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. History Legend of the coat of arms 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. In the era of King Bolesław the Brave, circa 999, during a siege of the mountain fortress Łysa Góra – two miles from Bozecin, now called Swiety Krzyz (Holy Cross) – the Christian besiegers were challenged by the pagan holders of the place, to "Send forth one from among you who is willing to fight for Christ, in a challenge against one of our men." Jastrzebczyk, a knightly member of the Jastrzebiec clan invented horseshoes that enabled his horse to climb the slippery slopes and to defeat and bring the pagan champion before the king. The rest of the Polish forces, their horses similarly shod, scaled the mountain to defeated their enemy. In gratitude, king granted Jastrzebczyk the right to bear a horseshoe with a cross as part of his arms, with the Goshawk being elevated above the shield. It is doubtful that Jastrzebczyk in 999, was the first in Poland to shoe horses. Poppaea, in the time of the Roman emperor Nero, 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. The antiquity of the Jastrzebiec coat-of-arms