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Christopher Columbus' Flag (U.S.)

Historical

by Rick Wyatt, 2 December 2001

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U.S. commercial sites sell a historical "Columbus flag" which is not the Castile and Leon one but a standard containing the initials F (Fernando) and Y (Ysabel) with a cross between the initials and crowns above them.
Dov Gutterman, 27 January 1999

Christopher Columbus wrote in his logbook that on October 12th 1492 he picked the Royal Flag, and his captains two flags which the Admiral carried in all the ships as Ensign, each white with a green cross formy couped addorsed by old Gothic letters "F" and "Y", both green and crowned with golden, open royal crowns, for Fernando and Ysabel. With these three flags he took possession of Guanahani island (nowadays San Salvador). Source: Calvo and Grávalos 1983, illustrations nos. 69 and 70. These were the first European flags to fly over America — provided the Vikings did not display one earlier.

So U.S. commercial sites are quite right. However, strictly speaking, Columbus travelled only on behalf of Elizabeth, Queen of Castile and Leon. Some historians argue that this is the reason why so few Aragonese-Catalan conquerors travelled to the Americas. The Catholic Kings were not the Kings of Castile and Leon — Ferdinand was King of Aragon and Sicily, Elizabeth was Queen of Castile and Leon.

Santiago Dotor, 28 January 1999

The original documents of Columbus' expeditions describe