Dynastic Poland
The Middle Ages (500-1572)
The Slavic migrations started in the second half of the 5th century A.D., some half century after these territories were vacated by Germanic tribes, their previous inhabitants. The first waves of the incoming Slavs settled the vicinity of the upper Vistula River and elsewhere in southeastern Poland and southern Masovia. Coming from the east, from the upper and middle regions of the Dnieper River, the immigrants would have had come primarily from the western branch of the early Slavs known as Sclaveni, and since their arrival are classified as West Slavs. Their early archaeological traces belong to the Prague-Korchak culture, which is similar to the earlier Kiev culture. From there the new population dispersed north and west over the course of the 6th century. The Slavs cultivated of crops and were generally farmers, but also engaged in hunting and gathering. The migrations took place when the destabilizing invasions of eastern and central Europe by waves of the Huns, Avars and Magyars were occurring. This westward movement of Slavic people was facilitated in part by the previous emigration of Germanic peoples toward the safer and more developed areas of western and southern Europe. The immigrating Slavs formed various small tribal organizations beginning in the 8th century, some of which coalesced later. Beginning in the 7th century, these tribal units built many fortified structures with earth and wood walls and embankments, called gords. Some of them were developed and inhabited, others had a very large empty area inside the walls.
Early Middle Ages (500-966)
The origins of the Slavic peoples, who arrived on Polish lands at the outset of the Middle Ages, archaeologically as the Prague culture, go back to the Kiev culture, which formed beginning early in 3rd century A.D., and which is derived from the Post-Zarubintsy cultural. An ethnogenetic relationship is apparent between the large Kiev culture population and the early (6th-7th centuries) Slavic settlements in the Oder and Vistula basins, but lacking between these Slavic settlements and the older local cultures within the same region, that ceased to exist beginning in 400–450 AD. That is to say, modern Poles are genetically related to the Slavs, but not to the prehistoric inhabitants of Poland. Originating from the Post-Zarubintsy cultures and often considered the oldest Slavic culture, the Kiev culture functioned during the later Roman periods (end of 2nd through mid-5th century) north of the vast Chernyakhov culture territories, within the basins of the upper and middle Dnieper, Desna and Seym rivers. The archaeological cultural features of the Kiev sites show this culture to be identical or highly compatible (representing the same cultural model) with that of the 6th-century Slavic societies, including the settlements on the lands of modern Poland.
The Kiev culture is known mostly from settlement sites; the burial sites, involving pit graves, are few and poorly equipped. Not many metal objects have been found, despite the known native production of iron and processing of other metals, including enamel coating technology. Clay vessels were made without the potter's wheel. The Kiev culture represented an intermediate level of development, between that of the cultures of the Central European Barbaricum, and the forest zone societies of the eastern part of the continent. The Kiev culture consisted of four local formations: The Middle Dnieper group, the Desna group, the Upper Dnieper group and the Dnieper-Don group. The general model of the Kiev culture is like that of the early Slavic cultures that were to follow and must have originated mainly from the Kiev groups, but evolved probably over a larger territory, stretching west to the base of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, and from a broader Post-Zarubintsy foundation. The Kiev culture and related groups expanded considerably after 375 A.D., when the Ostrogothic state, and the Chernyakhov culture, were destroyed by the Huns. Their expansion was further facilitated by the break down of the Hun Confederation in the mid-5th century. The final process of the differentiation of the cultures recognized as early Slavic: the Kolochin culture (over the Kiev culture's territory), the Penkovka culture, and the Prague-Korchak culture, took place during the end of the 4th and in the 5th century A.D. The expanding early Slavs took over much of the territories of the Chernyakhov culture and the Dacian Carpathian Tumuli culture. As not all of the previous inhabitants (from those cultures) had left the area, some groups were assimilated and they probably contributed some elements to the Slavic cultures.
In Poland the earliest archaeological sites considered Slavic include a limited number of 6th-century settlements and a few isolated burial sites. The material obtained there consists mostly of simple, manually formed ceramics, typical of the entire early Slavic area. It is because of the different varieties of these basic clay pots and infrequent decorations that the three cultures are distinguished. The largest of the earliest Slavic (Prague culture) settlement sites in Poland that have been subjected to systematic research is located in Bachórz and dated the second half of 5th through 7th centuries. It consisted of 12 nearly square, partially dug out houses, each covering the area of 6.2 to 19.8 (14.0 on the average) square meters. A stone furnace was usually placed in a corner, which is typical for Slavic homesteads of that period, but clay ovens and centrally located hearths are also found. 45 younger, different type dwellings (7th/8th to 9th/10th centuries) have also been discovered in the vicinity.
Characteristic of all early Slavic cultures are poorly developed handicraft and limited resources of their communities. There were no major iron production centers, but metal founding techniques were known; among metal objects occasionally found are iron knives and hooks, as well as bronze decorative items (7th-century finds in Haćki, a site of one of the earliest fortified settlements). The inventories of the typical, rather small, open settlements normally include various clay (including weights used for weaving), stone and horn utensils. The developments arranged as clusters of cabins along river or stream valleys, but above their flood levels, were usually irregular, and typically faced south. The wooden frame or pillar supported square houses covered with a straw roof had each side 2.5 to 4.5 meters long. Fertile lowlands were sought, but also forested areas with diversified plant and animal environment to provide additional sustenance. The settlements were self-sufficient—the early Slavs functioned without significant long-distance trade. The potter's wheel was being used from the turn of 7th century on. Some villages larger than a few homes have been investigated in the Kraków-Nowa Huta region where, on the left bank of the Vistula, in the direction of Igołomia a complex of 11 settlements has been located. The original furnishings of Slavic huts are difficult to determine, because equipment was often made of perishable materials such as wood, leather or fabrics. Free standing clay dome stoves for bread baking were found on some locations. Another large 6th to 9th-century settlement complex existed in the vicinity of Głogów in Silesia.
Like others for many centuries in this part of the world, the Slavic people cremated their dead. The burials were usually single, the graves grouped in small cemeteries, with the ashes placed in simple urns more often than in ground indentations. The number of burial sites found is small in relation to the known settlement density. The food production economy was based on millet and wheat cultivation, cattle breeding (swine, sheep and goats to a lesser extent), hunting, fishing and gathering.
Differentiation in the 8th Century
The 8th century brought a measure of stability to the Slavic people settled in Poland. About one million people actively developed and utilized no more than 20–25% of the land, the rest being forest. Normal settlements, with the exception of a few fortified and cult places, were limited to lowland areas, below 350 meters above sea level. Most villages built without artificial defensive structures were located within valley areas of natural bodies of water. The Slavs were very familiar with the water environment and used it as natural defense.
The living and economic activity structures were either distributed randomly, or arranged in rows or around a central empty lot. The larger settlements could have had over a dozen homesteads and be occupied by 50 to 80 residents, but more typically there were just several homes with no more than 30 inhabitants. From the 7th century on the previously common semi-subterranean dwellings were being replaced by buildings located over most of their areas or wholly above the surface (pits were dug for storage and other uses), but still consisted of just one room. As the Germanic people before, the Slavs were leaving no man's land regions between developed areas, and especially along the limits of their tribal territories, for separation from strangers and to avoid conflicts.
The Polish tribes did however leave remnants of more imposing structures-fortified settlements and other reinforced enclosures of the gord type. Those were being established on naturally suitable, defense enhancing sites beginning in late 6th or 7th century (Szeligi near Płock and Haćki are the early examples), with a large scale building effort taking place in the 8th century. The gords were differently designed and of various sizes, from small to impressively massive. Ditches, walls, palisades and embankments were used to strengthen the perimeter, which involved an often complicated earthwork, wood and stone construction. Gords of the tribal period were irregularly distributed across the country (fewer larger ones in Lesser Poland, more smaller ones in central and northern Poland), could cover an area from 0.1 to 25 hectares, have a simple or multi-segment architecture, and be protected by fortifications of different types. Some were permanently occupied by a substantial number of people or by a chief and his cohort of armed men, while others were utilized as refuges to protect the local population in case of external danger. The gords,beginning in the 9th century, became the nuclei of future urban developments, attracting, especially in strategic locations, tradesmen of all kinds. Gords erected in the 8th century have been investigated for instance in Międzyświeć (Gołęszyce tribe) and Naszacowice. The last one was destroyed and rebuilt four times, with the final reconstruction after 989. This larger scale gord building activity, from the mid-8th century on, was a manifestation of the emergence of tribal organisms, a new civilizational quality, representing rather efficient proto-political organizations and social structures on a new level.
The Slavs in Poland, from the 8th century on, increasingly organized in larger structures, known as great tribes, either through voluntary or forced association, were primarily agricultural people. Fields were cultivated, as well as, within settlements, nearby gardens. Plowing was done using oxen and wooden, iron reinforced plows. Forest burning was used to increase the arable area, but also provided fertilizer, as the ashes lasted in that capacity for several seasons. Rotation of crops was practiced as well as the winter/spring crop system. After several seasons of exploitation the land was being left idle to regain fertility. Wheat, millet and rye were most important; other cultivated plant species included oat, barley, pea, broad bean, lentil, flax, hemp, as well as apple, pear, plum, peach and cherry trees in fruit orchards. Beginning in the 8th century, swine gradually became economically more important than cattle; sheep, goats, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, geese and ducks were also kept. The Slavic agricultural practices are known from archaeological research, which shows progressive over time increases in arable area and resulting deforestation, and from written reports provided by Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, a 10th-century Jewish traveler. Ibrahim described also other features of Slavic life, for example the use of steam baths. An anonymous Arab writer from the turn of the 10th century mentions that the Slavic people made an alcoholic beverage out of honey and their celebrations were accompanied by music played on the lute, tambourines and wind instruments.
Gathering, hunting and fishing were still essential as sources of food and materials, such as hide or fur. The forest was also exploited as a source of building materials such as wood, wild forest bees were kept there, and as a place of refuge. The population was, until the 9th century, separated from the main centers of civilization, self-sufficient with primitive, local community and household based manufacturing. Specialized craftsmen existed only in the fields of iron extraction from ore and processing, and pottery; the few luxury type items used were imports. From the 7th century on, modestly decorated ceramics was made with the potter's wheel. 7th to 9th century collections of objects have been found in Bonikowo and Bruszczewo (iron spurs, knives, clay containers with some ornamentation) and in Kraków-Nowa Huta region (weapons and utensils in Pleszów and Mogiła, where the most substantial of iron treasures was located), among other places. Slavic warriors were traditionally armed with spears, bows and wooden shields; occasionally seen later axes and still later swords are of the types popular throughout 7th to 9th centuries in Europe. Independent of distant powers the Slavic tribes in Poland lived a relatively undisturbed life, but at the cost of some civilizational backwardness.
The burial customs, at least in southern Poland, included raising kurgans. The urn with the ashes was placed on the mound or on a post thrust into the ground. In that position few such urns survived, which may be why Slavic burial sites in Poland are rare. All dead, regardless of social status, were cremated and afforded a burial, according to Arab testimonies. A Slavic funeral feast practice was also mentioned earlier by Theophylact Simocatta.
According to Procopius the Slavs believed in one god, creator of lightning and master of the entire universe, to whom all sacrificial animals (sometimes people) were offered. The highest god was called Svarog throughout the Slavic area, as other gods were worshiped too in different regions at different times, often with local names. Natural objects such as rivers, groves or mountains were also celebrated, as well as nymphs, demons, ancestral and other spirits, who were all venerated and bought off with offering rituals, which also involved augury. Such beliefs and practices were later continued, developed further and individualized by the many Slavic tribes. The Slavs erected sanctuaries, created statues and other sculptures including the four-faced Svetovid, whose carvings symbolize various aspects of the Slavic cosmology model. One 9th-century specimen from the Zbruch River in today's Ukraine, found in 1848, is on display at the Archaeological Museum in Kraków. Many of the sacred locations and objects were identified outside Poland, in northeastern Germany or Ukraine. In Poland religious activity sites have been investigated in northwestern Pomerania, including Szczecin, where a three-headed deity once stood and the Wolin island, where 9th– to 11th-century cult figurines were found.
(Left: drawing of the Zbruch Idol, on display in the Archaeological Museum in Kraków, Poland)
The 9th Century
In the 9th century the Polish lands were still on the peripheries in relation to the major powers and events of medieval Europe, but a measure of civilizational progress did take place, as evidenced by the number of gords built, kurgans raised and movable equipment used. The tribal elites must have been influenced by the relative closeness of the Carolingian Empire; objects crafted there have occasionally been found. Poland was populated by many tribes of various sizes. The names of some of them, mostly from western part of the country, are known from written sources, especially the Latin language document written in the mid-9th century by the anonymous Bavarian Geographer. During this period typically smaller tribal structures were disintegrating, larger ones were being established in their place. Characteristic of the turn of the 10th century in most Polish tribal settlement areas was a particular intensification of gord building activity. The gords were the centers of social and political life. Tribal leaders and elders had their headquarters in their protected environment and some of the tribal general assemblies took place inside them. Religious cult locations were commonly located in the vicinity, while the gords themselves were frequently visited by traders and artisans. A major development of this period concerns the somewhat enigmatic Wiślanie, or Vistulans tribe. The Vistulans of western Lesser Poland, mentioned in several contemporary written sources, already a large tribal union in the first half of the 9th century, were evolving in the second half of that century toward a super-tribal state, until their efforts were terminated by the more powerful neighbors from the south. Kraków, the main town of the Vistulans, with its Wawel gord, was located along a major "international" trade route. The main Vistulan-related archaeological find is the late 9th-century treasure of iron-ax shaped grzywnas, well known as currency units in Great Moravia. They were discovered in 1979 in a wooden chest, below the basement of a medieval house on Kanonicza Street, near the Vistula and the Wawel Hill. The total weight of the iron material is 3630 kg and the individual bars of various sizes (4212 of them) were bound in bundles, which suggests that the package was being readied for transportation.
Vistulan gords, built from the mid-8th century on, had typically very large area, often over 10 hectares. About 30 big ones are known. The 9th-century gords in Lesser Poland and in Silesia had likely been built as a defense against Great Moravian military expansion. The largest one, in Stradów, Kazimierza Wielka County, had an area of 25 hectares and walls or embankments up 18 meters high, but parts of this giant structure were probably built later. The gords were often located along the northern slope of the western Carpathian Mountains, on hills or hillsides. The buildings inside the walls were sparsely located or altogether absent, so for the most part the gords' role was other than that of settlements or administrative centers. A large (2.5 hectares) gord was built at the turn of the 9th century in Zawada Lanckorońska, and rebuilt after 868. A treasure found there contains various Great Moravian type decorations dated from the late 9th century through mid-10th century. The treasure was hidden and the gord destroyed by fire during the second half of that century.
The most important Vistulans related written reference comes from The Life of Saint Methodius, also known as The Pannonian Legend, written by Methodius' disciples most likely right after his death in 885. The fragment speaks of a very powerful pagan prince, residing in the Vistulan country, who reviled the Christians and caused them great harm. He was warned by St. Methodius' emissaries speaking on the missionary's behalf and advised to reform and voluntarily accept baptism in his own homeland. Otherwise, it was predicted, he would be forced to do so in a foreign land, and, according to the Pannonian Legend story, that is what eventually happened. This passage is widely interpreted as the indication that the Vistulans were invaded and overrun by the army of Great Moravia and their pagan prince captured. It would have to happen during Methodius' second stay in Moravia, between 873 and 885, and during Svatopluk's reign.
A further elaboration on this story is possibly found in the chronicle of Wincenty Kadłubek, written some three centuries later. The chronicler, inadvertently or intentionally mixing different historic eras, talks of a past Polish war with the army of Alexander the Great. The countless enemy soldiers thrust their way into Poland, and the King himself, having previously subjugated the Pannonians, entered through Moravia like through the back door. He victoriously unfolded the wings of his forces and conquered the Kraków area lands and Silesia, leveling in process Kraków's ancient city walls. It appears that at some point during the intervening period, or by the chronicler himself, the glitter of the Svatopluk's army became confused with that of the emperor-warrior of another place and time. A dozen or more southern Lesser Poland gords attacked and destroyed at the end of 9th century lends some archaeological credence to this version of events.
East of the Vistulans, eastern Lesser Poland was the territory of the Lendians (Lędzianie) tribe. The Lendians had to be a very substantial tribe, since the names for Poland in the Lithuanian and Hungarian languages and for the Poles in medieval Ruthenian all begin with the letter "L", being derived from their tribe's name. The Poles historically have also referred to themselves as "Lechici". After the fall of Great Moravia the Magyars controlled, at least partially, the territory of the Lendians. The Lendians were conquered by Kievan Rus' during 930–940; at the end of the 10th century the Lendian lands became divided, with the western part taken by Poland, the eastern portion retained by Kievan Rus'.
The Vistulans were probably also subjected to Magyar raids, as an additional layer of embankments was often added to the gord fortifications in the early part of the 10th century. In the early or mid-10th century the Vistulan entity, like Silesia, was incorporated by Boleslaus I of Bohemia into the Czech state. This association turned out to be beneficial in terms of economic development, because Kraków was an important station on the Prague—Kiev trade route. The first known Christian church structures were erected on the Wawel Hill. Later in the 10th century, under uncertain circumstances but in a peaceful way (the gord network suffered no damage on this occasion), the Vistulans became a part of the Piast Polish state.
In terms of economic and general achievement the most advanced region in the 9th century was Pomerania, characterized also by most extensive contacts with the external world, and accordingly, cultural richness and diversity. Pomerania was a favorite destination for traders and other entrepreneurs from distant lands, some of whom were establishing local manufacturing and trade centers; those were usually accompanied by nearby gords inhabited by the local elite. Some of such industrial area / gord complexes gave rise to early towns—urban centers, such as Wolin, Pyrzyce or Szczecin. The Bavarian Geographer mentioned two tribes, the Velunzani (Uelunzani) and Pyritzans (Prissani) in the area, each with 70 towns. Despite the high advancement, no social structures indicative of statehood developed in Farther Pomeranian societies, except for the Wolin city-state.
The Wolin settlement was established on the island of the same name in the late 8th century. Located at the mouth of the Oder River, Wolin from the beginning was involved with long distance Baltic Sea trade. The settlement, thought to be identical with both Vineta and Jomsborg, was pagan, multi-ethnic, and readily kept accepting newcomers, especially craftsmen and other professionals, from all over the world. Being located on a major intercontinental sea route, it soon became a big European industrial and trade power. Writing in the 11th century Adam of Bremen saw Wolin as one of the largest European cities, inhabited by honest, good-natured and hospitable Slavic people, together with other nationalities, from the Greeks to barbarians, including the Saxons, as long as they did not demonstrate their Christianity too openly. Wolin was the major stronghold of the Volinian tribal territory, comprising the island and a broad stretch of the adjacent mainland, with its frontier guarded by a string of gords. The city's peak of prosperity occurred around and after year 900, when a new seaport was built (the municipal complex had now four of them) and the metropolitan area was secured by walls and embankments. The archaeological findings there include a great variety of imported (even from the Far East) and locally manufactured products and raw materials; amber and precious metals figure prominently, as jewelry was one of the mainstay economic activities of the Wolinian elite.
The 10th Century
Sources from the 9th and 10th centuries make no mention of the Polans (Polanie) tribe. The closest thing would be the huge (400 gords) Glopeani tribe of the Bavarian Geographer, whose name seems to be derived from that of Lake Gopło, but archaeological investigations cannot confirm any such scale of settlement activity in Lake Gopło area. What the research does indicate is the presence of several distinct tribes in 9th-century Greater Poland, one around the upper and middle Obra River basin, one in the lower Obra basin, and another one west of the Warta River. There was the Gniezno area tribe, whose settlements were concentrated around the regional cult center—the Lech Hill of today's Gniezno. Throughout the 9th century the Greater Poland tribes did not constitute a uniform entity or whole in the cultural, or settlement pattern sense. The centrally located Gniezno Land was at that time rather isolated from external influences, such as from the highly developed Moravian-Czech or Baltic Sea centers. Such separation was probably a positive factor, facilitating at this stage the efforts of a lineage of leaders from an elder clan of a tribe there, known as the Piast House, which resulted in the early part of the 10th century in the establishment of an embryonic state.
What was later to be called Gniezno state, also known as Mieszko's state, was expanded at the expense of the subdued tribes in Mieszko's grandfather and father times, and in particular by Mieszko himself. Writing around 965 or 966 Ibrahim ibn Yaqub described the country of Mieszko, "the king of the North," as the most wide-ranging of the Slavic lands. Mieszko, the ruler of the Slavs, was also mentioned as such at that time by Widukind of Corvey in his Res gestae saxonicae. In its mature form this state included the West Slavic lands between the Oder and Bug rivers and between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian Mountains, including the economically crucial mouth areas of the Vistula and Oder rivers, as well as Lesser Poland and Silesia.
The name of Poles (Polanians, Polyans, Polans) appears in writing for the first time around year 1000, like the country's name Poland (Latinized as Polonia). "Polanie" was possibly the name given by later historians to the inhabitants of Greater Poland (a presumed tribe not mentioned in earlier sources). 10th-century inhabitants of Greater Poland would originate from unknown (by name) tribes, which were instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the Polish state; one such tribe had to constitute the immediate power base of Mieszko's predecessors, if not Mieszko himself.
Early Piast Dynasty & Christianization
In the early 12th century chronicler Gallus Anonymus wrote down or invented a dynastic legend of the House of Piasts. The story gives, amid miraculous details, the names of the supposed ancestors of the royal family, beginning with a man named Chościsko, the father of the central figure Piast, who was a humble farmer living in Gniezno, married to Rzepka. The male heads of the Piast clan following after him were, according to Gallus, Siemowit, Lestek, Siemomysł and Mieszko I, the first "Piast" known with historic certainty. Gallus expressed his own misgivings concerning the trustworthiness of the royal story he passed on (he qualified it with words like "oblivion", "error" and "idolatry"), but the sequence of the last three names of Mieszko's predecessors he considered reliable. The results of archaeological studies of the Greater Poland's 9th- and 10th-century gords are at odds with the timing of this story. There was no Gniezno settlement in the 9th century; there was a pagan cult site there beginning with the turn of the 10th century. The Gniezno gord was built around year 940, possibly because the location, being of great spiritual importance to the tribal community, would rally the local population around the building and defense effort.
Under the old tribal system, the tribal assembly elected a chief in case of an external threat, to lead the defense effort, and it was a temporarily granted authority. The Piast clan was able to replace it in Gniezno area with its own hereditary rule over the tribe that inhabited it, which was in line with the trends of the times, and allowed them to create the state that they controlled. Greater Poland during the first half of the 10th century was not particularly densely populated or economically developed, lagging behind such regions as Pomerania, Silesia and Lesser Poland. It was favored by the above mentioned geographic isolation, central location among the culturally similar tribes and extensive network of suitable for transportation rivers. What made the ultimate difference however could be that some Piast family members were exceptional individuals, able to take advantage of the arising opportunities.
The development of the Piast state can be traced to some degree by following the disappearance of the old tribal gords (many of them were built in Greater Poland during the later part of the 9th century and soon thereafter), destroyed by the advancing Gniezno tribe people. For example the gords in Spławie, Września County and in Daleszyn, Gostyń County, both built soon after 899, were attacked and taken over by the Piast state forces, the first one burned during the initial period of the armed expansion. The old gords were often rebuilt and enlarged or replaced, beginning in the first decades of the 10th century, by new, large and massively reinforced Piast gords. Gords of this type were erected or reconstructed from earlier ones initially in the tribe's native Gniezno Land and then elsewhere in central Greater Poland, in Grzybowo near Września (920–930), Ostrów Lednicki, Giecz, Gniezno, Bnin in Poznań County, Ląd in Słupca County and in Poznań. Connected by water communication lines, in the mid-10th century the powerful gords served as the main concentrations of forces of the emerging state.
In parallel with the gord building activity (920–950) the Piasts undertook military expansion, crossing the Warta and moving towards the end of this period south and west within the Oder River basin. The entire network of tribal gords between the Obra and Barycz rivers, among other places, was eliminated. The conquered population was often resettled to central Greater Poland, which resulted in partial depopulation of previously well-developed regions. At the end of this stage of the Piast state formation new Piast gords were built in the (north) Noteć River area and other outlying areas of the annexed lands, for example in Santok and Śrem around 970. During the following decade the job of unifying the core of the early Piast state was finished—besides Greater Poland with Kujawy it included also much of central Poland. Masovia and parts of Pomerania found themselves increasingly under the Piast influence, while the southbound expansion was for the time being stalled, because large portions of Lesser Poland and Silesia were controlled by the Czech state.
The expanding Piast state developed a professional military force. According to Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, Mieszko collected taxes in the form of weights used for trading and spent those taxes as monthly pay for his warriors. He had three thousands of heavily armored mounted soldiers alone, whose quality according to Ibrahim was very impressive. Mieszko provided for all their equipment and needs, even military pay for their children regardless of their gender, from the moment they were born. This force was supported by a much greater number of foot fighters. Numerous armaments were found in the Piast gords, many of them of foreign, e.g. Frankish or Scandinavian origin. Mercenaries from these regions, as well as German and Norman knights, constituted a significant element of Mieszko's elite fighting guard.
To sustain this military machine and to meet other state expenses large amounts of revenue were necessary. Greater Poland had some natural resources used for trade such as fur, hide, honey and wax, but those surely did not provide enough income. According to Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, Prague in Bohemia, a city built of stone, was the main center for the exchange of trading commodities in this part of Europe. The Slavic traders brought here from Kraków tin, salt, amber and other products they had and most importantly slaves; Muslim, Jewish, Hungarian and other traders were the buyers. The Life of St. Adalbert, written at the end of the 10th century by John Canaparius, lists the fate of many Christian slaves, sold in Prague "for the wretched gold," as the main curse of the time. Dragging of shackled slaves is shown as a scene in the bronze 12th-century Gniezno Doors. It may well be that the territorial expansion financed itself, and partially the expanding state, by being the source of loot, of which the captured local people were the most valuable part. The scale of the human trade practice is however arguable, because much of the population from the defeated tribes was resettled for agricultural work or in the near-gord settlements, where they could serve the victors in various capacities and thus contribute to the economic and demographic potential of the state. Considerable increase of population density was characteristic of the newly established states in eastern and central Europe. The slave trade not being enough, the Piast state had to look for other options for generating revenue.
The Piast state reached the mouth of the Vistula first. Based on the investigations of the gords erected along the middle and lower Vistula, it appears that the lower Vistula waterway was under Piast control from about the mid-10th century. A powerful gord built in Gdańsk, under Mieszko at the latest, solidified the Piast rule over Pomerelia. However, the mouth of the Oder River was firmly controlled by the Jomsvikings and the Volinians, who were allied with the Veleti. "The Veleti are fighting Mieszko", reported Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, "and their military might is great." Widukind wrote about the events of 963, involving the person of the Saxon count Wichmann the Younger, an adventurer exiled from his country. According to Widukind, "Wichmann went to the barbarians (probably the Veleti or the Wolinians) and leading them (...) defeated Mieszko twice, killed his brother, and acquired a great deal of spoils." Thietmar of Merseburg also reports that Mieszko with his people became in 963, together with other Slavic entities such as the Lusatians, subjects of the Holy Roman Emperor, forced into that role by the powerful Margrave Gero of the Saxon Eastern March
Such series of military reverses and detrimental relationships, which also involved the Czech Přemyslids allied with the Veleti, compelled Mieszko to seek the support of the German Emperor Otto I. After the contacts were made, Widukind described Mieszko as "a friend of the Emperor." A pact was negotiated and finalized no later than in 965. The price Mieszko had to pay for the imperial protection was becoming the Emperor's vassal, paying him tribute from the lands up to the Warta River, and, very likely, making a promise of accepting Christianity.
(Right: Personifications of Sclavinia/Wends, Germania, Gallia, and Roma, bringing offerings to Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990.)
In response to the immediate practical concerns, the Christian Church was installed in Poland in its Western Latin Rite. The act brought Mieszko's country into the realm of the ancient Mediterranean culture. Of the issues requiring urgent attention the preeminent was the increasing pressure of the eastbound expansion (between the Elbe and the Oder rivers) of the German state, and its plans to control the parallel expansion of the Church through the archdiocese in Magdeburg, the establishment of which was finalized in 968.
The impetus to the process was the Baptism of Poland (Polish: chrzest Polski), the personal baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of the Polish state, and much of his court. The ceremony took place on the Holy Saturday of 14 April 966, although the exact location is still disputed by historians, with the cities of Poznań and Gniezno being the most likely sites. Mieszko's wife, Dobrawa of Bohemia is often credited as a major influence on Mieszko's decision to accept Christianity. Below is a Contemporary mural in Gniezno commemorates the baptism of Mieszko I.
While the spread of Christianity in Poland took centuries to finish, the process was ultimately successful, as within several decades Poland joined the rank of established European states recognized by the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. According to some historians the baptism of Poland marks the beginning of Polish statehood. In fact, the Christianization of Poland through the Czech–Polish alliance represented a conscious choice on the part of Polish rulers to ally themselves with the Czech state rather than the German one. In a similar fashion, some of the later political struggles involved the Polish Church refusing to subordinate itself to the German hierarchy and instead being directly subordinate to the Vatican.
Although at first the Christian religion was unpopular, Mieszko's baptism was highly influential but needed to be enforced by the state, and ran into some popular opposition, including an uprising in the 1030s (particularly intense in the years of 1035–1037). Nonetheless, by that time Poland had won recognition as a proper European state, both from the papacy and from the Holy Roman Empire.
Out of various Polish provinces, Christianity's spread was slowest in Pomerania, where it gained a significant following only around the 12th century. Initially, the clergy came from the Western Christian European countries; native Polish clergy took three or four generations to emerge, and were supported by the monasteries and friars that grew increasingly common in the 12th century. By the 13th century Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion throughout Poland.
There is some disagreement as to the early seat of the ruling clan. Archaeology has shown that Gniezno had not even existed before about 940. This fact eliminates the possibility of Gniezno's early central role, which is what had long been believed, based on the account given by Gallus Anonymus. The relics (including a great concentration of silver treasures) found in Giecz, where the original gord was built some 80 years earlier, later turned into a powerful Piast stronghold, point to that location. Other likely early capitals include the old gords of Grzybowo, Kalisz (located away from Gniezno Land) or Poznań. Poznań, which is older than Gniezno, was probably the original court site of Mieszko in the earlier years of his reign. The first cathedral church, a monumental structure, was erected there. The events of 974–978, when Mieszko, like his brother-in-law Boleslaus II of Bohemia, supported Henry II in his rebellion against Otto II, created a threat of the Emperor's retribution. The situation probably motivated Mieszko to move the government to the safer, because of its more eastern location, Gniezno. The Emperor's response turned out to be ineffective, but this geographical advantage continued in the years to come. The growing importance of Gniezno was reflected in the addition around 980 of the new southern part to the original two segments of the gord.
The enormous effort of the estimated population of 100-150,000 residents of the Gniezno region, who were involved in building or modernizing Gniezno and several other main Piast gords (all of the local supply of oak timber was exhausted), was made in response to a perceived deadly threat, not just to help them pursue regional conquests. After 935, when the Gniezno people were probably already led by Mieszko's father Siemomysł, the Czechs conquered Silesia and soon moved also against Germany. The fear of desecration of their tribal cult center by the advancing Czechs could have mobilized the community. Also a Polabian Slavs uprising was suppressed around 940 by Germany under Otto I, and the eastbound moving Saxons must have added to the sense of danger at that time (unless the Piast state was already allied with Otto, helping restrain the Polabians). When the situation stabilized, the Piast state consolidated and the huge gords turned out to be handy for facilitating the Piast's own expansion, led at this stage by Siemomysł.
Piast Dynasty (966-1370)
Initially a pagan, Mieszko I was the first ruler of the Polans tribal union known from contemporary written sources. In 965, Mieszko, who was allied with Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia at the time, married the duke's daughter, Doubravka, a Christian princess. Mieszko's conversion to Christianity in its Western Latin Rite followed on 14 April 966, and is considered to be the founding event of the Polish state. In the aftermath of Mieszko's 967 victory over a force of the Velunzani, which was led by Wichmann, the first missionary bishop was appointed. The action 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, and the Czechs. The victories over Wichmann and Hodo allowed Mieszko to extend his Pomeranian possessions west to the vicinity of the Oder River and its mouth. After the death of Otto I, and then again after the death of Otto II, Mieszko supported Henry the Quarrelsome, a pretender to the imperial crown. After the death of Dobrawa, Mieszko married c. 980 a German, Oda von Haldensleben, daughter of Dietrich, Margrave of the Northern March. When fighting the Czechs in 990, Mieszko was helped by the Holy Roman Empire. By about the year 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. The Piast lands totaled about 250,000 km2 (96,526 sq mi) in area, with an approximate population of under one million.
Mieszko I died in 992. Contrary to what the first ruler of Poland had intended, when Oda with her (and Mieszko's) minor sons lost the power struggle, Bolesław, Mieszko's oldest son, became the sole ruler of Poland. A man of high ambition and strong personality, Bolesław embarked on further territorial expansion to the west (Lusatia region), 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 Farther Pomerania, together with its new bishopric in Kołobrzeg; the region had previously been conquered with great effort by Mieszko.
Bolesław Chrobry (ruled 992–1025) began his reign by continuing his father's policy of alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. Bolesław received and helped Wojciech of the Slavník family, a well-connected Czech bishop in exile who was killed in 997 while on a mission in Prussia. Bolesław skillfully took advantage of Wojciech's death: the martyrdom of Wojciech gave Poland a patron saint, St. Adalbert, and resulted in the creation of an independent Polish province of the Church with an archbishop in Gniezno. In the year 1000, the young Emperor Otto III came as a pilgrim to visit St. Adalbert's grave and lent his support to Bolesław during the Congress of Gniezno; 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 to 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 (1002–1005, 1007–1013, 1015–1018). From 1003–1004 Bolesław intervened militarily in Czech dynastic conflicts. After his forces were removed from Bohemia in 1018, Bolesław retained Moravia. In 1013 the marriage between Bolesław's son Mieszko and Richeza of Lotharingia, the niece of Emperor Otto III and future mother of Casimir I the Restorer, took place. The conflicts with Germany ended in 1018 with the Peace of Bautzen accord, on favorable terms for Bolesław. In the context of the 1018 Kiev expedition, 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.King Mieszko II Lambert (990–1034) tried to continue the politics of his father using Bolesław's kingdom as an interventionist great power. Mieszko's actions reinforced old resentment and hostility on the part of Poland's neighbors, and his two dispossessed brothers took advantage of it, arranging for Rus' and German invasions in 1031; Mieszko was defeated and was forced to leave the country. Later, Mieszko's brothers Bezprym and Otto were killed and Mieszko partially recovered. The first Piast monarchy collapsed with Mieszko's death in 1034. 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 country suffered territorial losses, and the functioning of the Gniezno archdiocese was disrupted. The nation made a recovery under Mieszko's son, Duke Casimir I (1016–1058), properly known as the Restorer. After returning from exile in 1039, Casimir rebuilt the Polish monarchy and the country's territorial integrity through several military campaigns: in 1047, Masovia was taken back from Miecław, and, in 1050, Silesia from the Czechs. Casimir was aided by the recent adversaries of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and Kievan Rus', both of whom disliked the chaos in Poland. Casimir introduced a more mature form of feudalism and relieved the burden of financing large army units from the duke's treasury by settling his warriors on feudal estates. Faced with the widespread destruction of Greater Poland after the Czech expedition, Casimir moved his court to Kraków, replacing the old Piast capitals of Poznań and Gniezno; Kraków functioned as the nation's capital for several centuries.
Casimir's son Bolesław II the Bold, also known as the Generous (ruled 1058–1079), developed Polish military strength and waged several foreign campaigns between 1058 and 1077. As an active supporter of the papal side in its feud with the German emperor, Bolesław crowned himself king in 1076 with the blessing of Pope Gregory VII. In 1079 there was an anti-Bolesław conspiracy or conflict that involved the Bishop of Kraków. Bolesław had Bishop Stanislaus of Szczepanów 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. After Bolesław's exile the country found itself under the unstable rule of his younger brother Władysław I Herman (ruled 1079–1102). Władysław was strongly dependent on Palatine Sieciech. When Władysław's two sons, Zbigniew and Bolesław, finally forced Władysław to remove his hated protégé, Poland was divided among the three of them from 1098, and after the father's death from 1102 to 1106 between the two brothers. Władysław and his son Bolesław are both buried at the Płock Cathedral (left).
After a power struggle, Bolesław III the Wry-mouthed (ruled 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 all of Mieszko I's Pomerania (of which the remaining eastern part had been lost by Poland from after the death of Mieszko II), a task begun by his father and completed by Bolesław around 1123. Szczecin was subdued in a bloody takeover and Western Pomerania up to Rügen, except for the directly incorporated southern part, became Bolesław's fief, to be ruled locally by Wartislaw I, the first duke of the Griffin dynasty.Before he died, Bolesław Krzywousty divided the country, in a limited sense, among four of his sons. He made complex arrangements intended to prevent fratricidal warfare and preserve the Polish state's formal unity, but after Bolesław's death the plan's implementation had failed and in reality a long period of fragmentation was ushered in. For nearly 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. Following his concept of seniorate, Bolesław divided the country into five principalities: Silesia, Greater Poland, Masovia, Sandomierz and Kraków. The first four provinces were given to his four sons, who became independent rulers. The fifth province, the Seniorate Province of Kraków, was to be added to the senior among the Princes who, as the Grand Duke of Kraków, was the representative of the whole of Poland. 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. The external borders left by Bolesław III at his death closely resembled the borders left by Mieszko I; this original early Piast monarchy configuration had not survived the fragmentation period.
The 13th century brought fundamental changes to the structure of Polish society and its political system. Because of the fragmentation and constant internal conflicts, the Piast dukes were unable to stabilize Poland's external borders of the early Piast rulers. Western Farther Pomerania broke its political ties with Poland in the second half of the 12th century and from 1231 became a fief of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which in 1307 extended its Pomeranian possessions even further east, taking over the Sławno and Słupsk areas. Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania had been independent of the Polish dukes from 1227. In mid-13th century, Bolesław II the Bald granted Lubusz Land to the Margraviate, which made possible the creation of the Neumark and had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border. 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. 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), that had previously been imposed by the ruling dukes. The civil strife and foreign invasions, such as the Mongol invasions in 1240/1241, 1259/1260 and 1287/1288, weakened and depopulated the many small Polish principalities, as the country was becoming progressively more subdivided. The depopulation and the increasing demand for labor in the developing economy caused a massive immigration of West European peasants, mostly German settlers into Poland (early waves from Germany and Flanders in the 1220s). 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. 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 the Germans, who created early strong establishments (led by patriciates) especially in the urban centers of Silesia and other regions of western Poland, had been an increasingly influential minority in Poland.
As the disadvantages of national division were becoming increasingly apparent in various segments of the society, some of the Piast dukes had begun making serious efforts aimed at the reunification of the Polish state. Important among the earlier attempts were the activities of the Silesian dukes Henry I the Bearded, his son Henry II the Pious, who was killed in 1241 while fighting the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica, and Henry IV Probus. 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, Václav II of Bohemia of the Přemyslid dynasty, who married Przemysł's daughter and became King of Poland in 1300. Václav's heavy-handed policies soon caused him to lose whatever support he had earlier in his reign; he died in 1305.
Władysław the Elbow-high and his son Casimir III the Great were the last two rulers of the Piast dynasty in the unified Kingdom of Poland of the 14th century. Their rule was not a return to the Polish state as it existed before the period of fragmentation, because of the loss of internal cohesion and territorial integrity. The regional Piast princes remained strong and for economic and cultural reasons some of them gravitated toward Poland's neighbors. The Kingdom lost Pomerania and Silesia, the most highly developed and economically important of the original ethnically Polish lands (a disputable designation in case of Slavic Western Pomerania), which left half of the Polish population outside the Kingdom's borders. The western losses had to do with the failure of the unification efforts undertaken by the Silesian Piast dukes and the German expansion processes. These included the Piast principalities developing (or falling into) dependencies in respect to the German political structures, settler colonization and gradual Germanization of the Polish ruling circles. 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 East Slavic, and thus ethnically non-Polish. An important factor in the unification process was the Polish Church, which remained a single ecclesiastical province throughout the fragmentation period. Despite the territorial truncation, 14th century 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 greater role in briskly growing trade, mining and metallurgy. A great monetary reform was implemented during the reign of Casimir III.
Władysław Łokietek (the Elbow-high) (ruled 1305–1333), who began as an obscure Piast duke from Kuyavia, fought a lifelong, uphill battle with powerful adversaries with persistence and determination. Although the area under King Władysław's control was limited and many unresolved issues remained, Łokietek may have saved Poland's existence as a state. Supported by his Hungarian allies, Władysław returned from exile and challenged Václav II, and after his death Václav III in 1304–1306. Václav III's murder terminated the Přemyslid dynasty and their involvement in Poland. Afterwards Władysław Łokietek completed the takeover of Lesser Poland, entering Kraków, and took 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 1311–1312, a rebellion in Kraków instigated by the city's patrician leadership seeking a rule by the House of Luxembourg was put down. This event may have had a limiting impact on the emerging political power of towns. In 1313–1314 Władysław conquered Greater Poland. In 1320, Władysław I Łokietek became the first King of Poland crowned not in Gniezno, but in Kraków's Wawel Cathedral. The coronation was hesitantly agreed to by Pope John XXII, despite the opposition from John of Bohemia, who had also claimed the Polish crown. John undertook in 1327 an expedition aimed at Kraków, which he was compelled to abort; in 1328, he waged a crusade against Lithuania during which he formalized an alliance with the Teutonic Order. The Order was in a state of war with Poland from 1327 to 1332; the Knights captured Dobrzyń Land and Kujawy. Władysław was helped by his alliances with Hungary (his daughter Elizabeth was married to King Charles Robert in 1320) and Lithuania (1325 pact against the Teutonic State and the marriage of Łokietek's son Casimir to Aldona, daughter of Lithuanian ruler Gediminas), 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, often ambivalent about their loyalties, into allegiance (1327-29)
After Łokietek's death, the old monarch's 23 year old son became King Casimir III, later known as Kazimierz the Great (ruled 1333–1370). Unlike his father the new king had no inclination for the hardships of military life. Casimir's contemporaries did not give him 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. In 1343, Casimir settled several high-level arbitration disputes with the Teutonic Order by a territorial compromise, culminating in the Treaty of Kalisz, a peace treaty that concluded the Polish-Teutonic War of 1326–1332. Dobrzyń Land and Kuyavia were recovered by Casimir. At that time Poland started to expand to the east and through a series of military campaigns between 1340 and 1366 Casimir had annexed the Halych–Volodymyr area of Rus'. The town of Lviv there attracted newcomers of several nationalities, was granted municipal rights in 1356, and had thus begun its career as Lwów, the main Polish center in the midst of a Rus' Orthodox population. 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, who in 1339 formally gave up his rights to several Silesian principalities, unsuccessfully tried to recover the region 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 and connecting Poland with Farther Pomerania.Casimir the Great considerably solidified the country's position in both foreign and domestic affairs. Domestically, he integrated and centralized 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.
With the death of Casimir the Great, the period of hereditary (Piast) monarchy in Poland came to an end. 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 (in 1368 the Polish king adopted his grandson, Casimir of Słupsk), Louis engaged in succession negotiations with Polish knights and nobility starting in 1351. They supported him, exacting in return further guarantees and privileges for themselves; the formal act was negotiated in Buda in 1355. After the coronation, Louis returned to Hungary; he left his mother and Casimir's sister Elizabeth in Poland as a regent.
During the reign of Louis I, Poland formed a union with Hungary. In the pact of 1374 (the Privilege of Koszyce), the Polish nobility were granted extensive concessions and agreed to extend the Angevin succession to Louis' daughters, as Louis had no sons. Louis' neglect of Polish affairs resulted in the loss of Casimir's territorial gains, including Halych Rus', recovered by Queen Jadwiga in 1387. After Louis' death in 1382 and an ensuing power struggle, the Polish nobility decided that Jadwiga, Louis' youngest daughter, should become the next "King of Poland"; Jadwiga arrived in 1384 and was crowned at the age of eleven. In 1396, Jadwiga and her husband Jagiełło (Jogaila) forcefully annexed the central Polish lands separating Lesser Poland from Greater Poland, previously granted by King Louis to his Silesian Piast ally, Duke Władysław of Opole. The Hungarian-Polish union lasted for twelve years and ended in war. The failure of the union of Poland and Hungary paved the way for the union of Lithuania and Poland. The land owners and nobles did not want a strong monarchy; a constitutional monarchy was established between 1370 and 1493 (beginnings of general sejm, the dominant bicameral parliament of the future).
Jagiellonian Dynasty (1385-1572)
In 1385 the Union of Krewo was signed between Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the last pagan state in Europe. The act arranged for Jogaila's baptism (after which Jogaila was known in Poland by his baptismal name, Władysław, and the Polish version of his Lithuanian name, Jagiełło) and for the couple's marriage and constituted the beginning of the Polish–Lithuanian union. The Union strengthened both nations in their shared opposition to the Teutonic Knights and the growing threat of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Uniquely in Europe, the union connected two states geographically located on the opposite sides of the great civilizational divide between the Western or Latin, and the Eastern or Byzantine worlds. The consequences of this fact would be felt throughout the history of the region that, at the time of the Union of Krewo, comprised Poland and Lithuania. The Union's intention was to create a common state under King Władysław Jagiełło, but the Polish ruling oligarchy's idea of incorporation of Lithuania into Poland turned out to be unrealistic. There were going to be territorial disputes and warfare between Poland and Lithuania or Lithuanian factions; the Lithuanians at times had even found it expedient to conspire with the Teutonic Knights against the Poles. Geographic consequences of the dynastic union and the preferences of the Jagiellonian kings accelerated the process of reorientation of Polish territorial priorities to the east.
Between 1386 and 1572 Poland and Lithuania, joined until 1569 by a personal union, were ruled by a succession of constitutional monarchs of the Jagiellonian dynasty. The political influence of the Jagiellonian 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 Jagiellonian 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 (feudal rent payments were being replaced with forced labor on lord's land), 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. The nobility's split into two main layers was institutionalized (never legally formalized) in the Nihil novi "constitution" of 1505, which required the king to consult general sejm, that is the Senate (highest level officials), as well as the lower chamber of (regional) deputies, the Sejm proper, 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 Władysław II Jagiełło as the King of Poland (left). He was elected a king of Poland in 1386, after becoming a Catholic Christian and marrying Jadwiga of Anjou, daughter of Louis I, who was Queen of Poland in her own right. Latin Rite Christianization of Lithuania followed. Jogaila's rivalry in Lithuania with his cousin Vytautas, opposed to Lithuania's domination by Poland, was settled in 1392 and in 1401 in the Union of Vilnius and Radom: Vytautas became the Grand Duke of Lithuania for life under Jogaila's nominal supremacy. The agreement made possible close cooperation between the two nations, necessary to succeed in the upcoming struggle with the Teutonic Order. The Union of Horodło (1413) specified the relationship further and had granted privileges to the Roman Catholic (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox) portion of Lithuanian nobility.The Great War of 1409–1411, precipitated by the Lithuanian uprising in the Order controlled Samogitia, included the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg), 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 (Marienburg). 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. The Peace of Thorn (1411) had given Poland and Lithuania rather modest territorial adjustments, including Samogitia. Afterwards 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, in which 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. Another war was concluded in the Peace of Brześć Kujawski in 1435.
The Jagiellonian 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 life from his last wife, Sophia of Halshany. 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. In 1440, Władysław III assumed the Hungarian throne. Influenced by Julian Cesarini, the young king led the Hungarian army against the Ottoman Empire in 1443 and again in 1444 and was killed at the Battle of Varna.
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.
The influence of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Central Europe had been on the rise. In 1471 Casimir's son Władysław became a king of Bohemia, and in 1490 also of Hungary. The southern and eastern outskirts of Poland and Lithuania became threatened by Turkish invasions beginning in the late 15th century. Moldavia's involvement with Poland goes back to 1387, when Petru I, Hospodar of Moldavia, seeking protection against the Hungarians, paid Jagiełło homage in Lviv, which gave Poland access to the Black Sea ports. In 1485 King Casimir undertook an expedition into Moldavia, after its seaports were overtaken by the Ottoman Turks. The Turkish controlled Crimean Tatars raided the eastern territories in 1482 and 1487, until they were confronted by King Jan Olbracht (John Albert), Casimir's son and successor. Poland was attacked in 1487–1491 by remnants of the Golden Horde. They had invaded into Poland as far as Lublin before being beaten at Zaslavl. 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. 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. Crimean Khanate invasions in Poland and Lithuania continued also during the reign of King Alexander in 1502 and 1506; in 1506 the Tatars were defeated at the Battle of Kletsk.
The culture of the 15th century Poland was 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. In 1473 Kasper Straube produced in Kraków the first Latin print, in 1475 in Wrocław (Breslau) Kasper Elyan printed for the first time in Polish, and after 1490 from Schweipolt Fiol's shop in Kraków came the world's oldest prints in Cyrillic, namely Old Church Slavonic language religious texts. Luxury 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. The altar of Veit Stoss in St. Mary's Church in Kraków is one of the most magnificent in Europe art works of its kind.
The Kraków University (right), which stopped functioning after the death of Casimir the Great, was renewed and rejuvenated around 1400. Augmented by a theology department, the "academy" was supported and protected by Queen Jadwiga and the Jagiellonian 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. Gregory's court was the site of an early literary society at Lwów (Lviv), after he had become the archbishop there. Scholarly thought elsewhere was 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 and a fundamental source for history of medieval Poland. There were also active in Poland distinguished and influential foreign humanists. Filippo Buonaccorsi, a poet and diplomat, who arrived from Italy in 1468 and stayed in Poland until his death in 1496, established in Kraków another literary society. Known as Kallimach, he wrote the lives of Gregory of Sanok, Zbigniew Oleśnicki, and very likely that of Jan Długosz. He tutored and mentored the sons of Casimir IV and postulated unrestrained royal power. Conrad Celtes, a German humanist, organized in Kraków the first in this part of Europe humanist literary and scholarly association Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana.
The folwark 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 extent than in the East, 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 for Poland throughout the 16th century. Imports from the West included industrial and luxury products and fabrics. Most of the grain exported was leaving Poland through Danzig (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, and most autonomous of the Polish cities. It was also by far the largest center of crafts and manufacturing.
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 Polish 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. 256 towns were founded, most in Red Ruthenia. 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 Polish Renaissance. Unable to form their own nationwide political class, many, despite the legal obstacles, melted into the nobility.
The nobility (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 Jagiellonian 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, 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 had 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 (Zygmunt II August), a monarch of a much more tolerant attitude, guaranteed the freedom of the Lutheran religion practice in all of Royal Prussia by 1559.
The Polish "Golden Age," the period of the reigns of Sigismund I and Sigismund II, the last two Jagiellonian kings, or more generally the 16th century, is most often identified with the rise of the culture of Polish Renaissance. The cultural flowering had its material base in the prosperity of the elites, both the landed nobility and urban patriciate. As was the case with other European nations, the Renaissance inspiration came in the first place from Italy, a process accelerated to some degree by Sigismund I's marriage to Bona Sforza. Many Poles traveled to Italy to study and to learn its culture. As imitating Italian ways became very trendy (the royal courts of the two 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.
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/16th century, when especially the mathematics, astronomy and geography faculties attracted numerous students from abroad. Latin, Greek, Hebrew and their literatures were likewise popular. By the mid 16th century the institution entered a crisis stage, and by the 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.
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, doing away with its Christianity-adopted Ptolemaic anthropocentric model and setting free the explosion of scientific inquiry. Generally the prominent scientists of the period resided in many different regions of the country, and increasingly, the majority were of urban, rather than noble origin.Nicolaus Copernicus (left), a son of a Toruń trader from Kraków, made many contributions to science and the arts. His scientific creativity was inspired at the University of Kraków, at the institution's height; he also studied at Italian universities later. Copernicus wrote Latin poetry, developed aneconomic theory, functioned as a cleric-administrator, political activist in Prussian sejmiks, and led the defense of Olsztyn against the forces of Albrecht Hohenzollern. As an astronomer, he worked on his scientific theory for many years at Frombork, where he died.Josephus Struthius became famous as a physician and medical researcher. Bernard Wapowski was a pioneer of Polish cartography. Maciej Miechowita, a rector at the Kraków Academy, published in 1517 Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis, a treatise on the geography of the East, an area in which Polish investigators provided first-hand expertise for the rest of Europe.Modern Polish literature begins in the 16th century. At that time the Polish language, common to all educated groups, matured and penetrated all areas of public life, including municipal institutions, the legal code, the Church and other official uses, coexisting for a while with Latin. Klemens Janicki, one of the Renaissance Latin language poets, a laureate of a papal distinction, was of peasant origin. Another plebeian author, Biernat of Lublin, wrote his own version of Aesop's fables in Polish, permeated with his socially radical views. A Literary Polish language breakthrough came under the influence of the 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 time.
Architecture, sculpture and painting developed under Italian influence from the beginning of the 16th century. A number of professionals from Tuscany arrived and worked as royal artists in Kraków. Francesco Fiorentino 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 the 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.
The Polish political system in the 16th century was contested terrain as the middle gentry sought power. Kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus manipulated political institutions to block the gentry. The kings used their appointment power and influence on the elections to the Sejm. They issued propaganda upholding the royal position and provided financing to favored leaders of the gentry. Seldom did the kings resort to repression or violence. Compromises were reached so that in the second half of the 16th century—for the only time in Polish history—the "democracy of the gentry" was implemented.
During the reign of Sigismund I, szlachta in the lower chamber of General Sejm (from 1493 a bicameral legislative body), initially decidedly outnumbered by their more privileged colleagues from the Senate (which is what the appointed for life prelates and barons of the royal council were being called now), acquired a more numerous and fully elected representation. Sigismund however preferred to rule with the help of the magnates, pushing szlachta into the "opposition".
In 1518 Sigismund I married Bona Sforza d'Aragona, a young, strong-minded Italian princess. Bona's sway over the king and the magnates, her efforts to strengthen the monarch's political position, financial situation, and especially the measures she took to advance her personal and dynastic interests, including the forced royal election of the minor Sigismund Augustus in 1529 and his premature coronation in 1530, increased the discontent among szlachta activists.
The opposition middle szlachta movement came up with a constructive reform program during the Kraków sejm of 1538/1539. Among the movement's demands were termination of the kings' practice of alienation of royal domain, giving or selling land estates to great lords at the monarch' discretion, and a ban on concurrent holding of multiple state offices by the same person, both legislated initially in 1504. Sigismund I's unwillingness to move toward the implementation of the reformers' goals negatively affected the country's financial and defensive capabilities. The relationship with szlachta had only gotten worse during the early years of the reign of Sigismund II Augustus and remained bad until 1562. Sigismund Augustus' secret marriage with Barbara Radziwiłł in 1547, before his accession to the throne, was strongly opposed by his mother Bona and by the magnates of the Crown. Sigismund, who took over the reign after his father's death in 1548, overcame the resistance and had Barbara crowned in 1550; a few months later the new queen died. Bona, estranged from her son returned to Italy in 1556, where she died soon afterwards.
The Sejm, until 1573 summoned by the king at his discretion (for example when he needed funds to wage a war), composed of the two chambers presided over by the monarch, became in the course of the 16th century the main organ of the state power. The reform-minded execution movement had its chance to take on the magnates and the church hierarchy (and take steps to restrain their abuse of power and wealth) when Sigismund II switched sides and lent them his support at the Sejm of 1562. During this and several more sessions of parliament, within the next decade or so, the Reformation-inspired szlachta was able to push through a variety of reforms, which resulted in a fiscally more sound, better governed, more centralized and territorially unified Polish state. Some of the changes were too modest, other had never become completely implemented (e. g. recovery of the usurped Crown land), but nevertheless for the time being the middle szlachta movement was victorious.
Sigismund II's childlessness added urgency to the idea of turning the personal union between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a more permanent and tighter relationship; it was also a priority for the execution movement. Lithuania's laws were codified and reforms enacted in 1529, 1557, 1565–1566 and 1588, gradually making its social, legal and economic system similar to that of Poland, with the expanding role of the middle and lower nobility. Fighting wars with Moscow under Ivan IV and the threat perceived from that direction provided additional motivation for the real union for both Poland and Lithuania.The process of negotiating the actual arrangements turned out to be difficult and lasted from 1563 to 1569, with the Lithuanian magnates, worried about losing their dominant position, being at times uncooperative. It took Sigismunt II's unilateral declaration of the incorporation into the Polish Crown of substantial disputed border regions, including most of Lithuanian Ukraine, to make the Lithuanian magnates rejoin the process, and participate in the swearing of the act of the Union of Lublin on July 1, 1569. Lithuania for the near future was becoming more secure on the eastern front. It's increasingly Polonized nobility made in the coming centuries great contributions to the Commonwealth's culture, but at the cost of Lithuanian national development.By the Union of Lublin 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 had been Kievan Rus' principalities). Within the new federation some degree of formal separateness of Poland and Lithuania was retained (distinct state offices, armies, treasuries and judicial systems), but the union became a multinational entity with a common monarch, parliament, monetary system and foreign-military policy, in which only the nobility enjoyed full citizenship rights.