---

NOBILITY OF THE POLISH COMMONWEALTH

A Series of Articles written and translated by Leonard Suligowski, PNA Director of Heraldry

Part I	Part II	Part III	Part IV	Part V	Part VI
Piast Rule	Angevin Rule	Jagiellian Rule	Priviledges of the Nobility	The Church	Elected Kings
Click on the part to go to the beginning of that section; use your back button to return to the top.

Part I - Piast Rule

The historic ruling family in Poland was called Piast. Historical scholars are uncertain whether this word was originally used as a title referring to the Mayor of the Palace, in Frankish history, or the name of the founder of the dynasty. Traditionally, this was thought to have been the name of a simple peasant. Various branches of this family ruled Mazovia and Silesia, throughout the middle ages, and in the Kingdom proper until 1370. The significance of this dynasty is best demonstrated by the political events of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when unity, which Poland had found under the early Piasts, was almost irrevocably lost. The early Poles failed to accept the law of primogenitre, which made the eldest male, or eldest surviving male, the inheritor of all properties and funds. The Kingdom of Poland nearly suffered the fate of the Kievan state. For a century and more, the land was divided into a number of independent principalities, which vied unsuccessfully with one another for supremacy. Despite this political fragmentation, it was clearly recognized that all "princes" were members of the Piast family. This bond, combined with the ecclesiastical unity under the Archbishop of Gniezno, ultimately provided the basis for the reunion of the land and the restoration of the Regnum Poloniae.

Kingdom

The kingdom of Poland, generally known as Res Publica, i.e. a commonwealth, was highly diversified. Not only did the Polish nation contain ethnic mixtures, the unusual result of co-habitation of different groups within the same state, but also the country comprised several peoples whose mother tongue was not Polish. Few if any of them had as yet a clear consciousness of national identity. The Polish-speaking group probably had a slight overall majority, but Lithuanians, Ruthenians, and Belorussians predominated in several areas, while Germans and Jews constituted sizable segments of the population. The smaller groups were comprised of Russians (mainly Old Believers), Tartars, Wallachians, Gypsies, Karaites, and Latvians. Some of these nationalities were native to the area; others were descended from immigrants who had settled there in the course of history.

The State

1. The city of Gdansk (Danzig) enjoyed autonomy under the direct jurisdiction of the king.

   The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which encompassed Lithuanian and Belorussian lands.

   The Duchy of Courland was a vassal state, and Livonia was placed under both the Crown and Lithuania. In addition, there were special autonomous regions in certain parts of the country. Polish-Lithuanian dualism, expressed in the phrase Res Publica of two nations, was reflected in separate administrations, armies, treasuries, and legal codes. Common executive organs appeared only at the end of the eighteenth century; a basic change embodied in the 1791 constitution-four years before the last partition occurred too late to affect the country.

Estates

A magnate may well have addressed a well-to-do squire by the appellation "brother", but in reality the two were not equals:

2. Beneath the Great Magnates was the middle nobility or Zamozna Szlachta, who maintained a prominent role in the government, bureaucracy, and the army.

3. At the lowest level of the noble class was the Drobna Szlachta or minor nobility who represented almost half of the noble class. This unique group was descendents of warriors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries who had been endowed with land but whose families had sunken to a lower socioeconomic level as a consequence of their numerical increase and division of land. The Drobna Szlachta, while retaining all the rights and privileges of the nobility lacked the economic resources to exercise many of their perrogatives. They usually owned small parcels of land which they worked themselves and frequently became paid retainers for the magnate families.

The nobility of the commonwealth was a melting pot of its nationalities. When the Grand Duchy of Lithuania joined Poland, first in a dynastic and later in a real union, the Lithuanian boyars became members of the szlachta. Many a nobleman had a Ruthenian, Belorussian or German name. Jews who embraced Christianity were traditionally enobled. There were cases of ennoblement of entire villages as reward for their military exploits. Consequently, the commonwealth developed a leading class that was more numerous than in most European countries. The gentry constituted roughly eight to ten percent of the entire population; the figures were somewhat higher for Lithuania and lower for the Crown. According to recent calculations, a quarter of all Polish-speaking inhabitants of the commonwealth belonged to the szlachta. Most noblemen in Lithuania, the Ukraine or Belorussia became "Polish" in the sense of embracing a higher form of state nationality. They did not become denationalized, as witnessed by the expression gente Rutheni natione Poloni (of Ruthenian race and Polish nation). Being a good Lithuanian in no way interfered with being a Pole. This notion of a state and of a regional nationality survived the partitions of Poland. In a sense the szlachta was the nation, and it could rightly claim that it had achieved a degree of liberty and of participation in state affairs unsurpassed by any other nation in Europe.

Part II -Angevin Rule

After the death of Kazimierz the "Great" in 1370 there were noticeable signs of political anarchy in Great Poland when Kazimierz of Slupsk and another pretender, Wladyslaw the White of the Piasts of Kujawy, tried to overthrow the foreign dynasty. However, the Angevin episode (1370-1386) succeeded in maintaining the supremacy of a centralized government. The attempt was all the more significant as King Louis did not rule Poland in person. The regency was held by an old woman, Queen Elizabeth, mother of Louis and daughter of Wladyslaw the Short (Lokietek). Louis d' Anjou strengthened Hungarian influence in Halicz, Ruthenia by handing over the administration of the country to a reliable viceroy, Duke Wladyslaw of Opole, who enhanced the prestige of the Roman Catholic Church in that area. From 1381Poland herself was governed by a regency of five persons representing the lords of Little Poland and headed by John IV Radlicki, Bishop of Cracow (died 1382).

The major problem of the Angevin House in Poland was to secure the throne for the daughters of Louis against the opposition of the episcopate and a section of the nobles. The candidacy was however looked upon with favor by the towns, which saw a promise of wide foreign trade in personal unions of the royal dynasties of that part of Europe. In 1372 Louis granted the privilege of Kosice by which he secured the support of the nobles for the succession of his daughters to the Polish throne at the price of reducing taxes, while soon afterwards he granted them similar concessions. Upon the death of Louis in 1382, however, the lords ruling the country would not accept his plans in full. The regents were determined not to allow a German prince to occupy the Polish throne.

They rejected as well Wilhelm of Austria, engaged to Jadwiga (Hedwig), Louis' second daughter. Siemowit of Mazovia, another pretender to the Polish throne, was also repulsed by an armed intervention of Hungary. Jadwig was placed on the Polish throne and the personal union with Hungary was broken. In 1384 the 10 year old Jadwiga entered Cracow, the royal capital, and assumed the title of King (Rex). In fact Poland since 1370 was actually governed by a group of oligarchs who were fully aware of their aims and possibilities.

Part III - Jagiellon Rule

The Lithuanian State was founded as a monarchy in the middle of the thirteenth century. In the second half of the fourteenth century it had reached the peak of its political power. Under the rule of alliance of two brothers, Kiejstut (Kestutis), Duke of Troki and Olgierd (Algirdas), and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the state stubbornly defended its western frontiers from the encroachments of the Teutonic Order. At the same time Lithuania extended her original territories (Aukstote, the highlands and Samogitia [Zmudz], the lowlands) to embrace vast areas of the future Ukraine and Belorussia up to Smolensk, Bryansk and the Black Sea steppes.

The military nature of the challenge that faced the State helped to concentrate all authority in the hands of the Grand Duke. While Lithuania proper clung to pagan beliefs despite the repeated attempts made from the middle of the thirteenth century to convert the Lithuanians, the Russian population in the major part of the Grand Duchy professed the Orthodox Christianity. Russian customs and Russian literary culture characterized the whole ruling class, including also the reigning house, but the native Lithuanian lords still played the leading role in the State government and were loathe to share their power with the Russian boyars. The population was not distributed evenly throughout the large State but its economy was by no means backward.

Jagiello (Iogailas), son of Oglierd removed from power his uncle Kiejstut, became the head of the Grand Duchy in 1382 and took the guidance of the political issues into his own skillful hands. The first concept of his entourage was a closer understanding with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. Jagiello was to accept the Orthodox faith together with the hand of the daughter of Demetrius Donskoi. Muscovy however, as the center of an effort to unite the lands, appeared already as a dangerous rival of Lithuania, which was attempting the same task. Consequently the cause of an alliance with Poland prevailed amongst the Lithuanian lords. The direct threat to the western frontiers, especially in Samogitia, hence a community of interest with Poland against the Teutonic Order, was an argument in favor of the Polish alliance. Poland was fully aware of the value of such an alliance, which would enable her to regain her lost territories with the help of the Lithuanians and would moreover strengthen her hold on her conquest in Halicz Ruthenia. These prospects seemed so attractive to the ruling groups in Cracow that they were willing to arrange a marriage between Jadwiga and Jagiello. The conversion of the pagan part of Lithuania to the Roman Catholic Church played a major role in conciliating the Polish clergy to the union. This conversion also struck out the major argument used internationally by the Teutonic Order to justify its actions against Lithuania, and cast doubt upon the missionary program of the Teutonic expansion.

By an act drawn up at Krewno in 1385, a union was effected between the Polish and Lithuanian states. Jagiello took the name of Wladyslaw when he was baptized and upon marrying Jadwiga became King of Poland in 1836. Poland and Lithuania had actually established only a personal union, however, both States could prepare to carry out their external objectives, like the removal of Hungarian garrisons from Halicz, Ruthenia and the exaction of homage from the voivods of Moldavia and Wallachia, to be paid to Jagiello and Jadwiga. Poland helped Lithuania strengthen her eastern frontiers. Catholics obtained a privileged position within the Lithuanian State. The more important cultural and social consequences of the union were to emerge only in time.

There was however an unfavorably disposed group in Lithuania which was particularly hostile to the interpretation given to the union by Polish lords that the Grand Duchy was incorporated in Poland. This faction was led by Witold (Vytautas), the able son of Kiejstut, who was at first allied with the Teutonic Knights and whom after 1382 Jagiello accepted as co regent of the whole of Lithuania. Witold’s ultimate aim was the royal crown which he planned to acquire after establishing Lithuanias supremacy over the whole of Russia and subduing the Tartars with the aid of Khan Tochtamish, who had been driven out by Tamerlane. Witold’s plans regarding the Tartars suffered a setback in the defeat of 1389 inflicted upon him by the Tartars on the Vorskla river, where a number of Polish Knights, who had been sent out to Witolds assistance, were killed in battle. In 1401 Witold was recognized as the Grand Duke of Lithuania under the suzerainty of Wladyslaw Jagiello, as “Supreme Duke”. The Teutonic danger was now the factor that drove them both into closer cooperation. At the same time Lithuania's relation to Poland was satisfactorily explained as a personal union in the person of Jagiello. Although Jadwiga, heiress to the Polish throne died without issue in 1399, the Polish lords nevertheless recognized Jagiello as King of Poland.

The Teutonic Order found itself in a dangerous position. The Knights tried to take advantage of the difference within Lithuania and Poland arising from the interest of parties in both States in an eastward expansion. Yet the Order could not avoid the “Great War” in 1409-1410. A decisive encounter and one of the largest battles of the Middle Ages was fought on the fields of Grunwald on July 15, 1410. The Polish and Lithuanian army, commanded by King Wladyslaw, routed the Teutonic Knights at the end of the day’s heavy fighting. The Grand Master and many dignitaries of the Order fell in battle. The Order was no longer a dangerous military neighbor. The peace conditions satisfied only the war aims of the Lithuanians by returning Samogitia to the Lithuanian State. The military and financial power of the Teutonic Order however was considerably weakened by the war. Instead, rising political movements led several decades later to the solution, which Poland desired in Pomerania.

The victory at Grunwald enhanced the prestige of the Polish-Lithuanian monarchy and added vigor to its political activity, while the circles that favored Church reform were deeply impressed by the defeat of the Teutonic lords. The mood was reflected in a letter of congratulations addressed to Wladyslaw Jagiello by Jan Huss. The military and diplomatic struggle with the Teutonic Order drew the lords of Lithuania and Poland closer together. In 1413 a new treaty of union was signed at Horodlo on the Bug and forty-seven clans adopted a corresponding number of Lithuanian lords who were allowed to use the Polish family clan shields or escutcheons. Wladyslaw and grand Duke Witold granted Lithuanian lords the same fiscal and judicial privileges as were enjoyed by the Poles.

Part IV - Privileges of the Nobility

The nobility, a term which in time became synonymous with citizenship in Poland, did not necessarily imply ownership of land. The Polish nobility came into existence at a time when the Poles were in a comparatively early stage of social development, when the clan was the basic unit of social structure. With the introduction of escutcheons, whole clans were admitted to the nobility. In this manner, unlike European nations, where nobility developed in a relatively later stage of social evolution, a great many elements of a low economic and social status became nobles, and this accounts for the fact that there were no differences in grades of nobility as found among other nations. The subsequent additions to the nobility were also numerous and were accomplished either through adoption or the conferring of escutcheons by the king, who in an earlier period conferred his own escutcheon upon the candidate, admitting him as it were to his own clan. At a later date various coats-of-arms were bestowed at the nobiliation ceremonies. All those who had an escutcheon were nobles. The possession of land was not necessarily a prerequisite to a title of nobility, but those of the nobility who were land owners in some instances enjoyed special privileges.

Legal Status of the Various Classes

The nobles were the ruling class with the exclusive right to enjoy full citizenship. Nobility was hereditary in the male line, and an escutcheon was an outward sign of it. The power to ennoble resided originally in the King, but after the end of the XVIth century the approval of the Diet was required. As the class-consciousness of the nobility grew, attempts were made to restrict admission into the caste. Naturalization of foreign nobles after 1641, similarly became a matter over which the Diet had sole control. In the XVIth century a new conception, that of a scartabellate, developed whereby the newly ennobled persons enjoyed certain privileges. Only their progeny in the third generation came into possession of full rights of citizenship. This was the only gradation in the ranks of the nobility who guarded jealously against the rise in station of anyone by reason of hereditary title. By the act of 1638 no noble could accept or use a title, which had not been registered in the acts of the Union of Lublin in 1569. The Polish Kings were prohibited from giving titles to Poles but were free to bestow them upon foreigners. Orders were not allowed in Poland. In violation of the law however, the first order was established in 1705 during the period of disintegration.

The following were some of the special privileges and immunities enjoyed by the nobility exclusively: The right to acquire and own land in the country as well as real estate in the cities, with all the wealth below the surface. The property of the nobles was exempt from confiscation without due process of the law, only to the nobility was the door of the more temporal and spiritual offices open, they were exempt from taxation, making only such contributions as they voluntarily imposed upon themselves, with a single exception of compulsory military duty in case of war. A noble was answerable only to his peers.

Part V - The Church

The Church in early Poland was not only the most influential social institution, it exercised considerable control over the administration of the State as well. The Church was in fact, a measure of true progress and unity of Poland’s early development. It created schools, encouraged the fine arts and became a close friend of the King since it supported his rule as being God’s will. It was the leader and the molder, without necessarily being the ruler of the mind, thought and development of everyone in early Poland, be it King, noble or peasant.

Though the Church dominated the early part of Poland’s cultural development, the nobility began to monopolize Poland’s cultural development as early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Church’s influence was still powerful, although now the administration and spread of culture was in the hands of the nobles. The nobles however, became more interested in gaining power to rule, especially over their own domains. Thus began a steady encroachment on the powers of the King. The King's rule over the State disintegrated as each noble began to exercise more and more authority over his own land. Yet a fusion of religious sentiment and pious hope, seemingly justified this structure at this time. It was expressed in a re-writing of an earlier chronicle, which reflected accurately the emerging Polish traditional spirit. The lesson, if we can call it such was: as Boleslsaw the Brave, one of Poland's earlier Kings slew St. Stanislaw, cut up the body and scattered his remains; so God has divided Poland in order that each Prince could reign over a section. And as the body of St. Stanislaw was put together by God, so also will the Kingdom be united.

The position of the central authority and power of the King was continually getting weaker, especially in regard to maintaining the defense of the State. Realizing this, the King of Poland joined Lithuania in an alliance in the late fourteenth century. The union proved so successful that it was broadened and within a century a Commonwealth was established. Meantime, the gentry was still getting more and more powers at the expense of the King until finally in 1573 they gained what proved to be their ultimate power, the right to elect a King. The King continued to reign but no longer did he rule.

Part VI - Elected Kings

With the extinction of the illustrious and beloved dynasty of the Jagiellons a constitutional form was established of which the rudiments had already begun to exist. Poland became in fact, and indeed called itself a Commonwealth, headed by a King elected for life. None the less, despite the full parliamentary democracy established, because of his power to dispose of high offices and large revenues from the royal possessions the King had great political power and influence on State affairs.

Meanwhile, the form of election had to be settled. Under the influence of Jan Zamoyski, known as the tribune of the common gentry, the principle was laid down that the King was to be elected by all the nobility and gentry without exception, voting in person at electoral congresses known as election viritim. But in reality, usually the views of the high officers of the State, i.e. the senators, were decisive as their lead was followed by the gentry. But, this form of election was not satisfactory for, it enabled the politically undeveloped gentry living nearest to Warsaw to have a very powerful influence. Moreover, in all subsequent elections the dislike of absolutum dominium, in other words of strong government, was decisive. This explains why the Habsburgs never gained the crown of Poland, though they always put forward candidates for they were regarded as representatives of reaction and oppressors of liberty.

Belated Renaissance and Downfall of Poland

The long reign (1764-1795) of the last elected King of Poland, Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski, saw the unfortunately belated internal revival of the nation and the tragic partitioning and disappearance of the State.

Restoration of Poland

Jozef Pilsudski was the first to take positive action. At the head of a handful of rifleman, which afterwards grew into the Polish Legions, on August 6th, 1914 he crossed from Galacia into the Kingdom and began an anti-Russian movement. But his hopes that the Poles would rise against Russia proved unfounded, though in their own Legions the Poles won the fame of being fine soldiers in dozens of battles. The other trend headed by Roman Dmowski and by Ignacy Paderewski in America as a figure of world renown, could not at first take action despite the goodwill of France and Great Britain because Russia would allow no intervention in Polish Affairs. But, when the military situation reached a point at which the Germans had occupied almost the whole of the Polish territories, the Central Powers, Austria-Hungary and Germany promised creation of a Kingdom of Poland. This promise, which was not formulated in any precise terms, was made on November 5th, 1916, its objectives being to gain a new recruit to the Central camp. But, the Germans' brutal behavior in Poland, the fact that there was no change in the system of government in Poznan and the fictitious nature of the rights conferred had such an effect that the plan for a Polish army fighting at the side of the Germans was a failure. Pilsudski held up further enrollment for the Legions and adopted the tactic of the Polish secret military organizations, united in the "Polish Military Defense" (P.O.W.)

The Central Powers made concessions in the occupied area, setting up a Regency Council with the three members (Archbishop Kakowski, Price Z. Lubomirski and J. Ostrowski) as the vice-regent of the future King and granting it certain educational and judicial rights in the area of the Congress Kingdom. So far, Austria and the Hapsburgs had been regarded with much sympathy by a section of the Poles, because of the policy pursued in Galacia and these Poles looked forward to a Hapsburg ascending the throne of Poland. But, when Austria ceded part of the Polish areas, including Chelm to the Provisional Ukrainian Republic by the Brest-Litvosk Treaty of February 9th, 1918 the indignation felt by the entire nation effectually destroyed this political collaboration once and for all.

Resurrected Poland, 1919-1939

At the end of World War I, German forces pulled out from most of Poland and on November 14th, 1918 the Regency Council, which had functioned as a provisional government resigned and turned over all political power into the hands of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. This was the beginning of the formation of the new and independent Polish State. The succeeding years however were fraught with turbulence as political parties from Communists on the left to Royalists on the right struggled for power and control of the new government.

During the early political affairs of the fledging Polish State a succession of ministers were appointed, resigned and were re-appointed with Pilsudski the only stabilizing factor in the government. It was Pilsudski who also promoted the grand design of re-establishing the old pre-partition Polish Commonwealth of Poland, Lithuania, White Russia and Ruthenia. the consequence was the Russo-Polish War of 1920. Pilsudski expanded Poland's eastern territories however, it fell short of establishing the old Commonwealth borders.

Throughout this turbulent period the nobility played an important role. Twenty to thirty percent of the arable land was in the possession of the large state of the old magnate families. In addition, a significant percentage of the remaining land was in the hands of the remnants of the ancestors of the petty gentry that once dominated such duchies as Mazovia. The old magnate families also controlled the nation's banks, newspapers, industry, business and the Officers Corps.

The nobility supported the right wing parties that made up the political montage of the period with representatives of magnate and middle aristocratic families constituting an important segment of the national Democratic Party. Some members however, also organized several small but very vocal and active Royalist parties, which promoted various forms of monarchist governments and several candidates.

In October of 1926 Pilsudski established an alliance with the nobility, many of whom had previously been very suspicious of his socialist past. Pilsudski met with Prince Radziwill and other representatives of the old aristocracy and officially secured their political and financial support. Hence, from 1926 to the German occupation of Poland in 1939 the nobility played a prominent role in the Pilsudski government and that of his successor, Marshal Smigly-Rydz.