OLD POLISH ON-LINE
E Y E
T H E
Michael J. Mikoś
The territory of present-day Poland, which stretches from the Baltic to the Carpathians and from the Odra River to the Bug, was settled by the Lusatian people between 1500 and 500 B.C., during the Bronze and early Iron Age. They merged into large tribes, fortified their settlements, and buried their dead in mound graves. They built the island stronghold of Biskupin, near Żnin, dating from ca. 550 to 400 B.C., to this day an impressive monument of their culture. The settlement must have been overrun by a powerful enemy, since the inhabitants abandoned it in haste.
Poland appeared relatively late on the stage of European history. Formation of the state began in the ninth century with the emergence of about fifty large tribes, related to each other linguistically and ethnically. The largest of them were the Polanie (Polanians), ruled from Gniezno, whose name was derived from the word for "field" (
) and gave rise to the name of Poland, and the Wiślanie (Vistulanians), who derived their name from the Vistula River (Wisła). In the ninth century, some of the over two thousand fortified settlements (e.g. Gniezno, Poznań and Lednica in Wielkopolska [Great Poland]), Chełmno, Gdańsk and Wolin in Pomerania, Wrocław in Silesia, and Cracow in Małopolska [Little Poland], grew into flourishing trade centers. The population of the Polish lands, estimated at one million, diversified into groups of small freeholders, craftsmen, traders, serfs, warriors, tribal aristocracy, heads of tribes, dukes, etc.
The expansion, both military and religious, of the neighbouring Saxons and the internal and territorial growth of the state, which lasted almost two centuries, precipitated a momentous event in the history of Poland. In 965, Prince Mieszko I of the Piast dynasty married a Czech princess Dobrava, daughter of Boleslaw of Bohemia and in 966 accepted Christianity. In 968 he established the first bishopric in Poznań and converted the whole nation to the Christian faith.
By accepting Christianity from Bohemia, Mieszko eliminated the danger of forcible conversion attempted by Saxon margraves and missionaries and placed Poland under the protection of two great powers of the Christian world: the Roman pope and the German emperor. He also consolidated his internal power and strengthened the international position of Poland. By placing his realm under pontifical protection, Mieszko gained for his country a highly organized, centrally directed institution, whose spiritual, political, and material power had been growing since the fourth century. When Vladimir the Great of Kiev accepted in 988 Greek Orthodox Christianity and the Byzantine heritage, religious divergence and cultural differences between Poland and Kievan Russia began to emerge. The Cerularian schism of 1054, which caused a break between the Western and Eastern Churches, deepened the diversity. With the Mongol invasion of Russia in the thirteenth century, the differences between the two neighboring countries became engendered.
After the advent of Christianity, Poland entered the sphere of Greco-Roman civilization, which was brought in by Czech and West European priests, monks, and missionaries, who were capable of reading and writing in Latin, the international language of the Middle Ages. The oral pagan religion and culture of the local population, with the cult of sun worship, was generally not recorded and survived only in popular customs, incantations, and spells. Within a relatively short period of time, the culture prevailing in Europe, including the Christian religion, and Latin language, literature, education, artistic and material influences, was planted, superficially at first, throughout Poland.
Mieszko's son, Bolesław the Brave (962-1025), unified the Polish territories in the basin of the Vistula and the Odra, relying on the spiritual and administrative power of the Church. When Adalbert, former Bishop of Prague, came on a mission from Rome and was murdered by the pagan Prussians in 997, he was buried in the Cathedral of Gniezno and canonized as Saint Wojciech. The grave of the first patron saint became a cult object, further strengthening national consciousness. In 999, Gaudentius, Adalbert's stepbrother, ascended the Archbishopric of Gniezno, and in 1000 new bishoprics were established in Cracow, Wrocław and Kołobrzeg.
In a series of victorious battles, Bolesław the Brave consolidated the position of Poland in Europe. He fought back against Germany and expanded his influence in Bohemia. In 1018 he made a triumphant entry into Kiev and occupied the territories between the Rivers Bug and the Wieprz and San. In 1025, in the Cathedral of Gniezno, he crowned himself King of Poland. Within a period of some seventy years, two rulers of the Piast dynasty laid the foundation of an independent state, which for a millennium would be linked to the West and Roman Catholicism.
After the death of Bolesław the Brave, Poland suffered years of destruction and chaos. Mieszko II (1025-1034) lost to Germany the regions of Lusatia and Milsko and had to contend with the challenge of Bezprym, his brother, who was supported by some Polish nobles and foreign forces. Kazimierz the Restorer (1034-1058) at first had to flee the country, as an uprising of the peasants in 1037 was followed the next year by the invasion of Bretislav I of Bohemia. The Czech forces captured Poznań and Gniezno, from which they carried away the body of Saint Wojciech, and they occupied Silesia. However by 1054 Kazimierz the Restorer had united the country, made Cracow its capital, and regained some of the lost territories.
His son, Bolesław the Bold (1058-1079), carried out a successful policy toward Germany and Bohemia, revived Poland's military strength, and on Christmas 1076 in Gniezno, crowned himself King of Poland. His reign was short-lived. In an attempt to defeat the conspiracy of the nobles, he sentenced one of its participants, Stanisław, Bishop of Cracow, to death by dismemberment. The Polish Church gained a new martyr, but the king had to flee and he died in exile.
After a period of internal disorder and fratricidal struggle for succession, Bolesław the Wrymouth (1102-1138) defeated the German forces of Henry V in Silesia and reestablished Polish rule in Pomerania. To prevent future struggles for the crown, Bolesław divided the country among his sons and instituted the rule of the senior prince. However, immediately after his death, the struggle for succession began and a period of Poland's disintegration into contending provinces continued for nearly two centuries.
The political tendencies of decentralization, characteristic of many European countries, weakened Poland and its role vis-a-vis its neighbors. Feudal division made Polish territories vulnerable to foreign influence and aggression, especially from Germany. The Teutonic Order, invited to Poland in 1226 by Konrad of Masovia to fight and convert the Prussians, grew in power so that by the fourteenth century it threatened the very existence of the Polish state. The Mongol invasions of 1241, 1259, and 1287 devastated Polish lands and towns and brought increased chaos to the weakened country.
There were, however, unifying forces at work which prevented dissolution and eventually prevailed. The Polish Church maintained and propagated the goal of national unity and culture through its hierarchy and its administrative and educational systems. Jakub Świnka, Archbishop of Gniezno (1283-1314), was a leading proponent of the reunification of the Polish kingdom. The canonization in Cracow of Bishop Stanisław, whose body was said to have grown miraculously whole, and his elevation to the position of the patron saint of Poland, were interpreted as a manifest symbol of national destiny.
The powerful lords, who later formed the Polish nobility, also supported the concern for unity. Polish rulers and national dukes were constantly forced to seek the support of the clans of nobles and the clergy, and by granting them privileges and property in return, they strengthened their political role in the affairs of the country. The towns grew rapidly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, adopted new settlement laws, and attracted burghers, who were mostly of German origin. At the end of the fourteenth century, Wrocław had about 17,000 inhabitants, Cracow 14,000. Trade and crafts increased and prospered, industry and technology, especially in mining, developed. The economic growth of culturally and linguistically related territories, combined with people's growing fear of aggression by the Teutonic Order, contributed to the unifying attitudes of Polish society.
It was Władysław the Short (1320-1333) who, after twenty years of struggle, finally succeeded in restoring the kingdom. During the reign of Wenceslas of Bohemia (1300-1305) he had to flee the country, but returned in 1305 and entered Cracow in 1306. By 1314 he had become the master of Great Poland and in 1320 he was crowned King of Poland at the Wawel Cathedral in Cracow. After the coronation, he directed his energies towards regaining Gdańsk Pomerania and engaged in legal and military battles against the Teutonic Order. He did not achieve his goal, but the reunified central provinces left his son Kazimierz with a firm foundation for an expansion of the sovereign kingdom.
Kazimierz the Great (1333-1370) was a wise builder and reformer, who strengthened the country internally and excelled in diplomacy, attaining his goals through negotiations and compromise, and only as a last resort by military means. His reign occurred at a time when Poland was spared the destructive events that ravished other countries. As a result of the Black Death, peasant uprisings, and wars, the population of Europe decreased from 73 million to 45 million people in the fourteenth century. By contrast, Poland's population was steadily growing, reaching two million inhabitants during the nearly forty years of Kazimierz's reign, while at the same time its territories increased from 100,000 to 260,000 square kilometers.
Kazimierz the Great secured an international position for Poland by balancing tactical concessions with farsighted treaties pertaining to the territories of Pomerania and Silesia. Unable to challenge the Teutonic Order militarily, he requested papal arbitration and gained a legal victory. He responded to expansionist aspirations of the Polish nobility and extended his rule toward Ruthenia and Podolia. His main objective, however, was to strengthen the central power of the state and its internal organization. Toward this goal, he established a class of royal administrators, introduced uniform statutes of legal norms for the whole kingdom, and reformed the fiscal and monetary systems. He also reorganized the military forces, supported industrial progress, trade, and agriculture, and extended his protection to burghers, peasants, and Jews. He presided over a building program which resulted in the construction of over one hundred new fortified towns and castles, along with numerous villages, and in the reconstruction of old towns, cathedrals, and churches. He generously supported education, art, and science, and in 1364 founded the University of Cracow. When the greatest king of the Piast dynasty died in 1370 without an acceptable heir, Poland was consolidated as a strong and influential European state.
The reign of Louis of Anjou (1370-1382), who ruled Poland from Hungary through his intermediaries, and the interregnum that followed his death, came to an end in 1384, when ten-year-old Jadwiga of Anjou, Louis' daughter, arrived in Poland. The influential Polish lords crowned her, and offered her hand to Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1386, he converted to Catholicism, married Jadwiga, and with the name Władysław Jagiełło was crowned King of Poland (1386-1434).
By this act of personal union, the Jagiellonian dynasty was founded, bringing two centuries of greatness for Poland. Its kings held sway over a federated state stretching from the Baltic to the sources of the Dniepr River and the shores of the Black Sea, covering one third of the entire continent of Europe. More important than its size, the Polish-Lithuanian state became a great European power, capable of challenging the expansionist tendencies of its neighbors. On July 15, 1410, Polish and Lithuanian troops of about 39,000 met the Teutonic Order's army of almost 28,000 knights in the Battle of Grunwald, one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Middle Ages. It ended with a decisive Polish victory and although Jagiełło failed to take full advantage of his superior position, the Teutonic Order was defeated.
Kazimierz Jagiellonian (1447-1492), Jagiełło's son, dealt the Teutonic Order the final blow. He reconquered Gdańsk Pomerania and the territory of Chełmno from the Teutonic Order and secured access to the sea, fulfilling the design of Bolesław the Brave and Bolesław the Wrymouth. The regaining of Gdańsk opened Poland up to increased contacts with foreign countries. Poland could now transport its abundant crops by the unhindered trade route along the Vistula to the Baltic coast and became quickly the granary of Europe.
The periods of interregnum and the accession of a new dynasty in Poland offered increased opportunities to the feudal lords and the nobility. The Jagiellonians had to seek the support of the noblemen to unify and administer the vast multiethnical territories. They also had to rely on the Church and its spiritual and economic power; at the end of the fourteenth century, for example the archbishopric of Gniezno owned 11 towns and 330 villages. Gradually, the great families and the clergy gained considerable influence. The Privileges of Nieszawa granted to the gentry in 1454 by Kazimierz led to the development of a parliamentary system, which originated in local conventions and land diets, summoned mainly to approve taxes, and evolved into a national assembly.
At Kazimierz the Jagiellonian's death, the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom was the largest state in Europe, covering 1,115,000 square kilometers, and was inhabited by five million people. Its economy and agriculture were expanding. Local and foreign trade grew, and the role of burghers and guilds increased. Economic prosperity allowed towns to flourish, and they provided patronage to artists and sanctuaries for religious believers persecuted in other countries. Large Jewish, Ruthenian, and Armenian communities enriched Polish culture while preserving their respective religious and ethnic identities.
Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century. A Bilingual Anthology
, by Michael J. Mikoś, Warsaw: Constans, 1999.