Polish Prince Research Articles

Restoring the King’s Creditworthiness in Troubled Times: The Mission of a Polish Prince in Genoa (1776–1777)

Abstract The rumors that accompanied the arrival of Polish nobleman Prince Antoni Sułkowski in Genoa in 1776 offer an opportunity to examine, from a new perspective, the overall complexity behind the challenges a monarch faces when attempting to inspire and regain the faith of foreign investors after a liquidity crisis. Managing creditworthiness became crucial for the Polish king during a period characterized by increasing geopolitical tensions in which the appetites of powerful neighboring states undermined the survival of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, despite several economic and financial reforms implemented during those years, it was the growing uncertainty that made it difficult for both the king and the state to negotiate new loans, thus triggering a vicious cycle that contributed to the further weakening of Poland and led to its disappearance from the European political map.

Воевода Саратова князь Федор Петрович Борятинский (1648–1650): спорные страницы биографии

The article for the first time presents a detailed biography of the governor of Saratov, Prince Fyodor Petrovich Boryatinsky. This prince Rurikovich first distinguished himself in battles on the southern borders of the country in the final period of the Time of Troubles after the election of Mikhail Romanov as tsar. In the autumn of 1613, he freed Starodub from the supporters of the Polish prince Vladislav, participated in the campaign against Gomel, and then fought near Dorogobuzh, defended Moscow in 1618. After the Troubles, being already a Moscow nobleman, he served as a voivode in different cities for about 50 years - in the Siberian city of Tara, in the new fortress Atemar, in Saratov, Sevsk, Suzdal.

Królewicz wśród królów. Portrety władców zachodnioeuropejskich w staropolskich relacjach z podróży Władysława Wazy (1624–1625)

The aim of the article is to analyse literary images of selected silhouettes from the travels of Prince Władysław Vasa to the countries of Western Europe in the years 1624-1625. The young Vasa’s train included future authors of peregrination reports: Stefan Pac – a writer, later treasurer and Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, Albrecht Stanisław Radziwiłł – Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, and Jan Hagenaw of Warmia. The silhouettes of Western European monarchs, presented in the context of specific events, were treated in a fragmentary way and included elements interesting to the author. On the other hand, the ways of presenting the Polish prince, according to the “promotional” strategy adopted by diarists, are aimed at showing the hero as an individual worthy of being “among kings”, capable – thanks to his skills – of finding his place in court structures.

Puer et Ruthena puella, czyli małżeństwo Mieszka syna Bolesława Szczodrego. Artykuł polemiczny

“Puer et Ruthena puella: the marriage of Mieszko, son of Boleslaw II the Generous”, is a polemical article dedicated to a historiographical discussion about the liaison made in 1089 by the Polish Prince Mieszko. In 1076, Boleslaw II the Generous lost power in Poland and had to flee with his family to Hungary. After Boleslaw's death, Mieszko returned to Poland on the initiative of his uncle, Wladyslaw I Herman. There, as the so called Gallus Anonymus wrote in his chronicle, Mieszko married a “Ruthenian girl”. Apart from Gallus' chronicle, this event was recorded also in the oldest Polish annals, stating laconically: “Mesco duxit uxorem”. Terse mentions in historical records spurred a discussion among historians, who wanted to ascertain political genealogy of this marriage. The father of the “Ruthenian girl” was believed to be either Iziaslav Yarolavich, his son Sviatopolk, Vsevolod Jaroslavich or one of the Transnistrian Rostyslavyches. Numerous suggestions did not lead to any final conclusion. The most recent period in the Polish historiography gave rise to a new, original description of the history of the marriage in question. It pointed to its “semi-private” and non-dynastic nature. It was also suggested that the initiator of the union, Wladyslaw Herman was motivated by bad intentions, acting intentionally and maliciously to the detriment of his nephew. The hypothesis was supported by the chronicler's references made to the Prince's bride as a “Ruthenian girl” and the lack of mention of her dynastic lineage. Cunning actions of the young man's uncle were supposed to be a response to one of his own marriages, forced by Mieszko's father, Boleslaw II the Generous. Wladyslaw Herman also had to marry a woman without a dynastic heritage. However, it seems that calling Mieszko's wife a “Ruthenian girl” could be merely a part of the literary convention adopted by Gallus Anonymus in the account of the last moments of life of Boleslaw's son. The Prince is referred to as a boy and his wife – a girl. In my opinion, this does not exclude their dynastic origins. Moreover, in his chronicle, Gallus often did not pay much attention to family roots of the wives of the Piasts. Recognizing the unlikelihood of the hypothesis of a non-dynastic marriage of Mieszko would also invalidate the supposed, yet not substantiated by any evidence, revenge of Wladyslaw Herman on his nephew.

Attempts of economic and administrative reforms of the commandries of the Knights of the Order of St. John in Ost-Pomerania in the 14th century

Attempts of economic and administrative reforms of the commandries of the Knights of the Order of St. John in Ost-Pomerania in the 14th century The Order of the Hospitallers of St. John the Baptist found its way into Pomerania at the end of the 12th century. The first establishments of the Hospital of Jerusalem in this region were built in 1198. The basis of their foundation was the bestowal of Starograd Gdański, few of the nearby villages, the Church of the Holy Trinity in Lubiszewo, and all its endowments to the Hospitallers. The author of this donation was Grzymisław, the ruler of Świecie and Lubiszewo. This charter is considered in the Polish source literature as a good example of the way of endowing the monastic institutions in Poland and Pomerania at the end of the 12th century. In the 13th century, the Hospitallers of the religious houses in Starogard and Lubiszewo came into conflict with the prince of Lubiszewo and Tczew, Sambor II. It resulted in the removal of the Hospitallers from the Pomerania by Sambor II. They could not return to their former domains until the 1270s. Their return was connected with the favourable attitude towards the Order of St. John by Mściwoj II, Duke of Gdańsk. Not only did he exile Sambor II from Pomerania, but he also started to return their lost goods back to the Knights step by step. With Mściwoj II the local Pomeranian dynasty ended in 1294. After a period of struggles, Pomerania was taken over by the Teutonic Order in 1308. The victim of the rivalry over Pomerania was the Polish prince Władysław I the Elbow-high. The Pomeranian representatives of the Order of St. John were adversaries of Władysław. They recognized that the cooperation with the Teutonic Order might yield the stability of their assets in Pomerania. As a result, the Order of St. John the Baptist was deprived of its demesnes in Lesser Poland and Kuyavia. The above-described events and the general crisis of the military orders, which resulted from the fall of the Christian countries in the Holy Land, also caused a decline of interest in and support for the Hospitallers in Pomerania. In effect, the then existing Pomeranian commanderies of the Order, in Lubiszewo and Szkarszewy, were governed and filled with the brothers from Mecklenburg and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. It was these brothers who, in the 14th century, took upon themselves the labour of reforming the administration of the demesnes of the Order in Pomerania. The reforms consisted in locating the endowments of the Order under a new settlement law, mainly Kulm law. Their implementation was also manifested by passing the administration of the commanderies of the Hospitallers into the hands of Henning von Wartenberg ‒ a knight who was not a brother of the Order of St. John. The studies on his person showed that he was an ex-Templar connected with the commandery of the Knights Templar in Chwarszczany, in New March. Thanks to his familial ties to some of the officials of the Order of St. John, after the dissolution of the Knights Templar in 1312, he found employment as an administrator/lessee of the demesnes of the Knights of the Order of St. John from the neighbouring Pomerania.Unfortunately, there is no way of assessing the effectiveness of the reform attempts of the 14th-century Hospitallers from Pomerania. Between 1366 and 1370, the Hospitallers sold all of their Pomerania demesnes to the Teutonic Order.

Portrait of the landowner and Slavophil V.A. Panov

The purpose of this paper is to analyze V.A. Panovs activities. He was one of the early representatives of Slavophilism. His biography is of great interest in the context of the Russian social thought history. The author characterizes V.A. Panovs main activities in scientific, editorial and publishing fields. The author also shows his cooperation with N.V. Gogol. It is shown that the most important aspect of V.A. Panovs activities was his work on two editions of the Slavophil anthology The Moscow literary and scientific collection. This edition brought together almost all prominent representatives of this social thought and caused a considerable resonance. The authors use of the Ulyanovsk Region state archive materials helped to portray the personality of the landowner Panov in his family history. The copies of charters, studied by the author, show that the consolidation of the economic positions of the Panovs family in the Volga region dates back to the 17th century. This process was associated with the active participation of V.A. Panovs ancestors in the fighting on the side of the Tsardom of Muscovy against the Polish Prince Vladislav during the Russo-Turkish war 1672-1681. V.A. Panov owned lands in three provinces (Simbirsk province, Penza province, and Nizhny Novgorod province). A notable fact of his economic activity was his participation in the holding of a special land survey.

The Polish Prince

The Polish Prince

Chrzest Polski jako wyzwanie dla współczesnej edukacji

After the adoption of Christianity by the Polish Prince Mieszko I, the land of Slavs became part of the then civilized world and emphasized its presence in the family of Christian countries, and while it maintained many of its traditions, it started to adopt the achievements of the Christian civilization. It seems obvious that owing to this bold decision made by the prince of Polans, today the state and the nation speaking the Polish language do exist. However, if Mieszko had not adopted Christianity, maybe in the 11 th century his principality would still have developed and would have been strong, like the pagan Veleti Union living in the western coast of the Baltic Sea. On the other hand, in the 12 th century undoubtedly Mieszko’s land would have been attacked by the neighboring states that, on the wave of the crusade movement, under the banner of spreading Christianity, would have tried to conquer the territories. The inhabitants of those lands would have been Christians, probably there would have been no Poland, since the Polish lands would have become part of the neighboring countries, just like the territories belonging to the Veleti Union or ones occupied by the Old Prussians had become part of Germany. The ancestors of today’s Poles, although Christians, probably would have spoken German, Czech, or Ruthenian. This fact has to be reminded in the education of the young generation of Poles and cited in debates with the circles contesting the right of Christian ideas to exist in the state educational system.

Rozmowa o historii misji średniowiecznych

On September 25-26th 2014 the Institute of History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, has organized a conference „Christianization of Europe. The Church at the turn of the first and second millenium”. It was the first of planned three conferences which preceed the 1050 anniversary of the baptism received by Polish prince Mieszko I in 966 and the official introduction of Christianity to Poland. Prof. Strzelczyk was one of the main organizers of this conference and the discussion reported below touches the subjects related to his professional career as a historian, focusing on the study of the history of Christian missions in Middle Ages.

Polish "Macbeth" and the Middle East Crisis

Shakespeare was staged for first time in by Wojciech Boguslawski in 1798. It was Hamlet which Boguslawski decided to introduce to audience, and which became an indispensable element of war for independence, while its hero became Polish Prince, representative of nation.1 In context, shaped by wars, over two centuries of captivity and struggle for independence, Hamlet was usually followed by Macbeth as they both proved to be very potent vehicles for social and political commentary. With political and cultural changes of 1989, first partly free elections and end of fights for national cause, Hamlet became less attractive. However, since wars continued, need to comment on fight and struggle, nature of evil, deadly conflicts, hatred and power remained. In spite of growing interest in Shakespearian comedy in 1990s,2 gloomy tragedies remain matrix of present. Since 2004, Macbeth has been triumphantly coming back [...] to repertoire of many theatres3 in Poland (Drewniak),4 inspiring young and old directors. In last twenty years of twentieth century, play appeared only twelve times on professional stages, and in season 2004/2005 it dominated theatre with seven premieres, three of which - productions by Andrzej Wajda (Stary Teatr), Pawel Szkotak (Teatr Biuro Podrozy) and Grzegorz Jarzyna (Teatr Rozmaitosci) - approached play directly from perspective of Middle East conflict and continuing war.5The theme of Macbeth has been very eagerly exploited in context, as Jaroslaw Komorowski enthrallingly presents in his influential study Piramida zbrodni. w kulturze polskiej 1870-1989 [Crime Pyramid. Macbeth in Culture 1870-1989] (2002).6 The play provides effective tools to comment on war and its terror, especially from outside of war zone. In Poland, under German occupation, Macbeth did not appear on an official stage, which practically did not exist. Yet, it did attract attention among many writers-emigrants, who found Macbeth - story about defeating bloodthirsty tyrant - great illustration of situation Poland was in.7 A prosaist and art historian, Stefania Zahorska, published in 1942 in London's Wiadomosci Polskie [Polish News] an article Makbet na emigracji [Macbeth in Exile], in which she tried to analyze tragedy looking at it through experiences of war and complexities of dictatorship (Komorowski 201-3). Three years later, Stanislaw Cat-Mackiewicz published in London pamphlet, Lady Macbeth my je rece [Lady Macbeth washes her hands], in which he accused Great Britain of a treacherous betray of Poland, which fell prey to Soviet Russia (qtd. Komorowski 204). At that time, but in occupied Poland, Stefan Jaracz - theatre director and survivor of Auschwitz, cultivated his desire to stage Macbeth, which every day becomes more and more relevant (qtd. Komorowski 205).Komorowski observes that, just after thinking through Macbeth and about Macbeth was very much connected with political situation, and though the tragedy could have described reality of war, it could have described probably even better, post- war reality of Poland under next Soviet occupation (204, 206). Lor first time after Second World War, Macbeth was staged during Thaw, i.e. during period of significant changes in politics and social life caused by deaths of Joseph Stalin and communist leader Boleslaw Bierut, and as consequence, by liberalisation and destalinization of Poland. The production was made in 1958 by Zygmunt Hubner (Teatr Wybrzeze, Gdansk), who in playbill commented on current political situation, saying that play is all about maintaining power, that is, about greed, demagogy and ruthlessness (Komorowski 215-225).In 1980s Macbeth was used to debunk war crimes and Soviet hypocrisy. …

Politics, music and cosmopolitism: the operatic output of Joseph Poniatowski (1816–1873) in its social and political contexts

Joseph (Giuseppe or Józef) Poniatowski (1816–1873), Polish prince, singer, opera composer and politician, spent all his life abroad: firstly in Italy, then in France and, finally, in England. His artistic output comprises twelve operas composed between 1839 and 1872; nine of them to Italian and three to French texts. Being an amateur composer, he notwithstanding succeeded in staging his operas in many operatic theatres of renown, including La Scala, Covent Garden, Teatro San Carlo, Teatro La Fenice and the Paris Opéra. The paper presents the composer’s output in the social and political contexts of his times. Prince Poniatowski started his international career as a plenipotentiary minister of Tuscany in Paris, London and Brussels; then he settled down in Paris and became a French citizen and even a French senator. He enjoyed the close friendship of Napoleon III with whom he went into exile to England after the Sedan defeat. In all of his three domiciles he presented his operas to the audiences. However, as shown by the press reviews, their reception changed from appreciation to indifference, which was caused by the different political and social backgrounds in the particular countries.

Inverting Plato's Allegory of the Cave: The Cave as a Backstage to the World/Theater in La vida es sueño and La hija del aire

Out of the immense bibliography on Pedro Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño has emerged a relatively small number of studies that have analyzed the influence of Plato's philosophy in this play. However, little attention has been given specifically to the image of the cave that Calderón and Plato both use in their works. The purpose of this study is to show that Calderón does not simply transplant his grotto onto the Spanish stage, but rather inverts its imagery to renovate the myth of the cave according to the aesthetics and philosophy in vogue during the seventeenth century in Spain. The playwright does this in La vida es sueño by turning the cave into the locus of desengaño and enlightenment wherein he clearly sees the artificiality of the world, which then leads him to liken it to a stage. In La hija del aire , Semíramis comes to this realization as well after experiencing similar injustices. However, unlike the Polish prince, she uses this knowledge in sinister ways to take over Babylon. By comparing the caves found in La vida es sueño and La hija del aire with the backstage dressing room in El gran teatro del mundo , we find that these grottoes and the vestuario function similarly, in that they first trap their inhabitants in its "cradle," which keeps them from "acting" in the light of the world-stage, and, later, unlike in Plato's allegory, serve as a space of knowledge in the form of a "sepulcher" that reveals to them the theatricality of the world. Therefore, the juxtaposition of these two comedias reveals that it is not knowledge alone that saves the individual, but rather the way s/he "acts" upon acquiring it.

Iconography, Politics, and the Symbolism of Power in Medieval Europe On Not Eating Polish Bread in Vain: Resonance and Conjuncture in the Deeds of the Princes of Poland (1109-1113)

“On Not Eating Polish Bread in Vain: Resonance and Conjuncture in the Deeds of the Princes of Poland (1109-1113)” This article argues that the Deeds of the Princes of Poland, composed between 1109 and 1113 to celebrate the deeds of Boleslaw III (1102-1138) and of his dynasty, belongs to a class of princely histories and genealogies of the twelfth century. The author shows how the text draws on comparable writings and themes from western lands, the homeland of the author, while responding to the more immediate circumstances of a Polish prince mobilizing and fighting both defensively and aggressively. Moreover, the Polish example points with unusual clarity to the factors of dynastic setback and

William. Gager's Additions to Seneca's Hippolytus*

William Gager, the leading writer of Academic Latin drama at Oxford in the late sixteenth century, celebrated on 6, 7, and 8 February 1591/2 the most sustained triumph of his dramatic career. On Sunday 6 February, his new play Ulysses Redux received its first performance at Christ Church. On the following day, Monday 7 February, his famous comedy Rivales, first performed in June 1583 before the Polish Prince Alasco, was revived for a second performance. On Tuesday 8 February (Shrove Tuesday) Seneca's tragedy Hippolytus was presented. Gager expanded the play for this occasion by writing some additional scenes, including a Prologue and Epilogue of his own. At the end of the performance of Hippolytus, Gager brought on to the stage first the figure of Momus, the carping critic, and then an ‘Epilogus Responsivus’ who refuted Momus’ objections one by one.

John Dee and the Nautical Trianggle, 1575

The name of John Dee (1527–1608) is one which every navigator, whether seaman or airman, has good cause to respect. For he was the first to try to teach unscholarly English sailors the use of the spherical triangle to find the distance and direction of some desired haven on the globe. Nor was that his only contribution to nautical science. Yet historians have treated him slightingly, dubbing him astrologer and alchemist, by which words they understand ‘charlatan’. Consequently the popular picture of him is of a servile, ignoble figure, eager to dupe the first Elizabeth and her courtiers. The acclaimed mathematician, and the ever-ready instructor are forgotten. It is true, of course, that Dee cast horoscopes, and that he hoped to find the formula for transmuting the baser metals into gold. It is true, besides, that in middle age he took to crystal-gazing, believing that he conversed with angelic spirits. Hence when in 1583 he went abroad at the invitation of the Polish Prince Lasky, a mob broke into his house at Mortlake and wrecked his library, which contained over 4000 books and manuscripts, besides scientific instruments. But by this date his work on navigation had come to an end. Yet his simple account of his meeting with the medium Edward Kelly (who was indeed a cheat) reveals him as a sincere man. Kelly at once asked to see what feats he could perform, but, says Dee, ‘I truly excused myself therein, as not in ye vulgarly accounted magic either studied or exercised. But… I brought forth to him my stone in ye frame … and said to. him that I was credibly informed that to it, after a sort, were answerable aliqui boni Angeli—certain good Angels.’ We should perhaps echo, therefore, the judgment of Disraeli—Dee's imagination often predominated over his science—but science he had.