A History of Central Eastern Europe

Coat-of-Arms of the KINGDOM OF HUNGARY.
The Crown, as it turns out, is only called the CROWN OF SAINT STEVEN by mistake. That CROWN
disappeared centuries ago. It is the HOLY CROWN OF HUNGARY. It is actually 2 crowns – a lower
one and an upper one. The lower crown is believed to be a Greek crown presented in about 1074
to the wife of KING GÉZA I by the Byzantine EMPEROR MICHAEL DUCAS. The upper “Latin”
crown may have been a planned addition to the Greek crown to make it the closed crown
associated with an Emperor rather than the open style of Byzantium.
In the 17 th century the cross was bent during one of the tumultuous periods when it was hidden and
so it remains to this day in depictions.
Catholic
version
has
Two
AAngels
Protestant
version
has
Two
Branches
The Coat-of-Arms of the REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY (see page 3b) are found in the center. The right
portion is called the Arms of Ancient Hungary while the left side is the Arms of Modern Hungary.
Surrounding these are representations of the Arms of the Hungarian Empire’s member states.
In the top row on the right are the Coat-of -Arms of DALMATIA (3 leopards’ heads) and on the left
is the red and white checkerboard of CROATIA; both are again represented again by the 6-pointed
star and the marten in a red river in the middle on the right which stands for the old TRIUNE
KINGDOM OF DALMATIA, CROATIA and SLAVONIA; on the left are the TRANSYLVANIAN symbols
of the eagle with the sun and moon and the 7 castles of while in the center, bottom is the doubleheaded
eagle beneath a crown representing FIUME.
First used by LEOPOLD II HABSBURG who became KING OF HUNGARY in 1790.
They are commonly called “the Large Coat-of-Arms.”
13b