A shield streaked with blood

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Arthur Radburn
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Joined: 11 Jul 2012, 09:56

A shield streaked with blood

Postby Arthur Radburn » 14 Jun 2019, 10:48

To mark World Blood Donor Day today, the rather graphic emblem of the Association of Blood Donors of Catalonia, dating from the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s :

Catalonia Blood Donors.jpg

Clearly derived from the arms of Catalonia (which are the same as those of the kingdom of Aragon) :

Catalonia.jpg
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Arthur Radburn

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Jeremy Fox
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Re: A shield streaked with blood

Postby Jeremy Fox » 14 Jun 2019, 14:17

Apocryphally, (and it is just possible that not everyone has heard the tale,) the pallets in the arms of Aragon were blood originally. A king of Aragon, maybe Peter II at Muret, bore a plain gold shield at the start of the battle, but his last actions before dying of his wounds were to dip his fingers in his own blood and draw the four streaks down the shield.

The story comes from the same impeccable source ("anon" or possibly "trad",) as the account of the Archduke of Austria who entered a battle wearing a white surcoat, and ended it so bespattered with the blood of his enemies that his surcoat was completely red save for a band of white where his belt had been, giving rise to Austria's arms of "gules, a fess argent."

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Arthur Radburn
Posts: 1331
Joined: 11 Jul 2012, 09:56

Re: A shield streaked with blood

Postby Arthur Radburn » 14 Jun 2019, 18:45

Thank you for relating these stories, Jeremy. No doubt the designer of the Catalonian blood donors' association had the tradition in mind when he/she came up with this device.
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Arthur Radburn


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