Catalan flags in Sicily
Giovanni Villani and his brother Matteo published the so-called Nuova Cronica, where appear some engravings containing flags.
In one of them are shown the Sicilian Vespers of 30 March 1282 when the Sicilian people revolted in favor of the Catalan king and against the French domination. There appears a soldier of the Almogavares corps, with a yellow horizontal flag with two red vertical bars.
In other engraving, when the Catalans have entered Trapani, appears a Catalan flag also with vertical bars, with a swallow tail that cuts the last of the bars.
Other flag is rounded to the fly and the bars are eight (and eight yellow), similar to other flag, in this case rectangular, that appears in an engraving where the king receives ambassadors from the Pope.
In the same illustration the shields of the soldiers are golden and contain four red bars. The flags in the ships are four: one of five red bars and five yellow; other swallowtailed with five red and four yellow; and other, in the form of an horizontal shield, with four red bars and four yellow (and red point); and finally other swallowtailed that contains five red bars and five yellow.
In a different engraving that shows a scene in Messina, appears a swallowtailed flag with three red bars on yellow.
In the fifth image containing flags, with Charles of Naples prisoner of Roger of Lloria, the captain of the invencible almogavares, appears a flag in the form of a shield with five red bars (four yellow), a flag with double swallow tail and four red bars and four yellow (the last corresponding to the double tail) and a flag with swallow tail and three red bars and three yellow (the last one occupied by the tail)
