Hunyad Province

Heraldry of the World Civic heraldry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

HUNYAD PROVINCE

Origin/meaning :
The arms are derived from the arms of the Hunyadi family, whose members included one Governor of Hungary, one Regent of Hungary, one Ban (Landowner/Lord type rank) of Transylvania, and one King of Hungary. The bird on the shield is a raven, after a story that the young Janos (John) Hunyadi was comissioned by his mother, Erzsebet (Elizabeth) Szilagyi, to take a ring to the then-King of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor, Zsigmond (Sigismund) of Luxembourg. She had been given this ring by him, during one of his hunting trips in the are where she resided. On the way to the royal court, young Hunyadi and a servant stopped, and he started napping. He was soon woken up by his servant, being told that the ring had been taken by a crow, and she was flying away with it in her bill. Hunyadi killed the crow with his last arrow, and when he was given a coat of arms, he chose to have a raven with a ring in its bill as his emblem. The Hunyadi family's name in Latin is "Corvinus", meaning "crow", or "raven".

Literature : Csáky, 1995; background from Rune Kramer, Denmark