page_title: Polish heraldry
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Polish heraldry / History
context_page_description: Polish heraldry refers to the study of coats of arms in the lands of historical Poland. It focuses on specifically Polish traits of heraldry. The term is also used to refer to the Polish heraldic system, as opposed to systems used elsewhere, notably in Western Europe. As such, it is an integral part of the history of the szlachta, the nobility of Poland.
  Due to the distinct manner in which feudal society evolved, the heraldic traditions of Poland differ significantly from those in German lands, France or the British Isles.
context_section_description: Unlike Western Europe, in Poland, the szlachta did not emerge exclusively from the feudal class of knights but stemmed in great part from earlier Slavic local rulers and free warriors and mercenaries. Rulers often hired these free warriors and mercenaries to form military units (Polish: Drużyna) and eventually, in the 11th century during the time of Casimir I the Restorer with the development of feudalism, armies paid by the Prince were replaced by knights that were paid in land.  Much written evidence from the Middle Ages demonstrates how some elements of the Polish nobility did emerge from former Slavic rulers that were included in the ranks of the knightly class under the terms of the chivalric law (ius militare) and iure polonico.
  Because Polish clans (Polish: Rody) have different origins, only part of the szlachta can be traced all the way back to the traditional old clan system based on kinship. The clans that could show kinship belonged to a House (Polish: Dom), such as the House of Odrowąż. Later, when different Houses created different surnames for each property, the House turned into the Clan Odrowąż. Other szlachta were not related and their unions were mostly voluntary and based on fellowship and brotherhood rather than kinship, still being full members of the Clan, creating Clan politics like in Clan Ostoja or Clan Abdank, but forming a heraldic clan. Near the end of the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, due to adoptions and other circumstances, all Clans in Poland turned into Heraldic Clans.
  In the year 1244, Bolesław, Duke of Masovia, identified members of the knights' clan as members of a genealogia:
  "I received my good servitors [Raciborz and Albert] from the land of [Great] Poland, and from the clan [genealogia] called Jelito, with my well-disposed knowledge [i.e., consent and encouragement] and the cry [vocitatio], [that is], the godło, [by the name of] Nagody, and I established them in the said land of mine, Masovia, [on the military tenure described elsewhere in the charter]."
  The documentation regarding Raciborz and Albert's tenure is the earliest surviving of the use of the clan name and cry defining the honorable status of Polish knights.  The names of knightly genealogiae only came to be associated with heraldic devices later in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period.  The Polish clan name and cry ritualized the ius militare, i.e., the power to command an army; and they had been used sometime before 1244 to define knightly status.
  According to Polish historian Tadeusz Manteuffel, a Polish clan (ród) consisted of people related by blood and descending from a common ancestor, giving the ród/clan a highly developed sense of solidarity (see gens). The starosta (or starszyna) had judicial and military power over the ród/clan, although this power was often exercised with an assembly of elders. Strongholds called gród were built where a unifying religious cult was powerful, where trials were conducted, and where clans gathered in the face of danger. The opole was the territory occupied by a single tribe. Such clans often used signs (proto-Coat of Arms) that later, during 13th century become Coat of Arms of the House or the Clan. The origin of those proto-CoAs is controversial. Some, like Sulimirski, claim Sarmatian origin and some like Piekosiński claim that those signs are Runes of dynastic tribal rulers.
  Heraldic symbols began to be used in Poland in the 13th century. The generic Polish term for a coat of arms, herb, was used for the first time in the year 1415 at the Royal Office with text et quatuor herbis, originating as a borrowing of the Czech erb, which in turn came from the German Erbe – heritage.
  During the Union of Horodło (1413), 47 Prince and Boyar families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were adopted into 47 Polish noble clans and began to use Polish coats of arms.
caption: A leaf from the "Łaski's Statute" depicting the Polish Senate
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging"}