History of Poland
Unia Lubelska ("Union of Lublin")
by Jan Matejko, 1869. |
| History of Poland |
| Chronology |
| Until 966 966–1385 1385–1569 1569–1795 1795–1918 1918–1939 1939–1945 1945–1989 1989–present |
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Settled agricultural people have lived in the area that is now Poland for the last 7500 years, the Slavic people have been in this territory for over 1500 years, and the History of Poland as a state spans well over a millennium. The territory ruled by Poland has shifted and varied greatly. At one time, in the 16th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest state in Europe, before the rise of the Russian Empire. At other times there was no separate Polish state at all. Poland regained its independence in 1918, after more than a century of rule by its neighbours, but its borders shifted again after the Second World War.
Following its emergence in the 10th century, the Polish nation was led by a series of rulers who converted the Poles to Christianity, created a strong kingdom and integrated Poland into the European culture. Internal fragmentation eroded this initial structure in the 13th century, but consolidation in the 1300s laid the base for the new dominant Kingdom of Poland that was to follow.
Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1385–1569) formed the Polish-Lithuanian union. The partnership proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the most powerful states in Europe for the next three centuries. The Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm. This event marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the State was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. The Lublin Union of 1569 established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in Europe and a vital cultural entity, spreading the Western culture eastwards.
By the 18th century the nobles' democracy had gradually declined into anarchy, making the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Over the course of three successive partitions by the countries bordering it (the Russian Empire, Habsburg Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia), the Commonwealth was significantly reduced in size the first two times and ultimately ceased to exist in 1795. The idea of Polish independence however was kept alive throughout the 19th century and led to several Polish uprisings against the partitioning powers.
Poland regained its independence in 1918, but the Second Polish Republic was destroyed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union by their Invasion of Poland at the beginning of the Second World War. Nevertheless the Polish government in exile kept functioning and through the many Polish military formations contributed significantly to the Allied victory. Nazi Germany's forces were compelled to retreat from Poland as the Soviet Red Army advanced, which led to the creation of the People's Republic of Poland. The country's geographic location was shifted to the west and Poland existed as a Soviet satellite state. By the late 1980s Solidarity, a Polish reform movement, became crucial in causing a peaceful transition from a communist state to a capitalist democracy, which resulted in the creation of the modern Polish state.
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The Stone Age era in Poland lasted five hundred thousand years and involved three different human species. The Stone Age cultures ranged from early human groups with primitive tools to advanced agricultural societies using sophisticated stone tools, building fortified settlements and developing copper metallurgy.
The Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Poland are known mainly from archeological research. Early Bronze Age cultures in Poland begin around 2400/2300 BC. The Iron Age commences ca. 750/700 BC. The subject of the ethnicity and linguistic affiliation of the groups living in central and eastern Europe at that time is, given the absence of written records, speculative, and accordingly there is considerable disagreement. In Poland the most famous archeological finding from that period is the Biskupin fortified settlement (gord), representing the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age.
Peoples belonging to numerous archeological cultures identified with Celtic, Germanic and Baltic tribes lived in and migrated through various parts of the territory that now constitutes Poland from about 400 BC. Expanding and moving out of their homeland in Scandinavia and northern Germany the Germanic people settled this territory and used it as migrating route for several centuries. Many Germanic tribes moved out of the area in the southern and eastern directions, while other remained. As the Roman Empire was nearing its collapse and the nomadic peoples invading from the east destroyed, damaged or destabilized the various Germanic cultures and societies, the Germanic people left eastern and central Europe for the safer and wealthier southern and western parts of the continent. The northeast corner of modern Poland's territory was and remained populated by Baltic tribes.
According to the currently predominant opinion, the Slavic tribes were not indigenous to the lands that were to become Poland. Their first waves settled the area of the upper Vistula River and elsewhere in southeastern Poland and southern Masovia, coming from the upper and middle regions of the Dnieper River, beginning in the second half of the 5th century, some half century after these territories were vacated by Germanic tribes.
From there the new population dispersed north and west over the course of the 6th century. Slavic people lived from cultivation of crops and were generally farmers, but also engaged in hunting and gathering. Their migration was probably caused by the pursuit of fertile soils and invasions of eastern and central Europe by waves of people and armies from the east, such as the Huns, Avars and Magyars.
A number of such Polish tribes formed small dominions beginning in the 8th century, some of which coalesced later into larger ones. Among those were the Vistulans (Wiślanie) in southern Poland with Kraków and Wiślica as their main centers. Major building of fortified centers and other developments in their country took place in the 9th century. From the early 10th century on the Polans (Polanie, lit. "people of the fields") of what is now Greater Poland became a moving force behind the historic processes that gave rise to the Polish state. The tribal unions built many gords – fortified structures with earth and wood walls and embankments, from the 7th century onwards. Some of them were developed and inhabited, others had a very large empty area and may have served primarily as refuges in times of trouble. The Polans settled in the flatlands around Giecz, Poznań and Gniezno that eventually became the foundation and early center of Poland, lending their name to the country. They went through a period of accelerated building of fortified settlements and territorial expansion beginning in the first half of the 10th century, and the Polish state developed from their tribal entity in the second half of that century.
The viability of the emerging state was assured by the early Piast leaders' persistent territorial expansion, which beginning with a very small area around Gniezno (before the town itself existed), lasted throughout most of the 10th century, resulting in a territory approximating that of the present day Poland. The Polanie tribe conquered and merged with other Slavic tribes, formed a tribal federation and then a centralized state, which after the addition of Lesser Poland and Silesia (taken from the Czech state during the later part of the 10th century) reached its mature form, including the main regions regarded as ethnically Polish.
Mieszko I was the first ruler of the Polans tribal union known from contemporary written sources. A pagan "king", Mieszko in 965 married Dubrawka, a Czech Christian princess. Mieszko's 966 conversion to Christianity in its Western Latin Rite is considered by many to be the founding event of the Polish state. Following Mieszko's 967 victory over a force of the Wolinians led by Wichmann the first missionary bishop was appointed, which counteracted the intended eastern expansion of the Magdeburg Archdiocese, established at about the same time. Mieszko's state had a complex political relationship with the German Holy Roman Empire, as Mieszko was a "friend", ally and vassal of Otto I, paying him tribute from the western part of his lands. It fought wars with the Polabian Slavs, the margraves of the Saxon Eastern March (Gero in 963-964 and Hodo in 972), and the Czechs. By around 990, when Mieszko I officially submitted his country to the authority of the Holy See (Dagome iudex), he had transformed Poland into one of the strongest powers in central-eastern Europe.
Contrary to what Mieszko had intended, his oldest son Bolesław managed to become the sole ruler of Poland. A man of high ambition and strong personality, he embarked on further territorial expansion to the west, south, and east. While often successful, the campaigns and the gains turned out to be of only passing significance and badly strained the resources of the young nation. Bolesław lost the economically crucial Western Pomerania together with the new bishopric in Kołobrzeg; the region had previously been conquered with great effort by Mieszko.
Bolesław Chrobry started by continuing his father's policy of alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. He skillfully took advantage of the death of Vojtěch Slavník or Wojciech, a Czech bishop in exile and missionary, whom Bolesław received and helped and who was killed in Prussia. The martyrdom of Wojciech in 997 gave Poland a patron saint, St. Adalbert, and soon resulted in the creation of an independent Polish province of the Church with an archbishop in Gniezno. The Congress of Gniezno took place in the year 1000, when the young emperor Otto III came as a pilgrim to visit St. Adalbert's grave and lent his support to Bolesław. The Gniezno archdiocese and several subordinate dioceses were established on this occasion. The Polish ecclesiastical province effectively served as an essential anchor and an institution to fall back on for the Piast state, helping it survive in the troubled centuries ahead. Otto died in 1002 and Bolesław's relationship with his successor Henry II turned out to be much more difficult, resulting in a series of wars in the coming years (1002-1005, 1007-1013, 1015-1018). The conflicts ended in 1018 with the Peace of Bautzen accord, on favorable for Bolesław terms. In 1018 also Bolesław took over the western part of Red Ruthenia. In 1025, shortly before his death, Bolesław I the Brave finally succeeded in obtaining the papal permission to crown himself, and became the first king of Poland.
After Bolesław's death his son, King Mieszko II Lambert, tried to continue his father's politics, having his kingdom act as an interventionist great power. This reinforced much of the old resentment and hostility on the part of Poland's neighbors, which Mieszko's two dispossessed brothers took advantage of, arranging for foreign invasions from the east and west in 1031. Mieszko was defeated and had to leave the country. Although later Bezprym and Otto were killed and Mieszko partially recovered, with Mieszko's death in 1034 the first Piast monarchy collapsed. Deprived of a government, Poland was ravaged by an anti-feudal and pagan rebellion, and in 1039 by the forces of Bretislaus I of Bohemia.
The nation made a recovery under Mieszko's son, Duke Casimir I (1016-1058), properly known as the Restorer, since he rebuilt the Polish monarchy and through several military campaigns (in 1047 Masovia was taken back from Miecław, and in 1050 Silesia form the Czechs) the country's territorial integrity. He was aided in this endeavor by the recent adversaries of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and Kievan Rus', who didn't find the chaos in Poland to be to their liking either. Casimir introduced a more mature form of feudalism, by settling his warriors on feudal estates and turning them into landed gentry, thus relieving the burden of financing large army units from the duke's treasury. Faced with the widespread destruction of Greater Poland after the Czech expedition, Casimir moved his court to Kraków, which replaced the old Piast capital Gniezno and functioned afterwards as the nation's capital for several centuries.
Casimir's son Bolesław II the Bold, also known as the Generous (1040-1081), developed Polish military strength further and, as an active supporter of the papal side in its feud with the German emperors, with the blessing of Pope Gregory VII crowned himself king in 1076. There was an anti-Bolesław conspiracy or conflict that involved the Bishop of Kraków. Bolesław had Bishop Stanisław executed; subsequently Bolesław was forced to abdicate the Polish throne because of the pressure from the Catholic Church and the pro-imperial faction of the nobility. St. Stanislaus was to become the second martyr and patron saint of Poland. After Bolesław's exile the country found itself under the unstable rule of Władysław Herman, who was strongly dependent on Palatine Sieciech. When Władysław's two sons Zbigniew and Bolesław finally forced him to remove his hated protégé, Poland from 1098 was divided among the three of them, and after the father's death from 1102 to 1106 between the two brothers.
After a power struggle, Bolesław III the Wrymouth (1102-1138) became the Duke of Poland by defeating his half-brother in 1106-1107. Zbigniew had to leave the country, but received support from Emperor Henry V, who attacked Bolesław's Poland in 1109. Bolesław was able to defend his country because of his military abilities, determination and alliances, and also because of a national mobilization across the social spectrum; Zbigniew who later returned was eliminated. Bolesław's other major achievement was the conquest of Pomerania, a task begun by his father and completed by Bolesław around 1123. At that time also the Christianization of the region was initiated in earnest, an effort crowned by the establishment of the Pomeranian Wolin Diocese after Bolesław's death in 1140.
Before he died, Bolesław Krzywousty divided the country among four of his sons; a complex arrangement intended to preserve the country's unity, in practice ushered in a long period of fragmentation. For two centuries the Piasts were to spar with each other, the clergy, and the nobility for the control over the divided kingdom. The stability of the system was supposedly assured by the institution of the senior or high duke of Poland, based in Kraków and assigned to the special Seniorate Province that was not to be subdivided. This principle broke down already within the generation of Bolesław III's sons, when Władysław II the Exile, Bolesław IV the Curly, Mieszko III the Old and Casimir II the Just fought for power and territory in Poland, and in particular over the Kraków throne.
Early Medieval Poland was developing culturally as a part of the European Christendom. Intellectual and artistic activity was concentrated around the institutions of the Church, the courts of the kings and dukes (already Mieszko II and Casimir the Restorer were literate and educated), and increasingly around the households of the emergent hereditary elite. Along with the Dagome iudex act, the most important written document and source of the period (the 10th through the end of 12th centuries) is the chronicle by a foreign cleric from the court of Bolesław the Wrymouth known as Gallus Anonymus. A number of Pre-Romanesque stone churches were built beginning in the 10th century, often accompanied by "palatium" ruler residencies; those were followed by Romanesque buildings proper. Among the preeminent early monastic religious orders were the Benedictines and the Cistercians.
The 13th century brought fundamental changes in the structure of the Polish society and political system. Despite the fragmentation and constant internal conflicts, Poland's external borders mostly stabilized during this period. In mid 13th century Bolesław II the Bald granted Lubusz Land to the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which made possible the creation of the Neumark and had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border. Polish Western Pomerania broke its political ties with Poland and from 1181 became also dependent on the Margraviate, which in 1307 extended its Pomeranian possessions even further east. Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania had been independent of the Polish dukes from 1227. In the south-east Leszek the White was unable to preserve Poland's supremacy over the Halych area of Rus', a territory that had changed hands on a number of occasions.
The social status was becoming increasingly based on the size of feudal land possessions. Those included the lands controlled by the Piast princes, their rivals the great lay land owners and church entities, all the way down to the knightly class; the work force ranged from hired "free" people, through serfs attached to the land, to slaves (purchased or war and other prisoners). The upper layer of the feudal lords, first the Church and then others, were able to acquire economic and legal immunity, which made them exempt to a significant degree from court jurisdiction or economical obligations (including taxation) previously imposed by the ruling dukes.
The civil strife and foreign invasions, such as the Mongol invasions in 1241 and 1259, weakened and depopulated the many small Polish principalities, as the country became progressively more split. This, but also increasing in the developing economy demand for labor, caused a massive immigration of West European, mostly German settlers into Poland. The German, Polish and other new rural settlements were a form of feudal tenancy with immunity and German town laws were often utilized as its legal bases. The German immigrants were also important in the rise of the cities and the establishment of the Polish burgher (city dwelling merchants) class; they brought with them West European laws (Magdeburg rights) and customs which the Poles adopted. From that time on the Germans became one of the minorities in Poland.
In 1228, the Acts of Cienia were passed and signed into law by Władyslaw III. The titular Duke of Poland promised to provide a "just and noble law according to the council of bishops and barons." Such legal guarantees and privileges included also the lower level land owners - knights, who were evolving into the lower and middle nobility class known later as "szlachta". The fragmentation period weakened the rulers and established a permanent trend in Polish history, whereby the rights and role of the nobility were being expanded at the monarch's expense.
In 1226 Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Prussian people, whose territory bordered his lands and who at that time were being subjected to increasingly forced (including papacy-sponsored crusades), but largely ineffective Christianization efforts. The Teutonic Order quickly overstepped the authority given to them by Konrad and in the following decades conquered large areas along the Baltic Sea coast and established their monastic state. When virtually all of the Western Baltic pagans became converted or exterminated (the Prussian conquests were completed by 1283), the Knights turned their attention to Poland and Lithuania. In 1325 the Poles and Lithuanians made a treaty to defend themselves against the unruly former allies, who were invading their lands. During 1327-1332 the Polish-Lithuanian armies fought the Order, which managed to capture Dobrzyń Land and Kujawy, recovered by Poland in 1343. The wars continued for most of the 14th and 15th centuries, until the remaining state of the Teutonic Knights was converted into the Protestant Duchy of Prussia under the King of Poland in 1525.
There were numerous attempts to unify the Polish state, including that of the Silesian dukes Henry I the Bearded and his son Henry II the Pious, who was killed in 1241 while fighting the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica. In 1295 Przemysł II of Greater Poland became the first, since Bolesław II, Piast duke crowned as King of Poland, but he ruled over only a part of the territory of Poland (including from 1294 Gdańsk Pomerania) and was assassinated soon after his coronation. A more extensive unification of Polish lands was accomplished by a foreign ruler, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia of the Přemyslid dynasty, who married Przemysł's daughter and became King of Poland in 1300. Wenceslaus' heavy-handed policies soon caused him to lose whatever support he had earlier in his reign; he died in 1305. An important factor in the unification process was the Polish Church, which remained a single ecclesiastical province throughout the fragmentation period. Archbishop Jakub Świnka of Gniezno was an ardent proponent of Poland's reunification; he performed the crowning ceremonies for both Przemysł II and Wenceslaus II. Świnka supported Władysław Łokietek at various stages of the duke's career.
Culturally the 13th century brought a socially much broader impact of the Church, as a network of parishes was established and cathedral-type schools became more common. The leading monastic orders were now the Dominicans and the Franciscans, who interacted closely with the general population. Characteristic of the period was a proliferation of narrative annals, as well as other written records, laws and documents. More of the clergy were of local origin, others were expected to know the Polish language. Their most recognized representative in the intellectual sphere, where there was considerable achievement, is Wincenty Kadłubek, the author of an influential chronicle. Gothic architecture became the predominant style of churches and castles constructed beginning in the 13th century, and in art forms native elements were increasingly important. Significant advances took place in agriculture, manufacturing and crafts.
The 14th century unified Kingdom of Poland of the last two rulers of the Piast dynasty, Władysław the Elbow-high and his son Casimir the Great, wasn't quite a return of the Polish state from before the fragmentation. The regional Piast princes remained strong and for economic reasons some of them gravitated toward Poland's neighbors. The Kingdom lost Pomerania and Silesia, the most highly developed or economically important of the ethnically Polish lands, which left half of the Polish population outside the Kingdom's borders. The western losses had to do with the German expansion, and the lower Vistula was controlled by the Teutonic Order. Masovia was not to be fully incorporated into the Polish state anytime soon. Casimir stabilized the western and northern borders, tried to regain some of the lost territories, and partially compensated the losses by his new eastern expansion, which placed within his kingdom regions that were ethnically non-Polish.
Despite the territorial truncation Poland experienced a period of accelerated economic development and increasing prosperity. This included further expansion and modernization of agricultural settlements, the development of towns and their increasing role in briskly growing trade, mining and metallurgy. A great monetary reform was implemented during the reign of Casimir III.
Władysław Łokietek fought a lifelong uphill battle with powerful adversaries and left the Kingdom in a precarious situation, with limited area under its control and many unresolved issues, but he may have saved Poland's existence as a state. Supported by his Hungarian allies Władysław returned from exile and challenged Wenceslaus in 1304-1305. He took over Lesser Poland and the lands north of there, through Kuyavia all the way to Gdańsk Pomerania. In 1308 Pomerania was conquered by the Brandenburg state. In a recovery effort Łokietek agreed to ask for help the Teutonic Knights; the Knights brutally took over Gdańsk Pomerania and kept it for themselves. In 1313-1314 Władysław conquered Greater Poland. In 1320 Władysław I Łokietek became the first King of Poland crowned in the Wawel Cathedral, which was agreed to by Pope John XXII, despite the opposition from John of Bohemia, who also claimed the Polish crown. John undertook in 1327 an expedition aimed at Kraków, which he was compelled to abort, and a crusade against Lithuania in 1328, during which he formalized an alliance with the Teutonic Order; the Order was in a state of war with Poland from 1327 to 1332. Władysław was helped by his alliances with Hungary and Lithuania, and from 1329 by a peace agreement with Brandenburg. A lasting achievement of John of Luxembourg (and Poland's greatest loss) was forcing most of the Piast Silesian principalities into allegiance.
After Łokietek's death the old monarch's son, King Casimir III, later to be known as Kazimierz the Great, was a 23 year old who had no inclination for military life hardships, and by his contemporaries wasn't given much of a chance for overcoming the country's mounting difficulties or succeeding as a leader. But from the beginning Casimir acted prudently, purchasing in 1335 John's claims to the Polish throne, and after a couple of high-level arbitrations settling in 1343 the disputes with the Teutonic Order by a territorial compromise. At that time Poland started to expand to the east and through a series of military campaigns between 1340 and 1366 Casimir annexed the Halych-Volodymyr area of Rus'. Supported by Hungary, the Polish king in 1338 promised the Hungarian ruling house the Polish throne in the event he dies without male heirs.
Casimir unsuccessfully tried to recover Silesia by conducting military activities against the Luxembourgs between 1343 and 1348, but then blocked the attempted separation of Silesia from the Gniezno Archdiocese by Charles IV. Later until his death he pursued the Polish claim to Silesia legally by petitioning the pope; his successors had not continued his efforts.
Allied with Denmark and Western Pomerania (Gdańsk Pomerania was granted to the Order as an "eternal charity") Casimir was able to impose some corrections on the western border. In 1365 Drezdenko and Santok became Poland's fiefs, while Wałcz district was in 1368 taken outright, severing the land connection between Brandenburg and the Teutonic state.
Kazimierz the Great considerably strengthened the country's position in both foreign and domestic affairs. Domestically he integrated the reunited Polish state and helped develop what was considered the "Crown of the Polish Kingdom", the state within its actual, as well as past or potential (legal from the Polish point of view) boundaries. Casimir established or strengthened kingdom-wide institutions (such as the powerful state treasury) independent of the regional, class, or royal court related interests. Internationally the Polish king was very active diplomatically, cultivated close contacts with other European rulers and was a staunch defender of the Polish national interest. In 1364 he sponsored the Congress of Kraków, in which a number of monarchs participated, and which was concerned with the promotion of peaceful cooperation and political balance in Central Europe.
Immediately after Casimir's death in 1370, the heirless king's nephew, Louis of Hungary of the Angevin dynasty assumed the Polish throne. As Casimir's actual commitment to the Angevin succession seemed problematic from the beginning, Louis engaged in negotiations with Polish knights and nobility starting already in 1351; they supported him, exacting in return further guarantees and privileges for themselves. Right after the coronation Louis left his mother and Casimir's sister Elizabeth in Poland as a regent, himself returning to Hungary.
With the death of Casimir the Great the period of hereditary (Piast) monarchy in Poland ended. The land owners and nobles did not want a strong monarchy; a constitutional monarchy was established between 1370 and 1493 (the establishment of the bicameral General Sejm).
During the reign of Louis I Poland formed a union with Hungary. In the pact of 1374 known as the Privilege of Koszyce the Polish nobility, granted very extensive concessions, agreed to extend the Angevin succession to Louis' daughters, as Louis also had no sons. This union lasted for twelve years and ended in war. After Louis' death in 1382 and a power struggle that ensued, the Polish nobility decided that Louis' youngest daughter Jadwiga should become the next "King of Poland". Upon their demands Jadwiga arrived in 1384 and was crowned at the age of eleven. The failure of the union of Poland and Hungary paved the way for the union of Lithuania and Poland.
Many large scale brick building projects were undertaken in the 14th century, in particular during Casimir's reign. Those included Gothic churches, castles, urban fortifications and homes of wealthy city residents. Most notable are the many magnificent churches representing the Polish Gothic style; medieval sculpture, painting and ornamental smithery are well represented, especially as the furnishings of churches and liturgical equipment. The Polish law was codified after 1357 and for conflict resolution legal proceedings were being commonly used domestically, while bilateral or multilateral negotiations and treaties were increasingly important in international relations. The network of cathedral and parish schools became well developed, and in 1364 Casimir the Great, based on a papal concession, established the University of Kraków, the second oldest in central Europe. While many still traveled for university studies to southern and western Europe, the Polish language, along with the predominant Latin, is increasingly present in written documents.
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In 1385 the Union of Krewo was signed between Jadwiga and Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania (later known as Władysław II Jagiełło), beginning the Polish-Lithuanian Union and strengthening both nations in their shared opposition to the Teutonic Knights and the growing threat of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Union's intention was to create a common state under King Jagiełło. The idea turned out to be premature at that time (there were going to be territorial disputes and warfare between Poland and Lithuania or Lithuanian factions), but geographic consequences of the personal union and the preferences of the Jagiellon kings accelerated the process of reorientation of Polish territorial priorities to the east.
Between 1386 and 1572 Poland and Lithuania were ruled by a succession of constitutional monarchs of the Jagiellon dynasty. The political influence of the Jagiellon kings was diminishing during this period, which was accompanied by the ever increasing role in central government and national affairs of landed nobility. The royal dynasty however had a stabilizing effect on Poland's politics. The Jagiellon Era is often regarded as a period of maximum political power, great prosperity, and in its later stage the Golden Age of Polish culture.
The 13th and 14th century feudal rent system, under which each estate had well defined rights and obligations, degenerated around the 15th century, as the nobility tightened their control of the production, trade and other economic activities, created many directly owned agricultural enterprises known as folwarks, limited the rights of the cities and pushed most of the peasants into serfdom. Such practices were increasingly sanctioned by the law. For example the Piotrków Privilege of 1496, granted by King Jan Olbracht, banned rural land purchases by townspeople and severely limited the ability of peasant farmers to leave their villages. Polish towns, lacking national representation protecting their class interests, preserved some degree of self-government (city councils and jury courts), and the trades were able to organize and form guilds. The nobility soon excused themselves from their principal duty - mandatory military service in case of war (pospolite ruszenie). The nobility's split into two main layers was institutionalized in the Nihil novi "constitution" of 1505, which required the king to consult the sejm, that is the senate (highest level officials), as well as the lower chamber of (regional) deputies, before enacting any changes. The masses of ordinary szlachta competed or tried to compete against the uppermost rank of their class, the magnates, for the duration of Poland's independent existence.
The first king of the new dynasty was the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila, or Ladislaus II as the King of Poland. He was elected a King of Poland in 1386, after becoming a Christian and marrying Jadwiga of Anjou, daughter of Louis I, who was Queen of Poland in her own right. Christianization of Lithuania followed. Jogaila's rivalry in Lithuania with his cousin Vytautas was settled in 1401 in the Union of Vilnius and Radom. Vytautas became the Grand Duke of Lithuania for life under Jogaila's nominal supremacy, but the agreement made possible close cooperation between the two nations, necessary to succeed in the upcoming struggle with the Teutonic Order. The campaign of summer of 1410 included the Battle of Grunwald, where the Polish and Lithuanian-Rus' armies completely defeated the Teutonic Knights. The offensive that followed lost its impact with the ineffective siege of Malbork. The failure to take the fortress and eliminate the Teutonic (later Prussian) state had for Poland dire historic consequences in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. After 1410 there were negotiations and peace deals that didn't hold, more military campaigns and arbitrations. One attempted, unresolved arbitration took place at the Council of Constance. There in 1415 Paulus Vladimiri, rector of the Kraków Academy, presented his Treatise on the Power of the Pope and the Emperor in respect to Infidels, where he advocated tolerance, criticized the violent conversion methods of the Teutonic Knights, and postulated that pagans have the right to peaceful coexistence with Christians and political independence. This stage of the Polish-Lithuanian conflict with the Teutonic Order ended with the Treaty of Melno in 1422.
During the Hussite Wars (1420-1434) Jagiełło, Vytautas and Sigismund Korybut were invoved in political and military maneuvering concerning the Czech crown, offered by the Hussites first to Jagiełło in 1420. Zbigniew Oleśnicki became known as the leading opponent of a union with the Hussite Czech state.
The Jagiellon dynasty was not entitled to automatic hereditary succession, as each new king had to be approved by nobility consensus. Władysław Jagiełło had two sons late in his life, from his last marriage. In 1430 the nobility agreed to the succession of the future Władysław III, only after the King gave in and guaranteed the satisfaction of their new demands. In 1434 the old monarch died and his minor son Władysław was crowned; the Royal Council led by Bishop Oleśnicki undertook the regency duties.
In 1438 the Czech anti-Habsburg opposition, mainly Hussite factions, offered the Czech crown to Jagiełło's younger son Casimir. The idea, accepted in Poland over Oleśnicki's objections, resulted in two unsuccessful Polish military expeditions to Bohemia.
After Vytautas' death in 1430 Lithuania became embroiled in internal wars and conflicts with Poland. Casimir sent as a boy by King Władysław on a mission there in 1440, was surprisingly proclaimed a Grand Duke of Lithuania, and stayed in Lithuania.
Oleśnicki gained the upper hand again and pursued his long-term objective of Poland's union with Hungary. At that time Turkey embarked on a new round of European conquests and threatened Hungary, which needed the powerful Polish-Lithuanian ally. Władysław III in 1440 assumed also the Hungarian throne. Influenced by Julian Cesarini, the young king led the Hungarian army against the Ottoman Empire in 1443 and again in 1444. Like his mentor, Władysław Warneńczyk was killed at the Battle of Varna.
Beginning toward the end of Jagiełło's life, Poland was practically governed by a magnate oligarchy led by Oleśnicki. The rule of the dignitaries was actively opposed by various szlachta groups. Their leader Spytek of Melsztyn was killed during an armed confrontation in 1439, which allowed Oleśnicki to purge Poland of the remaining Hussite sympathizers and pursue his other objectives without significant opposition.
In 1445 Casimir, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, was asked to assume the Polish throne vacated by the death of his brother Władysław. Casimir was a tough negotiator and did not accept the Polish nobility's conditions for his election. He finally arrived in Poland and was crowned in 1447 on his terms. Becoming a King of Poland Casimir also freed himself from the control the Lithuanian oligarchy had imposed on him; in the Vilnius Privilege of 1447 he declared the Lithuanian nobility having equal rights with Polish szlachta. In time Kazimierz Jagiellończyk was able to remove from power Cardinal Oleśnicki and his group, basing his own power on the younger middle nobility camp instead. A conflict with the pope and the local Church hierarchy over the right to fill vacant bishop positions Casimir also resolved in his favor.
In 1454 the Prussian Confederation, an alliance of Prussian cities opposed to the rule of the Teutonic Knights, asked King Casimir to take over Prussia and stirred up an armed uprising against the Knights. Casimir declared a war on the Order and a formal incorporation of Prussia into the Polish Crown; those events led to the Thirteen Years War. The weakness of pospolite ruszenie (the szlachta wouldn't cooperate without new across-the-board concessions from Casimir) prevented a takeover of all of Prussia, but in the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) the Knights had to surrender the western half of their territory to the Polish crown (the areas known afterwards as Royal Prussia), and to accept Polish-Lithuanian suzerainty over the remainder (the later Ducal Prussia). Poland regained Gdańsk Pomerania and with it the all-important access to the Baltic Sea. Other 15th century Polish territorial gains or rather revindications included the Duchy of Oświęcim and Duchy of Zator on Silesia's border with Lesser Poland, and there was notable progress regarding the incorporation of the Piast Masovian duchies into the Crown.
The southern and eastern outskirts of Poland and Lithuania became threatened by Turkish invasions beginning in the late 15th century. In 1485 King Casimir undertook an expedition into Moldavia, after its seaports were overrun by the Ottoman Turks. The Turkey controlled Crimean Tatars raided the eastern lands in 1482 and 1487, when they were confronted there by King Jan Olbracht, Casimir's son and successor. Poland was attacked in 1487-1491 by the remains of the Golden Horde. They reached as far as Lublin before being beaten at Zaslavl.[1] King John Albert in 1497 made an attempt to resolve the Turkish problem militarily, but his efforts were unsuccessful as he was unable to secure effective participation in the war by his brothers, King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and Alexander, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and because of the resistance on the part of Stephen the Great, the ruler of Moldavia. More Ottoman Empire instigated destructive Tatar raids took place in 1498, 1499 and 1500.[2] John Albert's diplomatic peace efforts that followed were finalized after the king's death in 1503, resulting in a territorial compromise and an unstable truce.
Lithuania was increasingly threatened by the growing power of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Through the campaigns of 1471, 1492 and 1500 Moscow took over much of Lithuania's eastern possessions. The Grand Duke Alexander was elected King of Poland in 1501 after the death of John Albert. In 1506 he was succeeded by Sigismund I the Old in both Poland and Lithuania, as the political realities were drawing the two states closer together. Prior to that Sigismund had been a Duke of Silesia by the authority of his brother Ladislaus II, but like other Jagiellon rulers before him he had not pursued the Polish Crown's claim to Silesia.
The culture of the 15th century Poland was still mostly medieval. Under favorable social and economic conditions the crafts and industries in existence already in the preceding centuries became more highly developed, and their products were much more widespread. Paper production was one of the new industries, and printing developed during the last quarter of the century. Luxurious items were in high demand among the increasingly prosperous nobility, and to a lesser degree among the wealthy town merchants. Brick and stone residential buildings became common, but only in cities. The mature Gothic style was represented not only in architecture, but also prominently in sacral wooden sculpture, of which the altar of Veit Stoss is the finest example.
The Kraków University, which stopped functioning after the death of Casimir the Great, was renewed and rejuvenated around 1400, supported and protected by Queen Jadwiga and the Jagiellon dynasty members, which is reflected in its present name. Europe's oldest department of mathematics and astronomy was established in 1405. Among the university's prominent scholars were Stanisław of Skarbimierz, Paulus Vladimiri and Albert of Brudzewo, Copernicus' teacher. The precursors of Polish humanism John of Ludzisko and Gregory of Sanok were professors at the university. Scholarly thought elsewhere is represented by Jan Ostroróg, a political publicist and reformist, and Jan Długosz, a historian, whose Annals is the largest in Europe history work of his time.
The folwark, a serfdom based large-scale farm and agricultural business, was a dominant feature on Poland's economic landscape beginning in the late 15th century and for the next 300 years. This dependence on nobility-controlled agriculture diverged the ways of central-eastern Europe from those of the western part of the continent, where in contrast elements of capitalism and industrialization were developing to a much greater than in the East extent, with the attendant growth of the bourgeoisie class and its political influence. The combination of the 16th century agricultural trade boom in Europe, with the free or cheap peasant labor available, made during that period the folwark economy very profitable.
The 16th century saw also further development of mining and metallurgy and technical progress took place in various commercial applications. Great quantities of exported agricultural and forest products floated down the rivers and transported by land routes resulted in positive trade balance throughout the 16th century. Imports from the West included industrial and luxury products and fabrics.
Most of the grain exported was leaving Poland through Gdańsk, which because of its location at the terminal point of the Vistula and its tributaries waterway and of its Baltic seaport trade role became the wealthiest, most highly developed (by far the largest center of crafts and manufacturing) and most autonomous of the Polish cities. Other towns were negatively affected by Gdańsk's near-monopoly in foreign trade. The largest of them were Kraków, Poznań and Warszawa, and outside of the Crown, Wrocław. During the 16th century prosperous patrician families of merchants, bankers, or industrial investors, many of German origin, still conducted large-scale business operations in Europe or lent money to noble interests, including the royal court. Some regions were relatively highly urbanized, for example in Greater Poland and Lesser Poland at the end of the 16th century 30% of the population lived in cities. The townspeople's upper layer was ethnically multinational and tended to be well-educated. Numerous burgher sons studied at the Academy of Kraków and at foreign universities; members of their group are among the finest contributors to the culture of the Polish Renaissance. Unable to form their own nationwide political class, many, despite the legal obstacles, melted into the nobility.
The nobility or szlachta in Poland constituted a greater proportion (up to 10%) of the population, than in other European countries. In principle they were all equal and politically empowered, but some had no property and were not allowed to hold offices, or participate in sejms or sejmiks, the legislative bodies. Of the "landed" nobility some possessed a small patch of land which they tended themselves and lived like peasant families (mixed marriages gave some peasants one of the few possible paths to nobility), while the magnates owned dukedom-like networks of estates with several hundred towns and villages and many thousands of subjects. The 16th century Poland was a "republic of nobles", and it was the nobility's "middle class" that formed the leading component during the later Jagiellon period and afterwards, but the magnates held the highest state and church offices. At that time szlachta in Poland and Lithuania was ethnically diversified and belonged to various religious denominations. During this period of tolerance such factors had little bearing on one's economic status or career potential. Jealous of their class privilege ("freedoms"), the Renaissance szlachta developed a sense of public service duties, educated their youth, took keen interest in current trends and affairs and traveled widely. While the Golden Age of Polish Culture adopted the western humanism and Renaissance patterns, the style of the nobles beginning in the second half of the century acquired a distinctly eastern flavor. Visiting foreigners often remarked on the splendor of the residencies and consumption-oriented lifestyle of wealthy Polish nobles.
In a situation analogous with that of other European countries, the progressive internal decay of the Polish Church created conditions favorable for the dissemination of the Reformation ideas and currents. For example there was a chasm between the lower clergy and the nobility-based Church hierarchy, which was quite laicized and preoccupied with temporal issues such as power and wealth, often corrupt. The middle nobility, which has already been exposed to the Hussite reformist persuasion, increasingly looked at the Church's many privileges with envy and hostility.
The teachings of Martin Luther were accepted most readily in the regions with strong German connections: Silesia, Greater Poland, Pomerania and Prussia. In Gdańsk in 1525 a lower-class Lutheran social uprising took place, bloodily subdued by Sigismund I; after the reckoning he established a representation for the plebeian interests as a segment of the city government. Königsberg and the Duchy of Prussia under Albrecht Hohenzollern became a strong center of Protestant propaganda dissemination affecting all of northern Poland and Lithuania. Sigismund I quickly reacted against the "religious novelties", issuing his first related edict in 1520, banning any promotion of the Lutheran ideology, or even foreign trips to the Lutheran centers. Such attempted (poorly enforced) prohibitions continued until 1543. Sigismund's son Sigismund II Augustus, a monarch of a much more tolerant attitude, guaranteed the freedom of the Lutheran religion practice in all of Royal Prussia by 1559. Besides Lutheranism, which, within the Polish Crown, ultimately found substantial following mainly in the cities of Royal Prussia and western Greater Poland, the teachings of the persecuted Anabaptists and Unitarians, and in Greater Poland the Czech Brothers, were met, at least among szlachta, with a more sporadic response.
Calvinism on the other hand in mid 16th century gained many followers among both szlachta and the magnates, especially in Lesser Poland and Lithuania. The Calvinists proposed the establishment of a Polish national church, under which all Christian denominations would be unified. After 1555 Sigismund II, who accepted their ideas, sent an envoy to the pope, but the papacy rejected the various Calvinist postulates. After 1563-1565 (the abolishment of state enforcement of the Church jurisdiction) full religious tolerance became the norm. The Polish Catholic Church emerged from this critical period weakened, but not badly damaged (the bulk of the Church property was preserved), which facilitated the later success of Counter-Reformation.
Among the Calvinists, who also included the lower classes and their leaders, ministers of common background, disagreements soon developed, based on different views in the areas of religious and social doctrines. The official split took place in 1562, when two separate churches were officially established, the mainstream Calvinist, and the smaller, more reformist, known as the Polish Brethren or Arians. The adherents of the radical wing of the Polish Brethren promoted, often by way of personal example, the ideas of social justice. Many Arians (Piotr of Goniądz, Jan Niemojewski) were pacifists opposed to private property, serfdom, state authority and military service; through communal living some had implemented the ideas of shared usage of the land and other property. The notable Sandomierz Agreement of 1570, an act of compromise and cooperation among several Polish Protestant denominations, excluded the Arians, whose more moderate, larger faction toward the end of the century gained the upper hand within the movement.
The act of the Warsaw Confederation, which took place during the convocation sejm of 1573, provided guarantees, at least for the nobility, of religious freedom and peace. It gave the Protestant denominations, including the Polish Brethren, formal rights for many decades to come. Uniquely in 16th century Europe, it turned the Commonwealth, in the words of Cardinal Stanisław Hozjusz, a Catholic reformer, into a "safe haven for heretics".
The Polish "Golden Age", the 16th century, is most often identified with the rise of the culture of Polish Renaissance. As was the case with other European nations, the Renaissance inspiration came in the first place from Italy. Many Poles traveled to Italy to study and to learn its culture. As imitating Italian ways became very trendy (the royal courts of the last two Jagiellon kings provided the leadership and example for everybody else), many Italian artists and thinkers were coming to Poland, some settling and working there for many years. While the pioneering Polish humanists, greatly influenced by Erasmus of Rotterdam, accomplished the preliminary assimilation of the antiquity culture, the generation that followed was able to put greater emphasis on the development of native elements, and because of its social diversity, advanced the process of national integration.
Beginning in 1473 in Kraków, the printing business kept growing. By the turn of the 16th century there were about 20 printing houses within the Commonwealth, 8 in Kraków, the rest mostly in Gdańsk, Toruń and Zamość. The Academy of Kraków and Sigismund II possessed well-stocked libraries; smaller collections were increasingly common at the noble courts, schools and townspeople's households. Illiteracy levels were falling, as by the end of the century almost every parish ran a school.
The Lubrański Academy, an institution of higher learning, was established in Poznań in 1519. The Reformation resulted in the establishment of a number of gymnasiums, academically oriented secondary schools, some of international renown, as the Protestant denominations wanted to attract supporters by offering high quality education. The Catholic reaction was the creation of Jesuit colleges of comparable quality. The Kraków University in turn responded with humanist program gymnasiums of its own.
The university itself experienced a period of prominence at the turn of the 15th century, when especially the mathematics, astronomy and geography faculties attracted numerous students from abroad. Latin, Greek, Hebrew and their literatures were likewise popular. By mid 16th century the institution entered a crisis stage, and by early 17th century regressed into Counter-reformational conformism. The Jesuits took advantage of the infighting and established in 1579 a university college in Vilnius, but their efforts aimed at taking over the Academy of Kraków were unsuccessful. Under the circumstances many elected to pursue their studies abroad.
Zygmunt I Stary, who built the presently existing Wawel Renaissance castle, and his son Sigismund II Augustus, supported intellectual and artistic activities and surrounded themselves with the creative elite. Their patronage example was followed by ecclesiastic and lay feudal lords, and by patricians in major towns.
The Polish science reached its culmination in the first half of the 16th century. The medieval point of view was criticized, more rational explanations were attempted. Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, published in Nuremberg in 1543, shook up the traditional value system extended into an understanding of the physical universe, setting free the explosion of scientific inquiry.
Nicolas Copernicus, a son of a Toruń trader who moved there from Kraków, exemplifies in his life pursuits Renaissance versatility. His scientific creativity was inspired at the University of Kraków, then at its prime; later he also studied at Italian universities. Copernicus wrote Latin poetry, developed an economic theory, functioned as a cleric-administrator, political activist in Prussian sejmiks, led the defense of Olsztyn against the forces of Albrecht Hohenzollern. He worked on his scientific theory for many years at Frombork, where he died.
Maciej Miechowita, a rector at the Cracow Academy, wrote Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis, a treatise on the geography of the East, the area in which Polish investigators provided first-hand expertise for the rest of Europe. Later Jan Brożek, another rector, was a multidisciplinary scholar, who worked on number theory and promoted Copernicus' work, banned from 1616 by the Church; his anti-Jesuit pamphlet was publicly burned.
Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was one of the greatest in Renaissance Europe theorists of political thought. His most famous work, On the Improvement of the Commonwealth, was published in Kraków in 1551. Modrzewski criticized the feudal societal relations and proposed broad realistic reforms. He postulated that all social classes should be subjected to the law to the same degree, and wanted to moderate the existing inequities. Modrzewski, an influential and often translated author, was a passionate proponent of peaceful resolution of international conflicts.
Generally the prominent scientists of the period resided in many different regions of the country, and increasingly, the majority were of the urban, rather than noble origin.
The modern Polish literature begins in the 16th century. At that time the nationwide Polish language, common to all educated groups, matured and penetrated all areas of public life, including municipal institutions, the legal code, the Church etc., coexisting for a while with Latin. Klemens Janicki, one of the Renaissance Latin language poets, laureate of a papal distinction, was of the peasant origin. Another plebeian author, Biernat of Lublin, wrote in Polish his own version of Aesop's fables, permeated with his socially radical views.
The literary Polish language breakthrough came under the influence of Reformation with the writings of Mikołaj Rej. In his Brief Discourse, a satire published in 1543, he defends a serf from a priest and a noble, but in his later works he often celebrates the joys of the peaceful but privileged life of a country gentleman. Rej, whose legacy is his unbashful promotion of the Polish language, left a great variety of literary pieces.
Łukasz Górnicki, an author and translator, perfected the Polish prose of the period. His contemporary and friend Jan Kochanowski became one of the greatest Polish poets of all times.
Kochanowski was born in 1530 into a prosperous noble family. In his youth he studied at the universities of Kraków, Königsberg and Padua and traveled extensively in Europe. He worked for a period as a royal secretary, and then settled in the village of Czarnolas, a part of his family inheritance. Kochanowski's multifaceted creative output is remarkable for both the depth of thoughts and feelings that he shares with the reader, and for its beauty and classic perfection of form. Among Kochanowski's best known works are bucolic Frascas (trifles), epic poetry, religious lyrics, drama-tragedy The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys, and the most highly regarded Threnodies or laments, written after the death of his young daughter.
The poet Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, an intellectually refined master of small forms, bridges the late Renaissance and early Baroque artistic periods.
Following the European and Italian in particular musical trends, the Renaissance music was developing in Poland, centered around the royal court patronage and branching from there. Sigismund I kept from 1543 a permanent choir at the Wawel castle, while Reformation brought a large scale group Polish language church singing during the services. Among the composers, who often permeated their music with national and folk elements, were Wacław of Szamotuły, Mikołaj Gomółka, who wrote music to Kochanowski translated psalms, and Mikołaj Zieliński, who enriched the Polish music by adopting the Venetian School polyphonic style.
Likewise under the Italian influence were architecture, sculpture and painting, from the beginning of the 16th century. A number of professionals from Tuscany arrived and worked as royal artists in Kraków. Francesco Florentino worked on the tomb of Jan Olbracht already from 1502, and then together with Bartolommeo Berrecci and Benedykt from Sandomierz rebuilt the royal castle, which was accomplished between 1507 and 1536. Berrecci also built Sigismund's Chapel at Wawel Cathedral. Polish magnates, Silesian Piast princes in Brzeg, and even Kraków merchants (by mid 16th century their class economically gained strength nationwide) built or rebuilt their residencies to make them resemble the Wawel Castle. Kraków's Sukiennice and Poznań City Hall are among numerous buildings rebuilt in the Renaissance manner, but Gothic construction continued alongside for a number of decades.
Between 1580 and 1600 Jan Zamoyski commissioned the Venetian architect Bernardo Morando to build the city of Zamość. The town and its fortifications were designed to consistently implement the Renaissance aesthetic paradigms.
Tombstone sculpture, often inside churches, is richly represented on graves of clergy and lay dignitaries and other wealthy individuals. Jan Maria Padovano and Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów count among the prominent artists.
During the reign of Sigismund I, szlachta in the lower chamber of the sejm, initially decidedly outnumbered by their more privileged colleagues from the senate, gained a more numerous and fully elected representation, by Sigismund I preferred to rule with the help of the magnates, pushing szlachta into the "opposition".
After the Nihil novi act of 1505, a collection of laws known as Łaski's Statutes was published in 1506 and distributed to Polish courts. The legal pronouncements, intended to facilitate the functioning of a uniform and centralized state, with ordinary szlachta privileges strongly protected, were frequently ignored by the kings, beginning with Sigismund I, and the upper nobility or church interests, which became the bases for the formation of the szlachta's execution movement, for the execution or enforcement of the laws.
Sigismund II had no children, thus ending Poland's last hereditary succession.
Poland's personal union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania paved the way for closer relations of the two states. By the Union of Lublin in 1569 a unified Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) was created, stretching from the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian mountains to present-day Belarus and western and central Ukraine (which earlier