Bosnia-Hercegovina :: World History Essays

Bosnia-HercegovinaMissing Works CitedThe origin of the arms with the silvery between 6 fleur-de-lys,which is now on the flag of the republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina, has massivepuzzled me, but they are in fact the arms of the Kotromilitary per give-and-takenelic family, whichgovern Bosnia in the 14th and 1 5th centuries. Other arms vex also beenattributed to Bosnia in the 19th century.I finally thought of a way to get at this question of the originof the current Bosnian flag numismatics, of course. I found a book by wholenessIvan Rengjeo, Corpus der mittel-alterlichen Mnnzen von Kroatien, Slavonien,Dalmatien und Bosnien, Graz, 1959, which is as exhaustive as you can geton the topic (coins from those regions, that is). I have also consulted anarticle by Pavao Andelic on Medieval Seals of Bosnia-Hercegovina, in themonograph 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. Wh at follows is a diachronic/heraldic account,pieced together from these sources, and a few encyclopedias. Bosnia wasdominated alternatively by Serbia and, from the 12th c. onward, by Croatia(in personal union with Hungary) until the former(a) 14th c. Typically, the male monarch of Hungary and Croatia appointed bans, or local governors and, intypical medieval fashion, these bans took emolument of any weakness of thecentral monarchy to carve out territories for themselves.In the early 14th c., the ban of Croatia was Pavao (Paul) Subic ofBrebir or Breberio (a town in Dalmatia which was given to the family in1222) his father and grandfather were counts or Trau or Trogir, hiscousins were counts of Spalato or Split. This p owerful man titles himselfban of Croatia and dominus Bosniae, and appoints his brother Mladen ISubic (1302-04) and later his eldest son Mladen II (1312-14) as ban ofBosnia. His second son Georg was count of Trau and Split, his one-third sonPavao was count of Trau. By the third generation, however, the family hadlost its power. This first dynasty of bans issued byzantine-style coins,with no heraldry. Their seals, however, show the Subic arms an eagle wingdisplayed, and 5 flowers with stems as summit (mi sread by Siebmacher asostrich-feathers). The style of the arms is very German, with the shield lean to the left, a German helm, lambrequins, and a crest. There are notinctures, but a junior branch issued from Pavao count of Trau, the Subicde Zrin, bo re Gules, two locomote sable (an interesting violation of the s-called tincture rule).