“Yes,” said the old gentleman. “The German monarchy dates from the treaty of Verdun, signed in 843, by which the dominions of Charlemagne were divided amongst his three sons; but these arms were not assumed all at once; on the contrary they contain an epitome of the history of the German Empire if understood rightly. Shall I explain them to you?”
Agnes gladly assented, and he continued. “The eagle has been, from the earliest ages, the emblem of the German monarchy; and there is an old tradition which states that at the battle of Teutoburg, two Roman eagles were taken, one black and the other white. The Germans retained the black eagle in memory of their victory, and gave the white one to their allies the Poles; and hence the arms of Poland bear the white eagle to this day.”
“But why has the eagle two heads?” asked Agnes.
“That is an emblem that Italy was added to Germany, and thus the eagle is represented with two heads and with two crowns. The eagle also bears in one claw a globe, signifying that it wields imperial power, surmounted by a cross, the emblem of Christianity; and in the other a sceptre headed by a lance-head, the emblem of power and might.”
Fig. 37.
Arms of Germany.
“But why are there so many coats of arms on the eagle?”
“The German empire was elective, and the arms borne on the eagle are those of the seven electorates out of whom the emperor was to be chosen. Three of them are archbishops who possess regal power in their separate dominions, and their arms are contained in one shield; and the other four are counts of the empire, or kings, and their arms are in the other shield. The archbishops are those of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne; and the temporal lords are the Count of Brandenburg, the King of Saxony, the Elector Palatine, and the King of Bavaria.”
“And what is the meaning of their arms?”
“The first Archbishop of Mentz, whose name was Willige, was the son of a wheelwright; and one day a person thinking to mortify him, drew a rude picture of a wheel on the door of his palace and wrote under it:—