Wczele - is a
Polish coat of arms. It was used by several
szlachta
The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...
families in the times of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
.
History
This coat of arms was passed down from the Silesian Bernard Pretficz (
Bernard Pretwicz, Pretwic). He was born in 1500 and was one of the few
Silesians
Silesians ( szl, Ślōnzŏki or Ślůnzoki; Silesian German: ''Schläsinger'' ''or'' ''Schläsier''; german: Schlesier; pl, Ślązacy; cz, Slezané) is a geographical term for the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region in Central Euro ...
to have an elevated position under the Polish King. He became a Polish National Hero due to his success in driving the
Tartars (Crimean Muslims) out of Poland, and what is now Ukraine. This is the Prittwitz coat of arms. The story is that his ancestor was taken by a North African King. The King told him that if he was able to beat his daughter in chess he would be set free, if he lost he would be killed. The Prittwitz won and was told that he could take the life of the King's daughter. Instead he cut off her arms so that she could no longer play chess (in other variants of this story, he simply hit her in the head with the chess board so hard that it broke, „Wczele” is similar to Polish „w czoło”, meaning „in the forehead”)
Blazon
Notable bearers
Notable bearers of this coat of arms include:
*
Władysław Roch Gurowski
* fictional
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
Onufry Zagłoba
See also
*
Polish heraldry
*
Heraldry
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...
*
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
Notes
Wczele
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