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Yoke and arrows
Badge of Spanish monarchy, fascist emblem / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The yoke and arrows (Spanish: Yugo y flechas) or the yoke and the bundle of arrows (Spanish: Yugo y haz de flechas) is a symbolic badge dating back to the dynastic union of Spain's Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Subsequent Catholic monarchs continued to use it on their shields to represent a united Spain and symbolize "the heroic virtues of the race".[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Escudo_de_Isabel_y_Fernando.jpg/320px-Escudo_de_Isabel_y_Fernando.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Royal_Standard_of_the_Catholic_Monarchs_%281492-1506%29.svg/320px-Royal_Standard_of_the_Catholic_Monarchs_%281492-1506%29.svg.png)
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Personal_Badges_of_the_Catholic_Monachs.svg/320px-Personal_Badges_of_the_Catholic_Monachs.svg.png)
It was also an allusion to the names of the founding monarchs: Y stood for yugo and for Ysabel (in contemporary spelling) and F stood for flechas and for Ferdinand. The yoke referred to the legend of the Gordian knot, as did Isabel and Ferdinand's motto Tanto monta; the bundle of arrows alluded to the ancient proverb that arrows can be easily broken one by one, but are unbreakable if tied together.