Poland

Early Poland and its people

• Polanie meaning “the people of the fields”

• Pattern of settlement

• Religion – Gods objects in nature – trees, rivers, stones– Religion was neither organized nor

hierarchical, was not a politically unifying force

Beginning of Polish History

• Otto I King of the Germans

• Mieszko I (960-992)– Baptized 966– Good at war, diplomacy– 922 drew up document the Dagome Iudex

laying down the boundaries of his realm which he dedicated to St Peter and place under the protection of the Pope.

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Piast

• Boleslaw the Brave (992-1025)

• 996 monk Adalbertus (St. Wojciech)

• Pope Sylvester 999, canonized Adalbertus and makes Gniezno an Archbishopric

• 1025 Boleslaw crowned king of Poland

Mieszko II (1025-1034)

• Son of Boleslaw

• Weak ruler

• Attempted to hold kingdom together but dies in 1034 leaving a disunified duchy

• Poland while becoming a kingdom once again for the next two hundred years struggles between a kingdom and duchy

Poland & the Church

• Institution of education

• No interest in crusades

• Viewed the Empire and the Papacy with considerable mistrust.

• Religious tolerance– Tolerated the large-scale immigration of Jews,

Bohemians and Germans who provided useful services

Tartars

• 1241 hordes of Genghis Khan broke of over Europe

Polish dukes attempt to fight but were slaughtered, several towns and provinces especially in the south and east decimated, cities burned

• 1259 ravaged Poland - 1287 again

Northern Heathens

Much of Baltic coastline inhabited by heathens

• St. Bernard of Clairvaux urged pope to use northern crusaders in northern Europe

Advantages of crusades Private wars, free knights

Teutons

• In 1226 Konrad of Mazovia invited the Teutonic Order of the Hospital of St Mary in Jerusalem

• Obtained a Papal bull stating they would retain Prussia as a papal fief once conquered

• Teutonic Knights applied principles of Templars with Teutonic thoroughness– Vowed chastity and poverty– Reading daily book of prayers on march – Keeping monastic silence in camp– Gave up all amenities – Led a dour military life in order to expiate their sins

Drang nach Osten

Germans settlers pour into Poland By end of 13th century many cities in

Poland virtually German In 1300 King Vaclav crowned himself King

of Poland

• Mounting resistance to things German helped to prepare climate of reunification

• Church influential as well

Wladyslaw the Short (1306-33)

• Was driven from Poland• Went to Rome & Allied with Hungarians• Returned to Poland to re-conquer• Took Teutonic Knights to Papal court for not

fulfilling their duty and won• By the time of his death in 1333 he had

managed to unite a number of central provinces• His son Kazimierz III (1333-70) known as the

Great, was able to carry through the process and to place the sovereignty of Poland beyond question

Poland & Western Europe

Little Ice age affects Europe / Poland has unusually warm period

Hundred years war devastating Europe / Poland spared lengthy conflicts

• The Great Plague of 1348 hits Europe / Poland remains unaffected

• populations in the rest of Europe decline / Poland’s population grows

Reasons for Population Growth

• Internal and external reasons for growth• Refugees roamed Europe looking for a

haven• The needed scapegoat had provoked the

greatest wave of anti-Jewish atrocities in the medieval history and terrified survivors fled east

• They were welcomed into Poland which insisted only on a period of quarantine

Kazimierz III (the Great) (1333-70)

• Last Piast King

• Inherited a kingdom of 66,000 miles and increased it to 162,000 miles

• He died with no legitimate heir instead left the thrown to Louis of Anjou, King of Hungary (1370-1382)

Jadwiga & Jagiello

• Louis dies leaving no male heir• Poles bring his daughter Jadwiga (who

was 10) to Krakow• She was supposed to marry Wilhelm of

Habsburg but the dukes didn’t want this alliance

• Instead Jadwiga (12) weds Jagiello (35) king of Lithuania who had just converted to Christianity

JAGIELLONIAN DYNASTY

This union brings decline of the Teutonic knights The need for crusade had disappeared

Polish Lithuanian union a tenuous one The defeating of the Teutonic Knights made

Poland one of the Great Powers of Europe By the end of the century (1400’s) they ruled

over about one third of the entire European mainland.

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Result of Union

• The tiresome and belligerent neighbor, Lithuania had become an ally

• The Teutonic Order had been curbed• The Jagiellon policies shifted the struggle with

the Holy Roman Empire to Hungary and the shores of the Black Sea away from Poland

• As a result Poland enjoyed a period of previously unknown freedom from invasions and foreign affairs occupied the minds of the monarchs more than those of population

Sejm

Principle of government already enshrined in practice under the Piast Kings.

• when kingdom divided provinces would hold an assembly called Sejm

This was made up of delegates elected at a smaller meeting which was called a sejmik at which the entire szlachta of the district could join in discussion and vote Szlachta – nobles, citizens, warriors

Liberties

• 1425 Neminem captivabimus nisi iure victum: meant that nobody could be held or imprisoned without trial

• 1454 Privilege of Nieszawa: stipulated that the king could only raise troops and taxes with the approval of the district assemblies, the sejmiks of the 18 palatinates of Poland

• 1468 – the assemblies decided to meet together and henceforth constituted the national Sejm, bringing together dignitaries of the kingdom and the representatives of all the provinces and the major towns

• 1493 – divided into two chambers the senate consisting of 81 bishops and dignitaries and the Sejm proper which consisted of 54 deputies of the szlachta and the largest cities

Sejm…

• Sejm took power to vote on successor to the throne after Kazimierz IV died in 1492, now only the Sejm had the power to ensure a kings place on the throne

• 1501 – Nihil novi formally bound the king to take no action until debated and endorsed by the two chambers

• By 1500’s Sejm had taken over all legislative functions

The Most Serene Commonwealth of the Two Nations

• Polish Lithuanian Republic

• 1569 Lithuanian and Polish Sejm combine

• Now 149 Senators and 168 deputies

• 1573 universal suffrage decided Liberum Veto

Rules for Kings

• Henrician Articles• Pacta Conventa

• The king abdicated all right to a say in the election of his successor

• Agreed not to marry or divorce without the approval of the Sejm

• Not to declare war, Raise an army Or levy taxes without its consent

• To govern through a council of senators chosen by the Sejm which he was to summon at least once in every two years

• If he defaulted on any of these points his subjects were automatically released from their oath of loyalty to him

• In other words he could forfeit the throne if he did not abide by the terms

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Jan Sobieski (1674-1696)

• Battle of Vienna (1683) – The Defense of Europe

• Troubles at home• Reign of Anarchy

– “Future generations will wonder in astonishment that after such resounding victories, such international triumph and glory, we now face, alas, eternal shame and irreversible loss, for we now find ourselves without resources, helpless, and seemingly incapable of government.”

Decline and partition

• Liberum Veto

• Intrigue

• Sweden & Muscovy

• Peter the Great Emperor of All Russia (1721) – 1718 Russian ‘Protectorate’

• Religious tolerance no more

• Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski