Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 An eagle seen from the front with two heads turned outward, its wings raised and spread, its legs apart and its tail fanned, on a shield

Double-headed eagle

An eagle with two heads turned opposite ways, drawn with its wings spread. It was the arms of the Holy Roman Empire and of the tsars of Russia, and is on the arms of Serbia and the emblem of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

Heraldry. Also called albanian eagle, byzantine eagle, double headed eagle meaning, holy roman empire eagle, russian eagle, serbian eagle, two headed eagle.

Meaning

In heraldry the double-headed eagle is drawn displayed, like the single Eagle displayed, with each head looking outward. Fox-Davies found it in the East and the West in very early times, and thought heraldry took it ready-made: he cites one woven into a Byzantine silk of the tenth century. In Europe it became the arms of the Holy Roman Empire, and later of the tsars. Serbia’s coat of arms is a white double-headed eagle, and the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry has used one as its emblem since the Rite began.

Origin and history

The Scottish Rite’s Northern Masonic Jurisdiction points to a double-headed eagle carved on the city gate of Alaca Höyük in Turkey, of 1450 to 1180 BCE, and to its use on imperial flags under the Roman and Byzantine empires. For the Holy Roman Empire, Fox-Davies dates its use as a symbol to about 1335, sporadically at first, and has it settle as the empire’s arms under the Emperor Sigismund, who had borne the single-headed eagle as king. Oswald Barron put it more cautiously: the two-headed eagle is not seen on an imperial seal until after 1414.

Russia’s eagle has a dynastic story. David Williamson, in a note to Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, writes that Ivan III took it as his device in 1469 on his marriage to Zoe (Sophia) Palaeologa, daughter of a claimant to the imperial throne of Byzantium.

Not two coats joined

An old explanation held that the double-headed eagle, like the griffin, was made when two coats of arms were halved and joined on a marriage. Fox-Davies dismissed it: both figures were known ages before heraldry, and the story was one of “the little fictions” of past writers on armory.

Serbia

Serbia’s arms are a white double-headed eagle with a shield, a cross, four firesteels and the crown of the Nemanjić dynasty, the government’s own description. Britannica describes the royal arms of 1882 behind them: a red shield with a white cross and a Cyrillic С in each corner, popularly read as “Samo sloga Srbina spasava” (“Only unity will save the Serbs”), on a white crowned double-headed eagle with a fleur-de-lis beside each talon.

The Scottish Rite

In Freemasonry the double-headed eagle is the emblem of the Scottish Rite. In the Rite’s Northern Masonic Jurisdiction the version with the wings pointing up is reserved for 33rd-degree Active Members, about fifty of them, and Active Emeritus Members of the Supreme Council. Its Masonic meaning is on the Masonic double-headed eagle page.

Where you’ll see it today

whatdoesthissymbolmean.comFlag of AlbaniaAlbania’s flag is red with a black two-headed eagle in the centre, as Article 14 of the constitution says. Neither the constitution nor the flag law gives the colours a meaning; Store norske leksikon says the eagle is an old Byzantine symbol that the national hero Skanderbeg used in the 15th century, and it went on the flag when Albania became independent in 1912. whatdoesthissymbolmean.comFlag of MontenegroMontenegro’s flag is red with a gold border and the coat of arms in the centre: a gold double-headed eagle with a lion on its breast. The constitution and the flag law fix the design but give it no meaning; Store norske leksikon says the lion stands for the prince-bishops who once ruled Montenegro and for Venice, for long periods its ally and protector. whatdoesthissymbolmean.comFlag of SerbiaSerbia’s flag has red, blue and white horizontal stripes; the state flag adds the smaller coat of arms towards the pole, a white double-headed eagle on a red shield under a crown. The flag law gives the colours no meaning; Store norske leksikon says the tricolour goes back to 1835 and took Russia’s flag as its model, with the stripes in reverse order.

See also

Eagle displayed, Coat of arms, Family crest, Tinctures (heraldic colours), Ordinaries, Marks of cadency.

Sources

  1. A Complete Guide to Heraldry, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1909 (Project Gutenberg ebook 41617), T. C. & E. C. Jack, via Project Gutenberg, Chapter XIV, Birds, pp. 233–234; Chapter I, The Origin of Armory, p. 3
  2. Heraldry (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica), Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), vol. 13, article by Oswald Barron, Encyclopædia Britannica, via Wikisource, Origins: the eagle of the emperors
  3. The Origins of the Double-Headed Eagle, Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, blog text
  4. Eagle, Double-headed, Albert G. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, with a note by David E. W. Williamson, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, note by David E. W. Williamson
  5. Parliament adopts national symbols of Serbia, News, Government of the Republic of Serbia, news text
  6. Flag of Serbia, Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 25 September 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, article text

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research

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