Legend of the Four Blood Bars

The link between the Senyera Reial and the Earl Wilfred the Hairy dates back to the fourteenth century, when the King Peter the Ceremonious indicated that the Senyera Reial was originally from the Earls of Barcelona. That is how, in 1385 he ordered to put barred shields at the county graves of Girona's Cathedral, corresponding to Ramon Berenguer II i Ermessenda de Carcassona. Indeed, when the King wrote the Ordinacions de la Casa (Court Rules) he established that the ''Creu d'Aïnsa (Aïnsa Cross) was the shield of the old Aragon kings and not the Senyal Reial, which he considered from the lineage of the Earls of Barcelona. In this sense, in his Cròniques dels reis d'Aragó e comtes de Barcelona'' a miniature comes up representing Wilfred of Arrià, mythical father of Wilfred the Hairy, who wears a barred shield. In this way, when the son of Peter IV of Aragon, Prince and future King John I of Aragon "the Haunter", asked in 1376 to Father James Dominic to write his genealogy and also his wife's in Genealogia regum Navarrae et Aragoniae et comitum Barchinonae (''Genealogy of Barcelona's Earls). Once again, a miniature of Wilfred of Arrià was finally included, wearing a shield with the Senyal Reial. Kings were so sure that the Senyal Reial'' belonged to the lineage of the Earls of Barcelona that they publicly expressed it. As Martin I of Aragon "the Humane" and Alfonso V "the Magnanimous" did. File:Crònica dels reys d'Aragó e comtes de Barcelona BGUS ms 2664 f22v.jpg File:Genealogies dels comtes de Barcelona-sXV-09.jpg File:Cronica D´Aragon-Palos de Aragon- Condes de Barcelona.jpg == Primary versions of the legend ==

The Legend of the Four Blood Bars does not appear in its definitive version in any historical work before Beuter's work in 1551. It was Beuter who warned about having found the legend "according to what I found written" in a supposed "personal manuscript". Even though one cannot impute the invention of the legend to Beuter with absolute security, it seems clear that the resource of the supposed "personal manuscript" either refers to a previous source or was subterfuged to avoid any subsequent criticism. Historian Agustí Aloberro i Pericay points out that, in any case, whether he was the inventor of Beuter's legend or if the legend is an adaptation of an earlier version that circulated in Valencia, the "personal manuscript" would not be much prior to 1551. Otger Cataló's version and the blood bars of 1532 Aragonese historian Gualberto Fabricio de Vagad, in his play Crónica de Aragón (Chronicle of Aragon) (1499) explained again that the first king in Aragon who took the Royal Banner was Alfonso II of Aragon The Catalan historian and archiver Pere Miquel Carbonell denied any historical background of the legendary Knight Otger Cataló in his work Chròniques de Espanya fins ací no divulgades (Unrevealed Chronicles of Spain) (1513), which was printed in 1547. Finally, in 1551 the first version of the legend written in 1532 focusing in Otger Cataló was adapted by the Valencian historian Pere Antoni Beuter, who published it in his work Segunda parte de la crónica general de España(Second Party of the Spanish General Chronicle), a chronicle that was published in Spanish in Valencia, in the year 1551. The Valencian historian changed the legendary Knight Otger Cataló for the historical Earl Wilfred the Hairy, the Saracen people for the Normans, and the accidental mark of the bloody fingers above the golden shield for an epic formal concession from the Emperor of the Franks to the Earl of Barcelona; in this way, the definitive version of Legend of the Four Blood Bars was established. == Legend of the Four Blood Bars ==

When in the Segunda parte de la crónica general de España it is time to explain the facts of Wilfred the Hairy, the Earl of Barcelona, Beuter the episode of the Legend of the Four Blood Bars is added. Beuter explains that the Normans attacked France and Earl Wilfred the Hairy went to help the Frank Emperor. Once the Normans were defeated, the Earl Wilfred the Hairy asked Emperor Louis —it is not certain which Louis it was, if it was Louis I (814–840), Louis II (877–879), or Louis III (879–882)— to give him a coat of arms. Following his petition, the king got close to him and wet his right-hand fingers in an injury that the Earl had, sweeping them top to bottom above the Earl's golden shield and he said: "This will be your coat of arms, Earl". ==References==