Grand Duchy Of Lithuania Research Articles

Was the Lithuanian Va’ad Abolished? Some remarks on the history of Jewish self-government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

ABSTRACT The article draws attention to an issue that has been well discussed in historiography – the abolition of Jewish self-government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Based on the re-interpretation of known sources and the introduction of new historical materials several questions are raised. Is everything so obvious in respect of the liquidation of the Va’ads? The conclusions reached during this research correct the currently, generally recognised date of the ‘abolition’ of the Polish and Lithuanian Va’ads and provide new examples of the functioning of the supra-communal organisation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the end of the eighteenth century.

Food Products and Dishes on the Table of Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania

Based on the data of the kitchen accounts of 1632–1633 and other relevant sources, the article aims to shed light on the assortment of the food products and beverages supplied to the kitchen of Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and the dishes that used to be cooked for the ruler. The analysis shows that beef, mutton, piglets, meat of domestic birds, wild animals (hares, deer), and wild birds (most often black grouse, hazel grouse, partridges, thrushes, pigeons) were delivered to the court kitchen of the ruler. Interestingly, turkeys were supplied to the kitchen of Władysław IV Vasa very often, not only during feasts. During fasts, different types of fish were consumed, but the salmon was purchased only on special occasions. The analysis also reveals the assortment of dairy products, bread, cereals, sweets, local vegetables, local and imported fruit, spices, and beverages. The sources even reveal ingredients of some dishes and pastries cooked for the ruler’s table: meat jelly, pâté, stews of various meats and vegetables (olla pulreda), rice pudding (bianka), Easter cake, and others.The cuisine of Władysław IV Vasa shared some features with Western European Renaissance cuisine: it followed the fashion of eating wild birds and sweets and consuming imported spices. The influence of French cuisine was more pronounced, although the French elite began to abandon the abundant consumption of imported spices during that period.

In the Circle of Power: Friends of King Vladislav IV Vasa

Any early modern ruler had to have devoted supporters. Most of them gathered around the king in order to obtain specific official and financial benefits, and sometimes they had similar political views to the monarch. However, this issue looked a bit different in relation to Vladislav IV Vasa, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, who was considered by the nobility as a sympathetic and easy-going ruler (as opposed to his more secretive father, Sigismund III). Vladislav was a king who made friendships easily, and people close to him were very clearly at the centre of influence and thus political power. One of the main objectives of this article is to indicate when and how the magnates established private contacts with Vladislav as prince and how they developed once he became king. A separate issue discussed centres on categories related to the understanding of friendship as an element of privacy in the early modern period. Through an in-depth analysis of the letters and memoirs left by the elite of the Polish-Lithuanian state, case studies of private friendships emerge, including the King’s close relationships with Adam Kazanowski, Jan Stanislaw Sapieha, Gerard Denhoff, Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł, Krzysztof Radziwiłł and several others.

Image of Ivan Terrible in European Propaganda during Livonian War (Poetic Works of S. Wolf and J. Kokhanovsky)

The image of Ivan the Terrible in the propagandic European poetry of the Livonian War is considered. On the example of two poetic works “An elegiac poem about the campaign of His Majesty Stephen the First, the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania against Ivan Vasilyevich, the Grand Duke of Moscow” by the German author Samuil Wolf (1582) and “The Song of the Capture of Polotsk” by the Polish poet Jan Kokhanovsky (1580) the conclusion is made about the great interest of the European reader in the personality of the Moscow tsar. The analysis of these texts shows the grotesque image of Ivan the Terrible, formed under the influence of the “political order” coming from the Polish King Stefan Batory. It is also concluded that European propaganda played a negative role, contributed to the loss of the Muscovite state in the Livonian War. The indifference of the tsar himself to what was published about him in the West is also noted, this was the reason that Ivan the Terrible did not want to carry out reciprocal propaganda campaigns and limited himself in this regard to exculpatory and accusatory letters to S. Batory, A. M. Kurbsky and some European monarchs. “The Song of the Capture of Polotsk” was first translated into Russian by the author of the article and is published here in full.

The Actor George Bentley at Rotterdam in 1646

Of the host of mid-seventeenth century performers who are known to have tried their fortunes on the continent, George Bentley is perhaps the one who has been most disregarded in recent accounts of the English travelling players. This may seem surprising, given that the evidence relating to Bentley’s movements across Germany and Poland between 1652 and 1674, meticulously pieced together by nineteenth-century German scholars, demonstrates that his acting career in its international scope and noble associations proved just as prestigious, if not more so, than that of his more famous peers. As early as 1861, Moritz Fürstenau noted that Bentley was appointed in 1652 as a dancer at the Dresden court of Johan George I, Elector of Saxony (1585–1656), with a considerable annual salary of 600 Thaler.1 Styled ‘chamberlain and dancing master’ to the Elector’s successor Johann Georg II (1613–1680), Bentley on 3 February 1665 presented the court with a ballet in ten scenes in praise of Diana’s betrothed and of the ‘sacred kingdom’ of the hunt. Bentley was dismissed in the same year but in 1674 he was to have himself re-appointed as the Electress’s chamberlain, and dancing and ballet master.2 In January 1669 Bentley moved his operations from Dresden to Leipzig, and later on prided himself on also having performed at Cracow, on the occasion of the crowning of Michael Wiśniowiecki (1640–1673), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, in September 1669. From August through October 1670, leading a company of sixteen described as ‘hochteutsche Comoedianten’, Bentley was at Danzig, where he claimed to have staged no fewer than twenty comedies in the Fencing School theatre, and asked for permission from the council to do more acting in the riding school.3 Perhaps, as Bolte pointed out, his was the troupe that also performed at Königsberg in 1670.4

Development of the institute of advocacy in the Ukrainian territories in the middle ages and under empires

A deep understanding of the modern institution of advocacy, as well as the search for effective ways to solve its problems, is impossible without addressing issues of the history of the development of the defense function. The purpose of the paper is a historical and comparative analysis of the organizational design and development of the Institute of Advocacy in the Ukrainian territories in the Middle Ages and under the empires. We highlighted and researched two global periods of formation and development of the legal profession in Ukrainian territories: the Middle Ages and the imperial period. The first - the period of existence of ancient statehood on Ukrainian territories - is characterized by the absence of professional protection in the process. Certain features of protection can be traced in the actions that were inherent in "listening". The second is the imperial period. The state entities, which included the modern Ukrainian territories, developed their own approaches in the direction of introducing the function of protection into the process and developing the status of persons who, on a professional basis, performed the defense of the accused. Thus, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the function of protection was entrusted to the deputy and procurator. With the development of legislation, the former acts as an authorized person of the defendant, and the latter as her professional representative. Prosecutors' offices in form and especially in terms of activity were lawyers, in their modern understanding, who were entrusted with the function of defending defendants. In various editions of the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: the range of cases that could be under the jurisdiction of prosecutors is fixed and expanded; activities of private and public defenders, etc. are organized. After the unification of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the existing institution of defenders also operated on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the Archduchy of Austria, and later in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, lawyers had the right to speak in court. Throughout the existence of these states, special attention was paid to the quality of the legal profession, issues related to organizational and professional requirements for applicants who wanted to become lawyers were clearly regulated. In the Russian Empire, the institute of sworn attorneys (lawyers) was introduced into the court system during the judicial reform of 1864, which introduced professional corporate advocacy. Before the reform, the status of attorneys was equated to the status of hired servants, their participation in the process was insignificant, which was explained by objective reasons - the dominance of the investigative form of the court process.

Noble Matrimonial Policy at the Royal Court in Dresden during the Reign of King Augustus the Strong (1697–1733): Public Affairs, Private Interests

The aim of this article is to analyse the changes taking place in the marital policy of the nobility as followed by the court of Augustus II, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania. The election of a member of the Saxon Wettin family to the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth radically changed the balance of power there. The representatives of new, but politically involved, circles started looking for career opportunities as state officials and the chance to join the royal court, both in Warsaw and in Dresden. The marital strategy of Polish magnates to ally with foreign families, notably those already associated with the court of Electoral Saxony in Dresden, was one of the methods of seeking advancement and influence. An analysis of the examples of careers developed at the royal court allows us to identify the mechanisms by which the King himself tried to build a loyal party in the Commonwealth using private, personal links to himself and to his family. The policy of intentional steering of marriage strategies, which has not been analysed so far, turned out to play a fundamental role in this goal. International marriages gave individuals and their families chances for preeminent advantages (as with transregional nobles all over Europe), but private links with the King were crucial for personal careers and were forged through marriage to members of his family, both legitimate and illegitimate.

Miejsca sakralne w służbie publicznej Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego XVII i XVIII w.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth struggled with the problem of an insufficient number of facilities for the performance of state tasks, including buildings which could accommodate relatively numerous assemblies of nobility. This study addresses the dual role of the sacraled places sites in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which were often used for public purposes. Reading the universals, the documents of the regional councils (pol. sejmiks) – (especially parliamentary instructions) – and diary sources convinces us that they served, among other things, as places of debates for gatherings of the nobility bodies, schools, hospitals, archives, accommodation where monarchs sometimes stayed, or as places where tax revenues were kept and local officials took oaths. The frequency of this phenomenon is evidenced by the sums of money paid to monks on a cyclical basis, which not only covered the costs of operating the facilities which were made available to the nobility, but also had a compensatory function. Among other things, churches, including sacristies, monastic cells and refectories, chapels, and even cemeteries were used for public purposes (which, at least in some cases, raised doubts among the nobility). Attempts were made to convert the post former Jesuit buildings into court houses, schools and detention centres.

Старообрядцы в Северо-Западном крае Российской империи в XIX — начале XX века: проводники русской идеи или религиозные изгои

The article examines the issue of the place of the Old Believer community in the Northwestern region of the Russian Empire during the process of Russification in the 19th to early 20th centuries. To achieve the research goal, the following tasks were addressed: a historical overview of the formation of the community in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was provided, a characterization of the existence of the Old Believer community in the region within the Russian Empire was given, circumstances of the settlement of the community members in the Northwestern region were discussed, and the dynamics of changes in the community’s population were outlined. The religious peculiarities of the ethno-confessional group of the Great Russian people were analyzed both regionally and in the broader imperial context. The development and spread of “legal Old Belief” or “Edinoverie” and the social specifics of the Old Believer community in the Northwestern region were examined. Special attention was given to the complex relations between the state authorities and the official church with the Old Believers in the Northwestern region. The interest in this topic is linked to the study of the role and place of the Old Believer community in the system of ethnic and religious relations that developed in the Northwestern region during its incorporation into the Russian Empire. The role of the community in the process of Russification of the Northwestern region after the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863—1864 was also explored. The cross-border relations between the Old Believers of the Northwestern region and their coreligionists from the Woinowo community in East Prussia are of regional historical interest.

ТИТУЛЬНАЯ ГЕРАЛЬДИКА МОСКОВСКОГО ЦАРСТВА И ЗАПАДНОЕВРОПЕЙСКАЯ ГЕРАЛЬДИЧЕСКАЯ ТРАДИЦИЯ

The article analyzes the history of the influence of the European heraldic tradition on the titular heraldry of the Moscow Tsardom of the 16th – 17th centuries. There are two stages of such influence with its own characteristic features for each. The first stage was associated with the formation of the first complex of titular coats of arms, which were presented on the Great Seal of Ivan IV, made in the late 1570s. Among the 24 titular coats of arms of the Great Seal, five coats of arms were borrowed from the heraldry of the Baltic States and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They meant those territories that were annexed during the Livonian War or claimed by Ivan IV. Seals and even coins of that time acted as sources of heraldic images. From them images were transferred to the Great Seal without any changes. In other words, it was a direct borrowing of European coats of arms into the heraldry of Russia. The second stage is connected with the creation in 1672 of the tsar’s “Titulyarnik” (Titular Book), the first Russian compilation of coats of arms. Of the 33 coats of arms of the “Titulyarnik”, nine were directly borrowed from European heraldry (mainly from the heraldry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). However, the methods of borrowing were more diverse. In addition to the direct transfer of the armorial figures, the coats of arms were changed, Christian symbols was strengthened in them. On the other hand, coats of arms could be borrowed on the principle of belonging to a certain category of territories. Finally, another way was to borrow either individual armorial figures or heraldic compositions. Such a variety of ways of borrowing clearly testifies to the increased heraldic culture of the Muscovy by the end of the 17th century.

A Comparative Approach to Belarusian Ethnicity

The article is a scholarly review of the monograph “Faces of the Other in the Multilingual Belarusian Literature of the 19th Century” written by N. L. Bakhanovich. The book examines the image of “The Other” in Belarusian literature of the 19th century. Bakhanovich refers both to Polish-speaking romanticists (for example, A. Mickiewicz) and to some Russian-speaking authors to illustrate the main message of the book. From a methodological point of view, Bakhanovich follows the traditions of the Russian school of comparative literature and develops the thoughts of A. N. Veselovskii, Yu. M. Lotman, and others about the importance of describing the perception of “the other”, i.e., of a different cultural, religious, and ritual space reflected in literary works, for a more accurate understanding of the Belarusian culture and ethnicity. Although the book attempts to use the methodological framework of “imagined communities”, as presented by the British political scientist and sociologist B. Anderson, it is not convincingly justified. The book touches upon the difficult issue of cultural self-identification of the lands of modern Belarus; a number of the conclusions made by the author are controversial and in need of additional commentary, as is the terminological apparatus chosen to represent several political issues (for example, an attempt to consider the inclusion of the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Russian Empire as an act of colonization). Such a publication is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the development of scholarly ideas about the formation of the Belarusian literary tradition in the 19th century.

From the Union of Lublin to the Mutual Guarantee of the Two Nations

The purpose of this study is to show changes in the legal and political nature of the alliance between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania over the centuries, from the Union concluded in Lublin in 1569, through the so-called ‘coequatio iuris’ of 1697, until the regulations adopted in the Constitution of May 3, and the “Reciprocal Guarantee of Both Nations” crowning the process and passed at the Four-Year Sejm on October 20, 1791. The study uses a wide range of archival manuscript sources, old prints, parliamentary legislation, and also numerous studies using both old and current literature. The main research goal of the study was to show to what extent the changes in the legal nature of the union of the two countries led to their full unification, which was in the past (and sometimes still is) the interpretation of this process in many studies, and to what extent the federalist character of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was preserved, which is nowadays the dominant view and which the author of this study is a strong supporter of.

Nauczyciele Akademii Ostrogskiej

The teachers at the Ostroh Academy were highly qualified people, figures involved in the life of the Orthodox Church in the Great Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. All of them were known not only in Ostroh. Their knowledge and activity in the public forum were used by the Ruthenian nobility at assemblies, by the magnates in educating their children, and by the Orthodox hierarchy in defense of the rights of their Church. The diverse composition of lecturers in terms of nationality and religion in Ostroh contributed to raising the prestige of the university. The students could not only acquire solid theological knowledge, but also learn about the situation of the Orthodox Church in other countries, especially in the Ottoman Empire. The shortcoming of the teaching staff was its instability.

The Olyka landed gentry of Prince Stanislav Radziwill in the last third of the 16 century

The article is focused on one of the groups of the clientele of the Grand Marshal of Lithuania (1592–1595) and the Samogitia Starost (1595–1599) Prince Stanislav Radziwill (1559–1599) – the landowner of the Olyka Volost. Among other things, the controversial issue of terminology and classification of the prince’s clientele is considered, an attempt is made to reconstruct the personal composition, origin, duties and property status of that category of servants who, on a conditional right, owned land within the domain of the mentioned aristocrat. The analysis of Prince Stanislav Radziwill’s “zemiany” from Olyka majorat demonstrates the established complex relationship between the patron and representatives of his clientele, and emphasizes the importance of not only material, but also symbolic relationships between counterparties. The first attempt to present a collective portrait of the prince’s landed gentry group revealed interesting patterns and opened up a new range of questions that require further research. The category of landowners, who held land from the patron on the condition of military service, united people of various social and geographical origins. We can say that most of these people were nobility from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Volhynia and Mazovia. Estates of the Olyka Volost were possessed by both – his clients and governors of his estates, and lawyers of the prince. The patron provided these estates for temporary holding, most often till the death or on the guarantee of a certain amount of money, without the return of which he could not take the previously leased patch of land back under his control. During the life of the first Olyka majorat owner, the percentage of landed gentry in the capital volost grew steadily. Questions related to the profitability of retired estates, the service conditions of “zemiany” and family contacts within their circle require additional study.

Viešas reikalas? Bylos dėl impotencijos XVII–XVIII a. Vilniaus ir Žemaitijos katalikų konsistorijose

Matter of Public Concern? Impotence-Related Cases in the Catholic Consistories of Vilnius and Samogitia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Since the time of Paul the Apostle, Christians regarded marriage as a medium in which a couple’s legitimate offspring are born and which prevents the risk of fornication (Lat. fornicatio). With the development of canon law, the concept of conjugal debt (Lat. debitum conjugale) was defined in the middle of the twelfth century, which stated that upon marrying, a man and a woman undertook to have sexual relations with each other. At the same time, theologians and canonists debated about the essential condition for marriage: whether it was consent (Lat. consensus) or consummation of marriage via sexual intercourse (Lat. consummatio). In this context, various sexual pathologies that interfered with a couple’s sexual life were treated not only as a medical but also as a legal problem affecting the continuity and validity of marriage. In Catholic canon law, the terms used to refer to the sexual disorders causing difficulties in marriage were “impotence” (Lat. impotentia) or “frigidity” (Lat. frigiditas). These terms, although not gendered, were nevertheless most often used to describe men’s physiological problems. In the ninth century, impotence was divided into natural, permanent, and temporary, the latter thought to be caused by magic (Lat. maleficium). The decisions of the popes collected in Decretales (Liber Extra) of Pope Gregory IX, the most important collection of medieval canon law, defined modus operandi of the Church in dealing with impotence-related cases. Only permanent impotence could become legal grounds for declaring a marriage null and void; if the disorder was temporary, the couple had to live together for three years and attempt to consummate marriage. The very nature of the condition had to be proven by a specialist examination or a witness testimony, and in this respect, the impotence-related cases were rather a definitive example of institutional intervention in a seemingly very private sphere. In the Catholic consistories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, impotencerelated cases were perhaps the rarest category of all marital litigation. In the surviving sources of the seventeenth-eighteenth-century ecclesiastical courts, it was possible to find data on ten such cases, of which seven were examined. Due to the scarcity and chronological inconsistency of the data drawing generalising conclusions is problematic, nonetheless, it is possible to observe certain trends and to reveal aspects that are relevant from the point of view of micro-history. All bar one of the cases involved male impotence, and five out of seven resulted in the decisions declaring the marriages null and void. The analysis of case materials clearly reveals an aspect of publicity characteristic of this type of cases that had evolved in canon law since the Middle Ages, namely, third-party inspections. It was the expert insights of women or doctors that had a decisive influence on the decisions on whether to annul the marriage or to order the spouses to stay in it. This rather unwanted limelight may have precluded many of the cases from ever reaching the courts. Keywords: Impotence, ecclesiastical courts, Catholic Church, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, canon law.

“In these times of great need”: Pledging the grand duke’s demesne in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1502 to 1522

The article analyses the grand-ducal demesne pledges in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1502 to 1522 and the influence of this type of borrowing on the Lithuanian treasury. In the early sixteenth century, grand-ducal pledges were an essential source for financing the war effort in Lithuania. The pledge deeds reveal that at least 58,576.5 sexagenas of Lithuanian groschen were borrowed under grand-ducal demesne pledge deeds in the analysed period. The pledging intensified shortly before and during the Sejms of 1516 and 1518. Almost the entire debt was owned by the members of the Council of Lords and the highest Lithuanian dignitaries, with the leading magnate families at the forefront. Most of this debt was relieved by the Council of Lords.

Pledges as state financing deeds in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the early sixteenth century

The article focuses on the practice of grand-ducal demesne pledging in 1502–1522. Close attention is paid to pledge deed types and the rules of the disposition of the pledged property. The research demonstrates that open-ended contracts prevailed during the discussed period. This type of deed allowed the creditors to use the entire income of the pledged property for an indefinite period. Fixed-term agreements limiting the use of the pledged property for several years and more beneficial for the treasury were relatively rare. They primarily occurred when a former contract was being renewed, or a creditor changed, making it possible to modify the earlier provisions.

Lithuanian grand-ducal demesne pledges (from the 1500s to mid-1520s): Geographical aspects

The pledging policy by the grand dukes of Lithuania in the sixteenth century has not been practically under research; historians have not given the geographical and cartographical aspects of this problem any attention. This article aims to research the geography of the pledges of the grand-ducal demesne from the 1500s to mid-1520s. This article discusses the concept of the demesne of Lithuanian sovereigns, its size and limits, and we analyse the geographical and statistical information about its composition. We have created a map of pledged estates and properties using the data collected and characterised the most important pledge deeds and pledgees.

Karo veiksmai Kuršo kunigaikštystės ir Lietuvos pasienyje Didžiojo Šiaurės karo pradžioje (1701 m. rugsėjis – 1703 m. gegužė)

MILITARY ACTIONS ON THE BORDER BETWEEN THE DUCHY OF COURLAND AND LITHUANIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR (SEPTEMBER 1701–MAY 1703) The article dwells on the events of the Great Northern War (1700–1721) related to the Duchy of Courland. It focuses on the warfare in a particular region, the border area between the Duchy of Courland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, from the entry of the Swedes into the Duchy of Courland in the summer of 1701 to the spring of 1703, when the Swedish governor, Karl Magnus Stuart, left Courland. The article is based mainly on the historical sources stored in the Latvian State Historical Archive. KEYWORDS: Duchy of Courland, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Žemaitija (Samogitia), Great Northern War, Charles XII, August II, Ferdinand Ketler.

The City of Polonne in the Early Modern Period: Socio-Economic and Demographic Aspects

Despite the fact that in recent times the studies in urbanization processes in Ukrainian lands have undergone great advancements, the history of Ukrainian cities especially in the early modern period has not yet been sufficiently delved into. Therefore, studies in regional and local history remain topical for the Ukrainian historiography. The article looks at the history of the city of Polonne in the early modern period and is based on the Inventory of the division of the estates of Prince Oleksandr Ostrogski among his heirs in 1620. This study sheds light on how the city, which was known since the Old Rus times, was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later into the domain of the Ostrozki princely family. On the basis of the Inventory’s description, the spatial organization of the city, its internal arrangement, the system and special features of the buildings were studied. Such socio-topographical parts of the city as Zamok, Peredhoroddia, Stare Polonne, Nove Polonne, Luka and Zagroddia were identified. The article analyses the city socio-demographic situation, in particular, it gives numbers of settled households and within them the numbers of family structures and separate families. The ethnic composition, religious confessions of the city and its self-government on the basis of the Magdeburg law are described as well. With regard to the city’s economic life, it was found out that there had been at least 196 craftsmen and tradesmen in 46 fields. The duties of the citizens were also identified as well as their involvement in agriculture. The article proves that at the beginning of the 17th century the city was an important socio-cultural organism with a well-developed guild organization of crafts and a system of town self-government based on the Magdeburg law. The role of the owners of the city of Polonne – the princes of the House of Ostrogski – in its development in the early modern times is emphasized.