Ladislaus Jagiello in Modern Polish Culture

Abstract

This article deals with Polish representations of Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania, ruler of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, founder of the Jagiellonian dynasty. Research on representations of the past has become one of the main fields of memory studies in recent years. They allow us to look at historical events and their emblematic protagonists through the prism of their successive emanations. The kaleidoscope of images of the past reflects changes in social awareness and collective memory of a given political community. Jagiełło and the Battle of Grunwald (1410), which is inseparably associated with his reign, offer a model case in point. Among the numerous representations of Jagiełło, those created in the nineteenth century have made a lasting impression. At first, they took the form of literary works and paintings, and only later did they appear in political journalism and historiography. With time, they transmogrified into grass-roots commemorative initiatives, the most spectacular manifestation of which was the jubilee of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, celebrated in Kraków in 1910. The works of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Henryk Sienkiewicz and Jan Matejko fulfilled their role and became part of the canon, on which the Polish imagination depended from then on, regardless of the changing political configurations. In this way, Jagiełło became one of the most important figures in the pantheon of rulers, while the distant historical experience of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was permanently grafted onto and modelled the Polish political imagination. This observation is also confirmed by his twentieth-century portrayals in Polish films and historical series.