Menu
Global Europe
  • Eastern Europe
    • Economy
    • Music
  • European Union
    • Italy
    • Ireland
  • More Continents
    • Ports in Southern Africa
    • Music in Central America
    • Asia History
  • History
    • Albania Recent History
    • Andorra Recent History
    • Armenia Recent History
    • Austria Recent History
    • Azerbaijan Recent History
    • Belarus Recent History
    • Belgium Recent History
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina Recent History
    • Bulgaria Recent History
    • Croatia Recent History
    • Czech Republic Recent History
    • Denmark Recent History
    • Estonia Recent History
    • Finland Recent History
    • France Recent History
    • Georgia Recent History
    • Germany Recent History
    • Greece Recent History
    • Hungary Recent History
    • Iceland Recent History
    • Ireland Recent History
    • Italy Recent History
    • Latvia Recent History
    • Liechtenstein Recent History
    • Lithuania Recent History
    • Luxembourg Recent History
    • Macedonia Recent History
    • Malta Recent History
    • Moldova Recent History
    • Monaco Recent History
    • Netherlands Recent History
    • Norway Recent History
    • Poland Recent History
    • Portugal Recent History
    • Romania Recent History
    • San Marino Recent History
    • Slovakia Recent History
    • Slovenia Recent History
    • Spain Recent History
    • Sweden Recent History
    • Switzerland Recent History
    • Ukraine Recent History
    • United Kingdom Recent History
    • Vatican Recent History
    • Yugoslavia Recent History
  • Arts and Literature
    • Albania Arts and Literature
    • Austria Arts and Literature
    • Belarus Arts and Literature
    • Belgium Arts and Literature
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina Arts and Literature
    • Bulgaria Arts and Literature
    • Croatia Arts and Literature
    • Czech Republic Arts and Literature
    • Denmark Arts and Literature
    • Estonia Arts and Literature
    • Finland Arts and Literature
    • France Arts and Literature
    • Germany Arts and Literature
    • Greece Arts and Literature
    • Hungary Arts and Literature
    • Iceland Arts and Literature
    • Italy Arts and Literature
    • Latvia Arts and Literature
    • Lithuania Arts and Literature
    • Luxembourg Arts and Literature
    • Malta Arts and Literature
    • Moldova Arts and Literature
    • Montenegro Arts and Literature
    • Netherlands Arts and Literature
    • Northern Macedonia Arts and Literature
    • Norway Arts and Literature
    • Poland Arts and Literature
    • Portugal Arts and Literature
    • Romania Arts and Literature
    • Serbia Arts and Literature
    • Slovakia Arts and Literature
    • Slovenia Arts and Literature
    • Spain Arts and Literature
    • Sweden Arts and Literature
    • Switzerland Arts and Literature
    • Ukraine Arts and Literature
    • United Kingdom Arts and Literature
  • Mass Media
    • Mass Media in Czech Republic
    • Mass Media in Denmark
    • Mass Media in Eastern Europe
    • Mass Media in Finland
    • Mass Media in France
    • Mass Media in Germany
    • Mass Media in Greece
    • Mass Media in Iceland
    • Mass Media in Italy
    • Mass Media in Lithuania
    • Mass media in Netherlands
    • Mass Media in North America
    • Mass Media in Northern Europe
    • Mass Media in Norway
    • Mass Media in Oceania and Australia
    • Mass Media in Russia
    • Mass Media in South America
    • Mass Media in Southern Europe
    • Mass Media in Spain
    • Mass Media in UK
    • Mass Media in Ukraine
    • Mass Media in Western Europe
Global Europe
Poland History 6

Poland History Part 6

Posted on January 6, 2022January 9, 2022 by globalsciencellc

According to healthvv.com, the union between the two states therefore remained only personal, but since the agreements of 1401 (a first rapprochement between the cousins ​​took place in 1392) also took part in the Polish aristocracy and the Lithuanian boyars, it already contained within itself the germs of future developments. This was demonstrated shortly after the common struggle against the common enemy, the Teutonic Order, which at Grunwald (1410) ended with the crushing victory of the Polono-Lithuanian allied armies. The victory was not conveniently exploited, and the crusaders soon recovered, heroically resisted in their castle of Marienburg and in 1411 concluded with the Poles a very dignified peace, with which they returned, and only temporarily, Samogitia to Vitoldo, but retained full sovereignty over their entire territory. The subsequent campaigns had the sole effect of making the sale of Samogitia definitive.

Yet the effects of Grunwald’s victory were not long in making themselves felt, partly unexpectedly, in a threefold direction. First of all, Poles and Lithuanians understood the advantages deriving from their recent alliance, and in the Horodło conference (1413), while leaving intact the juridical-political relationship between the two states, a true brotherhood was reached between the szlachta and the Lithuanian-Ruthenian boyars. and a promise of future mutual aid. Secondly, the prestige of the Agellonian state increased strongly throughout the West and at the Council of Constance the Poles were able to strenuously fight and repel the violent attacks of the Crusaders and affirm their own thesis of the immorality of any violent expansion of Christianity.

Meanwhile, relations between the two cousins ​​Vladislao and Vitoldo were excellent, although the latter in his successful policy closely followed Lithuanian interests. Attempts to disturb these relations and to destroy the Union, undertaken repeatedly by the Teutonic Order and by the emperor Sigismund himself, did not have any positive results even for the vigilant defense of Polish interests by the powerful aristocracy of Lesser Poland which prevented the another is the coronation of Vitoldo, planned by the conference in Łuck (1429). To this aristocracy and especially to its leader, the bishop of Krakow Zbigniew Oleśnicki, we owe the Polish policy in the face of Hussitism. The adoption of the szlachta for the Germans, the animosity against the over-centralization of power in the hands of the high clergy initially favored the spread of Hussitism in Poland. On the Bohemian side, the crown was even offered to Jagiellon who refused it, and to Vitoldo who accepted it, sending Prince Sigismund Korybut (1422) to Prague as his lieutenant. But then, partly because of the resistance of the radical Taborites and still more because of the opposition of the intransigent Catholics of Krakow, not only did this project of a Bohemian-Polish-Lithuanian dynastic union not take place, but vigorous action was taken against the Polish Hussites: with ordinances (statute of Archbishop Trąba of 1420, edict of Wieluń of 1424) and with arms.

Shortly afterwards Vitoldo (1430) and Jagellone (1433) died at a short distance from each other. Their deaths severely weakened the Union. The Lithuanians tended to a complete separation, and this tendency was indirectly facilitated by the young age of the new king Vladislaus III (1434-1444) and by the too daring, but not always happy, projects of the powerful Oleśnicki. But he managed to procure the Hungarian crown for his protégé (1440), but his plan to free Europe, with the concerted effort of Hungary and Poland, from the Turkish threat tragically failed in Varna (1444) with the defeat and death of the heroic king. It is therefore not surprising that Casimir, Vladislao’s younger brother,

Having agreed to the east with Muscovy – whose power was constantly increasing – on the basis of the status quo (1449), Casimir immediately turned his sights on Pomerania and Prussia, also pushed to this by the Prussian League, who, desiring the freedoms enjoyed by the Poles for their lands, spontaneously submitted to Poland. In 1454 the deed of incorporation of Prussia was signed in Krakow, and immediately afterwards the campaign against the Crusaders began, who, due to their unexpected strength of resistance (the Order, as well as the Poles, had resorted to mercenary troops), for the lack of understanding that the Polish nobility showed also on this occasion – they exploited the situation to obtain new privileges for themselves in Nieszawa – for the Baltic problem, it lasted 13 years and only in 1466 did it end with the peace of Toruń. Pomerania with Danzig, which during the war had fought fiercely against the Teutons, the land of Chełmno, some areas of Prussia with Elbing, Marienburg and the bishopric of Warmia (Ermeland), passed under Polish rule;

Thus Poland, while only partially solving the serious problem of its northern borders, regained access to the sea after a century and a half: the resulting economic advantages were enormous and immediate, while the political ones were limited and unstable.

The second part of Casimir’s long reign was determined by dynastic concerns and ambitions rather than by real national interests. Husband of Elizabeth of Habsburg, sister of Ladislao the Posthumous, Casimir, after his death, claimed rights on the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary. After long negotiations and struggles, his ambitions were satisfied: his son Ladislao succeeded in 1471 to George Poděbrady, king of Bohemia, and in 1490 to Matthias Corvinus.

Poland History 6

Recent Posts

  • Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
  • Kabansk, Republic of Buryatia (Russia)
  • Republic of Moldova
  • Croatia in the 1990’s
  • History and Politics of Macedonia

Categories

©2022 Global Europe