|
 Western historians
report that after the lost battle of Augsburg in 955,
Hungarians rapidly began to reinforce their western borders.
This defence system was established along rivers, lakes,
swamps and artificially flooded areas.
Fortifications were erected in places where there was
no water to protect them. Huge trees were felled to form
obstacles, roadblocks and traps. The passages were heavily
guarded and fortified, but all this stronghold obviously
required a lot of iron.
Then these defence lines
were deepened to make protection even more effective,
the idea of drawing borderlines between the counties emerged.
It was Hungary’s first king, St. Stephen I (1001-1038),
who established Vas County with the seat of Vasvár (Castrum
Ferreum). The town became the centre of the armaments
industry, i.e. the iron works of the time. Defensive measures
were coordinated by a major (maior speculatorum) who had
scouts (exploratores), guards (speculatores), bowmen (sagittarii),
watchers (custodes) gatekeepers (ianitores) and messengers
(praecones) under his command. These troops consisted
partly of military assistance troops (recruited from among
the Székely people settled in the Vend Region and from
Russians and Besenyős in other parts of the country. They
received special privileges in return for their services.
Anonymus, the famous chronicler
of the 13th century, mentions the name Vasvár as early
as the Settlement of the Magyars in Hungary (896-900).
He writes about the inhabitants of the town being taken
hostage by Hungarian troops. Later on, Anonymus mentions
King Saul (1063-1078) who celebrated Christmas in the
neighbouring town of Ikervár (Geminum Castellum).
Owing to its location near
the border, the county had very often been the headquarter
for pretenders to the throne (Steven postumus, Endre III)
or rebels against the rightful ruler (Béla IV (1235-1270),
Károly Róbert (1310-1342) or King Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490).
During the Ottoman rule the county had key defensive roles
(e.g. the siege of Kőszeg in 1532, and the battle of Szentgotthárd
in 1664). Its seat was de facto moved from Vasvár to Szombathely
in 1579, however; but only after 1774 did it become the
official seat. During Rákóczi’s war of independence (1703-1711)
two famous generals, Ádám Béri Balogh and János Bottyán,
operated here. After the Paris Treaties in 1920 the western
parts of the county were annexed to Austria, the while
the southern areas to the former Yugoslavia.
There is no available data
about the early use of the county seal. The typarium (or
seal matrix) was most likely prepared after /cgi-bin/redaction/page.cgi?db=vasmegye 62
of the 1550 Act was passed, and it bore Anjou-Age features
with an ostrich holding a horseshoe.
The inscription on the remaining
seals is very hard to decipher as the actual seals were
lost, but they say: SIGILLVM COMITATVS CASTRI FERREI.
According to a description
dating from the 18th century: ’Vasvár County is bordered
by Austria in the West, Veszprém county in the East, Sopron
county in the North and Zala in the South. Its name originates
from the castle that played and still plays an important
role. In Latin it was called Castrum Ferreum (Vasvár or
Iron Castle)’ Its coat of arms can be described as follows:
’There is an ostrich in the upper half of the bastion
of the castle, holding the middle part of an iron horseshoe
in its beak (partem sole equinae ferrae mediam). Therefore
everything matches perfectly well with the meaning of
its name.’”
The inhabitants of the county wished to have a Hungarian
inscription on the seal in 1836 and after the emperors’
consent they were permitted to use the Hungarian version
form February 1838.
The County’s coat of arms
today looks as follows: „A silver ostrich, stepping to
the right, holding a horseshoe in its beak and standing
on a silver bastion ridge on a blue ornate shield. On
the left and right side of the shield, there is a silver
mantling – in accordance with the previous form of the
coat of arms designed by the authorities proper.’
A little
Heraldry – quotations from the Inventory of Coats of Arms
and Symbols of municipalities in Vas County:
“The basic
element of the coat of arms is the shield, which can be
long-shaped (Norman type), triangle or rectangle-shaped,
its base can be round or coarse, it can also be ornate,
it can have the form of a horse-head or fish-tail, it
can also be round, rued or oval etc. It can be angled
to dexter or sinister or it can stand straight with its
chief on top, it can be simple or complex. A reversed
shield meant that the family was extinct.
The shield elements can be put next to each other (per
pale) or above each other (per fess), they can be bent
to each other (per bend) or placed in other forms parted
(cut, sliced, quartered). If the shield consists of several
shields placed above each other then these parts are referred
to as base, old (or large), Bulgarian and heart shields
(bottom-up).
When examining
the shield, Heraldry switches the left and the right side
(you have to see the shield as if someone held it in front
of you in order to defend yourself).
The surface
of the shield is divided by vertical horizontal and diagonal
cuts, therefore we can have quartered shields (one horizontal
and vertical cut), chequy (several horizontal and vertical
cuts of the same number) or rued shield (several diagonal
cuts in both directions). Parallel vertical cuts result
in a bend shield, horizontal cuts in a pale shield, parallel
diagonal cuts in a diagonal bend shield.
The surface
of the shield is divided into nine fields by two vertical
and horizontal lines: the upper three horizontal are the
chief, in the middle we have the waist, on the bottom
the base. The three horizontal ones on the right are the
front; in the middle we have the place of the place, the
three left-side ones are the back of the shield.
If there
is no division on the shield, we call it a classic shield.
The elements are formed by means of veneering. These can
be glazes, consisting of colours (red, blue, green, black
and purple), metals (gold, silver), furs (ermine, squirrel
or reverse ermine) and embroidery (wreath). One can neither
have colour on colour nor metal on metal. In case of nature
depictions the original colouring (e.g. a brown bear)
can be kept.
The shield
elements can be divided into two parts:
Master elements:
combination of various geometric shapes (horizontal,
vertical, rippled, athwart, aslope, convex or concave)
can depict a given picture
Blazon elements:
drawings lacking spatial dimensions, depicting natural
objects or events (the sun, minerals, water, fire etc.)
creatures (humans, animals, plants, crops), mythological
creatures (griffins, unicorns, phoenixes), artificial
edifices (buildings, ships), devices (weaponry, tools),
sometimes letters or parts of names, or a combination
of all these elements. The master elements are supposed
to reach the edge of the shield (except for a certain
group of crosses), whereas the blazon elements are not.
If more than half of the blazon element is visible we
call it growing, if less, diminishing.
To
indicate the veneering (in case of black and white
depicting) a graphic system of belts, points and shapes
were elaborated. If the shield is not divided, then
the same elements in the blazon must be of the same
colour, while in case of a division the veneering of
the divided shapes must vary. Animal figures can have
weaponry (red or golden beaks, tongues, nails or claws).
Another
key element of the blazon is the helmets.
They can
be of two kinds:
Battle-helmets
(mug-, bucket- or beak-shaped), which are closed;
Tournament helmets
(with basinets and visors), which are open.
They can
be inaugurated with moniles. The colour is usually argent,
i.e. bluish or silver-coloured, if it is golden, then
it is indicated in the deed of gift. The helmets themselves
can bear ornaments, like horns, wings, half-wings, feathers,
panaches, branches, or flowers, but in most of the cases
the ornament repeats the lead-motive of the crest.
The ornamenting
was attached to the helmet by means of wraths or helmet
crowns (which were not supposed to indicate rank). Royal
helmets were ornamented by rank-crowns.
Later on other members of nobility (counts, barons, dukes)
also began to use rank-crowns, while arch-priests used
to ornament their shields with floating hats with fringes
of a certain colour and number. Popes ornamented their
shields with tiaras. The so-called wall-crowns started
to appear on the coats of arms of towns, later on there
were other chiefs (hats: caps, busbies) coming to fashion.
Usually there is only one helmet per shield, if there
are more, then they either face each other (if their number
is even) or the one in the middle always faces the front
(if their number is odd).
It is a
general rule that helmets, rank-crowns and mytras come
onto the chief of the shield, if the shield is angled,
then they are to put on the higher edge (always bent in
the same direction with the shield). The visor usually
follows the direction of the shield element. The crown
always comes atop the helmet. Should several crests be
united on one shield (to indicate a rise in rank), the
helmets of the original crest come atop the crown of the
new shield. If the helmet ornament is fixed with coils,
then its veneering had the same colour as the mantling
veneers.
Another
part of the blazon is the mantling (helm-cover
or nose-piece) which was believed to have been developed
either from sashes that Crusaders used in the desert
or textiles (veils) used in tournaments to symbolise the
origin of the participants. Its edges were even or cut
in the beginnings, later torn and finally it had plant-like
ornamenting.
The mantling
usually had two colours, the same ones that the shield
had, its shred was usually metal (gold or silver) or fur
(ermine), it could sometimes bear a crest-motive (e.g.
a star).
Under the
blazon, - on the wrath - one could usually read
the battle cry (devise) or motto of the owner. External
inaugurating elements, such as shield-bearer figurines
(people or animals), crest-cloaks or tents, banners, weaponry
or other symbols appeared on the crests in the late periods
of heraldry.
Dr. László
Szegfű CSc
associate professor
Head of the History Department
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