^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Flag Urban Legends (Spain)

Urban Legends about Spanish Flags
Legendary "Purple Banner of Castile" or "Commoners' Banner" (Pendón Morado de Castilla or Pendón de los Comuneros)

See also:

Spain

Other sites:

The Tincture Purpure article in François Velde's Heraldica website

Urban Legends about Spanish Flags

These are some of the typical 'FULs' (Flag Urban Legends, and a pun on fools) in Spain:

"The colours of the Spanish flag stand for the bullfighting arena's sand and the bullfighter's blood"
"The Spanish flag is derived from the Catalan flag"
"The Catalan flag is derived from the Spanish flag"
"The former coat-of-arms with eagle etc. does not respect the Constitution" (the 1978 Constitution does not define the coat-of-arms — actually during 1978-1981 the 1977 flag coexisted with the Constitution)
"The [16th century] Commoners' flag was purple"
"During the Carlist Wars, the liberals adopted the red-yellow-red flag, while the Carlists used the old Burgundian Cross flag"
"The Republican tricolour was first used during the 1873-74 Spanish Republic"

plus 90% of the "explanations" about Spanish flags given in the last edition of Dorling Kindersley 1997... But the one I like most (I think I still keep the 1980s newspaper which mentioned it) is:

"The flag of the Madrid Autonomous Community is a Communist emulation of the Chinese flag, only the stars have been moved from the upper hoist to the center of the field and made larger"...

Santiago Dotor, 17 December 1999

It is sometimes incorrectly said that senyera ultimately comes from the Spanish words sangre y oro (blood and gold) [or from Catalan sang i or]. This is wrong.

Jordi Pastalle, 1995

Legendary "Purple Banner of Castile" or "Commoners' Banner"

Pendón Morado de Castilla or Pendón de los Comuneros

by Jaume Ollé

The Comuneros [commoners who revolted against Charles V in the early 16th century] used a purple flag with a castle.

Jaume Ollé, 16 December 1996

One of the most typical Spanish flag urban legends says that "the [16th century] Commoners' flag was purple", a misunderstanding of purpure which is very dark red rather than purple.

Santiago Dotor, 17 December 1999

[Above] it is stated that the adscription of the purple stripe in the flag of the Second