Coat of Arms of Germany - Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

See also: Armorial of the Holy Roman Empire

The German Reichsadler (Imperial Eagle) dates back to the time of Charlemagne, the first Frankish ruler to be crowned emperor by the pope (AD 800), ultimately derived from the eagle standard of the Roman army.

By the 13th century, the black eagle icon on a gold field was generally recognised as the imperial coat of arms. During the medieval period, the imperial eagle was mostly single-headed. A double-headed eagle is attributed to Frederick II in the Chronica Majora (ca. 1250). In 1433 the double-headed eagle was adopted by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Since then the double-headed eagle came to be used as the symbol of the German emperor, and hence as the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. From the 12th century, the Emperors would have a personal coat of arms separate from the imperial one. Starting with Albert II (r. 1438–39), each Emperor bore arms with an inescutcheon of his personal arms on the torso of a two-headed eagle.


Coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire

  • First depiction of the Reichsadler as double-headed (coat of arms of emperor Otto IV from the Chronica Majora, ca. 1250)

  • The Reichsadler from the coat of arms of Henry VI (Codex Manesse, ca. 1304)

  • The arms of the Holy Roman Empire with two putti (1540s manuscript)

  • Imperial coat of arms (Röm Kayserlicher und Kön May Wappen) from Siebmachers Wappenbuch (1605)

  • The arms 1804–1806 under Emperor Francis II (Emperor Francis I of Austria).

Read more about this topic:  Coat Of Arms Of Germany

Famous quotes containing the words holy, roman and/or empire:

    “When I see that the nineteenth century has crowned the idolatry of Art with the deification of Love, so that every poet is supposed to have pierced to the holy of holies when he has announced that Love is the Supreme, or the Enough, or the All, I feel that Art was safer in the hands of the most fanatical of Cromwell’s major generals than it will be if ever it gets into mine.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    “As no one can tell what was the Roman pronunciation, each nation makes the Latin conform, for the most part, to the rules of its own language; so that with us of the vowels only A has a peculiar sound.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “I do not believe I am exaggerating in affirming that the empire of Russia is a country whose inhabitants are the most miserable on earth, because they suffer at one and the same time the evils of barbarism and of civilization.”
    —Marquis De Custine (1790–1857)