Before Maria Theresa, Transylvania's rulers used a variety of flags, which more often than not included family or factional symbols, such as the Báthory "wolf teeth"; Prince Sigismund also used a prototype of the Hungarian tricolor, but the practice died out long before the Habsburg conquest.

[6] Hungarian sources, analyzed in the 19th century by Josef Bedeus von Scharberg[7] and Nicolae Densușianu,[8] suggest that Transylvanian troops fought under an eagle banner, but the accuracy of such reporting is altogether doubtful.

[10] Among the modern experts, Tudor-Radu Tiron argues for the existence of a Transylvanian eagle shield, taking as evidence a Black Church relief and the attested seal of Fehér County.

[16] A tradition reported in 1896 by lawyer Vilmos Bruckner held that a Saxon flag and seal from 1222 carried the slogan AD RETINENDAM CORONAM ("To protect the Crown", in Medieval Latin).

[18] The original Székely symbol featured an arm holding a sword, often piercing through a crown, a bear's severed head, and a heart, sometimes alongside a star-and-crescent; the field, though often interpreted as azure, was most likely gules.

While tinctures have been deduced by the authors of Siebmachers Wappenbuch during the 1890s,[37] and are described by historian Constantin Moisil as sable devices on azure (for the eagle) and or (for the seven towers),[38] such readings are criticized by Cernovodeanu—as he notes, the seal's hatching preceded modern conventions, and therefore could not be properly reconstructed.

While Grigore Tocilescu, Dimitrie Onciul and Paul Gore have supported the notion, others, including Moisil and Ioan C. Filitti, have cast "serious doubts", and see the lions as Michael's personal emblem.

[44] Cernovodeanu proposes that the lions could represent Transylvania indirectly, as "Dacia", noting similar descriptions of "Dacian arms" in the works of Nicolae Costin and Pavao Ritter Vitezović.

[46] Flags captured by Michael and his Habsburg ally Giorgio Basta during the Battle of Guruslău, some of which are also depicted in paintings by Hans von Aachen, give additional insight into the Principality's heraldic symbolism.

[59] Another red flag, which survives only through two contemporary engravings, references Bethlen's status as a defender of the Protestant faith, and was as such carried in battle by Imre Thurzó and his Hungarian–Transylvanian troops in the Thirty Years' War.

[66] Between the reigns of Bethlen and Rákóczi, knowledge about "heraldic art" was spread in Transylvania by writer Ferenc Pápai Páriz, whose book standardized descriptions of both princely families' arms.

[88] Tradition about Transylvania's coat of arms was preserved in other Hungarian circles: in 1734, Ioannes Szegedi published an engraving of it, showing a crowned eagle, sable, and seven towers, argent, over seven mountains, vert, all on azure background; here, the Székelys were no longer represented by celestial bodies, but by the older arm-and-sword.

A blason included in the 1784 Molitvenic ("Prayer Book") of the Romanian Eastern Catholics focuses attention on the Reichsadler rather than the Transylvanian eagle, expressing solidarity with the "well-beloved", reform-minded, Joseph II.

As reported by historian Auguste de Gérando, in the 1840s Transylvania's chartered towns (oppida nobilia) formed individual units of the Landwehr under their respective county banners.

[110] Coins minted in Transylvania no longer had distinguishing heraldic markings after 1780,[111] though Reichsadler-with-arms designs continued to be used by other institutions into the 19th century, including by the salt monopoly in Vizakna (Ocna Sibiului).

[92] In de Gérando's time, the coat of arms was interpreted as an actual visual record of ethnic divisions, omitting the "most populous inhabitants", who were the Romanians, as well as the "tolerated nation" of Armenians.

Specifically, these showed, on one side, the seven castles and AD RETINENDAM CORONAM, and on the other, a "coat of arms of the eleven Saxon", alongside FÜR FÜRST, RECHT UND VATERLAND ("For Prince, Law, and Fatherland").

[149] According to museographer Elena Pălănceanu, this tricolor was paraded during the May assembly by the anti-Hungarian folk army gathered by Avram Iancu, and later flown by his guerrilla units throughout the Apuseni Mountains.

[153] In January 1849, during the late stages of this civil war, Ioan Axente Sever's Romanian irregulars, who occupied and ransacked Straßburg (Aiud), also flew the Habsburg bicolor.

In 1862, ASTRA Society for Cultural Advancement staged an exhibit and political rally, which included tricolor flags and a tapestry with the Transylvanian arms protected by a lion, alongside the slogan INDEPENDENȚA TRANSILVANIEI ("Independence for Transylvania").

[172] In a contrary move, Bolliac retained the towers, the sun, and the moon (but not the eagle) in his unusually arranged and hatched design for Transylvanian arms on Michael the Brave's monument in University Square (1874–1876).

[187] The Romanian (and Transylvanian) colors were camouflaged into another symbolic arrangement: the PNR distributed lapels with a blue quill and a yellow leaf, adding candidates' names in red letters.

[191] Red and blue (popularly read as symbolic for love and sincerity) survived on flags used by rural communities of Transylvanian Saxons—including those of youth fraternities in Keisd (Saschiz), some of which date back to the 1860s.

[193] At that stage, Saxon activists who frowned upon Magyarization created another regional flag, bearing the old triquetra and the slogan AD RETINENDAM CORONAM—a design originally found in a highly popular print by Georg Bleibtreu (1884).

The Hungarian authorities of Alsó-Fehér were convinced to participate, taking seat under a tapestry showing en eagle and tower alongside the "Transylvanian tricolor: blue, yellow and red [sic].

This move generated some controversy, with Hungarian nationalists such as Géza Polónyi arguing that the heraldic representation of an obsolete crownland on a major symbol would undermine the monarchy's "parity dualism".

[219] Eyewitness Petru Tămâian described these as being the "beautiful Transylvanian tricolor", distinguishing them from the vertically arranged flag of Romania; when superimposed, they "seemingly create a sign of the cross, symbolizing sufferings on both sides".

[220] Activist Vasile Goldiș also mentions the "beautiful Romanian tricolor of Transylvania" as being the flag held by Ioan Arion, who was shot by the Hungarian National Guard on his way to the rally in Alba Iulia.

[234] Another political statement was the Transylvanian folk-song collection of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, which, on its 1921 edition cover, displayed the "coat of arms of Transylvania under the Hungarian royal crown".

[245] During this renewed integration with the Hungarian crown, Béla Teleki and other local intellectuals established a regionalist and corporatist group called Transylvanian Party; it did not use the regional flag and coat of arms, but had a depiction of Saint Ladislaus as its logo.