The Political Career of Gáspár Bekes and Ferenc Wesselényi in Poland-Lithuania during the Reign of Stefan Batory (original) (raw)
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Traditional historiography maintains that local institutions of self-government in Lithuania were insufficiently developed, suffering from manipulation and corruption by magnate factions. As Jūratė Kiaupienė put it: "a wide-spread system of protection promoted servility, [undermined the] self-sufficiency of the nobility and added to a number of other negative personal or collective features" 1 . In all of this, the role of those patronised, the lower nobility, still awaits detailed analysis; its image is based on the assumption that local Lithuanian nobles were hapless instruments of power vying for influence for their particular magnate patrons and paymasters. Despite several worthy attempts at re-assessment 2 , negative opinion about the magnateria continues to prevail. Rather than reiterate how these magnates might have destroyed the Commonwealth, we should ask, however, what they contributed to state-building and the ordering of public and economic affairs through the use of patronage and extended networks of administrators, commanders, political clients and agents. Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg recently suggested that the concept of the imperial "double state" be applied to an analysis of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth -embodied in the Holy Roman Empire and its unitary, central institutions such as the Diet, the circles, the Imperial Tribunal, etc., and the relationship between the imperial centre and the territorial princes -and a parallel be drawn to the way the "particularist" princes in the territoires 1 J. Kiaupienė, Some considerations on the sources of unity of the Lithuanian political nation in the sixteenth century, in: Separation of Powers and Parliamentarism in the past and present. Law, doctrine, practice. 56 th Conferece of [the] International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions in
Martin Berzeviczy, a Hungarian Diplomat of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at King Báthory
the 7th Annual London Conference on Belarusian Studies, 2022
at the 7th Annual London Conference on Belarusian Studies, February 18, London (via Zoom) 2022 The epoch of Stephen Báthory, the Hungarian King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, has already been in the focus of the research, although his diplomats of Hungarian origin are less known. In 2021 it was celebrated the 450th anniversary of electing him for the Grand Duke of Transylvania. (Then he was elected by the Polish noblemen for the King of Poland in 1576, and inaugurated as Grand Duke of Lithuania, too.) Although his Hungarian general Kaspar Békés (who died in Grodno, too, as King Báthory), is better known, but a Hungarian diplomat, Martinus (Márton) Berzeviczy, the Transylvanian Chancellor at King Steven Báthory in the 16th century, played a significant role, too. He got the nobility according to laws of the Polish Rzeczpospolita, too (thus he was not a foreign but a real Polish nobleman), and then he found a Polish family. He owned a land in Livonia, too; therefore, he was not only a vassal of his king Báthory but also of margrave Albert Frederick of Brandenburg, too, formally. Although another person, Kaspar (Gáspár) Békés is mentioned more, Berzeviczy’s activity in diplomacy and state management was of more significance, and he served his king Báthory in several positions. He went to Istanbul for secret negotiations to get permission from the Turkish Sultan to bring troops from Transylvania to GDL, in a result, 288 Hungarian riders fought against the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible at the siege of Polotsk in 1579, and their role was special in defeat of Russians. There are still about twenty Hungarian names published in the literature on the history of Lithuanian Grand Duchy, most of them in diplomatic service. Mainly it is mentioned in papers by the Lithuanian historian, Raimonda Ragauskienė, who is not able to read Hungarian sources (but local ones in Lithuania). To complete it, it is to be mentioned that at the siege of Polotsk 23 Hungarian names are known as military leaders, who still played some role in the political life of GDL. Therefore, it is necessary to complete this prosopography with the earlier Hungarian literature in the field, which was published in the early 20th century. A Hungarian historian, Endre Veress visited archives up to Königsberg in the 1900-ies and there collected primary sources, which can later disappear with the historical storms. Thus, archival data on the diplomatic relations of Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolyta in the 16th century (when Hungarian Báthory as the Polish King defeated the Russian tsar in battles) have been published in earlier Hungarian papers and monographs, and the original archival sources later became less accessible due to the Soviet power. The key person of the paper, Berzeviczy had been to Grodno, too, with his king Báthory, as well at the siege of Polotsk; even his personal financial aid was contributed to covering the expenses of the siege of Polotsk. This paper is to make known the hardly accessible Hungarian earlier published works for non-Hungarian scholars, contributing to the diplomatic history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. – A Ukrainian version of this paper was presented at the conference “Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its neighbours” in Kyiv on December 3, and the updated English version is proposed for the Belarusian Congress in London. -> the slides of a previous presentation of this same topic are here: https://www.academia.edu/64357686
ISPEC 11. Uluslararasi Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Kongresi 04-06 Mart 2023 Muş, Türkiye, Ispec Enstitüsü, 2023
The Polish King of Hungarian origin, Stephen Báthory (Hungarian: Báthory István; Polish: Stefan Batory; Lithuanian: Steponas Batoras) was elected for the Polish throne in 1576 and for the Grand Duke of Lithuania at the same time, then he soon began his defencing war against the expansion of the Russian Tsar, Ivan IV (the “Terrible”). Before he was elected for the Polish throne, he already ruled Transylvania since 1571. Therefore, he was to gain the support of the Turkish Sultan in several aspect, when preparing to the war. As for the war itself, we have already dealt with that in our previous lecture at the IKSAD Conference in Gaziantep, Turkiye (February 19-21) under the title “Comparing the Policies of Stefan Batory and Ivan The Terrible” and there we demonstrated that the structural differences of the two states resulted, to a significant extent, the victory of the Polish King over the Tsar: the totalitarian state of Moscow was not able to achieve any fruit of European culture, while in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the parliament of the nobility, the Sejm was unique in the contemporary Europe. However, any victory in great wars occurs in a result of a lot of factors, and diplomacy is of great importance among them. Thus, now we continue to investigate the causes of victory with the external factors. The social and political structure of the state were internal factors, and the diplomacy was external.
Beetwen the Jagiellons and the Vasas: Research into Late 16th-Century Polish Parliamentarism
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa, 2017
The death, without a successor, of Sigismund II August on 7 th July 1572 opened the epoch of free royal elections, a new phase in the history of the Polish state, marked by a checkered pattern of individual reigns and intervening interregna. Historians specializing in the late 16 th century were usually attracted by these interstices, probably because they produced a number of innovations which paved the way for the establishment of the institution of electio viritim, in which all members of the nobility were eligible to vote for the future king. The reign of Stefan Batory (1 st May 1576-12 th December 1586), which fi lled most of the transition period between the rule of the two major royal houses, the Jagiellons and the Vasas, seems to have had less appeal, even to the historians of law and Polish parliamentarianism. A researcher of the age of Stefan Batory has to confront a number of diffi culties which are not faced by those specializing in the periods directly preceding or following that reign. The main obstacle is the dearth of source material that has been printed or is readily available in the Polish archives; moreover, the some of the items that are listed in bibliographies of various studies and monographs of that segment of Polish history are diffi cult to trace. A thorough sifting of the archives for documentary evidence of the Sejms of 1576-1586 has produced relatively little in all respects, i.e. the circumstances attending their convocation, the preparatory work, the actual proceedings as well their legal and political consequences. The most acute problem for any research in this fi eld is the lack of parliamentary records, or Sejm diaries-of which there are plenty for the preceding and subsequent periods. Alternatively, a searcher of Batory's sejms, can fi nd out what happened in those convocations from thumbnail descriptions in some contemporary chronicles or by digging up the relevant private and public correspondence, examining parliamentary speeches-some of which were printed-or by trying to infer the agenda and points of debate from the text of the acts adopted by the local sejmiks. As the main subject of my research is the legislative activity of the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm in the period 1576-1586 in the context of the legislative competences of the monarch, I extended my archive trawl to those fi les that could possibly include the text of both parliamentary and royal legislation, like the Libri Inscriptionum of the Polish Crown Register Metrica Regni Poloniae, volumes 113-133 as well as the inscriptions of the Cracow Land Register, housed at the Wawel Castle Branch of the National Archives. Another important source for the history of Sejms and the eff ects of their law-making as well as the royal legislation in the age of Stefan Batory are copies of documents that were deposited in various archives or were collected for publication. There is no comprehensive study of the Sejms convened during the reign of Stefan Batory or their legislation, nor is there much information about that chapter of parliamentary history in the historiography of the 16 th century especially when compared with researches made for
9th International Zeugma Conference on Scientific Research Gaziantep, Türkiye, February 19-21, 2023. , 2023
Text & Discussion here: https://www.academia.edu/s/c7956e9558 9th International Zeugma Conference on Scientific Research Gaziantep, Türkiye, February 19-21, 2023. Session-3, Panel-4 The Duke of Moscow Ivan the Terrible invited book traders and a typographer to Moscow, with purpose to gain the fruits of the contemporary European culture, but the typographer was burned in Moscow for “heresy”. Thus, the Asiatic despotic state of Moscow was not able to achieve any fruit of European culture. On the contrary, the democratic Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (although of the nobility, the Szlachta) was unique at that time and controlled the power of the monarch. In a result, when the Sejm voted for an extraordinary tax and “manpower” for the second campaign of King Batory (his war consisted of three campaigns in 1579, 80, 81), the king was sure to have a strong background of his three countries (Polish Crown, GDL and Transylvania, as well). While the Muscovian ruler was not sure of his subjects; Ivan was tried to be poisoned. Hence the psychotic sickness of Ivan and his violent character were not the only causes of the failure of those wars. The main reasons were the differences in the social and political structure of the two states. Thus, the bourgeois development was a noteworthy factor of the heydays of the Polish Crown and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the twin-states. Therefore, Orthodoxy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had opportunities for developing in the European way, which resulted such a situation was similar to Protestantism in the West, since the spreading of book-printing and evolving of the national consciousness happened due to the Protestantism in West. The “military potential” of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was much great due to the social, cultural, political structure, too, including the national consciousness of the Orthodox inhabitants, too, while the Muscovian autocratic state did not have such sufficient conditions for the “military potential”. In a conclusion, the European diplomatic collaboration and the powerful military potential of the modernized Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth defeated the Muscovian imperial expansion of Ivan IV, the Terrible, in that far historical past. Keywords: Ivan_Terrible, Batory, Polish_Lithuanian_Commonwealth, War, Parliamentarism .
Eastern European History Review, 2021
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth clearly stood out from the European institutional and legal systems of the early modern era. One of the elements of its “uniqueness” was the way of conducting foreign policy and, consequently, the organisation of diplomatic service. The Western European historiography does not address the peculiar structure of the Polish-Lithuanian diplomacy against early modern interstate relations. The only commonly noted characteristic of the diplomatic practice of the Commonwealth seems to be the lack of official permanent representations at European courts, as well as the reluctance to accept foreign embassies within the borders of the state. The Polish historiography does undertake the topic, but the existing works are dated and often overcome, requiring to be complimented. The purpose of this article is to systematise and determine the specifics of the diplomatic activity of Poland-Lithuania from the institutional and juridical point of view, with particular attention paid to the nature of the ius legationis which operated in Rzeczpospolita state. Its two potential entities are confronted: the king and the Senate along with the sejm. The analysis is based primarily on the parliamentary constitutions, the supreme source of law for the Polish-Lithuanian state. Another goal of the presented study is to highlight the role of political practice in shaping foreign policy, which often stood in opposition to the formal legal structure of the Commonwealth. Finally, the article constitutes a discussion with the voices present in the historiography and an invitation for the scholars to fur
Res Historica, 2019
The course and result of the election in 1669 still arouses interest among historians. It should probably be associated with the choice of a rather unexpected candidate for the king – Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki. There is no doubt that every European state was actively participating in the events occuring in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where the deputies were sent with a task to report on events related to the interregnum. Similarly, the London court obtained information on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the abdication of Jan Kazimierz from Francis Sanderson, a resident in Gdańsk, and Robert Yard, secretary of extraordinary Peter Wyche. The correspondence of Sanderson and Yard is an interesting source of information about the interregnum after the abdication of Jan Kazimierz. Both of them passed numerous, sometimes unprecedented news about the electoral struggle. In their correspondence, they devoted ample amount of space to candidates for the throne as well as a description of the course of regional assemblies, and Sejms from the interregnum period, and the issue of equality of dissidents. The reports of the diplomats were particularly concerned about the Lithuanian Equerry, Bogusław Radziwiłł and the book containing the genealogy of his family. The Sanderson and Yard reports are another interesting addition to our knowledge of the interregnum in 1668–1669.
2015
The Counts of Blagaj were descendants of the noble Babonić family, which was one of the most powerful magnate families not only in medieval Slavonia, but in the whole medieval Realm of Saint Stephen (Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia), during the second half of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. While the second half of the 14th century represents the period of their decline, the same cannot be said of the very end of the 14th and the first four decades of the 15th century, which was when King Sigismund of Luxemburg was on the Hungarian-Croatian throne. The latter period was significantly marked by the dynamic and not always beneficial relations between the Counts of Blagaj and King Sigismund of Luxemburg. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to analyse various questions concerning the political relations between the Counts of Blagaj and King Sigismund of Luxemburg during his long reign as the king of the Realm of Saint Stephen. First of all, it shall be analysed how reso...
Saeculum Christianum, 2020
Biskup Stanisław Łubieński, jako senator i biskup, miał duży wpływ na obsadę stanowisk i godności w diecezji płockiej. Jego rządy w diecezji zbiegły się z wojną szwedzką, której skutki odczuły szczególnie północne części biskupstwa płockiego. Wpłynęło to na ewolucję poglądów Łubieńskiego z popierających działania zbrojne na postulujące jak najszybsze zawarcie pokoju. Drugą kwestią podnoszoną przez Łubieńskiego była sprawa następstwa tronu po Zygmuncie III i elekcja vivente rege. Artykułowanie tej kwestii na sejmach w 1626 i 1631 roku wynikało z przekonania, że najlepszym rozwiązaniem dla Rzeczypospolitej jest wybór na króla najstarszego syna Zygmunta Władysława. Stanisław Łubieński, as a senator and bishop, had a great influence on the staffing posts and dignities in the diocese of Płock. His rule in the diocese coincided with the Swedish war, the effects of which particularly affected the northern parts of the diocese of Płock. This influenced the evolution of Łubieński’s views from supporting military action to postulating peace as soon as possible. The second issue raised by Łubieński was the matter of the succession to the throne after Sigismund III and the vivente rege election. The articulation of this issue in the Sejms of 1626 and 1631 resulted from his conviction that the best solution for the Commonwealth was to elect Władysław, the eldest son of Sigismund, as king.