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Batres (Municipality, Community of Madrid, Spain)

Flag of Batres - Image by Ivan Sache, 30 June 2015

Presentation of Batres
Symbols of Batres

See also:

Presentation of Batres

The municipality of Batres (1,571 inhabitants in 2014; 2,158 ha; municipal website) is located in the south of the Community of Madrid, on the border with Castilla-La Mancha (Province of Toledo), 45 km of Madrid.

Batres has been identified with the Roman colony of Vatria, mentioned in 150 by Emperor Antonine the Pius. Some authors believe that the village is indeed of Arabic origin, as al-Battia, "a rainwater tank" or al-Wathija, "a fertile place".
Batres was re-settled by King Alfonso VII after the reconquest of Toledo from the Moors. The St. Mary monastery was founded by Master Hugo, a Cistercian monk and canon from Toledo. Allocated to the Madrid Council in 1201, Batres was transferred in 1208 to the Segovia Council.
The domain of Batres was established in the 14th century, following the marriage of Pedro Suárez de Toledo, lord of Casarrubio, and María Ramírez de Guzmán, made Dame of Batres. She was succeeded by their son, Pedro Suárez de Guzmán, Adelanto Mayor of Andalusia. The 3rd lord of Batres was the "prudent, knowledgeable and wise knight" Hernán Pérez de Guzmán y Toledo, author of John II's Chronicle and of Generaciones y Semblanza. He retired in the castle of Batres, which he embellished. The 4th lord of Batres, Pedro Suárez de Toledo, died without male heirs; he was succeeded by his wife, Sancha de Guzmán, who re-married with Garcilaso de la Vega, a member of the powerful Mendoza lineage and root of the Laso de la Vega y Guzmán branch.

Ivan Sache, 30 June 2015

Symbols of Batres

The flag (photos, photo) and arms of Batres are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 5 June 1986 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 1 July 1986 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 154 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Of a single colour, purple, charged in the middle with the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Quarterly per saltire, 1. and 4. Azure a caldron or charged with a fess gules engulfed by a snake's head vert, 2. and 3. Argent four ermine spots sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The Royal Academy of History validated the proposed symbols. The supporting memoir does not contain any justification for the proposed arms, except a quote from a famous encyclopaedia of heraldry stating that the arms belonged to the Pérez de Guzmán, lords of Batres.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1986, 183, 2: 314-315]

The arms are indeed shown in Francisco Piferrer's Nobiliario de los Reinos y Señoríos de España (Madrid, 1857), Vol. 2, p. 26, No. 678 (text).

Ivan Sache, 30 June 2015