| Coat of arms of Hungary | |
| Middle Caption: | Achievements, which may also be used in other historical forms.[1] |
| Armiger: | Hungary (lesser coat of arms) Tamás Sulyok, President of Hungary (greater coat of arms with two angels) Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary (greater coat of arms with branches) |
| Year Adopted: | 11 July 1990[2] |
| Crest: | Holy Crown of Hungary |
| Shield: | Barry of eight Gules and Argent, impaling Gules, on a trimount Vert a ducal coronet Or issuing therefrom a Patriarchal cross Argent |
| Lesser Caption: | The official Hungarian state flag does not include the Hungarian coat of arms, but the variant with the coat of arms is often used during solemn occasions. |
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:
Atop the shield rests the Holy Crown of Hungary, the crown of King Saint Stephen of Hungary. The crown is kept in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest today.
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]
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.
Some other stamps were also issued.
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)
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.