The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context c

Edited by Richard Butterwick 10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick Copy...
Author: Jade Baker
2 downloads 2 Views 340KB Size
Edited by Richard Butterwick

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context c.1500-1795

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, c. 1500–1795

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18 10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, c. 1500–1795 Richard Butterwick Lecturer in Modern European History Queen’s University Belfast Northern Ireland

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Edited by

Editorial matter, selection and Introduction © Richard Butterwick 2001 Chapter 10 © Richard Butterwick 2001 Chapters 1–9 © Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2001

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0–333–77382–9 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Polish-Lithuanian monarchy in European context : c[a]. 1500–1795 / [edited by] Richard Butterwick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–333–77382–9 (cloth) 1. Poland—Politics and government. 2. Monarchy—Poland. 3. Poland—Politics and government—1763–1796. I. Butterwick, Richard. DK4179.2 .P65 2001 943.8’02—dc21 00–054533 10 10

9 09

8 08

7 07

6 06

5 05

4 04

3 03

2 02

1 01

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

Contents Preface

vii

Notes on the Contributors

ix

Maps The Jagiellonian territories, c. 1500 The Polish±Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Union of Lublin The Polish±Lithuanian Commonwealth in the seventeenth century The partitions of Poland±Lithuania Gazetteer Introduction Richard Butterwick 1 2

3

4

5

6

xiii xv xvi xvii xviii xix

1

The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in International Context R. J. W. Evans

25

The Development of Monarchies in Western Europe, c. 1500±1800 Ian Green

39

The Formation of the Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in the Sixteenth Century Almut Bues

58

The Grand Duchy and the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in the Sixteenth Century: Reflections on the Lithuanian Political Nation and the Union of Lublin JuÅrateÇ KiaupieneÇ

82

Nobles, Burghers and the Monarchy in Poland-Lithuania: the Case of Royal Prussia, 1454±1772/93 Karin Friedrich

93

Polish Views on European Monarchies Anna GrzesÂkowiak-Krwawicz

116

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Pronunciation Guide

7

8

9

The Szlachta and the Monarchy: Reflections on the Struggle inter maiestatem ac libertatem Jerzy Lukowski

132

Obsequious Disrespect: the Problem of Royal Power in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the Vasas, 1587±1668 Robert I. Frost

150

The Functioning of the Monarchy during the Reigns of the Electors of Saxony, 1697±1763 Mariusz Markiewicz

172

10 The Enlightened Monarchy of Stanisøaw August Poniatowski (1764±1795) Richard Butterwick

193

Chronology of Polish-Lithuanian Monarchs

219

Genealogical Table

221

A Guide to Further Reading

222

Glossary

229

Index

233

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

vi Contents

The articles collected in this volume have grown out of the papers presented to the II Wiles Colloquium, held at the Queen's University of Belfast on 24±26 September 1999. The contributors and participants would like to express their deep gratitude to the Wiles Trust, and, in particular, to pay tribute to the late Mrs Janet Boyd for making possible such an illuminating and enjoyable occasion. Thanks are also due to the Queen's University of Belfast, and especially to the academic and secretarial staff of the School of Modern History for their help in staging the colloquium. The discussions benefited from the insights of Dr David Hayton, Professor Peter Jupp, Dr Richard Middleton, Dr Ian Packer and Dr Michael Rowe. The difficulties inherent in rendering terminology, personal and place names connected with the multilingual Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth are extreme, particularly in a collective work covering three centuries. National sensitivities are still raw in the region, but the aims here are to avoid anachronism while maximizing accessibility. The contributors have all been consulted, and it is hoped that the volume will be a step towards an emerging consensus, but the final decisions are the editor's. In rendering terminology, where there is an established English form, such as `palatine', it has been used, but `Sejm' is preferred to `Diet' or `Parliament', and `sejmik' to `dietine'. However, the Royal Prussian Landtag has been accorded the dignity of `diet' rather than that of the `general sejmik' which some Polish nobles wished to impose on it. Wherever possible, Polish terms such as Sejm and starosta have been anglicized. The glossary gives brief explanations of the key institutions and offices. The names of rulers and the members of ruling families have been anglicized where there is a recognized form, so we have Casimir rather Ï ygithan Kazimierz or Kazimieras, Sigismund rather than Zygmunt or Z mantas. On the other hand Stanisla(u)s and Ladisla(u)s are not accepted as English forms, so they remain Stanisøaw and Wøadysøaw (except in the case of the eldest son of Casimir IV, who was Vladislav II of Bohemia and UlaÂszlo II of Hungary). August becomes Augustus, with the exception, for the sake of euphony, of Stanisøaw August. The names of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania before 1432, none of which have an English equivalent, are given in Lithuanian. Otherwise, personal names have been left vii

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Preface

in the original language ± generally Polish or German. Persons from the eastern territories of the Commonwealth present particular dilemmas ± during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the elites adopted Polish, at different times in different places, in preference to Lithuanian and Ruthenian. The Polish language probably encountered most resistance in the Ukraine. The names of Lithuanian nobles in the sixteenth century are given in Polish, but the Ukrainian Khmelnytsky is used instead of the Polish Chmielnicki to give the name of the leader of the 1648 Cossack revolt. Names of towns and cities are given in the nearest modern equivalent of the language of their dominant population; thus Danzig (German) rather than GdanÂsk (Polish); LwoÂw (Polish) rather than Lviv (Ukrainian). However, what is appropriate for the sixteenth century is not always so for the eighteenth. The capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is rendered as Vilnius (Lithuanian) in the sixteenth century and as Wilno (Polish) in the seventeenth and eighteenth. Fortunately, there are no other cases of having to give the same place in different forms. In cases of possible confusion, and where a source gives a different version, alternative forms are given in parentheses. Where familiar English forms exist, they are used: Warsaw, Cracow and perhaps more controversially Kiev and Brest. The names of provinces and regions are anglicized wherever possible: thus Great Poland, rather than Wielkopolska; Volhy or Volyn; Ruthenia is used for the Palatinate of nia, rather than Woøyn RusÂ, but Rus refers to the lands once forming part of Kievan Rus and so claimed by the Grand Dukes of Muscovy as `Tsars of all Rus'. The Gazetteer gives alternative versions. Needless to say, no verdict is intended on the justice or injustice of current frontiers. The work of editing and introducing the volume would have been far more daunting were it not for the supportive advice and comments of my fellow contributors and my colleagues at Queen's ± I would like to single out David Hayton and Peter Jupp. I also extend my thanks to the Staff and editors at Palgrave for their helpfulness. Richard Butterwick Belfast, May 2000

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

viii Preface

Almut Bues is Deputy Director of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. She is the editor of Eine schwierige Erbschaft. Die Verhandlungen nach dem Tode Herzog Jakobs von Kurland 1682/83 (Wiesbaden, 1995), coeditor of Die Testamente Herzog Albrechts von Preu en aus den sechziger Jahren des 16. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1999) and author of Historia Niemiec XVI±XVIII wieku [History of Germany from the 16th to the 18th Centuries] (Warsaw, 1998). Her research includes Austro-Polish relations and the Commonwealth's fiefs ± Courland and Ducal Prussia. Richard Butterwick is Lecturer in Modern European History at the Queen's University of Belfast. He is the author of Poland's Last King and English Culture: Stanisøaw August Poniatowski, 1732±1798 (Oxford, 1998) and articles on eighteenth-century Poland-Lithuania. He is currently working on studies of the Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1788±1792, and the Enlightenment in Poland and Lithuania, c. 1730± 1830. Robert J. W. Evans is Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Oriel College. His publications include Rudolf II and his World: a Study in Intellectual History 1576±1612 (1st edn, Oxford, 1973), and The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy 1550±1700: An Interpretation (1st edn, Oxford, 1979). His current research interests cover the history of the Habsburg lands from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, especially Hungary in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Karin Friedrich is Lecturer in History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. She is the author of The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569±1772 (Cambridge, 2000), and other studies. Her research includes Polish and Prussian urban history, issues of early modern national identities and the Enlightenment. Robert I. Frost is Lecturer in Early Modern History at King's College London. His major publications are After the Deluge: Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655±1660 (Cambridge, 1993) and The ix

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Notes on the Contributors

x

Notes on the Contributors

Ian Green is Professor of Early Modern History and Head of the School of Modern History at the Queen's University of Belfast. He is the author of The Re-establishment of the Church of England 1660±1663 (Oxford, 1978), The Christian's ABC (Oxford, 1996), Print and Protestantism (Oxford, 2000) and articles on aspects of the history of the parish clergy in the early modern period. His research interests include the history of established churches in the early modern period, and in particular of the English clergy and their techniques of instruction. Anna GrzesÂkowiak-Krwawicz is Adijunkt at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She is the author of Publicystyka stanisøawowska o modelu rzaÎdoÂw monarchii francuskiej [Stanislavian political journalism on the constitutional model of the French monarchy] (Wrocøaw, 1990), O formeÎ rzaÎdu czy o rzaÎd dusz? Publicystyka polityczna Sejmu Czteroletniego [For the form of government or the government of souls? The political journalism of the Four Years Sejm] (Warsaw, 2000) and articles on eighteenth-century Polish political thought. She is now working on a study of the Polish idea of freedom. Ju Å rateÇ KiaupieneÇ is Senior Research Officer at the Institute of Lithuanian History in Vilnius and Senior Lecturer (Dozent) in Lithuanian and European History at the Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas. She is Ï emaitijoje XVI±XVIII a. [The Countryside the author of Kaimas ir dvaras Z and the Estate in Samogitia in the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries] (Vilnius, 1988) and, with Zigmantas Kiaupa and Albinas KuncevicÏius, of The History of Lithuania before 1795 (Vilnius, 2000), as well as articles on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. She is currently working on studies of the private and public life of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the sixteenth century, and preparing the document of KreÇva (14 August 1385) for publication. Jerzy Lukowski is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham. His publications include Liberty's Folly: The PolishLithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1991), The Partitions of Poland: 1772, 1793, 1795 (London, 1999) and articles on

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Northern Wars: War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558±1721 (London, 2000). He is currently working on the Oxford History of Early Modern Poland-Lithuania, 1385±1815.

Notes on the Contributors xi

Mariusz Markiewicz is Associate Professor in Modern European History at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. His publications include Rady Senatorskie Augusta II [The Senate Councils of Augustus II] (Wrocøaw, 1988), Polityka spoøeczna i gospodarcza Privy Council podczas panowania Karola II 1660±1685 [The Social and Economic Policy of the Privy Council during the Reign of Charles II] (Cracow, 1990) and articles on the structure of political power in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He is currently working on studies of the Polish administrative system in 1697±1763.

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

eighteenth-century Polish history. He is co-author of A Concise History of Poland for Cambridge University Press (November 2001).

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18 10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Of the languages used in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish occurs most often in this book. Polish pronunciation, although regular, looks daunting. The following notes, not intended for philologists, may help beginners to cope. Stress falls almost invariably on the penultimate syllable. aÎ ch ci, c cz eÎ i j ø n oÂ, u rz, zÇ si, s sz szcz sÂc w y zi, zÂ

A nasal sound similar to the French `on', but usually reduced before consonants to the English `on' or `om'. Like the `ch' in the Scottish `loch'. This sound is transliterated from the Cyrillic alphabet as `kh'. A soft `ch' sound as in `cheese'. A hard `ch' sound as in `snatch'. A nasal sound similar to the French `en', but as with `aÎ', usually reduced before consonants to the English `en' or `em'. Like `ee' as in `sheet'. Like `y' as in `yard'. Like `w' as in `wood'. Like the soft `n' in `new'. Like `oo' in `book'. `Zh', like the French `je' but harsher. A soft `sh' sound as in `sheen'. A hard `sh' as in `shot'. The combination of `sh' and `ch', produced by running together `bush chat'. A softer version of the above. Like the `v' in `valiant'. Like the `i' in `twit'. Slightly softer than the French `je'.

xiii

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Pronunciation Guide

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18 10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Venice

Poznan

de

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick K nigsberg TEUTONIC ORDER

Pest

Kosyce

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Belgrade

KINGDOM OF HUNGARY

Buda

Cracow

la

Vistu

MAZOVIA KINGDOM OF Warsaw POLAND

Danzig

N ie

Riga

Danube

Dv ina

ter MOLDAVIA

GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA

Vilnius

Lwow Dn ies

Brest

men

LIVONIAN ORDER

Kjev

0

iep

er

100

200

KHANATE

CRIMEAN

DESERTI

CAMPI

Dn

Smolensk

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Vienna

KINGDOM Prague OF BOHEMIA

Breslau

r

The Jagiellonian territories, c.1500

Nominal state boundaries

Boundaries of vassal states

State boundaries

Lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania conquered by Muscovy, 1492−1514

Lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Vassals of the Kingdom of Poland

Lands of the Kingdom of Poland

Lands of the Kingdom of Bohemia

Lands of the Kingdom of Hungary

O 300

Moscow

400 km

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick Poznan

K nigsberg

Cracow

Warsaw

Danzig

Lublin

Riga

Lwow

Grodno

Mittau

Vilnius (Wilno)

U K R A I N E

Kiev

Smolensk

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

The Polish±Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Union of Lublin

Nominal boundary

Boundary between Great Poland and Little Poland

Boundaries of the Commonwealth, and between the Polish Crown, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Livonia, Courland and Ducal Prussia after the Treaty of Yam Zapolskii (1582)

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Vassal Duchy of Prussia

Vassal Duchy of Courland

Livonia: Polish-Lithuanian Condominium

Territories transfered to the Crown from Lithuania in 1569

Little Poland

Royal Prussia, integrated into the Crown in 1569

Crown Great Poland

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick Breslau

Courland (fief)

Territory ceded to Ottoman Empire 1672, restored 1699

Territory ceded to Muscovy, 1667−1686

Ducal Prussia (fief to 1657)

Zator

Cracow

200 mls 300 kms

0

3

0

Spisz (Zips)

Lublin

Warsaw

2

Sandomierz

Leczyca Rawa Sieradz

HABSBURG LANDS

Oswiecim

Kalisz

8 Marienburg

Thorn Blzesc Kujawski Plock

Kulm

Gniezno

nowroclaw

Poznan

Livonia (condominium) (after c. 1621)

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Crown

SAXONY

BRANDENBURG

1

K nigsberg

7

4

Lwow

Belz

Chelm

Brest (Litovsk)

Grodno

Wilno

5

Kamieniec Podolski

6

Bratslav

Targowica

Klev

Mscislaw

Witebsk

Dn ie

Hadiach

pe t

Poltava

MUSCOVY

CRIMEAN KHANATE

Chernihiv

Smolensk

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

(OTTOMAN TRIBUTARIES)

Minsk

Polock

Bar

MOLDAVIA

Nowogrodek

Riga

Troki

Mittau

The Polish±Lithuanian Commonwealth in the seventeenth century

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Town giving its name to a Palatinate: Plock other Palatinates Pomerania Mazovia Podlasia Ruthenia Volynia Podolia Samogitia Elbing Warmia Danzig

State boundaries Boundaries of the component parts of the Commonwealth Boundaries of the Palatinates

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick 300 kms

200 mls

HABSBURG MONARCHY (AUSTRIA)

Cracow

Thorn

Vis

tula

Warsaw

EAST PRUSSIA

Lwow

Grodno

BUKOVINA TO AUSTRIA 1775

Wilno

OTTOMAN LANDS

Bar

TO RUSSIA 1792

Targowica

Kiev

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

The Partitions of Poland±Lithuania

0

0

SAXONY

PRUSSIA

Danzig

TO RUSSIA 1774

CRIMEAN KHANATE Independent 1773 to Russia 1783

RUSSIAN EMPIRE

To Austria

To Prussia

To Russia

2 Partition (1795)

To Prussia

To Russia

2 Partition (1793)

To Austria

To Prussia

To Russia

1 Partition (1772)

The italicized version(s) is the one used in the text or maps. This does not indicate that the name is the most appropriate for the entire period covered by this book. Many places are mentioned only once. In general, Polish would be more appropriate for most place names in the Grand Duchy and Ukraine for the eighteenth century. German

Polish

Bracøaw Wrocøaw BrzesÂc Litewski Buczacz Kurland Kurlandia KrakoÂw Kujawy CzernichoÂw Danzig GdanÂsk Elbing ElblaÎg Gnesen Gniezno Graudenz GrudziaÎdz Wielkopolska Grodno Hadziacz Kalisch Kalisz Chocim KijoÂw Kulm Cheømno Maøopolska Lemberg LwoÂw Marienburg Malbork Mazowsze MsÂcisøaw Podlasie Podole Poøock Pommerellen Pomorze (GdanÂskie) Posen Poznan Putzig Puck ZÇmudz Troki Wilno Woøyn Ermland Warmia Warszawa Witebsk Breslau

Ukrainian

Lithuanian

Belarusian

English/ Russian

Brest

Brest

Bratslav

Buchach

Courland Cracow Cujavia Chernigov (R.)

Chernihiv

Harodna

Hadiach Khotyn Kyiv

Great Poland

Kiev (R.) Little Poland

Lviv Ï Mstsislau Podillia

Polatsk

Mazovia Mstislavl (R.) Podlasia Podolia Polotsk (R.) Pomerania

Volyn

Ï emaitija Z Trakai Vilnius

Samogitia Vilna (R.) Volhynia Vitsebsk

Warsaw Vitebsk (R.)

xix

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Gazetteer

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18 10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Introduction

The title of this book, `the Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy', suggests a typical early modern composite polity.1 Yet unlike the territories immediately to the south that by the mid-seventeenth century had congealed into the Habsburg, or Austrian, Monarchy, early modern Poland-Lithuania did not become known to its rulers and historians as `the Monarchy'. Instead, this collection is centred on the role of the institution and idea of monarchy within the political system and political culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita). Poland-Lithuania has often been thought exceptional in early modern Europe ± to have followed a Sonderweg. That German expression for a divergent path carries connotations of an unnatural evolution; the Commonwealth's Sonderweg has usually been taken to be its failure to become a centralized, bureaucratic, absolutist and, ultimately, national monarchy. We shall return to this question, if only because the partitions ± of 1772, 1793 and 1795 ± weigh so heavily upon the historiography. But if Poland-Lithuania had, as R. J. W. Evans suggests in the essay that opens this volume, more in common with its southern neighbour (not least in its fate) than with supposedly `national' monarchies, the reasons why the Commonwealth diverged from the path of the Habsburg Monarchy and other dynastic conglomerates deserve investigation. The realms ruled over by members of the Jagiellon dynasty at the turn of the fifteenth century ± Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Lithuania being the chief of them ± might also be considered an `agglutination',2 held together by a variety of hereditary, elective and feudal tenures. They might in time have become known as the `Jagiellon Monarchy'. That they did not was perhaps mainly due to a mixture of bad luck and poor judgement, culminating in the death of King Louis Jagiellon on the battlefield of MohaÂcs in 1526. His successors in Hungary and Bohemia, 1

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Richard Butterwick

Richard Butterwick

and the inheritors of his conflict with the Ottoman Turks, were of course the Habsburgs. Of the territories remaining to the Jagiellons, they were most secure in their hereditary domain ± the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This had ballooned out across western Rus in the fourteenth century, replacing the Tatar Golden Horde as regional hegemon. Much of the expansion was accomplished by brothers and cousins of the grand dukes, whose potentially disruptive energies were thus profitably exported.3 Although Lithuanian dominion had since 1492 been diminished in the north-east by Muscovy, it still extended from the forests of Samogitia on the Baltic in the north-west to the exposed steppes (called campi deserti on contemporary maps) that rolled away towards the Black Sea in the southeast. Within these boundaries ethnic Lithuanians, whose conversion to Roman Catholicism from their ancestral paganism was still proceeding in the sixteenth century, were outnumbered by Orthodox Ruthenes. As Ju Å rateÇ KiaupieneÇ shows, this was a political society that was changing rapidly. Whenever one dates the beginning of the process, Lithuania was no longer at the centre of its grand dukes' attention in the mid-sixteenth century. They had long since successfully eliminated their cousins as political rivals, but the resulting vacuum was filled by the Council of Lords.4 These magnates, whose social and political predominance was maintained, she argues, by extensive clienteles, developed a strongly Lithuanian political identity (irrespective of whether they were of Lithuanian or Ruthenian stock), and a concept of the grand duchy distinct from their personal loyalty to the grand duke. The Jagiellons had worn the crown of the Kingdom of Poland since 1385/86, when Grand Duke Jogaila (1377±92) had accepted Catholic baptism, married its heiress Jadwiga (Hedvig) and taken the style of Wøadysøaw II Jagieøøo (1386±1434). Although their hereditary dominion in Lithuania gave the Jagiellon kings a powerful bargaining counter, they had failed to make good their claim to inherit the Polish crown by right. The Polish nobility ± the szlachta ± had taken advantage of the lack of an undisputed male heir since the death in 1370 of Casimir III the Great, the last of the native Piast dynasty, amassing privileges in return for its consent to the succession. By the mid-sixteenth century it had acquired valuable tax exemptions, personal inviolability, dominion over the peasantry, independence of ecclesiastical courts and, most important of all, a decisive voice in the making of laws and levying of taxes. It did so through its representation in the bicameral parliament ± the Sejm ± and its participation in local assemblies ± the sejmiks. The towns were, with the exceptions of the Royal Prussian cities and the

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

2

capital of Cracow, marginalized politically, and increasingly disadvantaged economically by legislation framed by nobles.5 The cliental relations usually held to be characteristic of Lithuania were weak in Poland, partly because many of the richest and most ancient families died out in the sixteenth century, and partly because the increasingly prosperous middling nobles developed an identity and ideology of their own. The Renaissance and the Reformation made a strong impact on the political culture of the szlachta, which became more mature and selfconfident as it discovered the political concepts of classical antiquity. Noble spokesmen claimed that the kingdom was not a pure monarchy, but a monarchia mixta, in which monarchic, aristocratic and popular (or democratic) elements shared sovereignty. These were represented in the Sejm by the king, senate and chamber of envoys respectively. The envoys represented the entire nobility or knightly estate (stan rycerski, ordo equestris). The senators were not legally separated from their fellow noble citizens, but formed (supposedly) a natural aristocracy, chosen by the king for their virtue. Their function was to hold in equilibrium the natural tendency of the king to turn maiestas into tyranny and the citizens to turn libertas into licence. Thus in the richer and stronger of their two realms, the Jagiellons were not hereditary monarchs, and shared sovereignty with their subjects. The contrast here, as will be apparent from R. J. W. Evans's essay, is with the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburgs' eastern `periphery', where they acquired hereditary status only in 1687 and thereafter continued to be constricted by the will of the nobility, expressed through the county assemblies, the diet and the threat of rebellion.6 In their `core' kingdom of Bohemia, the Habsburgs' authority was, after 1620, far more menacing. While the Polish kingdom (or Crown ± Corona Regni Poloniae) was already asserting a sophisticated political identity that distinguished it from most component parts of dynastic agglutinations (Hungary excepted), the Jagiellonian conglomerate was not without the feudal niceties that enriched (or bedevilled) most of Europe. Mazovia was held as a fief of the Polish Crown by its dukes; after their extinction the duchy was incorporated into the Polish kingdom in 1529. In contrast, a variety of relationships bound the former lands of the Teutonic Order ± Royal and Ducal Prussia, Livonia and Courland ± to the king, or the kingdom, or the grand duke, or the grand duchy, or some combination thereof. These relationships were recast, but not standardized, by the Union of Lublin in 1569, as Almut Bues and Karin Friedrich explain. The factor that finally precluded the establishment of a `Jagiellon' or `Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy' was the awareness that the dynasty

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Introduction 3

Richard Butterwick

would die out with the heirless Sigismund Augustus (1548±72). This enabled leading Polish nobles to press for the creation of a new polity. Although the Lithuanian magnates, led by the Radziwiøøs, were able to resist full incorporation into Poland, they were too hard-pressed by Muscovy to contemplate severing the link. Most historians have stressed the desire of middling and lesser nobles in the Grand Duchy to enjoy the full privileges of the Polish szlachta as the key factor in bringing about the union,7 but Ju Å rateÇ KiaupieneÇ questions this view here. As she suggests, more research is needed. Whereas the Habsburg Monarchy never had an official name,8 the state created in Lublin by the union of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was named the Commonwealth of the Two Nations, Polish and Lithuanian (Rzeczpospolita Obojga NarodoÂw, Polskiego i Litewskiego). Poland and Lithuania would retain their own armies, legal systems and offices, but would henceforth share a Sejm and an elective monarchy. During the interregnum and royal election that followed in 1572±73, discussed in some detail by Almut Bues, the parameters defining the monarchy were established, essentially by the Polish noble nation rather than the Lithuanian, whose leaders unwillingly accepted faits accomplis. The monarch would be elected viritim, that is by any noble who chose to attend in person. He would undertake to uphold noble liberties, call a Sejm every two years, and not to raise taxes, recruit soldiers, declare war, conclude a treaty or even marry without its consent. Between Sejms, a council of resident senators would watch over his actions. If the king defaulted on his promises, the citizens might withdraw their obedience. On the other hand, the king was responsible, advised by the senate council and the chancellors and vice-chancellors of Poland and Lithuania, for the conduct of foreign affairs, was commander-in-chief of the army and generally represented the majesty of the Commonwealth. His chief prerogatives were the right to nominate nobles to most public offices, from the senate downwards, and to distribute lucrative Crown estates (kroÂlewszczyzny) to `deserving' citizens. The value of these prerogatives was limited by the fact that appointments were, almost invariably, for life. However, the potential ability of the monarch to corrupt the Sejm and rule `absolutely' remained a central political issue ± perhaps the central issue ± until the Commonwealth was partitioned. Rzeczpospolita may be rendered either as `Commonwealth' or `Republic', for all three terms derive from the Latin Res Publica. As the name suggests, from the very inauguration of the new polity, its predominant discourse of mixed monarchy contained a strong republican element, which over the course of its existence increasingly forced the defenders

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

4

of the monarchic element in the form of government onto the ideological defensive. Except for a few late exceptions, self-proclaimed `republicans' insisted that a republican form of government was compatible with a king; what mattered was that the state was `free', that is where the king was constrained from oppressing his citizen-subjects. The contributors have preferred to employ `Commonwealth', however, because `Republic' would by implication deny the significance of a monarchist (or regalist) discourse and persuasion, which, as Robert Frost argues, existed and have been underestimated by most historians. Even in Poland-Lithuania, we may apply Helmut G. Koenigsberger's verdict on early modern Europe: `Monarchism had extraordinarily tough roots'. These included divine anointment, the powerful image of the head of the body politic, the roles of the king as the fount of justice and honours, and often, military leadership.9 For all the republican tendencies of Polish political thought, the Commonwealth never quite became the pure democratic or aristocratic republic that classical theorists such as Aristotle or Polybius might have recognized. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Polish writers rebutted as calumnies the claims of western Europeans that it was.10 Perhaps this was because the szlachta's liberties had been more or less freely conceded by kings, rather than founded in a successful rebellion against monarchical tyranny ± as in the Dutch Republic or Switzerland, or, closer to home, in the revolt of the Prussian estates against the Teutonic Order in 1454.11 Many Polish nobles clearly believed in a kind of Sonderweg thesis. As Anna GrzesÂkowiak-Krwawicz shows, they were convinced that through the favour of Providence and their own virtue, they had avoided the monarchical yoke borne by other nations. The Polish nation surpassed all others in its freedom. The partitions reversed the value judgement without questioning the thesis. Until fairly recently, historians of government have characterized the `early modern' polity in terms of the growth of monarchical power through the reduction of provincial `particularism', and the creation of efficient central bureaucracies (which were hallmarks, from a nineteenth-century perspective, of `modernity'.) These enabled higher taxes to be raised, and larger armies to be paid for. The claims made by several monarchs to exercise absolute and undivided sovereignty, and their general success in crushing overt opposition have led historians to conclude that `absolutism' was the dominant form of government. The apparently impotent Polish-Lithuanian monarchy has naturally stood out as an aberration. Moreover, the black and white contrast has provided a kind of moral lesson. Clearly, it seemed, as absolutism was the most successful type of early modern government, it

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

Introduction 5

Richard Butterwick

must therefore have been `vindicated' historically. Because the libertarian Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was dismembered by its absolutist neighbours, it must have `failed' historically. In the last two or three decades historians have advanced a good deal of evidence, much of it summed up by Ian Green and R. J. W. Evans, to suggest that most `absolutists' exercised power in a far from absolute manner. Representative institutions and other corporate bodies embedded in early modern social fabrics not only frustrated royal initiatives to a greater extent than was previously assumed, but also played constructive roles of their own in governance. Absolutism is now viewed less as real power than as an aspiration, or, by some, as a discourse. Variations on the theme were considerable and exceptions were numerous. This development opens the way, from an all-European perspective, for a re-evaluation of the singularity of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It would now seem to have followed not a Sonderweg, but one of several possible paths in early modern Europe, with points of similarity as well as difference. The distance between the Commonwealth and most other European polities would be diminished further if it could be shown that not only did its institutions function rather better than the popular image of `Polish anarchy' would suggest, but that the political power exercised by the monarchy within the Commonwealth was greater than hitherto assumed. This, however, has not been a straightforward historiographical development in Poland (or in Lithuania either) for a variety of reasons. The first generation of scholarly historians in Poland was dominated by the `Cracow school', rooted in conservative circles that wished to maintain social stability and hierarchy. They argued that the Poles had lost their statehood through their immoderate, anarchic cult of liberty and their progressive emasculation of the monarchy. Thus they concurred in their German and Russian counterparts' belief in the historic `victory' of absolutism. This `pessimist' interpretation of Polish history continues to exert a considerable influence in Polish historiography, not least because of the exaggerations of which the `optimist' response has been guilty ever since the 1880s. `Optimists' have, in general, taken a far more positive view of the values and institutions of the Commonwealth. However, in their assessment of particular periods they have differed sharply. The initial strand of `optimism' actually dovetailed quite neatly with `pessimism'. Adopting the perspective of reformers in the reign of Stanisøaw August Poniatowski (1764±95), and, in a wider sense, the critical and rational spirit of the Enlightenment, the `Warsaw school' argued that the old, anarchic

10.1057/9780333993804preview - The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, C.1500-1795, Richard Butterwick

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2017-01-18

6

You have reached the end of the preview for this book / chapter. You are viewing this book in preview mode, which allows selected pages to be viewed without a current Palgrave Connect subscription. Pages beyond this point are only available to subscribing institutions. If you would like access the full book for your institution please: Contact your librarian directly in order to request access, or; Use our Library Recommendation Form to recommend this book to your library (http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/connect/info/recommend.html), or; Use the 'Purchase' button above to buy a copy of the title from http://www.palgrave.com or an approved 3rd party. If you believe you should have subscriber access to the full book please check you are accessing Palgrave Connect from within your institution's network, or you may need to login via our Institution / Athens Login page: (http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/nams/svc/institutelogin? target=/index.html).

Please respect intellectual property rights This material is copyright and its use is restricted by our standard site license terms and conditions (see http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/connect/info/terms_conditions.html). If you plan to copy, distribute or share in any format including, for the avoidance of doubt, posting on websites, you need the express prior permission of Palgrave Macmillan. To request permission please contact [email protected].

preview.html[22/12/2014 16:51:21]

Suggest Documents