ВЕЛИКАШКО ПОРЕКЛО ГРБА КНЕЗА ЛАЗАРА
THE NOBLEMAN ORIGIN OF DUKE LAZAR’S COAT OF ARMS

Summary/Abstract: Even the fact that Duke Lazar was just one among many prominent noblemen of the Serbian Empire at the beginning of his career, he died as the most prominent person of the fragmented and partially ruined state. As a part of a complex and long lasting struggle for the political prestige he asserted his personal Coat of Arms with great eager. It has been presumed, that his symbol was the display of a tournament helmet (Bascinet) of the West European origin equipped with a protecting iron net (Avental) and additionally decorated with a pair of twisted ox horns, which, combined all together, presented some type of the proto heraldic marc. However, the very same graphic emblem was used on the buttons ornamenting the luxurious belt, which was the crucial sign of the personal power and authority in the Middle Ages. It was found in the grave in the church of Saint Nikolas near the town of Suceava (Romania). The findings within were usually attributed to the Moldavian Voivode Laţcu (†– 1374). Taking into account just mentioned, and especially the newest results regarding the expansion of the heraldry in Serbia in the second half of the XIVth century, it seems that Coat of Arms of Duke Lazar should be further exclusively examined only as a part of the regional processes developing in Central Europe at that time. It is most probable that the examined symbol was not the result of the domestic designers.

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