Ястребец: Древнейший польский герб.

Polish coat of arms

Jastrzębiec is one of the most ancient Polish coat of arms. Dating back to the 10th century, it has been used by Poland's oldest szlachta families — Poland's Immemorial nobility — and remains in use today.

According to the Polish Czech writer and heraldist Bartosz Paprocki, this coat of arms is called Jastrzebiec because the clan's pagan ancestors bore a Goshawk, or Jastrzab. had her horse shod with silver shoes. Others before her used iron. In 278, in Bohemia, there was a noble house with three horseshoes on its seal. In Poland, in the time of Leszek II, Leszek the Traitor shod his horse to cross Pradnik Field, which was covered in barbs, to get to a crown on a pillar, and was credited as being the inventor of horseshoes. It may therefore be that Jastrzebczyk renewed a previous practice. Possibly, the arms arrived in Poland with Lech, the legendary founder of Poland. The cross may have added for a member of his family who was baptized (in Stromata, Paprocki affirms that one member of this family while in foreign lands, converted to Christianity there, and this was the cause of the Polish prince Mieczyslaw's Mieszko conversion). The antiquity of the arms is further attested to by one of the Jastrzebczyks being among the twelve voivodes who at different times ruled the entire country. Books: Crönungs Ceremoniel , Oder Accurate Nachricht , was Bey der Crönung Des Aller

The following is from the classic heraldic reference Herbarz Polski, by Kasper Niesiecki, S. J., Leipzig edition, 1839 1846. In this book, for each herb (clan shield or coat of arms) the blazon, or verbal description of the arms, is first given in authentic heraldic style, followed by a translation from the Polish description by Niesiecki. Arms: azure, a horseshoe reversed, between its branches, a small cross patée en abime, both or. Upon a wreath of the colors mantled of his liveries whereon is set for a crest: out of a ducal coronet, a hawk proper, wings surgent, belled and jessed, holding in its dexter talons, a charge of the shield. On a shield in a blue field is a gold horseshoe, with its heels pointed straight up, and in its center a cross; on the helmet over a crown is a goshawk with its wings slightly raised for flight, facing the right side of the shield. On its legs are small bells and a leather strap, in its right talon it holds a horseshoe with cross, like those on the shield. In heraldry, the right and left sides of a shield are considered from the standpoint of the bearer—i. e., the one holding the shield. His right would be your left and vice versa. The tinctures (colors) are as follows: azure = blue; gules = red; sable = black; or = gold; argent = silver; and vert = green. All charges (pictures) on a shield are assumed to be facing dexter (bearer's right side) unless otherwise specified. In Polish heraldry, all animals or birds are assumed to be in their natural coloring unless otherwise specified.