Editing Szlachta (section)

== History ==

=== Etymology ===
In Polish, a nobleman is called a "''szlachcic''" and a noblewoman a "''szlachcianka''".

The Polish term ''szlachta'' derived from the [[Old High German]] word ''slahta''. In modern German ''Geschlecht'' – which originally came from the [[Proto-Germanic]] *''slagiz'', "blow", "strike", and shares the [[Anglo-Saxon]] root for "slaughter", or the verb "to slug" – means "breeding" or "gender". Like many other Polish words pertaining to nobility, it derives from Germanic words: the Polish word for "knight" is ''rycerz'', from the German ''Ritter'', meaning "rider". The Polish word for "coat of arms" is ''herb'' from the German ''Erbe'' ("heritage").
17th-century Poles assumed ''szlachta'' came from the German ''schlachten'', "to slaughter" or "to butcher", and was therefore related to the German word for battle, ''Schlacht''. Some early Polish historians thought the term might have derived from the name of the legendary proto-Polish chief, [[Lech, Czech, and Rus'|Lech]], mentioned in Polish and Czech writings. The szlachta traced their descent from Lech, who allegedly founded the Polish kingdom in about the fifth century.<ref name="races-old-world">{{cite journal
| last1 = Hutton
| first1 = Richard Holt
| author-link1 = Richard Holt Hutton
| last2 = Bagehot
| first2 = Walter
| author-link2 = Walter Bagehot
| date = January 1864
| title = The Races of the Old World
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4u4RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA482
| journal = [[National Review (1855)|National Review]]
| location = London, England
| publisher = Robson and Levey
| access-date = 9 Oct 2014
}}</ref>{{rp|482}}

The Polish term ''szlachta'' designated the formalized, hereditary<ref name="szacki--inherited--1995">{{cite book
 | last = Szacki
 | first = Jerzy Ryszard
 | author-link = Jerzy Szacki
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gU6_JbBHkXoC&pg=PA48
 | title = LIBERALISM AFTER COMMUNISM
 | year = 1995
 | publisher = [[Central European University Press]]
 | location = Budapest, Hungary
 | pages = 48
 | quote = ... the Polish nobility was a closed group (apart from a few exceptions, many of which were contrary to the law), in which membership was inherited.| isbn = 9781858660165
 }}</ref> [[aristocracy]]<ref name="races-old-world--aristocracy--caste" /> of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which constituted the nation itself, and ruled without competition.<ref name="dmowski-szlachta-the-nation">{{cite book
 | last = Dmowski
 | first = Roman Stanisław
 | author-link = Roman Dmowski
 | editor-last = Duff
 | editor-first = James Duff
 | editor-link = James Duff Duff
 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/RussianRealitiesAndProblems
 | title = RUSSIAN REALITIES AND PROBLEMS
 | year = 1917
 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
 | location = Cambridge
 | page = 116
 | chapter = Poland Old and New
 | quote = In the past the nobility in Poland constituted the nation itself. It ruled the country without competition on the part of any other class, the middle class being small in numbers and wealth, and the peasants being [[Serfdom|serfs]].}}</ref><ref name="polish-peasant-not-belong-to-polish-nation">{{cite book
 | last = Boswell
 | first = Alexander Bruce
 | author-link = :pl:Alexander Bruce Boswell
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=loBDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116
 | format = GOOGLE EBOOK
 | title = POLAND AND THE POLES
 | year = 1919
 | publisher = [[Dodd, Mead and Company]]
 | location = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|NEW YORK]], U.S.A.
 | pages = 116–117
 | quote = The Polish peasant in the past was a very humble member of the Polish community – in fact he scarcely belonged to it at all. He had for 350 years no civic rights whatever. He was the serf of his master. It was only the easy-going and patriarchal relations between squire and peasant that made life tolerable for the latter.}}</ref><ref name="only-szlachta-are-citizens" /><ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002">{{cite periodical
 | last = Jakubowski
 | first = Theodore
 | editor-last = Suligowski
 | editor-first = Leonard Joseph
 | title = Claiming Inherited Noble Status
 | periodical= White Eagle: Journal of the Polish Nobility Association Foundation
 | date = Spring–Summer 2002
 | page = 5
 | location = Baltimore, MD
 | url = http://pnaf.us/pdfs/white-eagle-spring-summer-2002.pdf
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170412052147/http://pnaf.us/pdfs/white-eagle-spring-summer-2002.pdf
 | archive-date = 12 April 2017
 | quote = ... the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of Two Nations (from 1385 until the Third Partition of 1795) paralleled the Roman Empire in that -- whether we like it or not -- full rights of citizenship were limited to the governing elite, called szlachta in Polish ... It is not truly correct to consider the szlachta a class; they actually were more like a caste, the military caste, as in Hindu society.}}</ref><ref name="krasinski--szlachta-are-poland">{{cite web
 |last = Gliński
 |first = Mikołaj
 |title = Slavery vs. Serfdom, or Was Poland a Colonial Empire?
 |date = 8 October 2015
 |website = Culture.pl
 |location = [[Warsaw]], [[Poland|POLAND]], EU
 |url = http://culture.pl/en/article/slavery-vs-serfdom-or-was-poland-a-colonial-empire
 |access-date = 23 June 2017
 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20170624062330/http://culture.pl/en/article/slavery-vs-serfdom-or-was-poland-a-colonial-empire
 |archive-date = 24 June 2017
 |quote = The boundaries between nobility and peasants (and other social groups) persisted well into the 19th and 20th centuries. A shocking proof of how terribly effective this Sarmatian ideology was, can be found in a personal letter of [[Zygmunt Krasiński]], one of the three greatest Polish Romantic poets in the 19th century (and a descendant of an aristocratic family). In the mid-19th century Krasiński wrote to his English friend Henry Reeve: 'Believe me and rest assured that apart from aristocracy there's nothing in Poland: no talent, no bright minds, nor sense of sacrifice. Our third state [bourgeoisie] is nonsense; our peasants are machines. Only we [szlachta] are Poland.'
 }}</ref> In official Latin documents of the old [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Commonwealth]], the hereditary szlachta were referred to as "''nobilitas''" from the Latin term,{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}. Until the second half of the 19th century, the Polish term ''{{linktext|obywatel}}'' (which now means "citizen") could be used as a synonym for szlachta landlords.<ref name="szlachta-equals-citizen">{{cite book
| last = Struve
| first = Kai
| editor-last = Wawrzeniuk
| editor-first = Piotr
| editor-link = Piotr Wawrzeniuk
| chapter-url = https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:214737/FULLTEXT01.pdf
| type = History
| title = SOCIETAL CHANGE AND IDEOLOGICAL FORMATION AMONG THE RURAL POPULATION OF THE BALTIC AREA 1880-1939
| chapter = Citizenship and National Identity: the Peasants of Galicia during the 19th Century
| year = 2008
| publisher = [[Södertörn University|Södertörns högskola]]
| location = [[Flemingsberg]], [[Huddinge Municipality|Huddinge municipality]], [[Stockholm County|Stockholm county]], [[Sweden|KINGDOM OF SWEDEN]]
| isbn = 978-91-85139-11-8
| page = 77
| quote = The fact that the Polish term obywatel ("citizen") could be used as a synonym for gentry landlords until the second half of the 19th century shows how strong this concept was within Polish culture.}}</ref>

Today the word ''szlachta'' simply translates as "nobility". In its broadest sense, it can also denote some non-hereditary honorary knighthoods and [[baron]]ial titles granted by other European monarchs, including the [[Holy See]]. Occasionally, 19th-century landowners of commoner descent were referred to as ''szlachta'' by courtesy or error, when they owned manorial estates, but were not in fact noble by birth. ''Szlachta'' also denotes the Ruthenian and Lithuanian nobility from before the old Commonwealth.

In the past, a misconception sometimes led to the mistranslation of "''szlachta''" as "gentry" rather than "nobility".<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Michener
 | first = James Albert
 | author-link = James A. Michener
 | title = POLAND
 | publisher = [[Random House]]; New York City, NEW YORK, U.S.A.
 | date = 1983
 | isbn = 0-394-53189-2
 | quote = Minor nobility: Linguistically, this category causes trouble. Some Polish writers refer to 'gentry', which doesn't quite sound right in English. Whereas some European writers use the term 'petty nobility' [analogously to ''[[Petite bourgeoisie]]''], but the adjective has unfortunate connotations.| title-link = Poland (novel)
 }}</ref><ref name="zamoyski-not-gentry-not-nobility">{{cite book
 | last = Zamoyski
 | first = Adam
|author-link=Adam Zamoyski
 | title = The Polish Way: A Thousand-year history of the Poles and their culture
 | orig-date = 1987
 | year = 1998
 | edition = Fourth Printing
 | isbn = 0-7818-0200-8
 | publisher = [[Hippocrene Books]]
 | location = New York
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/55 55]
 | quote = One cannot substitute the terms 'nobility' or 'gentry' for szlachta because it had little in common with those classes in other European countries either in origin, composition or outlook.
 | url = https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/55
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | last = Davies
 | first = Norman
 | author-link = Norman Davies
 | title = GOD'S PLAYGROUND: A HISTORY OF POLAND, VOLUME I - THE ORIGINS TO 1795
 | year = 1982
 | isbn = 0-231-05351-7
 | publisher = [[Columbia University Press]]
 | location = New York City
 | page = 206
 | quote = For the sake of precision therefore, it is essential that szlachta should be translated as 'Nobility', szlachcic as 'nobleman', and stan szlachecki as 'the noble estate'.}}</ref> This mistaken practice began due to the inferior economic status of many ''szlachta'' members compared to that of the nobility in other European countries (see also [[Gentry#Two principal estates of the realm|Estates of the Realm]] ''regarding wealth and nobility'').<ref name="zamoyski-warrior-caste">{{cite book
 | last = Zamoyski
 | first = Adam
|author-link=Adam Zamoyski
 | title = The Polish Way: A Thousand-year history of the Poles and their culture
 | orig-date = 1987
 | year = 1998
 | edition = Fourth Printing
 | isbn = 0-7818-0200-8
 | publisher = [[Hippocrene Books]]
 | location = New York
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/55 55]
 | quote = A more apt analogy might perhaps be made with the [[Rajput]]s of northern India. ... unlike any other gentry in Europe, the szlachta was not limited by nor did it depend for its status on either wealth, or land, or royal writ. It was defined by its function, that of a warrior caste.
 | url = https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/55
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | last = Zamoyski
 | first = Adam
|author-link=Adam Zamoyski
 | title = The Polish Way: A Thousand-year history of the Poles and their culture
 | orig-date = 1987
 | year = 1998
 | edition = Fourth Printing
 | isbn = 0-7818-0200-8
 | publisher = [[Hippocrene Books]]
 | location = New York
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/57 57–58]
 | quote = While land provided the majority with a livelihood, it was not the only or even the predominant source of wealth for the magnates, whose estates were not large by the standards of the barons of England or the great lords of France. ... The magnates only started accumulating property on a large scale at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
 | url = https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/57
 }}</ref> The ''szlachta'' included those rich and powerful enough to be [[Polish magnate|great magnates]] down to the impoverished with an aristocratic lineage, but with no land, no castle, no money, no village, and no subject peasants.<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Michener
 | first = James Albert
 | author-link = James A. Michener
 | title = POLAND
 | publisher = [[Random House]]; New York City
 | date = 1983
 | isbn = 0-394-53189-2
 | quote = Minor nobility: ... The category includes men almost rich and powerful enough to be magnates, and all intervening levels down to the roving rascal with no castle, no money, no village, no peasants, one horse and pride unbounded.| title-link = Poland (novel)
 }}</ref>  Historian M.Ross wrote in 1835: "At least 60,000 families belong to this class, of which, however, only about 100 are wealthy; all the rest are poor."<ref name="szlachta-poor">{{cite book
 | last = Ross (of Durham)
 | first = M.
 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fqxDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA51
 | title = A history of Poland from its foundation as a state to the present time; including a full account of the recent patriotic struggle to re-establish its independence. To which is prefixed, a descriptive view of the country, its natural history, cities and towns, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants
 | year = 1835
 | publisher = Pattison and Ross
 | location = Newcastle upon Tyne, England
 | page = 51
 | chapter = A Descriptive View of Poland: Character, Manners, and Customs of the Poles
 | quote = At least 60,000 families belong to this class [szlachta], of which, however, only about 100 are wealthy; all the rest are poor.}}</ref>

A few exceptionally wealthy and powerful szlachta members constituted the ''magnateria'' and were known as [[magnate]]s ([[magnates of Poland and Lithuania]]).

{{Clear}}

=== Composition ===
[[File:Jan_Matejko_-_Upadek_Polski_(Reytan).jpg|upright=1.50|thumb|Szlachcic [[Sejmik|sejmik representative]] [[Tadeusz Rejtan]] (lower right), with szlachta [[Republicanism|republican]] right of ending any [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Senate (Sejm)]] session and nullifying any legislation passed (''[[Liberum veto]]''), defying [[Russian Empire|Russian]], [[Prussia]]n, and [[Austria]]n [[Autocracy|autocratic might]] to cease legalization of the [[First Partition of Poland]], by halting the [[Partition Sejm]]'s exit from the Senate chamber on 30 September 1773, in effect proclaiming, ''"Murder me, not Poland."'' Painting by [[Jan Matejko]], 1866]]
[[Adam Zamoyski]] argues that the szlachta were not exactly the same as the European [[nobility]] nor a [[Landed gentry|gentry]],<ref name="zamoyski-not-gentry-not-nobility" /> as the szlachta fundamentally differed in law, rights, political power, origin, and composition from the [[Feudalism|feudal nobility]] of Western Europe.<ref name="zamoyski-not-gentry-not-nobility" /><ref name="dmowski-clan-system">{{cite book
| last = Dmowski
| first = Roman Stanisław
| author-link = Roman Dmowski
| editor-last = Duff
| editor-first = James Duff
| editor-link = James Duff Duff
| chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/RussianRealitiesAndProblems
| title = RUSSIAN REALITIES & PROBLEMS
| year = 1917
| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
| location = Cambridge, East of England, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
| pages = 91–92
| chapter = Poland, Old And New
| quote = This military class was subdivided into clans, the members of each clan being bound together by strong ties of solidarity. Each clan had its name and crest. The Polish nobility, which sprang from this military class and which derived its family names from its landed properties (in the fifteenth century), had no family crests, of which there was only a limited number. Each of these bore a name which had been the old word of call of the clan. In many instances, one crest belonged to more than a hundred families. The clan system survived in this way throughout the whole of Polish history. It is evident that the warrior class in Poland had quite a different origin and a different legal and social position from that of the feudal nobility of Western Europe.}}</ref><ref name="szlachta-rule">{{cite book
| last = Boswell
| first = Alexander Bruce
| author-link = :pl:Alexander Bruce Boswell
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=loBDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66
| format = GOOGLE EBOOK
| title = POLAND AND THE POLES
| year = 1919
| publisher = [[Dodd, Mead and Company]]
| location = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|NEW YORK]], U.S.A.
| pages = 66–67
| quote = But the Parliament was at best a clumsy body, as the deputies were not free agents, but were bound by their mandates from the real sovereign bodies, the local Diets or Sejmiki. The representative of a Sejmik had the right of vetoing all legislation in the Sejm, since he spoke for a whole province or tribe.}}</ref> The szlachta did not rank below the king,<ref name="szlachta-can-be-king" /> as the szlachta's relationship to the Polish king was not feudal. The szlachta stood as equals before the king.<ref name="szlachta-equality" /> The king was not an [[Autocracy|autocrat]], nor the szlachta's overlord, as szlachta land was in [[allod]]ium, not [[Feudal land tenure in England|feudal tenure]].<ref name="szlachta--allodial" /> Feudal dependence upon a Polish king did not exist for the szlachta<ref name="szlachta-equality" /> and earlier in history some high-ranking szlachta ([[magnate]]s) descending from past tribal dynasties regarded themselves as co-proprietors of [[Piast dynasty|Piast realms]] and constantly sought to undermine Piast authority.<ref name="davies--norman" />{{rp|75, 76}}

In 1459 [[Ostroróg family|Ostroróg]] presented a memorandum to the [[Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland|Sejm (parliament)]], submitting [[palatine]]s, or [[Voivodes of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], receive the title of [[prince]]. Sons of a prince were to receive titles of [[count]]s and [[baron]]s. [[Castellans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] were to receive the title of count. This attempt to introduce the hierarchy of noble titles common for European feudal systems for szlachta was rejected.<ref name="szlachta-reject-titles-of-nobility">{{cite journal
| last = Skwarczyński
| first = Paweł
| date = June 1956
| title = The Problem of Feudalism in Poland up to the Beginning of the 16th Century
| jstor = 4204744
| journal = [[The Slavonic and East European Review]]
| location = Salisbury House, Station Road, [[Cambridge]], [[Cambridgeshire|Cambridgeshire county]], [[England|ENGLAND]]
| publisher = [[Modern Humanities Research Association]]
| volume = 34
| issue = 83
| page = 302
| quote = In 1459 [[Ostroróg family|Ostroróg]] submitted a memorandum to the parliament (sejm), suggesting that the [[Voivodes of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|palatines, or provincial governors]], should be given the title of prince and their sons the titles of barons and counts. The title of count was suggested by him for a [[Castellans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|castellanus]]. But all these suggestions were not accepted. The composition of the king's council provides another distinction between the system in Poland and regular feudal systems elsewhere.}}</ref>

The fact the szlachta were equal before the king and deliberately opposed becoming a feudal nobility became a matter of law embedded as a constitutional principle of equality.<ref name="szlachta-equality" /><ref name="szlachta-an-electorate" /><ref name="szlachta-can-be-king" /> The [[republicanism]] of [[ancient Rome]] was the szlachta's ideal.<ref name="szlachta-roman-republicanism">{{cite book
 | last = Boswell
 | first = Alexander Bruce
 | author-link = :pl:Alexander Bruce Boswell
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=loBDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA47
 | format = GOOGLE EBOOK
 | title = POLAND AND THE POLES
 | year = 1919
 | publisher = [[Dodd, Mead and Company]]
 | location = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|NEW YORK]], U.S.A.
 | page = 47
 | quote = ... through all modern Polish history it was Roman republicanism that formed the ideal of the republican gentry. The Roman precedent was even quoted to justify serfdom, which was a modified form of [[Slavery in ancient Rome|Roman slavery]].}}</ref><ref name="roman-empire">{{cite encyclopedia
 | last1 = Davies
 | first1 = Ivor Norman Richard
 | author-link1 = Norman Davies
 | last2 = Dawson
 | first2 = Andrew Hutchinson
 | last3 = Jasiewicz
 | first3 = Krzysztof
 | author-link3 = :pl:Krzysztof Jasiewicz
 | last4 = Kondracki
 | first4 = Jerzy Aleksander
 | author-link4 = :pl:Jerzy Kondracki
 | last5 = Wandycz
 | first5 = Piotr Stefan
 | author-link5 = Piotr S. Wandycz
 | encyclopedia = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]
 | title = Poland
 | url = https://www.britannica.com/place/Poland/The-Commonwealth
 | access-date = 4 June 2017
 | date = 2 June 2017
 | page = 15
 | quote = Throughout most of Europe the medieval system of [[Estates of the realm|estates]] evolved into [[Absolute monarchy|absolutism]], but in the Commonwealth it led to a szlachta democracy inspired by the ideals of [[ancient Rome]], to which parallels were constantly drawn.}}</ref><ref name="szlachta-dictate-like-roman-senate">{{cite book
 | last = Boswell
 | first = Alexander Bruce
 | author-link = :pl:Alexander Bruce Boswell
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=loBDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA47
 | format = GOOGLE EBOOK
 | title = POLAND AND THE POLES
 | year = 1919
 | publisher = [[Dodd, Mead and Company]]
 | location = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|NEW YORK]], U.S.A.
 | page = 67
 | quote = Poland was the great power of East Central Europe, and the [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish Sejm]] dictated to the [[Kresy|East]] as despotically as the [[Roman Senate]] itself.}}</ref><ref name="okolski-ancient-romans">{{cite journal
 | last = Milewska-Waźbińska
 | first = Barbara
 | editor1-last = Sosnowski
 | editor1-first = Miłosz
 | url = http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-47ad7632-fb82-47ff-a88d-3ebf4845ea16
 | title = Latin as the Language of Social Communication of the Polish Nobility (Based on the Latin Heraldic Work by Szymon Okolski)
 | journal = The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
 | publisher = [[Kórnik Library]] of the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]]
 | location = [[Poznań]]
 | date = 2013
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170608095553/http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-47ad7632-fb82-47ff-a88d-3ebf4845ea16
 | archive-date = 8 June 2017
 | access-date = 8 June 2017
 | quote = The article highlights the role of Latin as the language of communication of the nobility living in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the beginning discusses the concept 'latinitas', which meant not only the correct Latin, but also pointed to the ideological content of antiquity passed through the language of the [[Ancient Rome|ancient Romans]]. ... We studied Latin armorial 'Orbis Polonus' by [[Szymon Okolski|Simon Okolski]] (Cracow 1641-1645). ... It concludes that Okolski consciously wrote his work in the language of the ancient Romans.}}</ref><ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002" /> Poland was known as the [[Most Serene Republic]] of Poland, Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} The szlachta, not as a feudal nobility or gentry,<ref name="zamoyski-not-gentry-not-nobility" /><ref name="dmowski-clan-system" /><ref name="zamoyski-clannish-structures" /> but as an electorate,<ref name="szlachta-an-electorate" /> and an [[aristocracy]] and warrior [[caste]],<ref name="races-old-world--aristocracy--caste" /><ref name="races-old-world--caste">{{cite journal
| last1 = Hutton
| first1 = Richard Holt
| author-link1 = Richard Holt Hutton
| last2 = Bagehot
| first2 = Walter
| author-link2 = Walter Bagehot
| date = January 1864
| title = The Races of the Old World
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4u4RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA484
| journal = [[National Review (1855)|National Review]]
| location = London, England
| publisher = Robson and Levey
| pages = 484
| access-date = 9 Oct 2014
| quote = ".... there we find an exact counterpart of Polish society: the dominant settlers establishing themselves as an upper caste, all politically equal among themselves, and holding the lands (or more frequently, simply drawing the rents) of the country."
}}</ref><ref name="zamoyski-warrior-caste" /><ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002" /><ref name="szacki--caste--1995">{{cite book
 | last = Szacki
 | first = Jerzy Ryszard
 | author-link = Jerzy Szacki
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gU6_JbBHkXoC&pg=PA46
 | title = LIBERALISM AFTER COMMUNISM
 | year = 1995
 | publisher = [[Central European University Press]]
 | location = Budapest, Central Hungary region, HUNGARY, EU
 | pages = 45–46
 | quote = [[Aleksander Świętochowski]], on the other hand, wrote as follows: 'If from the deeds of the Polish nobility we took away excesses and the exclusiveness of caste, ...'| isbn = 9781858660165
 }}</ref> with no feudal dependence on a king,<ref name="szlachta-equality" /> exercised [[Liberum veto|supreme political power over that republic]]<ref name="szlachta-rule" /> and [[Royal elections in Poland|elected kings]] as servants of a republic the szlachta regarded as the embodiment of their rights.<ref name="szlachta-rights-embodied-in-republic">{{cite encyclopedia
 | last1 = Davies
 | first1 = Ivor Norman Richard
 | author-link1 = Norman Davies
 | last2 = Dawson
 | first2 = Andrew Hutchinson
 | last3 = Jasiewicz
 | first3 = Krzysztof
 | author-link3 = :pl:Krzysztof Jasiewicz
 | last4 = Kondracki
 | first4 = Jerzy Aleksander
 | author-link4 = :pl:Jerzy Kondracki
 | last5 = Wandycz
 | first5 = Piotr Stefan
 | author-link5 = Piotr S. Wandycz
 | encyclopedia = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]
 | title = Poland
 | url = https://www.britannica.com/place/Poland/The-Commonwealth
 | access-date = 24 April 2021
 | date = 2 June 2017
 | page = 15
 | quote = The Commonwealth gradually came to be dominated by the szlachta, which regarded the state as an embodiment of its rights and privileges.}}</ref>

Over time, numerically most ''lesser'' szlachta became poorer, or were poorer than, their few rich peers with the same political status and status in law, and many ''lesser'' szlachta were worse off than commoners with land. They were called ''szlachta zagrodowa'', that is, "farm nobility", from ''zagroda'', a farm, often little different from a peasant's dwelling, sometimes referred to as ''drobna szlachta'', "petty nobles" or yet, ''szlachta okoliczna'', meaning "local". Particularly impoverished szlachta families were often forced to become tenants of their wealthier peers. They were described as ''szlachta czynszowa'', or "tenant nobles" who paid rent.<ref>[[Jolanta Sikorska-Kulesza]], [http://otworzksiazke.pl/images/ksiazki/deklasacja_drobnej_szlachty_na_litwie_i_bialorusi_w_XIX_wieku/deklasacja_drobnej_szlachty_na_litwie_i_bialorusi_w_XIX_wieku.pdf ''Deklasacja drobnej szlachty na Litwie i Białorusi w XIX wieku''] Warsaw, Oficyna Wydawnicza "Ajaks". 1995. p.14. [accessed 2018-11-2]. This monograph describes how during the 19th century the mass of "local" szlachta in the western borderlands of the Russian Empire were subjected to downward mobility and rank poverty through tsarist bureaucracy and a policy of social degradation</ref> See "[[#Szlachta categories|Szlachta categories]]" for more.

=== Origins ===
{{See also|History of Poland during the Piast dynasty}}

==== Poland ====
[[File:Chlop w dybach biernat z lublina zywot ezopa fryga krakow 1578.jpg|thumb|A Polish peasant in [[stocks]] in a 16th-century Polish woodcut]]
[[File:Lachus I (Benoît Farjat).jpg|thumb|upright=0.72|Lech I]]
The origins of the szlachta, while ancient, have always been considered obscure.<ref name="davies--norman" />{{rp|207}} As a result, its members often referred to it as ''odwieczna'' (perennial).<ref name="davies--norman" />{{rp|207}} Two popular historical theories about its origins have been put forward by its members and early historians and chroniclers. The first theory involved a presumed descent from the ancient Iranian tribe known as [[Sarmatian]]s, who in the 2nd century AD, occupied lands in [[Eastern Europe]], and the [[Middle East]]. The second theory involved a presumed szlachta descent from [[Japheth]], one of [[Noah]]'s sons. By contrast, the peasantry were said to be the offspring of another son of Noah, [[Ham, son of Noah|Ham]] — and hence subject to bondage under the [[Curse of Ham]]. The Jews were considered the offspring of [[Shem]].<ref name="colin" /><ref name="davies1" /><ref name="Bondage to the dead: Poland and the memory of the Holocaust" /> Other fanciful theories included its foundation by [[Julius Caesar]], [[Alexander the Great]], or regional leaders who had not mixed their bloodlines with those of 'slaves, prisoners, or aliens'.<ref name="davies--norman" />{{rp|207}}<ref name="davies--norman" />{{rp|208}}

Another theory describes its derivation from a non-[[Slavs|Slavic]] [[warrior]] class,<ref name="sarmatians--sulimirski">{{cite journal
| last = Sulimirski
| first = Tadeusz
| author-link = Tadeusz Sulimirski
| date = Winter 1964
| title = Sarmatians in the Polish Past
| jstor = 25776522
| journal = [[The Polish Review]]
| location = Champaign, Champaign county, ILLINOIS, U.S.A.
| publisher = [[University of Illinois Press]] on behalf of the [[Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America]]
| volume = 9
| issue = 1
| pages = 13–66
}}</ref>{{rp|42, 64–66}} forming a distinct element known as the [[Lechites|Lechici]]/Lekhi (''Lechitów'')<ref>{{cite book
| last1 = Niesiecki S.J.
| first1 = Kasper
| author-link1 = Kasper Niesiecki
| last2 = de Bobrowicz
| first2 = Jan Nepomucen
| author-link2 = Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz
| orig-date = 1728
| date = 1846
| title = HERBARZ POLSKI
| edition = 3rd?
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JH_RAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA430
| format = online book
| language = pl
| volume = I.
| page = 430
| location = Leipzig, Saxony, GERMANY
| publisher = [[Breitkopf & Härtel]]
| access-date = 13 Oct 2014
| quote = Miano Szlachty, pochodzi od Lechitów (The name of the nobility, derived from the [[Lechites]]).
}}</ref><ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|482}} within the ancient Polonic tribal groupings ([[Gentry#The historical background of social stratification in the Western world|Indo-European caste systems]]). Similar to [[Nazism|Nazi]] racial ideology, which dictated the Polish elite were largely [[Master race|Nordic]]<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Lukas
 | first = Richard C.
 | author-link = Richard C. Lukas
 | title = Did the children cry? Hitler's war against Jewish and Polish children, 1939-1945
 | chapter = Chapter IV. Germanization; Part I
 | date = 1 July 2001
 | location = New York
 | publisher = [[Hippocrene Books]]
 | chapter-url = http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/lucas2.htm
 | type = Online excerpt from book
 | isbn = 978-0781808705
 | access-date = 17 August 2018
 | quote = The same bizarre logic was applied to the Polish intelligentsia, who led the Polish resistance movement. To the Nazis, these leaders were largely [[Master race|Nordic]] which enabled them 'To be active in contrast to the fatalistic Slavonic elements.' The implication was obvious: If the Polish elite were re-Germanized, then the mass of Polish people would be denied a dynamic leadership class.
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/didchildrencryhi0000luka
 }}</ref> (the szlachta [[Boreyko coat of arms]] heralds a [[swastika]]), this hypothesis states this upper class was not of Slavonic extraction<ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|482}} and was of a different origin than the Slavonic peasants ([[:pl:Kmieć|''kmiecie''; Latin: ''cmethones'']])<ref>{{cite book
| last1 = Niesiecki S.J.
| first1 = Kasper
| author-link1 = Kasper Niesiecki
| last2 = de Bobrowicz
| first2 = Jan Nepomucen
| author-link2 = Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz
| orig-date = 1728
| date = 1846
| title = HERBARZ POLSKI
| edition = 3rd?
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JH_RAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA430
| format = online book
| language = pl
| volume = I.
| page = 430
| location = Leipzig, Saxony, GERMANY
| publisher = [[Breitkopf & Härtel]]
| access-date = 13 Oct 2014
| quote = Kmiecie czyli lud pospolity wolny (Kmiecie is the common free people), ...
}}</ref><ref name="kmiecie--guzowski">{{cite journal
| last = Guzowski
| first = Piotr
| date = 1 May 2014
| title = Village court records and peasant credit in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Poland
| url = https://www.academia.edu/7481437
| journal = Continuity and Change
| location = Cambridge, East of England, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
| volume = 29
| issue = 1
| pages = 118
| doi = 10.1017/S0268416014000101
| s2cid = 145766720
| access-date = 9 Oct 2014
| quote = The most important and the most numerous section of the peasantry in late medieval and early modern Poland was the kmiecie (Latin: cmethones), full peasant holders of hereditary farms with an average size in the region under study of half a mansus, which was equivalent to eight [[hectare]]s. Farms belonging to kmiecie were largely self-sufficient, although some of them were, to varying extents, engaged in production for the market. Other, less numerous, sections of the peasantry were the zagrodnicy (Latin: ortulani), or smallholders, and the ogrodnicy, or cottagers, who farmed small plots of land. These two categories of peasants were not able to support themselves and their families from their land, so they earned extra money as hired labourers on their landlords' land, or that of the kmiecie. Apart from the holders of large or small farms, Polish villages were also inhabited by so-called komornicy, landless lodgers who earned wages locally. This group included village craftsmen, while the wealthiest kmiecie included millers and innkeepers.}}</ref> over which they ruled.<ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|482}}

In old Poland, there were two nations – szlachta and peasants.<ref>{{cite web
 | url = http://czaskultury.pl/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WKuligowski_AHistoryOfPolishSerfdom_CzasKultury_3_2016.pdf
 | title = A History of Polish Serfdom. Theses and Antitheses
 | last = Kuligowski
 | first = Waldemar Tadeusz
 | date = 2 February 2017
 | website = Czas Kultury
 | page = 116
 | access-date = 6 April 2020
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200406222122/http://czaskultury.pl/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WKuligowski_AHistoryOfPolishSerfdom_CzasKultury_3_2016.pdf
 | archive-date = 6 April 2020
 | language = en
 | quote = In Poland two, near-nations appeared – nobles and peasants, and between them there was a Jewish wall.}}</ref> The szlachta were differentiated from the rural population.<ref>{{cite web
 | last = Jastrzębiec-Czajkowski
 | first = Leszek Jan
 | title = Niektóre dane z historii slachty i herbu
 | work = Ornatowski.com
 | publisher = Artur Ornatowski
 | url = http://www.ornatowski.com/lib/zhistoriiszlachty.htm
 | access-date = 9 Oct 2014
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305045021/http://www.ornatowski.com/lib/zhistoriiszlachty.htm
 | archive-date = 5 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | last = Dmowski
 | first = Roman Stanisław
 | author-link = Roman Dmowski
 | editor-last = Duff
 | editor-first = James Duff
 | editor-link = James Duff Duff
 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/RussianRealitiesAndProblems
 | title = RUSSIAN REALITIES & PROBLEMS
 | year = 1917
 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
 | location = Cambridge, East of England, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
 | page = 91
 | chapter = Poland, Old And New
 | quote = The population consists of free [[Husbandman|husbandmen]] and slaves. Above them there is a class of warriors, very strong numerically, from which the ruler chooses his officials.}}</ref> In harshly stratified and [[Elitism|elitist]] Polish society,<ref name="krasinski--szlachta-are-poland" /><ref name="only-szlachta-are-citizens" /><ref name="peasants-not-want-polish-state">{{cite book
| last = Struve
| first = Kai
| editor-last = Wawrzeniuk
| editor-first = Piotr
| editor-link = Piotr Wawrzeniuk
| chapter-url = https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:214737/FULLTEXT01.pdf
| type = History
| title = SOCIETAL CHANGE AND IDEOLOGICAL FORMATION AMONG THE RURAL POPULATION OF THE BALTIC AREA 1880-1939
| chapter = Citizenship and National Identity: the Peasants of Galicia during the 19th Century
| year = 2008
| publisher = [[Södertörn University|Södertörns högskola]]
| location = [[Flemingsberg]], [[Huddinge Municipality|Huddinge municipality]], [[Stockholm County|Stockholm county]], [[Sweden|KINGDOM OF SWEDEN]]
| isbn = 978-91-85139-11-8
| page = 78
| quote = The peasants feared the reestablishment of a Polish state because they expected it to be the state of their landlords. Their memory of independent Poland, conveyed from one generation to the next, was one of landlord wilfulness and a lack of rights.}}</ref> the szlachta's sense of distinction led to practices that in later periods would be characterized as racism.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Davies
 | first = Norman |author-link=Norman Davies
 | title = GOD'S PLAYGROUND: A HISTORY OF POLAND, VOLUME 1: THE ORIGINS TO 1795
 | year = 1982
 | isbn = 0231053517
 | publisher = [[Columbia University Press]]
 | location = New York City, NEW YORK, U.S.A.
 | page = 233
 | quote = The nobleman's belief in the exclusive quality of his own estate led to practices which nowadays could only be described as an expression of Racism.| title-link = God's Playground
 }}</ref> [[Wacław Potocki]], herbu [[Srzeniawa coat of arms|Śreniawa]] (1621–1696), proclaimed [[:pl:Chłopi|peasants]] "by nature" are "chained to the land and plow," that even an educated peasant would always remain a peasant, because "it is impossible to transform a [[dog]] into a [[lynx]]."<ref>{{cite web
 | last = Jastrzębiec-Czajkowski
 | first = Leszek Jan
 | title = Niektóre dane z historii slachty i herbu
 | work = Ornatowski.com
 | location = Warsaw
 | publisher = Artur Ornatowski
 | url = http://www.ornatowski.com/lib/zhistoriiszlachty.htm
 | access-date = 22 August 2018
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305045021/http://www.ornatowski.com/lib/zhistoriiszlachty.htm
 | archive-date = 5 March 2016
 | quote=Podobnie głosił [[Wacław Potocki]] h. [[Srzeniawa coat of arms|Śreniawa]], że [[:pl:Chłopi|chłopi]] 'z natury' są 'sprawieni do ziemi i do pługa', że nawet wykształcony chłop zawsze pozostanie chłopem, bo 'niepodobna przerobić psa na rysia'; ... ([[Wacław Potocki]], herbu [[Srzeniawa coat of arms|Śreniawa]], proclaimed [[:pl:Chłopi|peasants]] 'by nature' are 'chained to the land and plow,' that even an educated peasant would always remain a peasant, because 'it is impossible to transform a [[dog]] into a [[lynx]].')}}</ref> The szlachta were noble in the [[Aryan]] (see ''[[Alans]]'') sense -- "noble" in contrast to the people over whom they ruled after coming into contact with them.<ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|482}}

The szlachta traced their descent from [[Lech, Czech, and Rus|Lech/Lekh]], who allegedly founded the Polish kingdom in about the fifth century.<ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|482}} [[Lechia]] was the name of Poland in antiquity, and the szlachta's own name for themselves was [[Lechites|Lechici]]/Lekhi.<ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|482}} [[Richard Holt Hutton]] argued an exact counterpart of szlachta society was the system of tenure of southern India—an aristocracy of equality—settled as conquerors among a separate race.<ref name="races-old-world" />{{rp|484}} Some elements of the Polish state paralleled the [[Roman Empire]]<ref name="roman-empire" /><ref name="szlachta-roman-republicanism" /> in that full rights of citizenship were limited to the szlachta.<ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002" /><ref name="polish-peasant-not-belong-to-polish-nation" /> According to British historian {{ill|Alexander Bruce Boswell|pl}}, the 16th-century szlachta ideal was a [[Polis|Greek polis]]—a body of citizens, a small merchant class, and a multitude of laborers.<ref name="szlachta-aristocratic-greek-city-state">{{cite book
 | last = Boswell
 | first = Alexander Bruce
 | author-link = :pl:Alexander Bruce Boswell
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=loBDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66
 | format = GOOGLE EBOOK
 | title = POLAND AND THE POLES
 | year = 1919
 | publisher = [[Dodd, Mead and Company]]
 | location = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|NEW YORK]], U.S.A.
 | page = 66
 | quote = Their ideal was that of a Greek city State—a body of citizens, a small trading class, and a mass of labourers.}}</ref> The laborers consisted of peasants in [[serfdom]].<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Ross
 | first = M.
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fqxDAAAAYAAJ
 | title = A history of Poland from its foundation as a state to the present time; including a full account of the recent patriotic struggle to re-establish its independence. To which is prefixed, a descriptive view of the country, its natural history, cities and towns, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants
 | year = 1835
 | publisher = PATTISON AND ROSS
 | location = Newcastle upon Tyne
 | page = 55
 | chapter = A Descriptive View of Poland: Character, Manners, and Customs of the Poles
 | quote = The peasants of Poland, as in all feudal countries, were serfs, or slaves; and the value of an estate was not estimated from its extent, but from the number of peasants, who were transferred, like cattle, from one master to another.}}</ref> The szlachta had the exclusive right to enter the clergy until the time of the [[Partitions of Poland|three partitions of Poland–Lithuania]],<ref name="topor-jakubowski-clergy-szlachta-exclusive-right">{{cite web
| url = http://www.ststanislas.org/papers/american_nob.htm
| title = It's Time to End the Myth That Polish Immigrants Were Peasants
| last = [[Topór coat of arms|Topór]]-Jakubowski
| first = Theodore
| website = West European Grand Priory, International Order of St Stanislas
| publisher = Order of St Stanislas
| location = Croxteth House, Liverpool, Lancashire county, Merseyside, North West England, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020704093315/http://www.ststanislas.org/papers/american_nob.htm
| archive-date = 4 July 2002
| access-date = 24 April 2021
| quote = I would also like to add, for myself, that the szlachta possessed the exclusive right to enter the clergy up until the time of the three partitions.}}</ref> and the szlachta and clergy believed they were genetically superior to peasants.<ref>{{cite web
 | url = http://czaskultury.pl/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WKuligowski_AHistoryOfPolishSerfdom_CzasKultury_3_2016.pdf
 | title = A History of Polish Serfdom. Theses and Antitheses
 | last = Kuligowski
 | first = Waldemar Tadeusz
 | date = 2 February 2017
 | website = Czas Kultury
 | location = [[Poznań]]
 | page = 116
 | access-date = 6 April 2020
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200406222122/http://czaskultury.pl/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WKuligowski_AHistoryOfPolishSerfdom_CzasKultury_3_2016.pdf
 | archive-date = 6 April 2020
 | language = en
 | quote = To distance itself from the peasants, the nobility (and clergy) cultivated a belief in their genetic superiority over the peasants.}}</ref> The szlachta regarded peasants as a lower species.<ref>{{cite web
 | url = http://czaskultury.pl/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WKuligowski_AHistoryOfPolishSerfdom_CzasKultury_3_2016.pdf
 | title = A History of Polish Serfdom. Theses and Antitheses
 | last = Kuligowski
 | first = Waldemar Tadeusz
 | date = 2 February 2017
 | website = Czas Kultury
 | location = [[Poznań]]
 | page = 118
 | access-date = 6 April 2020
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200406222122/http://czaskultury.pl/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WKuligowski_AHistoryOfPolishSerfdom_CzasKultury_3_2016.pdf
 | archive-date = 6 April 2020
 | language = en
 | quote = Nobility does not enter, or does so very unwillingly, into marriages with serfs, regarding them as a lower species.}}</ref> Quoting Bishop of Poznań, [[Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki|Wawrzyniec Goślicki, herbu Grzymała]] (between 1530 and 1540–1607):

<blockquote>
"The kingdome of Polonia doth also consist of the said three sortes, that is, the king, nobility and people. But it is to be noted, that this word people includeth only knights and gentlemen. ... The gentlemen of Polonia doe represent the popular state, for in them consisteth a great part of the government, and they are as a Seminarie from whence Councellors and Kinges are taken."<ref>{{cite book
| last = Frost
| first = Robert I.
| author-link = Robert I. Frost
| editor1-last = Leonhard
| editor1-first = Jörn
| editor1-link = Jörn Leonhard
| editor2-last = Wieland
| editor2-first = Christian
| title = WHAT MAKES THE NOBILITY NOBLE?: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES FROM THE SIXTEENTH TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
| chapter = Nobility, Citizenship and Corporate Decision-Making in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1454-1795
| date = 23 June 2011
| publisher = [[Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht]]
| location = [[Göttingen]], [[Göttingen (district)|Göttingen district]], [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany|GERMANY]]
| isbn = 978-3525310410
| pages = 148–149
| quote = 'The kingdome of Polonia doth also consist of the said three sortes, that is, the king, nobility and people. But it is to be noted, that this word people includeth only knights and gentlemen.' This limitation of political rights to the szlachta, Goślicki argued, meant that the system was more balanced and virtuous since it was based on the best elements of society: ... 'The gentlemen of Polonia doe represent the popular state, for in them consisteth a great part of the government, and they are as a Seminarie from whence Councellors and Kinges are taken.'}}</ref>
</blockquote>

{{Clear}}

===== Military caste and aristocracy =====
[[File:Zbroja 1514.JPG|upright=0.78|thumb|Polish armor from the [[Battle of Orsha]], 1514]]
[[File:Bolesław I Wysoki.PNG|thumb|right|upright|[[Bolesław I the Tall|Bolesław I the Tall (1127–1201)]] with heraldic shield, by [[Jan Matejko]]]]
The social status of szlachta is compared with [[caste]],<ref name="szacki--caste--1995" /> a military caste, similar to castes in [[Hindu]] society.<ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002" /><ref name="zamoyski-warrior-caste" /> In the year 1244, [[Bolesław I of Masovia|Bolesław, Duke of Masovia]], identified members of the [[knight]]s' clan as members of a ''genealogia:''{{huh|date=April 2025|reason=something is messed up either in translation or in Wikipedian's undertanding of the source. Sources must be checked}}

<blockquote>
"I received my good servitors [Raciborz and Albert] from the land of [[Greater Poland|[Great] Poland]], and from the clan [''genealogia''] called [[Jelita coat of arms|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]."
</blockquote>

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. {{Harv|Górecki|1992|pp=183–185}}.

<blockquote>
"In Poland, the Radwanice were noted relatively early (1274) as the descendants of [[Radwan coat of arms|Radwan]], a knight [more properly a "rycerz" from the German "[[ritter]]"] active a few decades earlier. ..."<ref name="radwan">[[:pl:Janusz Bieniak|Janusz Bieniak]], "Knight Clans in Medieval Poland," in [[:pl:Antoni Gąsiorowski (ur. 1932)|Antoni Gąsiorowski]] (ed.), THE POLISH NOBILITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES: ANTHOLOGIES, [[Ossolineum|Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich]]; Wrocław, POLAND, EU; 1984, page 154.</ref><ref name="radwan-family-line">{{cite book
 | last = Okolski
 | first = Szymon
|author-link=Szymon Okolski
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eKBMAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA564
 | section= RADWAN alias WIRBOW.
 | title= Orbis Polonus
 | date = 1643
 | publisher = Franciscus Caesarius
 | location = [[Kraków]]
 | volume = II
 | page = 564
 | archive-date = 8 June 2017
 | access-date = 8 June 2017
 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20170608065310/https://books.google.nl/books?id=eKBMAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA564&redir_esc=y%23v=onepage&q&f=false
 | language = la
 | quote = LINEA FAMILIAE RADWAN}}</ref>
</blockquote>

[[Escutcheon (heraldry)|Escutcheons]] and [[Coat of arms|hereditary coats of arms]] with eminent privileges attached is an honor derived from the ancient Germans. Where Germans did not inhabit, and where German customs were unknown, no such thing existed.<ref>{{cite book
 |last = Hobbes
 |first = Thomas
 |author-link = Thomas Hobbes
 |title = LEVIATHAN
 |chapter = Chapter X. Of Power, Worth, Dignity, Honour and Worthiness; To Honour and Dishonour
 |year = 1651
 |location = [[Andrew Crooke and William Cooke|Andrew Crooke's]] Shop, Sign of the Green Dragon, [[St Paul's Cathedral]] Churchyard, [[Ludgate Hill]], [[London]], [[England|ENGLAND]]
 |publisher = [[Andrew Crooke and William Cooke|ANDREW CROOKE]]
 |chapter-format = website
 |chapter-url = https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm
 |type = Online eBook
 |access-date = 17 August 2018
 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20131117220000/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm
 |archive-date = 2013-11-17
 |quote = Scutchions, and coats of Armes haereditary, where they have any eminent Priviledges, are Honourable; otherwise not: for their Power consisteth either in such Priviledges, or in Riches, or some such thing as is equally honoured in other men. This kind of Honour, commonly called Gentry, has been derived from the Antient Germans. For there never was any such thing known, where the German Customes were unknown. Nor is it now any where in use, where the Germans have not inhabited.
 |url-status = live
}}</ref> The usage of heraldry in Poland was brought in by knights arriving from [[Silesia]], [[Lusatia]], [[Meissen]], and [[Bohemia]]. Migrations from here were the most frequent, and the time period was the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Jelinska-Marchal
| first = D.
| editor1-last = Judycki
| editor1-first = Z.
| title = THE POLISH ARMORIAL POLANAIS
| year = 1988
| location = [[Château-Thierry]], [[Aisne|Aisne department]], [[Hauts-de-France|Hauts-de-France region]], [[France|FRANCE]]
| publisher = Albi Corvi
| page = 11
| isbn = 978-2907771009}}</ref> However, unlike other European [[chivalry]], coats of arms were associated with Polish knights' clans' (''genealogiae'') names and war cries (''godło''), where heraldic devices came to be held in common by entire clans, fighting in regiments.<ref name="zamoyski-whole-clans">{{cite book
 | last = Zamoyski
 | first = Adam
|author-link=Adam Zamoyski
 | title = The Polish Way: A Thousand-year history of the Poles and their culture
 | orig-date = 1987
 | year = 1998
 | edition = Fourth Printing
 | isbn = 0-7818-0200-8
 | publisher = [[Hippocrene Books]]
 | location = New York
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/55 55]
 | quote = Polish coats of arms are utterly unlike those of European chivalry, and were held in common by whole clans which fought as regiments.
 | url = https://archive.org/details/polishwaythousan00zamo/page/55
 }}</ref><ref name="zamoyski-clannish-structures" /><ref name="dmowski-clan-system" /> {{Harv|Górecki|1992|pp=183–185}}.

Around the 14th century, there was little difference between knights and the ''szlachta'' in Poland. Members of the szlachta had the personal obligation to defend the country (''[[pospolite ruszenie]]''), thereby becoming within the kingdom a military caste<ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002" /><ref name="zamoyski-warrior-caste" /> and [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocracy]]<ref name="races-old-world--aristocracy--caste" /> with political power and extensive rights secured.<ref name="szlachta-equality" /><ref name="szlachta--allodial" /><ref name="zamoyski-clannish-structures" /> Inclusion in the warrior caste was almost exclusively based on inheritance.<ref name="szacki--inherited--1995" /><ref name="topor-jakubowski--1998">{{cite periodical
 | last = Jakubowski
 | first = Theodore
 | editor-last = Suligowski
 | editor-first = Leonard Joseph
 | title = 15th-Century Polish Nobility in the 21st Century
 | periodical= White Eagle: Journal of the Polish Nobility Association Foundation
 | date=Spring–Summer 1998
 | page = 9
 | location = Baltimore, MD
 | url = http://pnaf.us/pdfs/white-eagle-spring-summer-1998.pdf
 | quote = Membership in the Polish szlachta was hereditary. ... (and the family knighthood, rycerstwo, in itself) ... The paramount principle regarding Polish nobility is that it was hereditary. ... one Rudolf Lambert had successfully proven his right to hereditary knighthood (szlachectwo) ... He [Nikodem Tadeusz] was also Marshal of the Knighthood (using the word rycerz and not szlachcic ...)}}</ref>

Concerning the early Polish tribes, geography contributed to long-standing traditions. The Polish tribes were internalized and organized around a unifying religious cult, governed by the ''[[Veche|wiec]]'', an assembly of free tribesmen. Later, when safety required power to be consolidated, an elected prince was chosen to govern. The election privilege was usually limited to elites.<ref name="bardach202627" />

The tribes were ruled by clans ([[:pl:Ród|''ród'']]) consisting of people related by blood or marriage and theoretically descending from a common ancestor,<ref name="radwan-family-line" /> 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 ''[[Gord (Slavic settlement)|grόd]]'' were built where the 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. {{Harv|Manteuffel|1982|p=44}} The family unit of a tribe is called the ''rodzina'', while a collection of tribes is a [[:pl:Plemię|''plemię'']].

[[Mieszko I of Poland]] (c. 935 – 25 May 992) established an elite knightly retinue from within his army, which he depended upon for success in uniting the [[Lechites|Lekhitic]] tribes and preserving the unity of his state. Documented proof exists of Mieszko I's successors utilizing such a retinue, as well.

Another group of knights were granted land in [[allod]]ium, not [[Feudal land tenure in England|feudal tenure]],<ref name="szlachta--allodial" /> by the prince, allowing them the economic ability to serve the prince militarily. A Polish warrior belonging to the military caste<ref name="topor-jakubowski--2002" /><ref name="zamoyski-warrior-caste" /> living at the time prior to the 15th century was referred to as a "rycerz", very roughly equivalent to the English "knight," the critical difference being the status of "rycerz" was almost strictly hereditary;<ref name="szacki--inherited--1995" /><ref name="topor-jakubowski--1998" /> the group of all such warriors was known as the "rycerstwo".<ref name="topor-jakubowski--1998" /> Representing the wealthier families of Poland and itinerant knights from abroad seeking their fortunes, this other group of rycerstwo, which became the szlachta ("szlachta" becomes the proper term for Polish [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocracy]]<ref name="races-old-world--aristocracy--caste" /> beginning about the 15th century), gradually formed apart from Mieszko I's and his successors' elite retinues. This rycerstwo/[[Aristocracy (class)|aristocracy]]<ref name="races-old-world--aristocracy--caste" /> secured more rights granting them favored status. They were absolved from particular burdens and obligations under ducal law, resulting in the belief only rycerstwo (those combining military prowess with high/aristocratic birth) could serve as officials in state administration.

Select rycerstwo were distinguished above the other rycerstwo, because they descended from past tribal dynasties, or because early [[Piast dynasty|Piasts']] endowments made them select beneficiaries. These rycerstwo of great wealth were called ''możni'' ("the powerful ones"). They had the same political status and status in law as the rycerstwo from which they all originated<ref name="dmowski-magnates-szlachta">{{cite book
 | last = Dmowski
 | first = Roman Stanisław
 | author-link = Roman Dmowski
 | editor-last = Duff
 | editor-first = James Duff
 | editor-link = James Duff Duff
 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/RussianRealitiesAndProblems
 | title = RUSSIAN REALITIES & PROBLEMS
 | year = 1917
 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
 | location = Cambridge, East of England, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
 | page = 94
 | chapter = Poland, Old And New
 | quote = But between the gentry and the magnates there was only a difference of wealth and culture. Both belonged directly to the same class of the community, both were members of the same clans, and the gentry by its social character was destined rather to co-operate with the magnates than to struggle against them. And, as both those elements occupied the same legal position, the power wrested from the king by the magnates became legally an acquisition of the whole of the nobility, ...}}</ref> and to which they would return were their wealth lost. {{Harv|Manteuffel|1982|pp=148–149}}

[[Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth|The Period of Division (1138–1314)]], which included nearly 200 years of fragmentation and which stemmed from [[Bolesław III]]'s division of Poland among his sons, was the genesis of the political structure where the powerful landowning szlachta (''możni'', both ecclesiastical and lay), whose land was in allodium, not feudal tenure,<ref name="szlachta--allodial" /><ref name="szlachta-equality" /> were economically elevated above the rycerstwo they originated from. The prior political structure was one of Polish tribes united into the historic Polish nation under a state ruled by the [[Piast dynasty]], this dynasty appearing circa 850 A.D.

Some ''możni'' descending from past tribal dynasties regarded themselves as co-proprietors of Piast realms,<ref name="szlachta-equality" /><ref name="szlachta--allodial" /> even though the Piasts attempted to deprive them of their independence. These ''możni'' constantly sought to [[Bolesław III Wrymouth#Fight against Sieciech|undermine princely authority]].<ref name="davies--norman" />{{rp|75, 76}} In [[Gallus Anonymus|Gall Anonym's]] chronicle, there is noted the nobility's alarm when the [[Count palatine|Palatine]] [[Sieciech]] "elevated those of a lower class over those who were noble born" entrusting them with state offices. {{Harv|Manteuffel|1982|p=149}}

==== Lithuania ====
{{Main|Lithuanian nobility}}
[[File:Jogaila (Władysław II).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jogaila (Władysław II)]]]]
In [[Lithuania Propria]] and in [[Samogitia]], prior to the creation of the [[Kingdom of Lithuania]] by [[Mindaugas]], nobles were called ''die beste leuten'' in [[German language|German]] sources. In Lithuanian, nobles were named ''ponai''. The higher nobility were named ''kunigai'' or ''kunigaikščiai'' (dukes) — a loanword from Scandinavian ''[[konung]]''. They were the established local leaders and warlords. During the development of the state, they gradually became subordinated to higher dukes, and later to the [[King of Lithuania]]. Because of Lithuanian expansion into the lands of [[Ruthenia]] in the middle of the 14th century, a new term for nobility appeared — ''bajorai'', from [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]] ''бояре''. This word is used to this day in Lithuania to refer to nobility in general, including those from abroad.

After the [[Union of Horodło]], the Lithuanian nobility acquired equal status with its Polish counterparts. Over time they became increasingly [[Polonized]], although they did preserve their [[nation]]al consciousness, and in most cases recognition of their Lithuanian family roots. In the 16th century, some of the Lithuanian nobility claimed that they were descended from the Romans, and that the [[Lithuanian language]] was derived from Latin. This led to a conundrum: Polish nobility claimed its own ancestry from [[Sarmatians|Sarmatian]] tribes, but Sarmatians were considered enemies of the Romans. Thus, a new Roman-Sarmatian theory was created. Strong cultural ties with Polish nobility led to a new term for Lithuanian nobility appearing in the 16th century — ''šlėkta'', a direct loanword from Polish ''szlachta''. Recently, Lithuanian linguists advocated dropping the usage of this Polish loanword.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kiaupienė |first=Jūratė |author-link=Jūratė Kiaupienė |year=2003 |title="Mes, Lietuva": Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės bajorija XVI a. |trans-title="We the Lithuania": nobility of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 16th c. |language=lt |publisher=Kronta |isbn=9955-595-08-6 |page=64}}</ref>

The process of [[Polonization]] took place over a lengthy period. At first only the leading members of the nobility were involved. Gradually the wider population became affected. Major effects on the lesser Lithuanian nobility occurred after various sanctions were imposed by the [[Russian Empire]], such as removing ''Lithuania'' from the names of the ''Gubernyas'' shortly after the [[November Uprising]].<ref name="Ochmański">{{cite book |last=Ochmański |first=Jerzy |title=The National Idea in Lithuania from the 16th to the First Half of the 19th Century: The Problem of Cultural-Linguistic Differentiation |publisher=Mickiewicz University |year=1986 |location=Poznań}}</ref> After the [[January Uprising]] the sanctions went further, and Russian officials began to intensify [[Lithuanian press ban#Origins and legal basis|Russification]], and [[Lithuanian press ban|banned the printing of books in Lithuanian]].

==== Ruthenia ====
{{Main|Ruthenian nobility}}
After the principalities of [[Halych]] and [[Volhynia]] became integrated with the Grand Duchy, [[Ruthenia]]'s nobility gradually rendered loyalty to the multilingual and cultural [[melting pot]] that was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Many noble Ruthenian families intermarried with Lithuanians.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The rights of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] nobles were nominally equal to those enjoyed by the Polish and Lithuanian nobility, but they were put under cultural pressure to convert to Catholicism.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} It was a policy that was greatly eased in 1596 by the [[Union of Brest]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} See, for example, the careers of Senator [[Adam Kisiel]] and [[Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}