THE KINGDOM OF POLAND
Królestwo Polskie - Königreich Polen
Poland,
or at least its nucleus, was ruled at various times either by
książęta (Dukes) (ca. 10th-14th century) or by Kings (ca. 11th-18th century).
The longest-reigning dynasties
were the Piasts (ca. 960 - 1370) and Jagiellons
(1386-1572). Intervening and subsequent monarchs were often rulers of foreign
countries or princes recruited from foreign dynasties. During the latter period a
tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely
electable position in
Europe
(16th-18th centuries). Polish independence ended with the Third Partition
of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1795) and was restored at the end of
World War I (1918) on a republican basis.
The Kingdom of Poland
1025-1385
The Kingdom of Poland (pol. Królestwo Polskie, lat. Regnum Poloniae) was
the Polish state from the coronation of the first King for one year Bolesław
I the Brave in 1025. Three more short-term attempts followed
and actual
kings started
with Przemysl II in 1295 to the union with Lithuania and the
rule of the Jagiellon dynasty in 1385.
The basis
for the development of a Polish state was laid by the Piast,
which were preeminent since the 10th century. Together with pledging
loyalty and receiving the ducal title from Otto I Duke Mieszko I's conversion
to Christianity paved the way for a country later called
Poland to become a
member
of the family of Christian kingdoms. In 1000, during the Congress
of Gniezno, Duke Boleslaw I was recognized as co-operator by the Holy
Roman Empire and the Pope. In 1025, Duke Boleslaus I the
Brave
crowned himself King
of Poland, which was accepted by the pope. This
kingdom however ended within one year upon the death of Boleslaw I
(and short-term attempt by Mieszko II to circumvent allegiance to the
empire). He was followed for many years by dukes not kings
ruling the
Polish Piasts,
until in 1295 Przemysl II and 1296 Wenceslaus II
of Bohemia became Kings of Poland.
A King ruled the country in his own responsibility but was expected
to
respect traditional customs of people. The succession to the rule
was not legally restricted
by primogeniture. All sons of the King or
Duke had the same rights of inheritance and the
one that in some way
proved the strongest succeeded to the throne.
Duke Bolesław III the Wrymouth, who reigned 1102 to
1138, tried to
end the repeated struggles between various claimants by setting the
government of Poland on a more
formal footing. In his testament, he
divided his lands into five Duchies, which he distributed among his
sons.
To ensure unity, he established the senioral principle,
which stated
that the eldest member of the dynasty should be High Duke and have
supreme power over the other Dukes.
The High Duke ruled, in addition
to the Duchy he inherited, over the indivisible senioral part, a vast
strip of
land running north-south down the middle of Poland, with Kraków
as the chief city. The High Duke's prerogatives
also included control
over Pomerania, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire.
While the senorial part always fell to that member of the Dynasty that
happened
to be senior, the other four Duchies were inherited in the usual
way among the descendants of Boleslaw's sons.
However, these provisions were soon broken, with the various
Dukes trying
to gain the position of High Duke for themselves, regardless of actual
seniority. The provisions,
meant to ensure unity fragmented the country
even further and resulted in a decline of monarchical power. Poland even
came under the influence of the Přemyslid kings of Bohemia, whose dynasty
however died out before they could
gain a stable foothold in Poland.
The
fragmentation ended with the accession of the Piast Duke Władysław I
the Elbow-high in 1306. He united the
various principalities of the Kingdom
of Poland and in 1320 was crowned King. His son Casimir the Great greatly
strengthened
the Polish state in both foreign and domestic affairs.
Casimir was the last male member of the Piast dynasty and was succeeded by
his nephew Louis, King
of Hungary from the Angevine dynasty. The upsurge of
the monarchy continued under Louis. Since Louis had no son either,
his daughter
Jadwiga became the heir of the Polish monarchy. Under the terms of the Union of
Krewo, she married
Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who converted to Christianity.
This marriage created not only a dynastic
union between Poland and Lithuania but
also bound the two countries together for the next four centuries.
The Kingdom of Poland
1385-1569
The Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons was the
Polish state
created by the accession of Jogaila (Polish: Władysław II
Jagiełło), Grand Duke
of Lithuania, to the Polish throne in
1386. The Union of Krewo or Krėva Act, united Poland and
Lithuania
under the rule of a single monarch. Later, elected
monarchs of both states happened to be the same persons, or
members
of the same royal family. The union was transformed
to a closer one by the Union of Lublin in 1569, which was
shortly
followed by the end of the Jagiellon dynasty that
had ruled Poland for two centuries and Gediminids dynasty,
that
ruled Lithuania for about 400 years.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1569-1795
The
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the
Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569.
The new
Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries
of 16th and 17th-century Europe.
The new union possessed features unique among its contemporary
states: the Commonwealth's political system (known alternately
as the Noble's democracy or Golden Freedom) was
characterized
by strict checks upon monarchical power. These checks were
enacted by a legislature (Sejm) controlled
by the nobility
(szlachta). This idiosyncratic system was a precursor of modern
concepts of democracy, constitutional
monarchy and federation.
The two component states of the Commonwealth were formally equal,
yet Poland was the dominant
partner of the union.
The Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth was marked by high levels of
ethnic diversity and unusual religious tolerance,although the
degree
of it varied with time.
After several decades of unparalleled power and
greatness,the
Commonwealth entered a period of protracted political, military
and economic decline. In 1795 the
Commonwealth was extinguished
by growing absolutist neighbors: Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Shortly before its
demise the Commonwealth adopted a massive
reform effort and enacted what is traditionally seen as the
second oldest
codified national constitution of modern history
The
Congress of Poland
1815-1915
Congress Poland Polish: Kongresówka [kɔngrɛˈsufka], officially and
formally Kingdom
of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie [kruˈlɛstfɔ
ˈpɔlskjɛ], Russian: Царство
Польское Tsarstvo Polskoye Russian
pronunciation: [ˈtsarstʋə
ˈpolʲskəje]) and informally known as
Russian Poland was a constitutional personal union of the Russian
Empire created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, replaced by the
Central Powers in 1915 with the Kingdom of Poland.
Though officially
Congress Poland was to begin its statehood with considerable official
political autonomy, the
Tsars generally disregarded any restrictions
on their power and severely curtailed autonomous powers following
uprisings
in 1830-31 and 1863 turning it first into a puppet state
of the Russian Empire and later dividing it into provinces Thus
from
the start the Polish autonomy remained nothing more than fiction.
The territory of Congress Poland roughly corresponds to the Lublin,
Łódź,
Masovia and Świętokrzyskie voivodeships of Poland.
The Kingdom of Poland
1916-1918
The Kingdom of Poland, also informally called Regency Kingdom
of Poland
(Polish: Królestwo Regencyjne), was the state proposed
by the Act of November 5, 1916 issued by Imperial Germany
and
Austria-Hungary. It was to be created within the former Russian
territory of Privislinsky Krai (however with
no defined borders)
in 1916 and would exist as a puppet state of the German Empire.
The proposal never gained much
support in Germany and in reality
was aimed only at gaining a Polish Army for the Central Powers.
It was succeeded
by the Second Polish Republic.
The
declaration of both emperors allowed the creation of the
Regency Council (Polish: Rada Regencyjna) which was given
limited administration on territories taken by Germany and
was to elect a new monarch. One early candidate was the
Austrian Archduke Charles Stephen (Polish: Karol Stefan),
whose two daughters were married to Polish aristocrats:
prince Olgierd Czartoryski and Hieronim Radziwiłł, who
spoke fluent Polish who resided in Żywiec
in Galicia.
The Archduke was more than willing to accept the crown,
but as a member of Imperial House of Austria
he needed a
permission from the head of the family, Emperor and King
Charles I, who hesitated, having himself planned
to assume
the Polish Crown. As the war progressed and Austro-Hungary
became more and more dominated by the German
Empire, the
chances of Austrian candidates fell, and Germany demanded
that one of its princes rules over the future
puppet state.
German language was instituted in all of the
territory of the
former Congress Poland in administration and judicial system,
only in educational and political
institutions banned by Russia
after the Polish uprisings of 1830 and 1863 was Polish language
tolerated. A Central
Powers supported army (German: Polnische
Wehrmacht) was created in order to help the German war effort,
but the
recruitement action (led by Colonel Władysław Sikorski)
didn't receive the support of Polish people and gave
rather
insignificant results: in the final stage of the Regency the
army counted only about 5,000 men. The Kingdom
would have its
own currency, called Marka polska (Polish mark). A Constitution
was drafted on 12th September 1917
(monarchy, a two-chambers-
parliament, no political responsibility of the ministers).
The Regents of the Kingdom
1916-1918
The Regency Council never managed to elect a
new monarch and never
gained much significance, as its movements were inhibited by the
German Governor General,
Hans Hartwig von Beseler. On November 11,
1918 it ceded all responsibilities to Józef Piłsudski and dissolved
itself three days later.
*
Aleksander Cardinal Kakowski, Archbishop
of Warsaw, Primate of the Kingdom of Poland
* Prince Zdzisław Lubomirski, landowner,
from
1915 Mayor of Warsaw
*
Józef Ostrowski, landowner, former Chairman of
the Polish Club in the Duma in Saint Petersburg.
The List of The Monarchs of Poland
Kings of Poland and Grand Dukes of Lithuania
Jagiellon Dynasty
| Ruler | Dynasty |
Reign | Notes |
Władysław II Jagiełło
(Ladislas II) |  | Jagiellon | 1386-1434 | reigned jointly with his wife Jadwiga until 1399
the longest reigning king
of Poland |
Władysław III
(Ladislas III) |  | Jagiellon | 1434-1444 | son of Ladislas II
Also king of Hungary
fell at Varna, therefore surnamed "of Varna" |
Kazimierz IV
(Casimir IV) |  | Jagiellon | 1447-1492 | son of Ladislas II |
Jan I Olbracht
(John I Albert) |  | Jagiellon | 1492-1501 | son of Casimir IV |
Aleksander
(Alexander) |  | Jagiellon | 1501-1506 | son of Casimir IV |
Zygmunt I the Old
(Sigismund I) |  | Jagiellon | 1506-1548 | son of Casimir IV
forced Prussian Homage in 1525
annexed Duchy of
Masovia in 1526
entered alliance with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor |
Zygmunt II August I
(Sigismund II August I) |  | Jagiellon | 1548-1572 | son of Sigismund I
replaced the personal union of the Kingdom of Poland
and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy |
The Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth
Claims
made by foreign states after Partitions of Poland
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