Borowo, Borki i Boruty. Szlachta i lasy na Podlasiu w XVI - XVII w.

Abstract

Borowo, Borki and Boruty. The nobility and forests in the Podlasie region in the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries For centuries Podlasie had been one of Poland’s most forested regions. Even its name was sometimes interpreted as a land “under forests”. Apart from the Białowieża Forest in the District of Kamenets, incorporated in 1566 into the new Province of Brest-Litowsk, the most forested area was the region around Bielsk. In addition to ducal (royal) forests, there were also private forests belonging to large noble families, residing mainly in the western part of the region. The aim of the present article is to take a closer look at forests belonging to the nobility as well as the fact that their estates neighboured on forested royal estates throughout the sixteenth century. The colonisation of these worn-torn lands, begun in the late fourteenth century, occurred largely in forest areas, which had to be cleared to make way for villages and arable land. As settlement developed, numerous border disputes arose. They were particularly frequent in the first half of the sixteenth century, until the land reform carried out at the time. After conflicts, sometimes long-standing, over borders were resolved, there began divisions of forests within groups of villages with the same name / origins of their owners. The disputes also involved heirs to the same village. In order to put an end to them the institution of inhibitio was called upon from the 1650s onwards. As a result of this sorting out of ownership issues, the nobility, especially in the first two interregnum periods, turned to royal forest domains, causing damage in trees and animals. Poaching was hard to control given the limited number of forest guards. As a comparison of court records from Brańsk from 1561 and 1591 has demonstrated, forest cases were part of the everyday reality for petty nobility in the Podlasie region in the sixteenth century