Note 143 — Chapter X · THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESE.
Reading edition
St. George is the principal patron saint of Russia, and the ancient arms of Moskow, when it was an independent principality, were this saint mounted on a white horse on a red field. When Moscow became the capital of the Grand Princes of Russia they adopted these arms. The vanquished dragon was added in 1380, after the victory of Koulikof, gained by Dmétri Donskoi over the Tatars. Ivan IV. in adopting in 1580 the double-headed eagle of the Greeks did not on that account renounce the horseman and the dragon, and the Russian eagle is charged in the heart with the scutcheon of Koulikof.
The ancient sovereigns of Russia, after embracing Christianity, took for their arms three circles in a triangle. In one of the circles was an inscription about the Trinity, in another the name of the prince to whom the letter was addressed, and in the third the titles of the Grand Prince.—Notes to French translation of Nestor, p. 71; Strahlemberg, Description de l’Empire Russe, vol. i. p. 240. Amst. 1757.