Coat of Arms
When Frederick I became Duke of Swabia in 1079, his coat of arms depicted a black lion on a gold shield. Whilst members of the dynasty reigned over monarchies, and, eventually, the whole of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hohenstaufen coat of arms was used as a breast shield on the empire’s coat of arms. Philip of Swabia, elected German king in 1198, changed the coat of arms, and the lion was replaced by three leopards, probably derived from the arms of his Welf rival Otto IV.
Read more about this topic: Hohenstaufen Dynasty
Famous quotes containing the words coat and/or arms:
“After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, “Oh! Life is so hard!” and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Sleep takes off the costume of circumstance, arms us with terrible freedom, so that every will rushes to a deed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)