House of Lubomirski

Lubomirski

Princely arms of the Lubomirski family
Ethnicity	Poles
Current region	Poland
Place of origin	Lesser Poland
Estate	Lubomirski Palace, Warsaw Lubomirski Palace, Lviv Łańcut Castle Presidential Palace, Warsaw

The House of Lubomirski is a Polish princely family. The Lubomirski family's coat of arms is the Drużyna coat of arms, which is similar to the Szreniawa coat of arms but without a cross.

The Lubomirski family have been actors in the history of Poland since the 10th century. There are two theories regarding the family's origin. One, by Adam Boniecki, a Polish heraldist, assumes that there were two branches of the family. One settled at the Szreniawa River in Proszowice County while the other established itself in Szczyrzyc County. The time of this division of the family is not known, but most likely it was before the adoption of Christianity by Poland. The Szreniawici family used a similar coat of arms, which means that the two families had the same ancestry. At the time of Mieszko I, the members of the Lubomirski family demonstrated bravery in battle against pagans. For this they were awarded the rank of knight and a coat of arms, which depicts bends of the Szreniawa River in the form of a letter S of white colour on a red background, instead of the Szreniawici cross, with the motto Patriam Versus (Turned to the Homeland). This coat of arms has been used by the representatives of the family to the present time.

The author of the second theory of the family's origins is the medievalist Władysław Semkowicz. In his article "The fellowship and Śreniawa. Heraldic study" („Drużyna i Śreniawa. Studyum heraldyczne”) he writes that the family used to live on the banks of the Szreniawa River in Szczyrzycki poviat (county), in the area surrounded by the Raba and Stradomka rivers, the Trzciański brook, and the Łososina and Krzyworzeka streams. Semkowicz says that the original territory of the Drużynnici family (ancestors of the Lubomirski, Wieruski, Rupniewski, and Lasocki families) was located there. Semkowicz says that the coat of arms does not show bends of a river, but a curved rod – a sign of episcopal or secular power, signifying that for many centuries before the adoption of the name, the family had exercised significant power. This theory assumes, in its later part, that, in the 15th century, the Polish chronicler Jan Długosz incorrectly ascribed the origin of the coat of arms of the fellowship (Szreniawa without a cross), and other heraldists accepted this view.