Showing posts with label Teutonic Knights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teutonic Knights. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Enemies of Poland

The unifying of Poland and Lithuania after the marriage of Jadwiga of Poland and Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, did not resolve all problems. Jadwiga's older sister, Mary, was passed over for rule of Poland when she was married to Sigismund, now King of Hungary.

Sigismund no doubt felt he had some rights to Poland through his bride, and in 1392 began talking to the Teutonic Knights about allying to partition Poland and incorporate part of it into Hungary. Hungary was being assailed on its southern border by Ottomans, however, which slowed the process of marching on Poland.

Sigismund did invade Moldavia (the purple region below the red of Poland in the illustration), and forced its ruler, Prince Stephen I, to swear allegiance to Hungary instead of Poland. Immediately after Sigismund's forces left Moldavia, however, Stephen went to Jogaila and Jadwiga, telling them he wanted to join them against Hungary and the Ottomans and the Teutonic Order.

Mary and Jadwiga's mother, Elizabeth, had been a sharp negotiator on behalf of her daughters. When Mary died on 17 May 1395, by agreement her heir was Jadwiga: Mary had no children (and neither did Jadwiga, for that matter, an issue that for years bothered her husband). A vassal of Hungary, Vlad I of Wallachia, acknowledged Jadwiga as the legitimate successor, for which he was driven out of Wallachia by a close supporter of Sigismund. Poland prepared to march on Hungary, but they were prevented by the archbishop of Hungary.

Konrad von Jungingen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, convinced the Holy Roman Empire that bringing Hungary as well as Poland and Lithuania under Jogaila's influence would be a bad idea for Christendom (Jogaila's recent conversion to Christianity obviously did not engender confidence in the Church of his future actions). Sigismund was away fighting the Ottomans, and his court would not agree to any major changes in government in his absence. Negotiations by them with Poland to create peace led to Jadwiga being named "heir to Hungary" but without any real claim.

In 1396, Jadwiga and Jogaila invited Konrad von Jungingen to Poland to talk. Konrad was still claiming his efforts were a Christian Crusade, so Poland made sure that many aldermen were replaced with Christians. Things were not going well, however, until a surprising twist when a former enemy turned up and offered to smooth things over with the Teutonic Knights. That story, and the next stage in Jadwiga and Jogaila's union—finally having children—will wrap up in tomorrow's post.

Monday, January 15, 2024

The Marriage of Poland and Lithuania

In 1385, Lithuania was a very large territory on Poland's eastern border. Poland's throne was held by the pre-teen Jadwiga, who was supposed to marry William of Austria, then Siemovit of Poland, and finally the 30-year-old Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. An arrangement like this takes a lot of planning and legal wrangling. In the case of Jadwiga and Jogaila, that legal wrangling was embodied in the Union of Krewo, whose document is seen here.

The prenuptial arrangements in the Union of Krewo (called so because it was signed at Krevo Castle) included a certain sine qua non: Jogaila had to convert to Christianity. Poland was a Christian country; Lithuania was exposed to Eastern Orthodoxy on its eastern border with Russian people, but still embraced polytheism. Jogaila was defending Lithuania from Teutonic Knights, who kept attacking under the pretense of a Crusade. He understood that becoming Christian would create an alliance with other countries and pull the rug out from under the Teutonic Order.

The other promises of the document:

  • Conversion of Jogaila, Lithuanian nobles and all pagan Lithuanians to Roman Catholicism
  • Paying 200,000 florins to William of Austria for terminating his engagement with Jadwiga
  • Returning all lands lost in previous Lithuanian-Polish wars
  • Release of all war prisoners of Poland (c.45,000) held by the Lithuanians
  • Attaching Lithuanian lands to the Crown of Poland

In light of these promises, Poland agreed that Jogaila could be their king. In February 1386 Jogaila was baptized by Archbishop Bodzanta. As his baptismal name, he chose Wladislaus in honor of Jadwiga's great-grandfather king Władysław I the Elbow-high.

There was a problem with William of Austria, to whom Jadwiga had been promised nearly since birth. William claimed she was officially married to him, and the marriage to Jogaila made her a bigamist. His protests carried weight with Pope Urban VI, who would not confirm the marriage of Jadwiga and Jogaila. It took a few years until Pope Boniface IX (1389-1404) confirmed their marriage. (Boniface had also similarly supported a certain English arrangement that had raised eyebrows.)

Although this union was the start of four centuries of Lithuania-Poland shared history, Lithuania did not appreciate increasing Polish influence, and Jogaila's brother Skirgaila, who had been left behind to rule Lithuania, was unpopular. This gave Jogaila's cousin Vytautas the opportunity to try to gain more power, leading to a Lithuanian Civil War (1389-92), but that was resolved by making Vytautas Grand Duke while leaving Jogaila as his overlord.

Another complication came from an unexpected source: Jadwiga's sister, Mary, whose husband had become King of Hungary and had his own ideas of what should happen to Poland. I'll go into that next time.

Friday, January 12, 2024

The Last Holdout

As the western world was turned to Christianity from paganism, there was one area that did not rush to baptism.

In 1009CE, there is a reference to Lietuva Land in the Annals of Quedlinburg. Lietuva Land was the first reference to what we know as Lithuania. They had exposure to Eastern Orthodox Christianity because of contact with the Kievan Rus. In the 11th and 12th centuries, more personal names crop up that are East Slavic language versions of Christian names, showing that there was more contact and influence from Christian nations around them.

There was actually a Lithuanian Crusade attempted by the Teutonic Order against polytheistic pagan Lithuania from 1238 to 1422. Their plan was to incorporate Lithuania into a Teutonic State along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea; they had done this with Prussia. (The religious motivation may have been a cover for simply wanting to expand their state.) Lithuanian rulers were opposed to the concept of Christian baptism and fought back.

Well, not all Lithuanian rulers. Mindaugas (c.1203 - 1263) founded Lithuania as a duchy and was its first duke. He had opposition to his power, most notably his nephew Tautvilas, who in 1250 accepted Christian baptism from the Archbishop of Riga, which made neighboring Christian forces into willing allies against Mindaugas.

The politically savvy Mindaugas knew exactly how to counter this ploy, however, and himself accepted baptism (the illustration is a 17th century portrayal of this event) in exchange for Pope Innocent IV acknowledging Mindaugas as King of Lithuania. Innocent signed two papal bulls related to this. One directed the Bishop of Chełmno (Poland) to crown Mindaugas King of Lithuania, appoint a bishop for Lithuania, and build a cathedral. The second declared that the new bishopric would be accountable to the pope, not the Archbishop of Riga.

Mindaugas successors did not necessarily follow in his footsteps and accept Christianity, however. I'll go into that more tomorrow.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Władysław the Elbow-high

Władysław the Elbow-high was honored
with a 500-Złotych gold coin in 2013
You may remember the story of the Carolingian king Pepin the Short; not a great nickname to have if you want to gain the respect of your people. Well, what if you were so short that you were called "Elbow-high?" That was the unfortunate nickname of a king of Poland.

Władysław I* (c.1260-2 March 1333) was so short that his nickname was "elbow" as in "elbow height." He was named King of Poland long after the death of his father, Casimir I. It was a position he was going to have to work for. Poland had long before been divided into different provinces. Władysław inherited one from his father, gained two more as his brothers died, and then set out to gain control of all the provinces and reunite Poland.

He had opposition. Although the province of Greater Poland had originally supported him, they switched their loyalty to Wenceslas II of Bohemia, who was crowned King of Poland in 1300. Władysław went to the pope to press his claim, but Boniface VIII was no help. He continued his campaign of invading and uniting provinces, taking over Lesser Poland and Pomerania; in 1314 he re-conquered Greater Poland and held it, despite an attack from John of Luxemburg, the King of Bohemia.

In 1318 he tried once again to gain support for becoming King of Poland. This time, Pope John XXII (who also wielded political power in this case) gave his support. Keeping Poland was not easy. He managed, however, to subdue the perennially bothersome Teutonic Knights, and he married one son to a Lithuanian, helping to stop Lithuanian raids into Poland. His reign was an important stage in reuniting Poland under one ruler.

*He was First or Fourth, depending on which historian you ask and whether they stick with a single dynasty or blend all historical rulers with the same first name together.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Dealing with Pagans

The Council of Constance (illustrated here) in 1414 has been mentioned before—or, at least, its outcomes. It was at this, the 16th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, that Jan Hus and John Wycliffe were both condemned as heretics. There was more to the Council than that, however.

It also dealt with the Three Popes Controversy, forcing the ouster of antipopes John XXIII, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII; they elected Pope Martin V.

One of the largest debates at the Council took place over the subject of how to deal with pagans. A few years earlier, the Teutonic Knights had fought against Poland and Lithuania; an uneasy and oft-broken peace existed between the players in that conflict, turning into another war in 1414. The Council of Constance was chosen as the place to decide the matter between the groups. The debate blossomed into a larger issue than where the borders should be: did the Teutonic Knights have a right to start the war in 1411? They had done so as a Crusade against the pagan inhabitants of those regions, intending to force them to convert to Christianity.

A doctor of canon law named Paulus Vladimir delivered an essay called Tractatus de potestate papa et imperatoris respect infidelium [Treatise on the power of the pope and emperor respecting infidels], in which he argued that a forced conversion was a violation of the right of free will granted by God. Free will was necessary for a true conversion. He claimed the Teutonic Knights could only wage a war if the enemy had done something to violate natural rights of Christians.

The opposing view said that the pope had every right to condemn pagans simply for being non-Christians. The loudest proponent of this view, John of Falkenburg, was condemned and imprisoned for his views, and for calling the Polish king a "mad dog."

The Council could not come to a conclusion, however. They established a diocese in Poland so that Christianity could be introduced more peacefully. The Polish-Teutonic wars resumed, on and off, for another century.