Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/300

Rh 288 POLAND [HISTORY. received the crown from his nobles and clergy at Gniezno (Gnesen). Thus did Poland again become a kingdom. This unfortunate prince, however, was afterwards murdered by the margrave of Brandenburg at Rogozno (1295). The reign of Wactaw (Wenceslaus) (1300-5) was not of great importance. He united the crowns of Poland and Bohemia, but soon became unpopular on account of his preference of his Bohemian subjects. Shortly after his election he left the country, and, confiding the control of Poland to the Bohemian garrisons, retreated with his wife to Prague, having been invited to take the crown of Hungary, which he soon abandoned to his son. His death in the year 1305 was accompanied by suspicious circumstances which rendered it probable that it had been brought about by poison. With him expired the race of the holy peasant Pfemysl, which had ruled Bohemia accord ing to the ancient chronicles for nearly six hundred years. The relations of the latter country to the German empire were now to become much closer. Wladystaw Loketiek, who succeeded Wactaw, was constantly engaged in wars with the Teutonic knights. In three expeditions against them he allowed his troops to commit great excesses. A full account of them may be found in Kromer, who has given us a florid speech said to have been uttered by Wtadystaw before one of the battles. Several heretics at this time made their appearance in Poland, advocating among other things communistic doctrines. They were severely repressed, and from this time dates the establish ment of the Inquisition in the country which lasted till the days of Sigismund I. About 1312 Cracow appears to have been made the capital of the kingdom, and continued so till the reign of Sigismund III. Casimir Wtadystaw w r as succeeded by his son Kazimie rz (Casimir) III., justly surnamed the Great, whose reign was a golden period for Poland. The material prosperity of the country increased very much at this time. Commerce was active ; the Russians supplied the inhabitants with furs ; the south ern parts of Europe sent wines, carpets, silks, cotton, &c. The principal towns of Poland, Dantzic and Cracow, to assist the development of their commerce, joined the Hanseatic league. The towns on the Vistula now began to increase in number and importance, and we first hear of Warsaw, which, however, was not made the capital of the kingdom till the reign of Sigismund III. In 1364 Kazimierz laid the foundation of the university of Cracow, but it was reserved for Queen Jadwiga to carry out his plans. One of the most important events of his reign was the pass ing of the statute of Wislica (1347). In this legal docu ment the palatines and castellans are mentioned, and the authority possessed by them is carefully defined. It may be well to enumerate here some of the chief functionaries of the republic. The duty of a palatine was to lead the troops of his palatinate on any military expedition, and to preside in the little diets or assemblies of the nobility of his province. Immediately after the palatines came the castellans, who, like the former, were all senators. They were lieutenants of the palatines in time of war, leading the nobility of their jurisdiction into the field, under the command of the palatines. Both the palatines and castellans held judicial tribunals in their respective provinces. The nuntii (posty] were the deputies returned by the various districts of the palatinates. There were sixteen ecclesiastical senators, including the primate (the archbishop of Gniezno) and the archbishop of Lemberg. They all sat in one house. The starostas, employed in collecting the revenue and other functions, had no seat in the house. There are many things in the statute of Wislica favourable to the peasant ; thus the power of life and death over him, which his master had previously enjoyed, was abolished. The peasant was not yklx ascriptus, and if ill- I The inhabitants of the towns, foreign and chiefly German j appeals to Magdeburg itself were prohibited ; for this purpose a Teutonic tribunal was established at Cracow, consisting of a judge properly acquainted with foreign law, and of seven citizens nominated by the starosta. Kromer, in his Polonia, says, &quot; Legum scriptarum nullus fuit usus apud Polonos vetustioribus temporibus ; nee ullai extant antiquiores iis quas Cazimirus magnus rex condidit.&quot; A national diet was now being formed. It consisted of the upper clergy and the nobles, but the in ferior clergy and the citizens seem sometimes to have been admitted. Gradually questions of peace and war were introduced and even the election of kings, the principle of departing from the hereditary line being admitted a con cession afterwards attended with great evils to Poland. The improvements of Kazimierz were not confined to law- making ; he fortified the chief towns of his kingdom, and built many of their most handsome edifices. He also intro duced many artisans from Germany. By his marriage with his first wife Anna Aldona of Lithuania, he had only a daughter. He therefore convoked a diet at Cracow on the 8th May 1339, in which he proposed as his successor his nephew Louis of Hungary, the son of his sister. This was to concede to the diet a very important privilege, as the throne became virtually elective. The nobles were not slow- in availing themselves of the concession which had been made to them. Before they allowed Louis to succeed they exacted some very important terms from him which became the foundation of the celebrated pacta conventa. The year after the appointment of a successor his wife died. Accord ing to Kromer she was passionately fond of music, and took musicians with her wherever she travelled. The wars of Kazimierz against the hereditary enemies of the country, the Russians, Lithuanians, and Mongols, were successful. His private life was stained with licentious ness, but his reign marks a distinct epoch in the political and legislative development of the country. With him the glory of Poland begins, and he is well worthy of the glowing eulogy of the national historian Dlugosz. We cannot wonder also that the Poles dwell with pleasure upon the splendour of the court of Kazimie rz, but he certainly squandered the royal treasures too freely. We are told that at one time he entertained at Cracow the emperor of Ger many and the kings of Denmark, Hungary, and Cyprus. His death was occasioned by a fall from his horse while hunting near Cracow on the 5th November 1370, and w r ith him expired the line of the Piasts. Casimir was succeeded, Loui as had been arranged, by Louis of Hungary, who held the crown for twelve years only, and of that period spent but a short time in the country. Louis showed too great a fondness for his own subjects ; he had also the misfortune to be unacquainted with the Polish language. After his death his second daughter Jadwiga was elected queen, but Jai she was to accept as husband any prince whom the diet might propose to her. Her election is declared by Kromer to have been due to the eloquence of one Jan T^nczyn (a member of a celebrated Polish family), whose speech, or an imaginary reproduction of it, is given at great length in very classical Latinity. Jadwiga is said to have been a woman of great beauty and worth. As a matter of state policy she was induced to marry Jagielto, the prince of Lithuania, a man of savage manners ; but Lithuania was thus annexed- to Poland, with which it remained joined ever afterwards, a more complete federation having taken place at Lublin in the year 1569. Jagielto was a pagan, but he offered to renounce his creed and to introduce the Christian faith into his dominions ; although not educated in that religion he was born of a Christian mother, and its
 * treated by one lord could move to the estate of another.
 * artisans were governed by the Jus Magdeburgicum ; but