Herb Pobog
Research Heraldry Herb Pobog
Herbarz Polski translation
Pobog herb
For each herb [clan shield, 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. The right and left sides of a shield are identified 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) in heraldry are as follows: azure = blue, gules = red; sable = black; or = gold, argent = silver; vert = green. In heraldry all charges (pictures) on a shield are assumed to be facing dexter (right side) unless otherwise specified. In Polish heraldry all animals or birds are assumed to be in their natural coloring unless otherwise specified.
Arms: Azure, a horseshoe argent, surmounted of a cross patée, or, mantled of his liveries, whereupon is set for a crest: out of a ducal coronet a demi greyhound rampant, collared and leashed, all proper.
A horseshoe is shown with its ridge upward in a blue field; it is silver or polished iron, atop it is a cross of gold. On the helmet a half greyhound appears, as if leaping from the crown, facing the right; it is collared and leashed. Thus it is described by Paprocki in Gniazdo Cnoty, pages 201 and 1175, and in O herbach, page 173 and 673, and by Okolski, vol. 2, page 423. These arms are usually called Pobog, but Kromer calls them Poboze. In a Horodlo grant of privilege of King Wladyslaw Jagiello in Lask. w Stat., page 127, it is Pobodze.
In general the authors, with the exception of Joachim Bielski in his Chronicle, have these arms coming from the Jastrzebczyks [members of the clan using Jastrzebiec arms], but there is no agreement among them as to whether they come directly from the Jastrzebczyks or by way of the Zaglobczyks [those using the Zagloba arms, which also feature a horseshoe, but with a sword through it]. In O herbach and in Ksiazka Stromata Paprocki tells how a Zaglobczyk-according to Rozycki in Przemowa Zalobna, a nephew of the first Zaglobczyk,-found himself in disgrace and a modification in his ancient coat of arms required, due to some act of excess which all his relatives blamed on his uncle. He attempted to free himself and his descendants of this infamy by performing some significant service. He traveled, therefore, to other countries and foreign courts, and, having gained recognition for himself, received from those lords a letter of recommendation to the Pope. Praised by the Pope, he was easily able to have his coat of arms changed there by eliminating the sword on top [of the horseshoe] and putting a cross there, and having the greyhound added. He returned with Papal letters to Poland, to King Boleslaw Chrobry, and the King praised him and confirmed the modification, naming the arms Poboz on account of his piety [poboz -is the root of the word poboznosc, "piety"].
But there are some who maintain that the greyhound was added to the helmet on a different occasion. When this first of the Pobog clan, who had endeared himself by his virtue to many in other countries, took as his wife a lady from a noted house, whose seal featured a greyhound, in memory of this union he added the greyhound to his helmet. There are a great many houses in France, Italy, Germany, and Britain who use one or several leashed greyhounds in their seals; see Petrasancta's book, chapters 63 and 54. Bielski (page 70) maintains that one of the Pobog clan was among the envoys who traveled in the deputation to summon Kazimierz the Monk to the throne of Poland.
Ancestors of This House
Paprocki, after Kromer, lists under these arms Bolesta, Wizna castellan, who held a certain part of the administration in Prussia in 1167, in the days of Boleslaw the Curly-Haired. According to Cromer (book 6) his son was supposedly the first starosta of Płock. The same author [Paprocki, not Kromer], in Gniazdo cnoty mentions Bolesta, cupbearer to King Kazimierz, in 1080. Bolesta, Mazovian general starosta, is on a letter of Mazovian Prince Jan in 1387, as shown in Paprocki's O herbach (page 323), but I would regard these Bolestas as members of the Jastrzebiec clan, not the Pobog, inasmuch as Paprocki calls the Jastrzebiec arms Boleszczyc and the family of the Bolesz Jastrzebczyks flourishes to this day, as was discussed in volume four under the Jastrzebiec coat of arms. Długosz, whom Paprocki cites, wrote of the Pobog clan that they were "ad iracundiam proni" [prone to anger].
Stefan, Gniezno archbishop, was an ancestor of this house-true, Janicius and Paprocki put him under Topor arms, and Okolski sometimes puts him among the Topors, sometimes among the Pobogs; but Długosz, the most ancient author of them all, would have it that he was a Pobog. At Stefan's instigation the sejm was called in Gniezno at which it was decided to bring Kazimierz from the Cluniac monastery and put him on his father's throne, to which end they would not stint their work and efforts. He then went to Rome and asked Benedict IX to release Kazimierz from his monastic vows and profession; then in Cluny he labored to talk Kazimierz into assuming the throne of Poland. Kazimierz bowed to his pleas and persuasions, and Stefan accompanied him back to Poland and crowned him and his wife, kin to the Ruthenian princes; and he also placed the crown on Boleslaw the Bold after him. He brought a lawsuit against the Bohemians over the pillaging of Poland and especially of the Gniezno cathedral, but he gained little from this. Death overtook him during these efforts in 1059, or 1058, according to Janicius. See Damalewski, Lives of the Gniezno Archbishops.
Paprocki writes on the basis of Czyrzyce [?] monastery lists that Stefan, Kraków voivode, was flourishing in 1145. In the same place he read of Floryan, Sandomierz voivode in 1243. Adam was Kraków castellan in 1260-I discussed all of these in volume one. Paprocki also includes Jakób, Sieradz castellan, here; according to him, Jakób was the father of Piotr, bishop of Płock, who died in 1263. But since others include him under the Waz coat of arms, and I, too, will speak of him there, since I spoke of Bernard, also Bishop of Płock, under the arms Nowina, which is where the majority of authors refer to him.
Wolmir, Bishop of Kujawy, is included by some among the clan of Jastrzebiec, by others under Belina, but in Lives of the Kujawy Bishops Darnalewski states that he was a Pobog; from pastor of Kruswica to Kujawy canon, he was chosen by the chapter for the see in 1258; he was chancellor under the Mazovian princes Ziemowit and Kazimierz. He suffered many wrongs at the hands of Swentopelk, prince of Pomerania, and had many quarrels with Kazimierz, prince of Łęczyca and Kujawy, when he laid upon him the censure of the church; many estates went to the Kujawy church, both bought by him and bestowed by various lords. Having successfully established the border between his diocese and that of Chelmno, he went to his eternal rest in 1271. In Nakiel. in Miechov. Damalewski numbers Swietoslaw, Bishop of Poznan, among the Pobogs, but others say he was a Jastrzebczyk, and that is where I wrote of him.
However not all those listed below use these arms in the same form. For instance, the Krasnodebskis in Drohiczyn county use a horseshoe in their seal, but put one-and-a-half crosses on it. The Wiekowiczes use a horseshoe without cross, and under the horseshoe have half an arrow, pointing straight up, and in place of the arrow's feathers a heart, and on the helmet three ostrich feathers. The Szantyrs in Lithuania have the shield's field divided horizontally by a line, and in the upper part there is a horseshoe, but the cross is not on top of it but in the middle of it; and in the lower part the customary Rawicz arms, with three ostrich feathers on the helmet. The Sutockis use the horseshoe as the Pobogs customarily do, but under it have a small fish, mouth upward, tail downward, and on the helmet are three ostrich feathers. The Nieroszynskis and Petelczyces, instead of the cross on top of the horseshoe, have a half-arrow pointed straight up, and three ostrich feathers on the helmet. The Nieczajs use, under a horseshoe without a cross in a red field, an arrow pointed upward and split on the bottom, with three ostrich feathers on the helmet.
Bearers of These Arms
Barberius, Benislawski, Bielicki, Bromierski, Brzuchanski, Burzynski, Bylicki, Cetkowski, Czyzowski, Dadzibog, Dluzewski, Dmochowski, Duszewski, Elert, Faliszewski, Filipowicz, Filipowski, Garlinski, Gintowski, Gorski, Grabowski, Gumowski, Jamentowicz, Januszewski, Kalo, Kielanowski, Kierznowski, Kobylski, Konarzewski, Koniecpolski, Kossobudzki, Krasnodebski, Kruszynski, Kucicki, Kutlewski, Laniecki, Lawski, Lekawski, Malinowski, Miedzwiecki, Montowt, Muchowiecki, Nesterowicz, Nieczaj, Nieprski, Nieroszynski, Olszewski, Pagowski, Pakoszewski, Petelczyc, Polanowski, Popowski, Radomski, Ralo, Rokszycki, Ruszkowski, Rutkowski, Ryminski, Ryszczewski, Stanislawski, Staniszewski, Strzeszewski, Suchodolski, Surgolewski, Sutkowski, Sutocki, Szantyr, Szczucki, Szukszta, Szydlowski, Terejkowski, Toloczko, Trzcinski, Wiekowicz, Wierzchowski, Wilkowski, Wodoradzki, Wolski, Zapolski, Zarzecki, Zengwirski, Zeromski
[Added note to Niesiecki's text by the 19th-centur editor, J. N. Bobrowicz]: Dunczewski, Kuropatnicki, Malachowski and others give the following families as using these arms:
Andrzejkiewicz, Cebrowski, Chominski, Filemonowicz, Iskrzycki, Kotlewicz, Rymaszewski, Rzyszczewski, Sawaniewski, Zadarka, Zengonski
Copyright © 1996 Leonard J. Suligowski. Used by permission. This article originally appeared in Rodziny (May 1996), the journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America.
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