I and during his reign the royal Portuguese shield was added to by the inclusion of the insignia of the Order of Aviz, namely a
cross flory vert (a green cross with a
fleur-de-lys at the end of each arm). This was effected in various ways: by insertion within the bordure, alternating with the castles; more commonly inserted within the shield, and occasionally shown outside the shield with the latter laying over it.
Escutcheons Finally, in 1485, King
John II ordered the correction of the Portuguese shield, eliminating features identified as heraldic errors. Thus the cross of the Order of Aviz was removed and the
dexter and
sinister escutcheons were set upright, lest left couchée they might be assumed to symbolize bastardy, which was not appropriate in the case of that monarch. Furthermore, the
semée of plates on the field of each of the five escutcheons was fixed in number at five as a reference to the
Five Holy Wounds of
Christ, being the personal devotion of that monarch, and were arranged in saltire thus forming a
quincunx. Thus, the arrangement of five escutcheons, each with five plates started to be known as
quinas, signifying "groups of five", and by
synecdoche, the Portuguese shield itself started to be referred as the
quinas. {{Gallery During some periods of effective or claimed Royal union of Portugal with other states, the Portuguese shield was used marshaled with the coats of arms of those states.
Beatrice of Portugal, who claimed the Portuguese crown during the 1383-1385 interregnum, used the Portuguese arms in the II and III positions of the shield, marshaled with the arms of her husband King
John I of Castile in the I and IV. King
Afonso V of Portugal, who claimed the
crown of Castile during the 1475–1479 period, used the Portuguese arms in the I and IV, marshaled with the
arms of Castile and León in the II and III. During the period of the
Iberian Union (1580–1640), the Portuguese shield was placed in the honour point of the complex coat of arms of the
House of Habsburg. These marshaled coats of arms had, however, a very limited use, with the simple Portuguese coat of arms being used in the national context and the marshaled arms being only used when they intended to represent personally the monarch. When the status of
Brazil was raised from that of state to a constituent kingdom of the Portuguese Monarchy, giving origin to the
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, the Royal coat of arms was altered by the addition of an armillary sphere
or over a field
azur, these being the Brazilian arms. The new Royal achievement of arms consisted therefore of the Portuguese shield (representing Portugal and the Algarves) over the armillary sphere (representing Brazil), all topped by the Royal crown. Although displayed as a supporter of the Portuguese shield and not as part of it, it is controversial if the armillary sphere should be considered or not part of the main field of the new achievement. This achievement of arms was used in Portugal from 1815 to 1826 (despite Brazil having achieved independence in 1822, only when King
John VI died in 1826 did Portugal revert to the use of the old coat of arms). Following the
overthrown of the monarchy in 1910, the new government decided to replace the national flag, and since the shield was kept in the new flag, the color tonalities of its components, something that was not established until then, where chosen in order to accommodate with the colors of the new national flag, the design of the castles was also standardized, another aspect of the shield that was not established previously, namely their visual representation, and that the doors, in the national flag, were to be represented as closed (displayed as yellow), while in the national colors were to be represented as open (displayed as blue). Until 1911 even though the design of the castles in the shield, and its overall visual aspects, differed from manufacturer to manufacturer, they were all represented with their doors being open.
External devices Until the early 14th century, the achievement of arms of Portugal consisted solely in the shield, with no external elements surrounding it being represented. A crown over the shield started to appear in some representations of the Portuguese coat of arms in the 14th century. Initially, a crude open crown was represented, this evolving to a crown similar to the present
coronet of
duke, so consisting of a circlet surmounted by leaves. The crown come to appear more and more in the representations of the coat of arms of Portugal, becoming virtually inseparable from the Portuguese shield. In most of the cases the crown was represented laying directly over the shield, although in the rare occasions in which the helmet was represented, the crown was placed over it. From the 16th century until the establishment of the republican coat of arms in 1910, the Royal crown was virtually present in all representations of the coat of arms of Portugal, being also the only constant external element of the shield. In the reign of
King Sebastian (1557–1578), the open Royal crown was replaced by a crown closed with a single
arch. This latter evolved to a crown with two arches. The final model of heraldic crown was adopted in the reign of
Peter II (1683–1706), this being a crown closed with four arches, surmounted by a globe topped with a cross. At the same time, the previous crown with two arches became the crown of the Prince apparent heir of the Portuguese crown. Other external elements surrounding the shield, started to be also represented in the Portuguese coat of arms from the 14th century, although none of them has reached the status of a constant element, as the Royal crown. One of the most important of these elements was the
heraldic crest, which at least from the reign of John I became a
dragon, probably associated to the adoption of
Saint George as the patron saint of Portugal. Until the 17th century, the dragon was represented in
or, but since then, it started to be represented in
vert. This change of color was probably due to the ascension to the throne, in 1640, of the
House of Braganza, which had the
green as its
livery color, this also becoming the national color of Portugal. During the period of the House of Braganza, two dragons
vert became frequently used as the supporters of the Portuguese Royal shield. Other of the external elements was the
helmet or with bars, that was frequently represented between the 14th and the 16th centuries, but rarely appearing in the achievement afterwards. Both the
torse and the
mantling that appeared in the helmet were represented in
argent and
gules during the reign of King
Manuel I (1495–1521), these being his livery colors. In latter representations of the Royal achievement of arms, the torse and the mantling included the four colors of the Portuguese shield
argent,
gules,
or and
azur.
Supporters also were frequently represented in many artistic representations of the Portuguese coat of arms. The most frequently represented supporters until the 18th century were the angels. Usually two angels were represented, one in
dexter and the other in
sinister, but in some representations the shield is supported by a single angel. Occasionally, the supporter angel was represented using a
tabard or
surcoat with the Portuguese arms, what may indicate that he was not a generic angel but specifically the
Guardian Angel of Portugal. From the reign of King Manuel I forward, it was common to represent the angels handling armillary spheres and
crosses of the Order of Christ or handling
flags with those badges. From the 18th century onwards, the dragons
vert that served as the Portuguese crest became also the most often represented supporters in the achievement of arms of Portugal. In latter representations of the Portuguese coat of arms, the dragons
dexter and
sinister carry each one a flag with elements of the Portuguese shield, the
dexter being
argent with the five escutcheons and the
sinister being
gules with seven castles
or. In the reign of King Manuel I, his personal
heraldic badge (the
armillary sphere) and his insignia as master of the
Order of Christ (the
cross of this order) started be intensively represented, usually as elements surrounding the Portuguese shield. These two heraldic insignia were so intensively used that they evolved from being mere personal insignias of Manuel I to be considered national insignias, continuing to be used even after the end of the reign of this king. Occasionally, the armillary sphere was represented as the supporter of the Portuguese shield, in a similar composition to those that, centuries later, would be used in the arms of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and of the Portuguese Republic. During the reign of
Henry, a peculiar Royal achievement of arms was used, which included a red ecclesiastical hat (
galero) and respective tassels, combined with the Royal crown, to reflect the
cardinal standing of the King. During the 1815-1825 period, the Royal coat arms were changed to reflect the establishment of the
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, starting to include also the
armillary sphere or over a field
azur, which was adopted as the coat of arms of the newly created
Kingdom of Brazil. The new achievement consisted so of the Portuguese shield (representing Portugal and the Algarve) over the armillary sphere (representing Brazil), all topped by the Royal crown. The armillary sphere appeared so as a kind of supporter of the shield, although it is controversial if it should be really considered a supporter or part of the main element of the arms. From the second half of the 19th century, the Royal coat of arms became commonly represented with the shield covered by a
pavilion purple lined
ermine issuing from the Royal crown. ==Notable depictions==