Editing Szlachta (section)

==== 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}}