The 15th-century Ingeram Codex depicts the coat of arms of Hungary during the time of Saint Ladislaus I as a red double cross in a white background.

Béla III's (r. 1172–1196) was the first double-cross coat of arms. It already appeared on coins before.^[7]

The red and white stripes were the heraldic symbol of the House of Árpád, first used in the coat of arms in 1202 on one of Emeric's (r. 1196–1204) seals.^{[citation needed]}

This was the coat of arms of Emeric used on his 1202 golden bull. It shows nine lions.^[8]

On the Golden Bull of 1222, issued by Andrew II (r. 1205–1235), the stripes contain seven lions.^[9]

When the House of Árpád became extinct and the Angevins came into power, they wanted to emphasize their legitimacy and their matrilineal relation to the previous royal house by using the Árpáds' coat of arms, the red and white stripes. Charles I combined this coat of arms per pale with the Angevins' fleur-de-lis.

The modern version of the coat of arms developed during the reign of Matthias II in the beginning of the 17th century. Its usage became regular during the reign of Maria Theresa.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, following the dethroning of the Habsburg dynasty on 14 April 1849, the Holy Crown was removed from the coat of arms. The remaining small coat of arms is usually referred to as the "Kossuth Coat of Arms" (Hungarian: Kossuth-címer) after Lajos Kossuth, Regent-President of Hungary (so unlike the name suggests, it was not the coat of arms of the Kossuth family). In the large coat of arms, however, a laurel wreath replaced the crown both in the central piece and above the shield, as shown on the adjacent image.

In the following centuries, the coat of arms of Hungary became more and more complex. It included the coats of arms of the territories which were part of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen: Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia,^[12] and Bosnia, but the so-called "small coat of arms" always remained the central piece. (The more complex ones were called "medium" and "large coat of arms".) The adjacent image shows the medium coat of arms, in official use (with some modifications) from the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 till the end of World War I (1918). The outer pieces (anti-clockwise from top left) are the coats of arms of Dalmatia, Slavonia, Bosnia (added in 1915), Fiume, Transylvania, and Croatia.

When Hungary became part of the Habsburg monarchy, the coat of arms became a part of that of the Monarchy, but later it became of marginal importance and during the reign of Joseph II – who did not even have himself crowned with the Holy Crown – it was omitted from the coins.

After World War I, during the time of the First Hungarian Republic a new coat of arms was introduced. The new arms was almost the same as the "small coat of arms" only with the monarchist elements removed to make it look more republican.

The Hungarian Republic of Councils in 1919 totally abolished the traditional coat of arms and used the communist five-pointed red star on official documents. After the fall of the communists, the Kossuth coat of arms was used for a short while.

After the restoration of the kingdom, the small coat of arms (with the Holy Crown and the two angels) became official until the First Vienna Award in 1938, when the government started to use the 1915 coat of arms officially again.

During the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany in 1944–1945 at the end of World War II, the puppet government formed by the fascist^[13] Arrow Cross Party added the letter "H" (for Hungaria) and the Arrow Cross symbol to it.

Following the military forces of Nazi Germany in Hungary being defeated by the Red Army, Soviet military occupation ensued, eventually leading to the creation of a communist government in Hungary. Between 1946 and 1949 the Kossuth-style coat of arms was used, then the Hungarian People's Republic introduced a new state coat of arms in line with socialist heraldry, with a layout closely resembling that of the Soviet Union's.

During the 1956 revolution, the "Kossuth" Coat of Arms was used again. In old newsreels, the Kossuth badge can be seen painted onto the turrets of many revolutionary tanks fighting against the Soviet invasion in the streets of Budapest.^{[citation needed]} Although this revolution was crushed quickly by the Soviet Red Army, the new Communist government did not reinstate the 1949–1956 coat of arms, and thus this coat of arms was used for about a year.

A new coat of arms was created in late 1957, incorporating a more traditional heraldic escutcheon (bearing the Hungarian red-white-green tricolor) into the wreath-and-red-star framework of socialist heraldry. Its usage ended with the adoption of the current coat of arms in 1990.

Since 1990 the historical crowned small coat of arms has served as the official symbol of Hungary. In the first democratically elected Parliament there was considerable debate about the depiction of the Holy Crown on the coat of arms. The liberal, opposition party (Alliance of Free Democrats, SZDSZ) proposed the Kossuth-style "Republican" version but the conservative government backed the historical, crowned one.^[14]