The coat of arms of Portugal also referred to, in Portugal, as the quinasa quina being a group of five things is the main heraldic insignia of Portugal. It is used by the military and the government, including the courts.
There are three versions of the coat of arms. One is used on the national flag and the naval Jack, another is used on regimental colours of military units and on passports, and the third was intended to be used in seals, coins and other emblems. The shield, present on all three versions of the arms, is based on the royal arms used by the monarchy since the Middle Ages. The present model was de facto adopted on 1 December 1910, and de jure on 19 June 1911, specifications were published on 30 June 1911.Decree of 19 June 1911 of the National Constituent Assembly (Establishes the colors and design of the National Flag)"Publication of the opinion of the Commission for the National Flag, for the execution of the decree of the National Constituent Assembly of 19 June 1911 ", Diário do Governo n.º 150 30 June 1911
Design The present model of the coat of arms of Portugal was designed by the painter Columbano, a member of the commission appointed on 15 October 1910 to present the project for a new National Flag, following the establishing of the Portuguese republic on 5 October 1910. The models chosen by the commission were approved by the Provisional Government of the Republic on 29 November 1910, confirmed by the Constituent Assembly through the decree of 19 June 1911, with its details being specified in the Diário do Governo (official journal) no. 150 on 30 June 1911.
Three versions of the coat of arms were established, intended for different types of use. As its central element, all three include the shield of the traditional Portuguese arms placed over a golden armillary sphere.
The basic version consists of only the Portuguese shield over the armillary sphere. This version was intended for the National Flag and the naval jack. From 23 September 1911, this version was also used on the naval distinctive flags of the President of the Republic, ministers and other state authorities, the latter being also used on some governmental and state flags created afterwards. Occasionally, this version is unofficially referred to as the "lesser arms of Portugal".
The second version consists of the Portuguese shield over the armillary sphere, with this being surrounded by two branches of laurel, tied in the base with a white scroll with the Camões verse Esta é a ditosa Pátria minha amada ("This is my beloved merry homeland"). This version was intended to be used on the regimental colours of the military units.
Finally, the third version is similar to the second one but the scroll does not include the verse and is usually represented in red and green. This version was intended to be used in seals, coins and other emblems.
Charges Quinas
Quina (plural quinas) is the Portuguese word for quincunx, meaning either five-twelfths or, more usually, a pattern of five parts.
After the official recognition of the Kingdom of Portugal as a kingdom in 1143 (it had been self-declared as so in 1139), silver bezants were added to the blue cross of the shield, symbolising coins and the right of the monarch to issue currency, as leader of a sovereign state. Eventually, and given the enormous dynamism of medieval heraldry, it is believed that the shield degraded and lost some elements in battle, eventually losing the cross format. This is how King Sancho I inherited the shield from his father, Afonso Henriques, with the cross replaced by escutcheons with the silver bezants. A traditional legend explains that these escutcheons represent the five moor kings defeated by King Afonso I of Portugal in the Battle of Ourique.
The number of silver bezants in each escutcheon varied extensively, with versions representing four up to eleven. In the late 14th century, however, the number of bezants was fixed in five. Late explanations interpret them as the five wounds of Jesus Christ and/or the thirty pieces of silver (with the five bezants in the middle escutcheon counted twice).
From the fixation of the number of bezants in five, the groups of the five escutcheons, each with five bezants of the Portuguese shield became popularly referred as quinas. By synecdoche, the term "Quinas" came to be used as an alternative designation of the coat of arms of Portugal and came even be used as a reference to anything that represents Portugal (e.g. the Flag of Portugal often referred as the "Flag of the Quinas").
Castles
The red bordure featuring golden castles (not towers, as some sources state) was added during the reign of Afonso III. Although the number of castles could vary between eight and fourteen, Sebastian I fixed them at seven definitively. They supposedly represent the Moorish castles conquered by Portugal during the Reconquista. Their origin is probably Castilian Afonso III was the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal and thus was not expected to inherit the throne, which first went to his elder brother King Sancho II of Portugal. Afonso III combined both the arms of his father and the arms of his mother Urraca of Castile, thus the Castillan red border with golden castles, around the Portuguese arms inherited from his father.
External devices: Supporters Armillary sphere
An important element of Portuguese heraldry since the 15th century, the armillary sphere was many times used in Portuguese naval and colonial flags, mainly in Brazil. It was a navigation instrument used to calculate distances and represents the importance of Portugal during the Age of Discovery, as well as the vastness of its colonial empire when the First Republic was implemented.
The use of the armillary predates the current flag by centuries. It was the personal emblem of King Manuel I. It was first added to the flag in 1815 as part of the flag of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
The 1910 commission appointed by the government to study the symbols of the new republic suggested the armillary sphere as "the eternal standard of our adventurous spirit".Presidencia.pt: National Symbols. Official site of the Portuguese presidency.
Laurel branches The current design, adopted in 1910, of the coat of arms of Portugal incorporates a pair of laurel branches forming a wreath.Diário do Governo nº 150 – 30 June 1511 (PDF). presidencia.pt . It is the only element of the coat of arms with a non-native meaning as they were intended to represent the roman crown of laurel with the commission responsible for the new flag briefly referring to them as a "triumphal symbol".A Bandeira Nacional : sua evolução histórica desde a fundação da monarquia portuguesa até a actualidade (PDF). am.uc.pt . In some older renditions, the supporters are distinct.
History
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