The flag of the Holy Roman Empire was not a national flag, but rather an imperial banner used by the Holy Roman Emperor; black and gold were used as the colours of the imperial banner, a black eagle on a golden background. After the late 13th or early 14th century, the claws and beak of the eagle were coloured red. From the early 15th century, a double-headed eagle [1] was used.
In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte declared the First French Empire. In response to this, Emperor Francis II of the Habsburg dynasty declared his personal domain to be the Austrian Empire and became Francis I of Austria. Taking the colours of the banner of the Holy Roman Emperor, the flag of the Austrian Empire was black and gold. Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, with Napoleon forcing the empire's dissolution in 1806. After this point, these colours continued to be used as the flag of Austria until 1918.
The colours red and white were also significant during this period. When the Holy Roman Empire took part in the Crusades, a war flag was flown alongside the black-gold imperial banner. This flag, known as the "Saint George Flag", was a white cross on a red background: the reverse of the St George's Cross used as the flag of Lombardy and England. [1] Red and white were also colours of the Hanseatic League (13th–17th centuries). Hanseatic trading ships were identifiable by their red-white pennants and most Hanseatic cities adopted red and white as their city colours (see Hanseatic flags). Red and white still feature as the colours of many former Hanseatic cities such as Hamburg or Bremen.
In northern Italy, during the conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in the 12th to 14th centuries, the armies of the Ghibelline (pro-imperial) communes adopted the war banner of the Holy Roman Emperor (white cross on red) as their own, while the Guelph (anti-imperial) communes reversed the colours (red cross on white). These two schemes are prevalent in the modern civic heraldry of northern Italian towns and remains a revealing indicator of their past factional leanings. Traditionally Ghibelline towns like Pavia, Novara, Como, and Asti continue to display the Ghibelline cross. The Guelph cross can be found on the civic arms of traditionally Guelph towns like Milan, Vercelli, Alessandria, Reggio, and Bologna.
According to Meyers Konversations-Lexikon of 1897 (under the heading "Banner"), the German Imperial Banner at the time of Henry the Fowler (r. 919–936) and Otto the Great (r. 936–973) depicted the Archangel Michael; at the time of Frederick Barbarossa (r. 1152–90), an eagle; at the time of Otto IV (r. 1198–1215) an eagle hovering over a dragon, and since the time of Sigismund (r. 1410–37), and "perhaps earlier", the Imperial Eagle, namely a black eagle in a yellow field, bearing the arms of the emperor's house on its breast.
Reconstructions | Date | Use | Description |
---|---|---|---|
14th century | The earliest Imperial Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor and royal banner of the King of the Romans | Or, an eagle sable displayed | |
early 1400s | Imperial Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor | Or, an Imperial Eagle displayed with a halo sable armed and langued gules | |
c. 1430–1806 | Imperial Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor | Or, a double-headed Imperial Eagle displayed with a halo sable armed and langued gules | |
1437–1493 | Imperial Banner of Frederick III | The Imperial banner with an escutcheon of the coat of arms of Frederick III (gules, a fess argent) | |
1493–1556 | Imperial Banner of Maximilian I and Charles V | The Imperial banner with an escutcheon of the coat of arms of Maximilian I (gules a fess argent, impaling bendy of six Or and azure a bordure gules) | |
1519–1556 | Imperial Banner of Charles V | The Imperial banner with an escutcheon of the coat of arms of Charles V | |
The Reichsfahne (Imperial flag) was a field ensign of the Holy Roman Empire, originally an equestrian flag or gonfalon. An early bearer was Werner I, count of Winterthur, who carried the flag for Conrad II and Henry III and who died in the battle at Brůdek in 1040. In the 12th century, the Reichsfahne apparently[ clarification needed ] showed a white cross on a red field. It was the sign of the united armed forces of the Empire until the late 15th century, but it could be sent by the king to local lords to sanction them in their defense of Landfrieden . Thus, king Sigismund gave the banner to the Swiss Confederacy, sanctioning their war against the Habsburgs in 1415.
In the late medieval period, the cross design of the Reichsfahne was replaced by the Imperial eagle. It was treated as an Imperial fief traditionally granted to Swabian nobles. In 1336, it was granted to Ulrich III, Count of Württemberg. On this occasion, it was first referred to as the Reichssturmfahne ("Imperial War Flag"). It remained part of the heraldic insignia of the House of Württemberg until the 19th century. The flag itself was kept in Stuttgart until 1944, when it was destroyed in a bombing raid. The flag showed the imperial eagle in a square field, with a red Schwenkel (pennon) on top. It is not to be confused with the Reichsrennfahne, granted to the Electors of Saxony in their function as Reichserzmarschall . This latter flag showed two crossed swords in a black and white field. [2] [3]
Flag | Date | Use | Description |
---|---|---|---|
12th–early 14th centuries | Reichssturmfahne (War flag, used alongside the Imperial Banner) | It likely developed in the 12th century during the crusades, and was in use as Imperial War Flag during the 13th and early 14th centuries. It was smaller than the imperial banner, carried before the emperor or his appointed commander in battle. | |
15th century | Reichssturmfahne | ||
15th century | Reichsrennfahne | ||
Some free imperial cities took to displaying symbols of the empire, especially the Imperial eagle, as part of their flags or coats of arms.
Flag | Date | Use | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Flag of the Free Imperial City of Memmingen | Per pale argent, dimidiated an Imperial Eagle displayed sable, impaling a cross pattée gules | ||
Coat of arms of the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg | Per pale Or, a double-headed Imperial Eagle displayed with langued gules, dimidiated with bendy of gules and argent | ||
15th century | Flag of Geneva | Geneva had the dual status of free city and Prince-Bishopric from the 12th century; this is reflected in the flag of Geneva, which since the 15th century has shown both the Imperial Eagle and a key of St. Peter, divided per pale. | |
The national flag of Germany is a tricolour consisting of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colours of Germany: black, red, and gold. The flag was first sighted in 1848 in the German Confederation. The flag was also used by the German Empire from 1848 to 1849. It was officially adopted as the national flag of the German Reich from 1919 to 1933, and has been in use since its reintroduction in Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.
The national flag of Austria is a triband in the following order: red, white, and red.
The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting respectively the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy during the Middle Ages.
The coat of arms of Germany displays a black eagle with a red beak, a red tongue and red feet on a golden field, which is blazoned: Or, an eagle displayed sable beaked langued and membered gules. This is the Bundesadler, formerly known as Reichsadler. It is one of the oldest coats of arms in the world, and today the oldest national symbol used in Europe.
The following is a list of historical military colours, standards and guidons in different countries that do not exist today.
The eagle is used in heraldry as a charge, as a supporter, and as a crest. Heraldic eagles can be found throughout world history like in the Achaemenid Empire or in the present Republic of Indonesia. The European post-classical symbolism of the heraldic eagle is connected with the Roman Empire on one hand, and with Saint John the Evangelist on the other.
The Duchy of Carniola was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carniola in 1364. A hereditary land of the Habsburg monarchy, it became a constituent land of the Austrian Empire in 1804 and part of the Kingdom of Illyria until 1849. A separate crown land from 1849, it was incorporated into the Cisleithanian territories of Austria-Hungary from 1867 until the state's dissolution in 1918. Its capital was German: Laibach, today Ljubljana.
The double-headed eagle is an iconographic symbol originating in the Bronze Age. A heraldic charge, it is used with the concept of an empire. Most modern uses of the emblem are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the late Byzantine Empire, originally a dynastic emblem of the Palaiologoi. It was adopted during the Late Medieval to Early Modern period in the Holy Roman Empire, Albania and in Orthodox principalities, representing an augmentation of the (single-headed) eagle or Aquila associated with the Roman Empire. In a few places, among them the Holy Roman Empire and Russia, the motif was further augmented to create the less prominent triple-headed eagle.
The coat of arms of Bern, along with the associated flag and heraldic colours, are used both by the Swiss city of Bern and by the canton of the same name. They were also used by the former district of Bern until its abolition in 2009.
The Cross of Burgundy is a saw-toothed form of the Cross of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Burgundy, and a historical banner and battle flag used by holders of the title of Duke of Burgundy and their subjects.
The Duchy of Austria was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the Privilegium Minus, when the Margraviate of Austria (Ostarrîchi) was detached from Bavaria and elevated to a duchy in its own right. After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct in male line, there was as much as three decades of rivalry on inheritance and rulership, until the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the patrimony and ancestral homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1453, the archducal title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III.
The state of Prussia developed from the State of the Teutonic Order. The original flag of the Teutonic Knights had been a black cross on a white flag. Emperor Frederick II in 1229 granted them the right to use the black Eagle of the Holy Roman Empire. This "Prussian Eagle" remained the coats of arms of the successive Prussian states until 1947.
The flag of Milan consists of a red cross on a white field. Whilst similar to the Cross of Saint George, the flag instead symbolises the connection between Saint Ambrose and the city of Milan.
The national colours of the Federal Republic of Germany are officially black, red, and gold, defined with the adoption of the West German flag as a tricolour with these colours in 1949. Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany from 1949 to 1990, and both Germanies retained the black, red, and gold colors on their respective flags. After German reunification in 1990, the united Germany retained the West German flag, thus retaining black, red, and gold as Germany's colors.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate and Mount Athos, and also the Greek Orthodox Churches in the diaspora under the Patriarchate use a black double-headed eagle in a yellow field as their flag or emblem.
The Reichsadler is the heraldic eagle, derived from the Roman eagle standard, used by the Holy Roman Emperors, later by the Emperors of Austria and in modern coat of arms of Austria and Germany.
For most of its history, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire did not use heraldry in the Western European sense of permanent motifs transmitted through hereditary right. Various large aristocratic families employed certain symbols to identify themselves; the use of the cross, and of icons of Christ, the Theotokos and various saints is also attested on seals of officials, but these were often personal rather than family emblems. Likewise, various emblems were used in official occasions and for military purposes, such as banners or shields displaying various motifs such as the cross or the labarum. Despite the abundance of pre-heraldic symbols in Byzantine society from the 10th century, only through contact with the Crusaders in the 12th century, and particularly following the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and the establishment of Frankish principalities on Byzantine soil from 1204 onwards, did heraldic uses penetrate in Byzantium. A native Byzantine heraldry began to appear in the middle and lower rungs of aristocratic families in the 14th century, coinciding with the decline of imperial authority and with the fragmentation of political power under the late Palaiologan emperors. However, it never achieved the breadth of adoption, or the systematization, of its Western analogues.
German heraldry is the tradition and style of heraldic achievements in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, including national and civic arms, noble and burgher arms, ecclesiastical heraldry, heraldic displays and heraldic descriptions. German heraldic style is one of the four major broad traditions within European heraldry and stands in contrast to Gallo-British, Latin and Eastern heraldry, and strongly influenced the styles and customs of heraldry in the Nordic countries, which developed comparatively late. Together, German and Nordic heraldry are often referred to as German-Nordic heraldry.
Since the days of Rudolph of Habsburg and the 1283 Treaty of Rheinfelden, the combination of red-white-red was widely considered to be the Austrian colours used by the ruling Habsburg dynasty. Black and gold later became the colours used by the Imperial House of Habsburg when they held the title of Holy Roman Emperor, as they did from the mid-15th century all the way to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and were themselves derived from the banner of the empire. The original form of this flag featured a gold background with a black double-headed eagle. However, this proved to be a complicated design, and was hard to reproduce. In the 18th century, a simpler form with black and gold bars started to appear in the lands ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. With the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, this flag was approved for use as a civil flag. The black–gold flag was used in a way similar to a modern national flag by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy within the Holy Roman Empire, by the later Austrian Empire, and by the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, and was sometimes informally used for the entire empire, up until 1918.
During its existence, Austria-Hungary did not have a common flag – a "national flag" could not exist since the Dual Monarchy consisted of two sovereign states. However, the black-gold flag of the ruling Habsburg Dynasty was sometimes used as a de facto national flag and a common civil ensign was introduced in 1869 for civilian vessels. Until 1918, the k.u.k. War Fleet continued to carry the Austrian ensign it had used since 1786 and the regiments of the k.u.k. Army carried the double-eagle banners they had used before 1867, as they had a long history in many cases. New ensigns created in 1915 were not implemented due to the ongoing war. At state functions, the Austrian black-gold and the Hungarian red-white-green tricolor were used.
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