Plus oultre, French for "further beyond", was adopted by the young Duke of Burgundy and new King of SpainCharles of Habsburg as his personal motto, at the suggestion of his adviser Luigi Marliano, an Italian physician, in 1516.[4][5] It was emblematic of Marliano's vision of a Christian empire spanning beyond the boundaries of the Old World, now that Charles also controlled territories in the New World through the Spanish crown. It was also associated with the desire to bring theReconquista past Gibraltar into North Africa and revive thecrusades of the chivalric tradition. The motto is first recorded on the back of Charles's chair in the church of St Gudule, Brussels.[5] Spaniards translated the original French into Latin due to the hostility they bore for the French-speaking Burgundian advisors and ministers Charles brought with him to Spain from the Low Countries.[5] At Charles's entry intoBurgos in 1520, an arch was set up bearing on one side, "Plus ultra", and on the other "All of Africa weeps because it knows that you have the key [Gibraltar and] have to be its master".[5]Plus oultre continued to be used in the Burgundian Low Countries and also appeared in the wooden panelling ofCharles's palace in Granada. As a consequence of Charles's election as Holy Roman Emperor, bothPlus oultre andPlus ultra began to be used in Italy and Germany, together with a less successful German translation,Noch Weiter.[6] In Spain, the Latin motto continued to be popular after Charles V's death. It appeared in Habsburg propaganda and was used to encourage Spanish explorers to ignore the old warning and go beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Today it is featured on thecoat of arms of Spain.[3]
ThePlus Ultra Brigade, composed of troops from five Spanish-speaking countries (Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador), served in theIraq War in 2003.
The motto is written on the wall tiles of the cloak room atMar-a-Lago, a resort in Florida that has been owned byDonald Trump since 1985 and his principal residence since 2019.[9]
The motto appears frequently in popular culture.
In the manga and anime seriesMy Hero Academia, it is used as the motto of the hero academy U.A. High School.
The light novel seriesThe Saga of Tanya the Evil, which uses Latin phrases and mottos for most of its titles, uses it as the name of the second volume.
The motto is seen tattooed on the arm of Octane, one of the playable characters in the 2019 videogameApex Legends, andNon terrae plus ultra is one of his possible voice lines entering a battle.
The motto is seen on several tiles of the Fonthill Castle, the home of Henry Chapman Mercer, the eccentric owner of the Mercer Tile company, located in Doylestown, PA.[10]
A.E.I.O.U., the motto of theHabsburgs, which is often understood as "All the world is subject to Austria" (Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan in German orAustriae est imperare orbi universo in Latin), and shares a similar spirit withPlus ultra.
^Rosenthal, E. (1971). "Plus Ultra, Non plus Ultra, and the Columnar Device of Emperor Charles V".Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.34: 206–7.
^ab"plus ultra".Real Academia Española (in Spanish). Retrieved29 December 2024.
^Neuwirth, Markus. "Plus ultra – Origins and impact of Emperor Charles V's imprese".Plus Ultra: Beyond Modernity?. pp. 331–33.ISBN9783865881298.
^Bromley, J.S. (1970),The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 6, The Rise of Great Britain and Russia, 1688-1715/25, CUP Archive, pp. 440–442,ISBN978-0-521-07524-4
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