🚀 go-pugleaf

In the spirit of previous posts on the arms of new countries,  here is
what I found on the most recent countries in Europe, namely the 
Czech Republic and Slovakia.  

Two comments in passing: with the split between Slovakia and the Czech lands,
the old eastern boundary of the Holy Roman Empire appears on the map
once again, almost complete: it separates Slovenia from Croatia, Austria
from Hungary and now Moravia from Slovakia.  Also, it is a pleasure to see
Communist heraldry disappear (no more hammers and sickles, sheafs and 
smokestacks) and old arms reappear in its stead.

The Czech Republic is composed of Bohemia, Moravia and bits of Silesia. 
Historically, Silesia was conquered by Bohemian kings in the 14th century,
but most of it was lost to Prussia after the War of Austrian Succession
in 1748.  The 2000 square miles left to the Habsburgs (who ruled Bohemia
after 1526) were then known as "Austrian Silesia", with a capital in 
Opava (Troppau in German).  Anyway, this explains why the arms of the 
Czech Republic, as described in the New York Times of Jan. 3, are:
quarterly: 1 and 4, Bohemia, 2, Moravia, 3 Silesia. The arms are as follows:
* Bohemia: gules, a lion rampant, queue fourchee argent, crowned or.
* Moravia: azure, an eagle displayed chequy gules and argent, crowned or.
* Silesia: or, an eagle displayed sable crowned or, on its breast a crescent 
	trefoiled and a crosslet argent.
The lion with queue fourchee of Bohemia is particularly famous. It was kept
on the seal of the CSSR in Communist times, and the colors argent and gules
form the flag of the Czech Republic (identical to pre-1991 Poland, but now
Poland has its arms: gules an eagle displayed argent crowned or, on the
white stripe of the flag). It dates to 1158, and can be seen on the tomb
of Ottokar I, first hereditary king of Bohemia, died 1230 (illustration in
Neubecker).

Slovakia was a part of Hungary since the 12th century, and remained a forgotten
province of the Hungarian kingdom until 1918. It was never an independent
political entity. Its arms, according to the Brockhaus encyclopedia, were 
used from 1939 to 1960. They are:
* Slovakia: gules, on a mount in base azure a patriarchal cross argent.
This resembles very closely part of the arms of Hungary (in which the 
mount is vert, and there is a crown or around the base of the cross). 
A patriarchal cross has two traverses, the upper one shorter. The mount is
represented with three copeaux, or domes, corresponding to the three main
mountains of Slovakia: Fatra, Tatra and Matra (I'm not kidding).