Łada (''Łady'', ''Ładzic'', ''Mancz'') is a Polish
szlachta coat of arms originating from
Mazovia.
History
The earliest mention of the coat of arms comes from court records from 1401. The earliest attestation of the seal appears in 1466 in the document of the
Peace of Toruń.
The earliest heraldic source mentioning the Łada coat of arms is ''Insignia seu clenodia Regis et Regni Poloniae'' historian
Jan Długosz, dated 1464-1480. He records information about the coat of arms among the 71 oldest Polish noble coats of arms in the passage: "Lada, que ex domo Accipitrum deriuationem sumpsit, deferens babatum cruce signatum et in uno cornu sagittam, in altero retortam, in campo rubeo. Lada a nomine dee Polonice, que in Mazouia in loco et in villa Lada colebatur, vocabulum sumpsit exinde.". According to Długosz it derives from
Jastrzębiec family and derived the name from an alleged Polish goddess
Łada worshipped in the village of
Łada in Mazovia.
Blazon
According to Długosz: red, a horseshoe
argent, silver horseshoe pointing downwards, surmounted of a golden
cross pattée; on the right, a silver arrow in a
pale
Pale may refer to:
Jurisdictions
* Medieval areas of English conquest:
** Pale of Calais, in France (1360–1558)
** The Pale, or the English Pale, in Ireland
*Pale of Settlement, area of permitted Jewish settlement, western Russian Empire (179 ...
, on the left, an arrow with a
pall
Pall may refer to:
* Pall (funeral), a cloth used to cover a coffin
* Pall (heraldry), a Y-shaped heraldic charge
* Pall (liturgy), a piece of stiffened linen used to cover the chalice at the Eucharist
* Pall Corporation, a global business
* Pall. ...
pointing downwards; in the
crest
Crest or CREST may refer to:
Buildings
*The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York
*"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York
*Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...
, a golden half-leaf in a crown with a sword in its right paw.
However, the ''Herbarz Arsenalski'' (c. 1535-1555) describes the coat of arms as red, a horseshoe with the
caulkins pointing upwards, a cross pattée in the center, and the letters ''A'' and ''V'' above the caulkins.
According to the ''Herby Rycerztwa Polskiego'' (1584), the background was blue and the arrows were pointing upwards (III).
The version with hunting horns under the horseshoe (IV) does not appear until the 18th century on the initiative of the illustrator of ''Korona polska'' by
Kasper Niesiecki, who probably used block from earlier books on coats of arms to illustrate the Łada, reworking them in various ways.
References
Bibliography
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{{Coats of arms of Polish families, state=collapsed
Łada