Coat of arms of Hungary explained

The coat of arms of Hungary (hu|Magyarország címere) was adopted on 11 July 1990,^[3] after the end of communist rule. The arms have been used before, both with and without the Holy Crown of Hungary, sometimes as part of a larger, more complex coat of arms, and its elements date back to the Middle Ages.

The shield is split into two parts:

• The dexter (the right side from the bearer's perspective, the left side from the viewer's) features the so-called Árpád stripes, four Gules (red) and four Argent (silver) stripes. Traditionally, the silver stripes represent four rivers: Duna (Danube), Tisza, Dráva, and Száva.^[4]
• The sinister (the left side from the bearer's perspective, the right side from the viewer's) consists of an Argent (silver) double cross on Gules (red) base, situated inside a small Or (golden) crown, the crown is placed on the middle heap of three Vert (green) hills, representing the mountain ranges (trimount) Tátra, Mátra, and Fátra.

Atop the shield rests the Holy Crown Hungary, the crown of King Saint Stephen of Hungary, the crown locates in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest today.

History

Grand Principality of Hungary (895–1000)

According to medieval Hungarian chronicles, King Attila had the Turul bird on his shield and it was the military badge of the Hungarians until the time of Prince Géza. Under the rule of his son, King Saint Stephen, the Christian Kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000.

The griffin, wolf, and deer, these common motifs of the 9th and early 10th centuries, rarely appear in later Hungarian iconography and heraldic symbolism. However the hawk or Turul, a symbol in shamanistic lore that rested upon the tree of life, connecting the earth, the netherworld, and the skies, endured for a longer period as an emblem of the Hungarian ruling house.^[5] The ruling Árpád dynasty is also referred to as the Turul dynasty.^[6]

Kingdom of Hungary (1000–1946)

The double cross, a symbol of royal power, appeared during the reign of King Béla III of Hungary (1172–1196).^{[7] [8] [9]} Daughter of King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary, Saint Irene was a Byzantine empress, she was the mother of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. The second son of King Géza II of Hungary, Béla arrived in Constantinople in 1163. Béla was raised in the imperial court of Manuel due to the close Byzantine-Hungarian relations of the mid-12th century, and he was even the heir to the throne. He had ambitions to create a Hungarian–Byzantine personal union. In 1169, Manuel's young wife gave birth to a son, thus depriving Béla of his status as heir of the Byzantine throne. The most intensive contacts between the Hungarian royal court and the Constantinople imperial court was under Béla III. It was during this time that he brought with him the double cross as a royal emblem, which appeared for the first time on his coat of arms and minted coins.

King Emeric (1196-1204) issued a Golden Bull. The Árpád dynasty's striped coat of arms, the Árpád stripes appeared for the first time on the ornate seal of the king, issued in 1202. The royal charters issued by monarchs were authenticated by seals and bulls, making them the most important sources for the medieval history of Hungarian coats of arms. The first colored depiction of the striped Árpád coat of arms can be seen in the Zurich armorial scroll from the 1320s. The Árpád coat of arms was only in use for a short period during the 13th century. On the coins and seals of King Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270), the double-cross shield reappears.

After the extinction of the male branch of the Árpád dynasty in 1301, the Hungarian Anjou kings (King Charles I of Hungary (1308–1342), King Louis I of Hungary (1342–1382)) combined the Árpád dynasty's striped shield with their own lily coat of arms. At this time, the placement of the stripes was not yet fixed and could appear on either side of the coat of arms. By using the striped shield, the Anjous indicated their connection to the Árpád dynasty through a female line. On the reverse side of their seal, they engraved the double cross, which symbolized the country.

The double cross symbol found its way to Western Europe through Hungary, because René the Good, who was related to the House Anjou of Hungary, laid claim to four kingdoms, including Hungary. He placed the symbol on his flags before the battle of Nancy. He won the battle and regained his lost Duchy of Lorraine. Thus the symbol became known in Western-Europe as the Cross of Lorraine.

List of Hungarian coat of arms

Honours

• In May and June 1946 a set of eight stamps of Coat of arms of Hungary was issued. These are the issues of inflation.^[17]
• Further, a fourteen-stamp set of Arms and Post-horn were issued May and June 1946; these are also the issues of inflation.^[18]
• Four commemorative stamps were issued on 15 March 1948 as part of the series: Centenary of the beginning of Hungary's war for Independence.^[19]
• On 20 August 1949 three stamps of Arms of Hungary were issued on the occasion of the Adoption of the Hungarian Peoples' Republic's Constitution.^[20]
• On 23 May 1958 three stamps were issued to commemorate the first anniversary of the law amending the constitution.^[21]
• Between 1941 and 45 as many as 44 Postage-Due stamps of various denominations, watermarks and paper were issued.^[22]

Some other stamps were also issued.

See also

• Coat of arms of Slovakia
• Coat of arms of Budapest
• Flag of Hungary
• Hungarian heraldry
• Patriarchal cross
• Cross of Lorraine

Sources

• Book: Bertényi, Iván . Kis magyar címertan . Gondolat Zsebkönyvek . 1983 . Budapest . Hungarian . A Short Hungarian Heraldry . 0133 0489.

References

• Bálint Hóman

A magyar címer történetéhez ("Additions to the history of the coat of arms of Hungary"), 1920 http://mek.oszk.hu/07100/07139/html/0010/0019-392.html (Hungarian)

• Iván Bertényi: Államcímerünk kialakulása ("Emergence of the state coat of arms"), 2003 https://web.archive.org/web/20070312065143/http://www.historia.hu/archivum/2003/0302bertenyi.htm (Hungarian)

13. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1958/page/4. Mi:HU 1529A-32A, Sn:HU 1191–93, Yt:HU 1245–47.14. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1941/page/4,5. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1942/page/4. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1944/page/2,3.colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1945/page/10,11,12.

External links

• The Hungarian Coat of Arms
• History of the Coat of Arms of Hungary from Szeged University (in Hungarian, with pictures)
• 2011 CCII law (on the use of Hungary's coat of arms and flag, as well as awards) from njt.hu

Notes and References

1. Web site: National Symbols: The Coat of Arms. www.keh.hu. Office of the President of the Republic. 12 February 2017. en. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20210925121739/http://www.keh.hu/the_coat_of_arms/1576-Coat_of_arms. 25 September 2021.
2. Web site: 1990. évi XLIV. törvény a Magyar Köztársaság Alkotmányának módosításáról. Act XLIV of 1990 on the Amendment of the Constitution of the Hungarian Republic. hu.wikisource.org. hu.
3. Web site: 11 July 1990 . 1990. évi XLIV. törvény a Magyar Köztársaság Alkotmányának módosításáról . Act XLIV of 1990 on the Amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary . mkogy.jogtar.hu – Törvények és országgyűlési határozatok [Laws and Parliamentary Resolutions] . Wolters Kluwer.
4. Betsy Dru Tecco: How to Draw Hungary's Sights and Symbols, The Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 2005 https://books.google.com/books?id=n6vV6VQHMcAC&q=%22The+four+silver+stripes%22
5. Book: Rady, Martyn . Nobility, land and service in medieval Hungary . PALGRAVE, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York . 2000 . 0-333-71018-5 . 12.
6. Book: Horváth-Lugossy . Gábor . Kings and Saints - The Age of the Árpáds . Makoldi . Miklós . Neparáczki . Endre . Institute of Hungarian Research . 2022 . 978-615-6117-65-6 . Budapest, Székesfehérvár.
7. Book: Laszlovszky, József . A magyar címer története . Pytheas . 1989 . 963 500 980 1 . Budapest . Hungarian . History of the Hungarian Coat of Arms.
8. Book: Engel, Pál . The Realm of St Stephen – A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526 . I.B. Tauris Publishers . 2001 . 1-86064-061-3 . London, New York . Chapter 6 – The Age of the Golden Bulls – The High-Born Kindreds.
9. Web site: Kolník . Titus . 13 September 2019 . Byzantské korene ikonografie a symboliky štátneho znaku Slovenskej republiky . Byzantine roots of the iconography and symbolism of the state coat of arms of the Slovak Republic . Matica slovenská . Slovak.
10. Web site: Imre magyar király címere 1196-1204 . Coat of arms of King Emeric of Hungary 1196-1204 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20181001182424/https://magyarcimerek.hu/3317-magyarorszag . 2018-10-01 . Magyar Címerek.
11. Web site: II. András magyar király címere 1205-1235 . Coat of arms of King Andrew II of Hungary 1205-1235 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101655/https://magyarcimerek.hu/3318-magyarorszag . 2016-03-04 . Magyar Címerek.
12. Web site: V. István magyar király címere 1270-1272 . Coat of arms of King Stephen V 1270-1272 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20181001182700/https://magyarcimerek.hu/3323-magyarorszag . 2018-10-01 . Magyar Címerek.
13. Web site: III. András (Endre) magyar király címere 1290-1301 . Coat of arms of King Andrew III of Hungary 1290-1301 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20181001182424/https://magyarcimerek.hu/3338-magyarorszag . 2018-10-01 . Magyar Címerek.
14. Book: A Concise History of Hungary. registration . Cambridge University Press . 9780521667364. Molnár. Miklós. Miklós. Molnár. 2001-04-30.
15. Web site: Hungarian Nazis (Arrow Cross Party). Jewish Virtual Library. 4 August 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20110717094109/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/arrowcross.html. 17 July 2011. on October 15th, the Nazis transferred power into the hands of the Arrowcross Party.
16. Web site: Koronával vagy anélkül? ("With or without crown?"), Index.hu. 7 February 2009. 19 April 2014.
17. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1946/page/3. Mi:HU 897–904, Sn:HU 738–745, Yt:HU 788–795, AFA:HU 845–852.
18. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1946/page/4, 5. Mi:HU 905–918, Sn:HU 746–759, Yt:HU 796–813.
19. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1948/page/1. Mi:HU 1007–10, Sn:HU 836-39, Yt:HU 890-93, AFA:HU 981-84.
20. colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/6955-Hungary/year/1949/page/2,3. Mi:HU 1053X-55X, Sn:HU 856-58, Yt:HU 913-15.
21. 13
22. 14