The coat of arms of the Hohenstaufen family, or the arms traditionally associated with the Hohenstaufen dynasty and, therefore, with Swabia, consists of three lions passant sable, placed on a field or. Following the imperial investiture, the insignia underwent a radical transformation, which involved the introduction of the eagle sable as the main element of the coat of arms. Placed in a field or, the eagle became, in its multiple variants and incarnations, the emblem of the Empire, not only for the Hohenstaufen but also for the subsequent dynasties. Placed, instead, in a field argent, it came to represent the Kingdom of Sicily: defined, indeed, as the arms of Swabia-Sicily, this insignia outlived the House of Hohenstaufen and, quartered with the Bars of Aragon, became the arms of Aragon-Sicily, or, from the heraldic and historical point of view, the coat of arms most representative of the island. Arms of Swabia Origin of the Swabian insignia
The coat of arms of the House of Hohenstaufen consisted of a shield or, charged with three lions passant (or lions leopardés) sable, placed one above the other... The lions of the Hohenstaufen, being the Swabian ducal title the appanage of the Staufen dynasty, thus became also the arms of the Duchy of Swabia, which was ruled by the House of Staufen until 1268, the year of the dissolution of the duchy itself.
However, the Dukes of the House of Hohenstaufen did not always bear this coat of arms, or at least not with three lions passant, from the outset. A shield bearing a single rampant lion appears in a seal of Duke Frederick VI of 1181.. Another seal from 1192, relating to Duke Conrad II, features a single lion that became passant.. Furthermore, various coins minted by the Dukes of Swabia also bear a single lion in this position. In the perspective of a progressive enrichment of the coat of arms, three lions passant appear in a 1197 seal of Philip, Duke of Swabia and King of the Romans... This may have been a "phenomenon of the implementation of heraldic figures," influenced by the coat of arms of the House of Welf-Brunswick with two leopards in a red field, which was the antagonist of the Hohenstaufen in the contest for the imperial title.
The increase in the number of figures in the coat of arms, which was probably intended to enhance the prestige of the blazon, was thus completed with the achievement of the "trinary of perfection", within a gradual process of evolution accomplished over the span of several decades.. Thus, "the aristocratic coat of arms par excellence of the Hohenstaufen" was defined:.
Variants of the arms
It is possible to find other blazons for the arms of Swabia with three fixed figures in the same disposition. These blazons are less well known than the previous one and differ exclusively in the tinctures. The first describes a shield argent, charged with three lions passant gules, placed one above the other, while the second presents a shield or, charged with three lions passant gules, always placed one above the other.. A theory suggests that the use of the chromatic pairs argent-gules and or-gules in the coats of arms of the Hohenstaufen predated the introduction of the or-sable combination. Specifically, it is hypothesized that, prior to the definitive adoption of the arms bearing three lions passant, the predominant Staufen insignia featured argent and or for the field and gules for the lion rampant or passant. It was only later that the tinctures or and sable became predominant, rendering the other two pairs of metals and colours marginal..According to another, less solid thesis, it could be hypothesized that "the Lords of Swabia, after the time of the Zähringen, were distinguished by a red insignia, like the Dukes of Bavaria." This hypothesis does not provide sufficient details about the composition of these presumed coats of arms and is based exclusively on conjecture. It is considered probable that gules and argent were adopted as the colors of the Imperial Vexillum during the reign of the Hohenstaufen and that gules also appeared in the insignia and banners adopted to represent the ducal dignity. . Another variant of the arms of Swabia, obtained by inverting the tinctures of the field and figures, is reproduced in some frescoes in the monastery of Lorch. The field becomes sable and the figures become or..
In certain representations of the arms, moreover, the three lions passant change, instead, into leopards,. that is, the heads of the three heraldic animals are placed affronté, rather than in profile. A shield bearing the insignia of Swabia with three leopards, in place of the three lions, can be observed, for example, in a fresco inside the Oria Castle: the three figures of this version of the coat of arms are gules, placed in a field argent. Also argent, but charged with three leopards sable, are the arms of Swabia blazoned by the French heraldist André Favyn, in Le théâtre d'honneur et de chevalerie, a work printed in 1620:
The same insignia, moreover, is represented in another work of the 17th century, the Promptuaire armorial et general divisé en quatre parties, by the French illuminator Jean Boisseau.However, Boisseau attributes the argent arms with three leopards sable not to a Hohenstaufen but to Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, a member of the Ottonian dynasty who lived between 930 and 957. . In reference to the combination of tinctures argent-sable, another theory formulates hypotheses on the original Staufen arms in a manner analogous to previous reports. This theory considers the possibility that the Staufen arms were characterized by this chromatic pair, similarly to the insignia of other Swabian noble families.According to heraldist Donald Lindsay Galbreath, when Berthold II of Zähringen held the Duchy of Swabia, which was taken from him in favor of the Hohenstaufen, the Zähringen adopted a chequy insignia argent and sable. .
The lions passant on the shield and banner, as well as on one of the seals of Henry (VII) of Germany, which dates to between 1216 and 1220, are distinguished by a "particular iconographic feature worthy of note." The three heraldic animals have their heads turned toward the sinister, even though their bodies are oriented toward the dexter. This peculiarity applies to all three lions on the shield but only to the first lion on the banner..
In other reproductions of the Swabian insignia, instead, the three lions passant are contourny in their entirety, that is, the entire figure is turned toward the sinister. An interesting example of arms with lions passant contourny can be observed in the Drei Gmünder Chroniken: in one of the plates that represents Conrad III, there is placed, at the feet of the emperor, a coat of arms gules, with the three heraldic animals or.
A final variant of the Swabian insignia presents, in a field or, the three lions passant, depicted with the dexter paw gules,Certain versions of the coats of arms adopted by the Rulers of Württemberg and the Dukes of Teck also feature the three lions passant with the dexter paw gules in a field or. that is, goutty de sang:. tradition holds that this variation was introduced, following the beheading of Conrad II of Sicily,In iconographic productions concerning Conrad II, works depicting the beheading of the Sicilian sovereign accompanied by the Swabian lion arms are not uncommon, as seen in . as a sign of mourning and vengeance. This interpretation aligns with the legend of an eagle (another symbol of the Hohenstaufen) that plunged from the sky after the execution to dip its wing in Conrad's blood, evidently intending vengeance, before flying north.
Coats of arms derived from the arms of Swabia
Following the death of the young Conrad II, the Duchy of Swabia disintegrated. Nevertheless, the Staufen lions remained in the insignia of certain Swabian noble families, including the House of Truchsess of Waldburg and the House of Württemberg. The case of the Truchsess is emblematic in this regard. They assumed the arms of the Hohenstaufen. by virtue of a grant conferred upon them by Peter III of Aragon, according to tradition.. Subsequently, the insignia was enriched with a chief gules, charged with the imperial globus cruciger or, to signify the role of the Truchsess house in the Holy Roman Empire. Similarly, the Staufen lions were incorporated into the coats of arms of the different cadet branches of the Waldburg family.
Moreover, the arms of Swabia also became part of certain coats of arms of the House of Württemberg, which ruled the County, then Duchy, and finally Kingdom of Württemberg,. as well as of certain insignia of its cadet branches. Likewise, the arms with three lions passant was included in the coats of arms of the imperial circle of Swabia, which existed from the beginning of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century.
In modern use, the arms with three lions passant sable in a field or remains the representative insignia of the Swabian historical region; moreover, it is present, in an official capacity, both in German heraldry and in Austrian heraldry. The insignia of Swabia characterizes the coats of arms of the two states of southern Germany: in particular, it constitutes the arms of Baden-Württemberg, while it is placed in the 4th quarter of the coat of arms of Bavaria.. Moreover, the arms of the Hohenstaufen, which were already included in the coat of arms of the ancient Duchy of Carinthia. appear in the coat of arms of the modern-day Austrian state of Carinthia.
One hypothesis suggests that the coat of arms of Denmark originated from the arms of Swabia. The Danish insignia was adopted by the House of Estridsen in the first half of the 12th century, presumably during the reign of Canute VI. Initially, it featured three lions passant azure, one above the other. This coat of arms was substantially identical to the Staufen one, except for the color of the lions. The adoption of this coat of arms, whose field was later semé of hearts gules and whose lions became crowned leopards, was influenced by Denmark's status as an imperial fief and its subordination to the Empire, as well as the prestige of the Hohenstaufen. In 1819, during the reign of Frederick VI, the leopards reverted to lions, and the number of hearts was set at nine.
Imperial arms Origin and symbology of the eagle
Following the imperial investiture, the sovereigns of the House of Hohenstaufen assumed as their emblem the eagle, as a symbol representing the continuity between the Roman Empire and the Germanic Empire.. From a symbolic point of view, the eagle was a figure imbued with meaning in the Middle Ages. It was not only "the Roman military insignia par excellence," but also the emblem most apt to symbolize the concept of universal empire. In Greek mythology, the eagle is sacred to Zeus and a symbol of victory arising from divine protection. It preserves the attributions linked to pagan religiosity and assumes new meanings proper to Christian symbology. Ultimately, it embodies the idea of God. The Hohenstaufen identified the eagle, with its complex system of values and allegories, as the most suitable emblem to express the concept of imperial sovereignty of Roman origin and Christian nature.. According to one hypothesis, it is plausible that the eagle was initially added to the coat of arms with three lions passant only as a crest and then became the main element.. This deduction is based on a version of the Staufen coat of arms provided by Goffredo di Crollalanza. In it, the heraldist describes a displayed eagle sable as the crest placed as an ornament on the shield. Certain authors, including Eugenio Duprè Theseider and Hannelore Zug Tucci, argue that the "black eagle on the shield or" was initially the family coat of arms of the Hohenstaufen and was later elevated to the emblem of the Empire.
Hypotheses on the introduction of the arms