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| This article is part of the Polish Heraldry series History of Poland |
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The history of Polish heraldry is an integral part of the history of szlachta, or a local class of nobility. Contrary to its formation in the countries of Western Europe, the Polish szlachta did not emerge from the chivalry, but rather from a Slavic class of free warriors. Those were often hired by the prince to his unit ( Polish druzyna) and who were eventually paid in land.
Only a small number of szlachta families or clans are traced from traditional clan system and were actually related with other members of the clan. Most of szlachta were, at least since 12th century, not related and their unions were mostly voluntary and based on parentage rather than kinship. Since Poland emerged almost at once as a relatively unified duchy in 10th century, it was the Prince or the King who was considered the patron of all the clans. He granted priviledges and land to clan members rather than to clans as such and was allowed to assign new knights to the clans of his choice. Because of that, the system of strong and wealthy groups of relatives was never developed in Poland. Instead, the Polish clans ( Polish rody) were much more unstable than their Western counterparts.
The first heraldic signs arrived to Poland in 13th century. In early 15th century the Polish generic word for a Coat of Arms was invented: herb. It was a Polish version of the CzechLanguages of the Czech Republic Slavic languages The Czech language is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian, and Sorbian. It is spoken by most people in the Czech Republic and by Czechs all over the world (about 12 milli erb, which in turn came from GermanGerman (called Deutsch in German in which germanisch refers to prechristian times), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. Erbe - heritage.
Although the Polish heraldic system evolved under influence of the French and German coats of arms, there are many notable differences:
Polish coats of arms are divided in the very same way as their Western counterparts. However, since the coats of arms were originally granted to clans rather than separate families, there was no need to join various coats of arms into one when a new branch of the family was formed. Thus Polish escutcheonIn heraldry, the shield is the principal portion of a heraldic achievement or coat of arms. Figures and patterns are depicted emblazoned upon the shield in many different arrangements. The shields of male armigers are commonly displayed on a shape known as are rarely parted. The hearted shape of the shield can be seen mostly on the symbols of royal families.
| Example | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English name | Parted per fess | Parted per pale | Parted per bend sinister | Parted quarterly | Parted quarterly with a heart |
| Polish name | w pas | w slup | w skos | czterodzielny | sercowy |
Also, the tradition of differentiating between the coat of arms proper and a lozengeA pullover with a lozenge pattern A lozenge is a parallelogram which usually has two corners pointing up and down that are farther apart than the corners pointing sideways. It is often used in parquetry and as decoration on ceramics, silverware, and texti granted to women did not develop in Poland. Usually men inherited the coat of arms from their fathers (or the member of the clan who "adopted them") while women inherited it after their mothers or were adopted to the family of the husband. Also, the brisure was rarely used.
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