Turtle

Separador heráldico
Escudo de Castilla y León

The coat of arms of the city of Bugia and Charles V

Charles V flanked by the Pillars of Hercules and coats of arms.

An antiquarian, writing from Rostov-on-Don, sent me this image asking about the coat of arms with the tortoise.

The coat of arms with the tortoise is that of the city of Bugia, or Bujía in Spanish, or Bougie in French. It is a city in Algeria with a port on the Mediterranean. Bugia was conquered by the Crown of Castile in 1510 and remained under its rule until 1555. Therefore, Bugia belonged to Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire (1500–1558), and in some books and documents concerning the territories of Charles V the coat of arms of Bugia is included, whose blazon in English is «Gules, a turtle fesswise Or», and in Castilian, «escudo de gules, una tortuga puesta en faja de oro». For its identification I relied on [Sánchez Badiola, J. J.; 2010; pages 102 and 103].

In my humble opinion, I believe that in this illustration the city of Bugia is given greater importance than it actually had, especially when compared with the rest of the coats of arms represented in it, for example, León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Minorca, Sardinia or Granada. It is possible that the city of Bugia was included because it was an African possession.

Categories: Identification, Gules, One, Turtle, Fesswise and Or.

 

Dr. Antonio Salmerón y Cabañas,
,
Paseo de la Castellana 135, 7th floor,
28046 Madrid, Spain.