Armored bust of Charles VI facing right, wearing Order of the Golden Fleece collar, in a beaded circle divided by the head on top and the bust below surrounded by his Latin titles of Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany etc.

Charles VI (1685–1740; German: Karl VI.) succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia (as Charles II), King of Hungary and Croatia, Serbia and Archduke of Austria (as Charles III) in 1711. He unsuccessfully claimed the throne of Spain following the death of his relative, Charles II, in 1700. He married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, by whom he had his two children: Maria Theresa, the last Habsburg sovereign, and Maria Anna, Governess of the Austrian Netherlands.

The Order of the Golden Fleece is a Roman Catholic order of chivalry founded in Bruges by the Burgundian duke Philip the Good in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Isabella. It became one of the most prestigious orders in Europe. Today, two branches of the Order exist, namely the Spanish and the Austrian Fleece; the current grand masters are Felipe VI, King of Spain, and Karl von Habsburg, grandson of Emperor Charles I of Austria, respectively.

Depicts Imperial coat of arms (crowned double-headed eagle holding scepter and sword), small shield of Styria (capital city is Graz) at centre, surrounded by the inscription.

The Holy Roman Empire likewise saw itself as the successor to the ancient Imperium and took the eagle as its heraldic beast – albeit in the one-headed version. The black eagle on a gold shield became the symbol of the title of king as well as of the empire. In the late Middle Ages the double-headed eagle appeared in the empire as well. It was introduced as the mark distinguishing the royal from the imperial title: the king, who was voted in by the electors, attained the title of emperor solely by being blessed and crowned by the pope in Rome. Only then did he have the right of taking the double eagle as symbol of the universal claim to power over Latin Christendom. This concept was elaborated by the custom of placing a halo or nimbus around the two heads, seen as a symbol of the sacred elevation of imperial majesty.

Because the imperial title was from the sixteenth century on almost continuously vested in members of the Habsburg dynasty, the Habsburg emperor adopted the imperial double-headed eagle with an inescutcheon showing the coats of arms of their lands, devised to underscore the ties between the imperial title and the Habsburgs.