The story of the emblem with the four Moors develops in the context of the complex Mediterranean relations in which the insularity of Sardinia has an important integrating role.

The coat of arms of the four Moors appeared for the first time in the seals of the Aragonese Royal Chancellery. The oldest example dates back to 1281, under the reign of Peter the Great. After Sardinia becomes part of the Crown of Aragon, these seals come to close the documents of King James II (1326), Alfonso il Benigno (1327-1336) and Pietro IV (1336-1387). It is probable that the Sardinian coat of arms was added a few decades later because at the time of writing (1370-1386) there was the “Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica” including both islands.

In 1400 the legend that explains the four Moors on the coat of arms with the intervention of Saint George in the battle of Alcoraz in Northern Spain, won in 1096 by the Aragonese against the invading Moors who left on the battlefield even the crowned heads of four their rulers. At the end of the century, when the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile unite in the Kingdom of Spain, among the states of the Crown, Sardinia continues in the use of the coat of arms with the four Moors while Aragon-Catalonia favors the poles Catalans.

The coat of arms of the four Moors identifies Sardinia under the dominion of Charles V. In the funeral procession of the emperor, who died in 1558, the four Moors are present on the flag and on the saddle cloth of a horse led by hand by noble knights. In Sardinia and on Sardinian documents the first sure attestation of the coat of arms is on the title page of the acts of the military arm of the Sardinian parliament, the “Capitols de Cort del Stament militar de Serdenya” printed in Cagliari in 1591.

From the eighteenth century the Savoy coat of arms with an eagle bearing the red shield with a white cross on the chest was superimposed on the four Moors. The rediscovery of national identities, deeply felt in the nineteenth century, led to perceive the coat of arms of the four Moors as a symbol of identity and to bring its origin back to the Giudicale period.