Bosnia-Hercegovina :: World History Essays

Bosnia-HercegovinaMissing Works CitedThe origin of the implements of war with the argent between 6 fleur-de-lys,which is now on the flag of the republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina, has longpuzzled me, tho they are in fact the arms of the Kotromanic family, whichruled Bosnia in the fourteenth and 1 5th centuries. Other arms have also beenattributed to Bosnia in the nineteenth 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 oneIvan 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 an name 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. What follows is a historical/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 early 14th c. Typically, the world-beater of Hungary and Croatia appointed bans, or local governors and, intypical medieval fashion, these bans took advantage 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 dominee 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 third sonPavao was count of Trau. By the third generation, howev er, 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 crest (mi sread by Siebmacher asostrich-feathers). The style of the arms is very German, with the shieldtilted 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 wings sable (an interesting violation of the s-called tincture rule).