Lubomirski Family - Origin and The Coat of Arms

Origin and The Coat of Arms

The Princes Lubomirski Family has been present in the history of Poland since the 10th century. There are two theories of the family origin. The former, by Adam Boniecki, Polish heraldist, assumes that there were two branches of the family. One settled down at the Szreniawa River in Proszowice County, while the other – in Szczyrzyc County. The date of the division of the family is not known, but most likely it was before the adoption of Christianity by Poland. The Szreniawici family had a common coat of arms, which means that they also had the same predecessors. At the time of Mieszko I, the members of the family demonstrated bravery in battles against pagans. For this deed, they were rewarded with the rank of knight and the coat of arms. The fellowship (Szreniawa without a Cross) depicts bends of the Szreniawa River in the form of a letter S of white colour on a red background. With the motto Patriam Versus (Turned to the Homeland) it has been used by the representatives of the family until now.

The author of the second theory of the family origin is the medievalist Władysław Semkowicz. In his article “The fellowship and Śreniawa. Heraldic study” he writes that the family used to live at the banks of the Szreniawa River in Szczyrzycki poviat, that is the area surrounded by Raba, Stradomka with Trzciański Brook, Łososina and Krzyworzeka Streams. Semkowicz describes that original family territory of Drużynnici (predecessors of the Lubomirski, Wieruski, Rupniewski and Lasocki families) was located there. Whereas the coat of arms does not show bends of the river, but a curved rod – a sign of episcopal or secular power. It would mean that the family many centuries before the adoption of the name had served significant functions associated with power.

Further history of the Szreniawici or Drużynnici families is closely linked with the court of the rulers of the Piast dynasty. One of them was a canon at the Wawel court. Persons using this coat of arms belonged to the inner circle of Bolesław Śmiały – his personal team, as mentioned by the most famous Polish chronicler Jan Długosz in Annals or Chronicles of the Famous Kingdom of Poland . And the oldest document on the Lubomirski family comes from the 11th century. It is the property section entered in the register in 1682 in Kraków. The original no longer exists. There is only a mention in the Crown Register under a given year. Successive members of the family took up positions of bishops, central functions at the court of the Piast dynasty; extended their estates through investing in acres, mainly within the territory of the Małopolska province. Jakub Lubomirski served as a borough writer in the 14th century.