Editing Szlachta (section)

=== Heraldry ===
{{Main|Polish heraldry}}
[[File:Gelre Folio 53v.jpg|right|thumb|220px|[[List of Polish nobility coats of arms images|Polish coats of arms]] in the [[Gelre Armorial]] (compiled before 1396), among them [[Leliwa coat of arms]], [[Ogończyk coat of arms]], [[Ostoja coat of arms]] ([[Clan Ostoja|Ostoja knights' clan]]), [[Nałęcz coat of arms]].]]
{{Commons category|Coats of arms of families of Poland}}
[[Coat of arms|Coats of arms]] were very important to the szlachta. Its heraldic system evolved together with neighbouring states in [[Central Europe]], while differing in many ways from the heraldry of other European countries. Polish Knighthood had its counterparts, links and roots in [[Moravia]], e.g. [[Poraj coat of arms]] and in [[Germany]], e.g. [[Junosza coat of arms]].

Families who had a common origin would also share a coat of arms. They would also share their crest with families adopted into the clan. Sometimes unrelated families would be falsely attributed to a clan on the basis of similarity of crests. Some noble families inaccurately claimed clan membership. The number of coats of arms in this system was comparatively low and did not exceed 200 in the late Middle Ages. There were 40,000 in the late 18th century.

At the [[Union of Horodło]], forty-seven families of Catholic Lithuanian lords and boyars were adopted by Polish szlachta families and allowed to use Polish coats of arms.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frost|first1=Robert I.|title=The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=115}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Marian|first1=Biskup|chapter=Polish Diplomacy during the Angewin and Jagiellonian Era (1370-1572): X-XX C|title=The History of Polish Diplomacy: X-XX C|date=2005|publisher=Sejm Publishing Office|page=79}}</ref>

==== Heritability ====
The tradition of differentiating between a coat of arms and a [[Lozenge (heraldry)|lozenge]] granted to women, did not develop in Poland. By the 17th century, invariably, men and women inherited a coat of arms from their father.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} When mixed marriages developed after the partitions, that is between commoners and members of the nobility, as a courtesy, children could claim a coat of arms from their [[distaff]] side, but this was only tolerated and could not be passed on to the next generation. The [[brisure]] was rarely used. All children would inherit the coat of arms and title of their father. This partly accounts for the relatively large proportion of Polish families who had claim to a coat of arms by the 18th century. Another factor was the arrival of titled foreign settlers, especially from the German lands and the Habsburg Empire.

Illegitimate children could adopt the mother's surname and title by the consent of the mother's father, but would sometimes be adopted and raised by the natural father's family, thereby acquiring the father's surname, though not the title or arms.

{{Clear}}