the double headed eagles in russian, albanian, and serbian coats of arms all come from marriages, alliances, or other associations with the eastern roman (byzantine) empire; russians adopted the symbol after the marriage of the last byzantine princess to ivan, skanderbeg adopted the symbol and was also married into the palaeologue family somehow, the mrnjacevik (sp?) family adopted the eagle symbol on their arms and stephan dushan also established it as regalia based on the imperial use. the symbol itself is thought to pre-date the palaeologues and come from anatolia.Originally Posted by Suebius
Bookmarks