Though a city of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, the coat of arms of Ceuta is nearly identical to the coat of arms of Portugal

Coat of arms of Portugal

The coat of arms of Portugal was officially adopted on 30 June 1911, along with the republican flag of Portugal. It is based on the coat of arms used by the Portuguese Kingdom since the Middle Ages.-History and meaning:...

, since that city was conquered

Battle of Ceuta

The Battle of Ceuta and the subsequent conquest of the Wattasid city of Ceuta by the Portuguese had its roots in the earliest years of the House of Aviz dynasty of Portugal...

 by King John I of Portugal

John I of Portugal

John I KG , called the Good or of Happy Memory, more rarely and outside Portugal the Bastard, was the tenth King of Portugal and the Algarve and the first to use the title Lord of Ceuta...

 on 21 August 1415. The city chose to join Spain when Portugal again became independent at the end of the Iberian Union

Iberian Union

The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...

, a period in which all the Iberian crowns were held by the same royal house, in 1640.

There are two principal differences between the coat of arms of Portugal and the coat of arms of Ceuta. The coat of arms of Portugal has a third castle along the chief, which is part of the red border, while in the coat of arms of Ceuta that castle has been moved to the point of the shield. This difference can be explained by the higher status of Lisbon and other cities closer to the king as compared to Ceuta. The other difference is the crown. Though today there is no crown on Portugal's coat of arms, traditionally the crown on the coat of arms has been that of a king, while Ceuta's is that of a marquis

Marquis

Marquis is a French and Scottish title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:...

, owed to the fact that the title of marquis previously was used for governors of marches, or a country's frontier regions.