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by Zeljko Heimer, 3 October 2000
Last modified: 2004-12-18 by dov gutterman
Keywords: croatia | dalmatia | checquy | lion | leopard | head | three | goat | star | sixpointed | river | marten | heraldry |
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by Zeljko Heimer, 3 October 2000
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The arms of Croatia, checquy argent and gules, were originally
used by the medieval Kings of Croatia. They are attributed to
Demeter Zvonimir (d. 1089).
Jim Terzian
Checquy argent and gules. That seems to date from 1525. In the
9th century the Croats form a political entity, and their leader
takes the title of king in 929. In 1102, a succession crisis is
solved with the choice of the king of Hungary as king of Croatia.
The two kingdoms are ruled by the same ruler until the Turkish
conquest in 1526, though Croatia retains its institutions, its
governor or ban, and its coinage. On medieval coinage, the arms
of Croatia appear to be a mullet of six over a crescent (the
motif appears on coins as early as the late 12th century).
In 1525, under circumstances I have not yet cleared, the arms
"checquy argent and gules" were adopted, and remained
the arms of Croatia in the Habsburg achievements until 1918. They
were used on the flag of the puppet regime in 1941-45, but
(interestingly) they also appeared on the seal of the republic of
Croatia after 1946.
The Croatians use, in addition, their provincial arms as a crown
above the escutcheon. There are five shields, each bearing arms
of a particular province.
The arms of Slavonia appear on coins of that
region as early as 1235. The arms that I called "old
Croatia" appear in 1196 on coinage.
Francois Velde, 30 June 1995
The symbol of checquy fields is more ancient than written
Croatian history, and that is to say older than 7th century. Much
older that the arms itself (that are not older than 11th century,
of course). The traces of checquy could be found on the way
Croatian tribes came from what is today Poland (Vistula valley),
and even further back to east. According to some findings of
checquy patterns in Iran, there are scientists who would like to
prove an Iranian (or Arian) descent of the Croatians.
There is a legend of a Croatian king arrested in Venice, who got
his freedom playing three parties of chess with his arrester. The
story is much younger than the Croatian checquy, and is, I guess,
invented sometime in the 1700's or so.
Zeljko Heimer,, 26 March 1996
According to Jerzy Gizyski: "History of
Chess", which also has more extensive references to chess in
polish heraldry: "A chequerboard appears in the Croation
coat of arms. It is said that Svetoslav Surinj beat the venetian
Doge Peter II in a game for the right to rule the Dalmatian
towns" Note the expression "it is said", which to
me at least signifies that perhaps the author considers it less
than 100% historical accurate...But it is a story.
Knut A. Berg, 14 July 1998
The stroy is probably 19th century romantical invention, and
even as such not very much rooted. I have heard some
"romours" to it, but none in any heraldry relevan
source, which tend to avaid the legen and do not mention it at
all.
The name of the "hero" Svetoslav Surinj is quite
unknown to me (only is the surname is Zrinjski, maybe ... but
Svetoslav doesn't ring the bell)
In any case, chequy field is as old as heraldry if not older
(well, as say some...) and I am not sure in which century the
story goes.
Zeljko Heimer, 18 July 1998
According to [zna 99] -
"The crown surmounting the present state arms is composed of
shields with the historic arms of Croatia (golden star above
silver crescent), Dubrovnik (two red stripes on a blue field),
Dalmatia (three golden lions' heads), Istria (golden goat with
red horns and hooves) and Slavonica (golden star above red
stripe, fimbriated silver, and charged with black
marten)." Page 155.
John Ayer, 3 October 2000
The five "things" are five Coat of Arms, called in
the legislation*) 'the historical Croatian coats of arms' and are
also named in the legislation from left to right
(non-heraldical!) so (translated):
1. The oldest known Coat of Arms of Croatia
2. Coat of Arms of the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik)
3. Coat of Arms of Dalmatia
4. Coat of Arms of Istria
5. Coat of Arms of Slavonia
*) Zakon o grbu, zastavi i himni Republike Hrvatske, te zastavi i
lenti Predsjednika Republike Hrvatske, 21. prosinca 1990, NN
55/90.
The Coat of Arms under 1, 3 and 5 (as well as the chequy arms)
were all at least at some times used as the Coat of Arms to
represent the whole Croatia, especially in early heraldic period.
Afterwards, in late middle-age the distinction for the three
crownland (Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia) was made.
The Coat of Arms under no. 1 was used in the earliest heraldic
and preheraldic period by Croatian rulers, and was under
natuional renaissance movements of 18th century used as the
symbol of Croatian unity connecting the three crownlands. From
that period the Coat of Arms is known as the Illirian Coat of
Arms. The name stems from a misconception of the time believing
that the Illirians (pre-Roman peoples living in the region) were
predcessors of Croats. The national movement is also known as the
Illirian movement.
The Coat of Arms under 2 is the Coat of Arms of Dubrovnik Republic. It is in fact the
Hungary Ancient (Barry Gules and Argent), granted by one or the
other Hungarian kings as sign of ugmentation as he adopted for
himself an other Coat of Arms (Per pale Hungary Ancient and
Hungary Modern). The barry Coat of Arms should be red with white
bars (usually four white bars), but in the state Coat of Arms
they were rendered by the artist as blue and red, and reduced to
four alltogether. The reduction was due to the simplicity (9
striped shield would be very unpractical here in small
representations) and the change from white to blue was considered
valid as there are many historical examples of such use.
The Coat of Arms under 3 is Dalmatia, Azure, three crowned
Leopard's Heads Or. This is probably the most well known of the
five, also was found in the Coat of Arms of Austria, Hungary,
Venice... at some times either as the arms of pretence or as sign
of a real power over Dalmatia.
The Coat of Arms uder 4 is Istria, Azure, a goat Or attired and
hoofed Gules, used for the Austrian (Habsburg) markgrafshaft as
well as by the Venetian rulers. This is probably the elast well
known and the least "repected" Coat of Arms in the set.
The fifth Coat of Arms is Slavonia, an other very well known Coat
of Arms reaching into the fist days of heraldry.
Sometimes one can read that the five Coat of Arms are
representing the five historical regions of Croatia which is not
quite true, but maybe it is approximation good enough for scope
of such books as are the flag pocketbooks.
Zeljko Heimer, 4 October 2000
Concering The Coat of Arms under 2 (Dubrovnik Republic) -
Metallic inks sometimes used to illustrate silver/argent tended
to degenerate into some sort of matt blue. A clear example can be
seen in a 15th century nautical chart illustrated in Smith 1975
(FTAAATW, [smi75c]) where the
flag of England appears as a red cross on a blue field etc.
This is *only* a hypothesis, but maybe this is the origin of the
"blue" in the Hungary Ancient version used in Croatia?
Santiago Dotor, 4 October 2000
Indeed. It seems reasonable explenation and quite posible.
There is also an other possibility, but in the end it may easily
be only a result of the efect mentioned by Santiago. In many
sources the four silver/white bars were explained as rivers and
if so, it is not far from representing the water as blue instead
of silver.
Zeljko Heimer, 5 October 2000
Iranian orign of the croatian arms (c. 1200 B.C) was first
sugested some years ago and hypotesis adopted by Fra Dominik
Mandic and later by other erudits. Similar design of the croatian
arms is in archeologic rest in Iran. Now Ignacio Lopez de
Montenegro analized this hypotesis in Banderas 77. I believe that
is very unsure, but....
Jaume Olle', 22 January 2001
I haven't seen the Banderas, but the hypotesis is not new
here. The Iranian origin of Croats was, as far as I am aware,
hypotesed by scolar (and 'scolars') before WWII, and it became
quite popular within the right extremist idelology of the time -
suggesting the Aryan origin of Croats vs. the "lower
rase" Slavic roots. The hypotesys remained fairly popular
within the cicles of exiled Croats during the rest of 20th
century, but was also from time to time taken into consideration
in Croatia as well. As far as I am aware, the hyposesis is quite
far fetched and there is only a small number of experts that are
willing to accept it without much suspicion. Withing the
hypotesys there are many elements that "proove" the
origin. Among other thins there are linguistic proofs (finding
names of peoples living in northern Iran that are similar to name
Croat), ethnologic proofs (connecting some folk songs with some
songs alegedly sung several dozen centuries ago in Iran), and of
course - the Croatian chequy shield - one of the main Croatian
symbols - could not have been "ignored". Finding of
stone carvings in northern Iran that are patterned in chequy
pattern have been used as such proofs.
However, In my humble opinion, such proofs are not very well
based. Chequy pattern in used by many nations (and without
naational connection at all) as one of interesting and most
natural ornamentations, and it is hardly to be proved hat there
was some special affection of Croats towards chequy pattern
before the heraldic era.
To put it quite sarcastically, it would be kind of similar if an
American tourist would find somewhere in ancient carvings two
arches similar to McDonalds symbol, and use that to prove that
native Americans had influence there much centuries before!
Zeljko Heimer, 24 January 2001
The coat of arms with crescent and star in the modern Croatian
coat of arms has nothing to do with Islam. That coat of arms is
nowdays usually reffered as the "oldest roatian coat of
arms" while in late 18th century and forward was usually
called the Illirian coat of arms. The story goes more or less
so... The oldest Croatian tribes that setteled the area of
modern Croatia before Christianization (we are talking about 7th
centruy or so) worshiped pagan gods, and as it is not unusual,
these were represented by star and crescent (as is the ultimate
origin of the muslem symbols as well, but that is an other
story). Even after christianization the symbols remained
important. However this is a preheraldic period, so we may not
talk about coats of arms. It is only in 11 century that coat of
arms appear, but none in Croatia have survived. It is only on
1196 coins issued by Croatian rules (then already subdued under
Hungarian crown even if with much authonomy) show the two symbols
and they are continously used afterwardsfor some time as the
symbols of Croatian souverenity. With the arival of the
newer Croatian symbols (Slavonian, Croatian and Dalmatian coat of
arms on which you may read more above, the old symbols were
gradually forgotten. It is only in 19th century that the national
reformation movement leaders (principally Ljudevit Gaj) readopted
that symbol as the original Croatian symbol. From that time the
crescent and star (then usually on red background) as a rule
followed the three coats of arms of the Croatian "Triunited
Kingdom" in artistic representations (see examples at Croatia - Historical Flags (1848-1918) ).
The movement called itself the Illiric movement, according to the
misconception that the old Illirian tribes (pre-Roman population
of western balkans) were predcessors of Croats. The Illirian name
was used for Croats in many cases since middle-ages. Thus the
Illirian coat of arms became an important national symbols,
especially since it was the only emblem that would differentiate
the "revolutionary" patriotic feelings from the
"regime" coat of arms that was using the three coat of
arms. In 20th centruy the symbol was gradually lost from
official and popular usage but was not forgotten. As an important
national symbol it was included in the coat of arms adopted by
the independent Croatia in 1990. In regard with Islam,
Croatians came into contact with Islam only in 15th century and
were for a long time bitter enemies. It may be noted that the use
of the symbols in Croatia was reverted only after the Turkish
treat was declined (practical end of Turkish treat ends in
Croatia in early 18th century).
Zeljko Heimer, 15 December 2004