Why Plus Ultra ...?.

Plus Ultra was the motto of the emperor Charles V, the first of the Spanish Habsburgs, and father of Philip II. The words appear today on the royal arms of  Spain, attached to the legendary paired Pillars of Hercules, representing the two promontories, Gibraltar and Ceuta, at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar. Once these marked the end of the Mediterranean - the  boundary of the known world - as in the motto Ne plus ultra ("Thus  far, no further"). But, in response to the discovery of the Americas, Charles dropped the ne, to signify a new age in which Spain would  extend its dominions "thus far, and further".