Legend of the Four Blood Bars
Spanish heraldic legend / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Legend of the Four Blood Bars is an heraldic legend about the origins of the Senyera Reial (Royal Banner) that appeared for the first time in 1551 at Segunda parte de la crónica general de España, a chronicle edited by Pere Antoni Beuter in Spanish in Valencia. This legend places the Senyera Reial origins on Wilfred the Hairy. Specifically, it narrates that the sign of the four bars was created after a battle against the Normans, when the King of the Franks doused his hands in the blood of Wilfred the Hairy's injuries. After swiping his fingers over the golden shield of the Earl of Barcelona he said: "These will be your arms, Earl".
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The Legend of the Four Blood Bars does not appear in any other historical work before Beuter's work in 1551, even though the affiliation of Senyal Reial to the lineage of the Barcelona's Earl was already established by the kings of Aragon in the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century, early versions of the legend appeared. This versions explained the creation of this heraldic sign as some blood marks on a golden shield. Finally, in the sixteenth century it was Beuter who noticed that he had found the legend of Wilfred the Hairy and the blood bars in some alleged "manuscripts" he gave no further data from. Although it cannot be imputed with absolute certainty that Beuter was the creator of the legend, it seems rather clear that the alleged "manuscript" source was either remitting to an earlier source, or it was a subterfuge to avoid any subsequent critique.
The Valencian Legend of the Four Blood Bars was an immediate and fulminating success that was copied by all the later historians that made it a true story. It was not until 1812 that the Catalan historian Joan de Sans i de Barutell [ca] discredited any truth in the Valencian legend of the four bars. He noted the historical incoherences regarding Wilfred the Hairy (840-897). Meanwhile, heraldic Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués proved that heraldry did not reach Europe until the second quarter of the twelfth century (1125-1150). Although it has been discredited the historicity of the legend, it is still a beautiful one, which is why artists felt the need to graphically reproduce it and gloss it with poems. The Valencian Legend of the Four Blood Bars that appeared in the sixteenth century should not be confused with the Llegenda de Guifré el Pilós (Medieval legend of Wilfred the Hairy), compiled by the monks of Santa Maria de Ripoll monastery in the twelfth century.