BosniaHercegovina

Bosnia-Hercegovina


The origin of the arms with the argent between 6 fleur-de-
lys, which is now on the flag of the republic of Bosnia-
Hercegovina, has long puzzled me, but they are in fact the arms
of the Kotromanic family, which ruled Bosnia in the 14th and 1
5th centuries. Other arms have also been attributed to Bosnia in
the 19th century.
I finally thought of a way to get at this question of the
origin of the current Bosnian flag: numismatics, of course. I
found a book by one Ivan Rengjeo, Corpus der mittel-alterlichen
Mnnzen von Kroatien, Slavonien, Dalmatien und Bosnien, Graz,
1959, which is as exhaustive as you can get on the topic (coins
from those regions, that is). I have also consulted an article by
Pavao Andelic on Medieval Seals of Bosnia-Hercegovina, in the
monograph series of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia-
Hercegovina (Sarajevo, 1970),but it is in Serbo-Croat, so I can
only look at the (numerous) illustra tions. What follows is a
historical/heraldic account, pieced together from these sources,
and a few encyclopedias. Bosnia was dominated alternatively by
Serbia and, from the 12th c. onward, by Croatia (in personal
union with Hungary) until the early 14th c. Typically, the king
of Hungary and Croatia appointed bans, or local governors; and,
in typical medieval fashion, these bans took advantage of any
weakness of the central monarchy to carve out territories for
themselves.
In the early 14th c., the ban of Croatia was Pavao (Paul)
Subic of Brebir or Breberio (a town in Dalmatia which was given
to the family in 1222): his father and grandfather were counts or
Trau or Trogir, his cousins were counts of Spalato or Split. This
p owerful man titles himself ban of Croatia and dominus Bosniae,
and appoints his brother Mladen I Subic (1302-04) and later his
eldest son Mladen II (1312-14) as ban of Bosnia. His second son
Georg was count of Trau and Split, his third son Pavao was count
of Trau. By the third generation, however, the family had lost
its power. This first dynasty of bans issued byzantine-style
coins, with no heraldry. Their seals, however, show the Subic
arms: an eagle wing displayed, and 5 flowers with stems as crest
(mi sread by Siebmacher as ostrich-feathers). The style of the
arms is very German, with the shield tilted to the left, a German
helm, lambrequins, and a crest. There are no tinctures, but a
junior branch issued from Pavao count of Trau, the Subic de Zrin,
bo re Gules, two wings sable (an interesting violation of the so-
called tincture rule).
Pavao Subic was forced to cede control of Southern Bosnia to
Stjepan otromanic (died 1353); and, in 1314, Mladen II ceded the
banate of Bosnia to him. This established the Kotromanic dynasty
in Bosnia. Stjepan styles himself dei gratia Bosniae banus, which
asserts a fair measure of independence. Stjepan's brother married
Helena, daughter of Mladen II Subic, and his son Stjepan Tvrtko
1353-91) succeeded Stjepan. In 1377, Tvrtko assumed the title of
King of Racia and Bosnia. His seals show the following a rms: a
bend between six fleurs-de-lys, the helm is a hop-flower on a
long stem issuant from an open crown of fleurs-de-lys. The
Kotromanic were close to the Hungarian kings, and Stjepan's
daughter Elisabeth married Louis I of Hungary (reigned 1342-82).
Trvtko I was succeeded by Stjepan Dabisa (1391-98) and Stjepan
Ostoja (1398-1404, 1409-18). The latter's seal shoes different
arms, namely an open crown of fleurs-de-lys and the same helm and
crest as before. Tvrtko's son Tvrtko II (1404-09, 1421-43) used a
seal similar to his father's, with the arms of the Kotromanic
family itself, which are the bend between 6 fleur-de-lys, a
crowned helm with thesame crest.
New coins are issued starting in 1436, markedly Western in
style, which display a full-blown achievement: an escutcheon
bearing the letter T, crowned with an open crown of fleur-de-lys.
The helm is crowned and the crest is a hop-flower on a long stem.
The letter T seems to stand for the name of the king. Later,
around 1450, impressive new gold coins show the Kotromanic arms.
The last kings are Stjepan Tomas Kotromanic (1444-61) and Stjepan
Tomasevic Kotrmomanic (1461-63). The kingdom disappears in
1463 when he is killed by the Turks. In the southern region
called Hum or Chelm, a local ban called Stjepan Vukcic Kosaca
(died 14 66) had proclaimed himself duke or herceg in 1448, and
is recognized by the Holy Roman Empire as duke of Saint-Abbas or
Saint-Sava in some texts (whence the name Hercegovina for that
area). Siebmacher says that the family was descended from the
Byzantine Comneno. The Vukcic family arms appear on the seal of
Stjepan Vukcic, and his successors Vladislav Hercegovic (died
1489), Vlatko Hercegovic (died 1489) and Stjepan Hercegovic (died
1517). namely Gules, three bends argent, crest: a lion issuant
holding in its two paws a banner gules with a double cross argent
(the Hungarian state banne, according to Siebmacher). The same
arms appear on coins issued by a self-proclaimed duke of Split in
the early 15th c., namely on a bend between two crosses, three
fleur-de-lys ben dwise. The remaining question is: where did the
fleur-de-lys in the Kotromanic (and the Vukcic) arms come from?
One distinct possibility is Byzantium, whose style the first
Bosnian coins imitate closely. Byzantine emperors started using
the fleur-de-lys on their coinage soon after the creation of the
empire of Nicaea, after the fall of Constantinople in
1204.
But more realistically, the connection would be with the
Hungarian dynastic struggle which broke out in 1302 with the end
of the Arpad dynasty. The kings of Naples claimed the throne, and
it was during the struggle that, by pledging alliegance to one
side and to the other, the Bosnian bans managed to carve out
their independent fief. The Bosnian dynasty became quite close to
the Angevins, and the daughter of Stjepan, king of Bosnia,
married Louis I, king of Hungary. The kings of Naples were the
Anjou fami ly, a junior branch of the French royal family, and
bore France differenced with a label gules. I can well imagine
the Kotromanic adopting, or being granted, fleur-de-lys on their
coat of arms as reward for taking the Angevin side. For the
moment, Bosnian history books are hard to come by, so I can't
easily confirm my hunch. For some reason, these arms were
forgotten after the 16th century. A 18th c. French genealogy of
the Angevin kings of Hungary blazons the arms of Louis' wife as:
Or, issuing from the sinister flank an arm embowed proper, vested
Gules, holding a sabre Arge nt. These are also the arms
attributed by the Austrians to Bosnia-Hercegovina after it was
annexed from Turkey in 1908. However, a number of 19th century
encyclopedias give yet another coat of arms (for example, the
French Larousse), namely: Gules, a cres cent Argent beneath an
8-pointed star of the same. The crown over the shield is an
Eastern crown, i.e. with "spikes". These arms recall the old
symbol of Croatia on its early coinage. They are also the arms
attributed to the old kingdoms of Illyria and Bo snia in
Siebmacher. There is some evidence for a medieval use of the
shield with the arm holding a saber. William Miller, in Essays on
the Latin Orient (Cambridge, 1921, p.510) describes the arms
displayed in Rome on the tomb of Catherine (died 1478), da ughter
of Stjepan Vukcic duke of Saint-Abbas, and married in 1446 to
Stjepan Tomas Kotromanic, last king of Bosnia (d. 1461): his
description is unfortunately imprecise, but he mentions two
horsemen (which he says is the Kotromanic emblem) and a "mailed
arm with a sword in the center" (which he says represents
Primorje, or the Coastland).

Word Count: 1249