ENAt the turn of the 17th century many knyazi (‘dukes’) living in Poland-Lithuania found themselves threatened with marginalization and even declassing. In taking action against a loss of dignity and rank they made use of the greatest advantage that they had: a dynastic descent. The Sanguszko, Czartoryski and Wiśniowiecki knyazi propagated their high birth by chosing between two strategies: the first one involved exploiting information from family memory and tradition (often being in accordance with historical facts), the second one entailed creation of a new, opposed to family knowledge (and thus, false) vision of descent. This manipulation of family past was intentional and resulted from an urgent need to agree genealogical propaganda with the most popular Polish chronicles and armorials of the time. In this manner the knyazi provided themselves with stronger arguments to negotiate their dignity and rank. Keywords: collective memory, genealogical propaganda, power elites, symbols of power, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish-Lithuanian nobility, princes of Poland-Lithuania. [From the publication]