31 Mazovia

In 1506 Poland-Lithuania constituted the largest composite polity in Europe. As elsewhere, forces of integration and unification were strengthening. In much of Europe the pressure for closer integration and for institutional centralization came largely from above, with kings and their ministers the driving forces; in Poland-Lithuania, however, much of the impetus came from below, from the ordinary nobility in all parts of the Jagiellonian realms. After 1506 pressure came from the chamber of envoys for changes in the relationship between Poland, Mazovia, and Prussia, although it was applied in different ways with regard to Mazovia and Prussia, thereby changing the context for relations between Poland and Lithuania.

Mazovia’s Piast dukes proudly defended their independent status after 1138, exploiting the duchy’s geographical position to manoeuvre between Poland, Lithuania, and the Order, playing them off against each other. The flirtation with Bohemia in the 1320s, when homage was sworn to John of Luxembourg, ended in 1352–3 when Siemowit III (c.1313–81) and his brother Casimir I (c.1314–55), swore homage not to the kingdom of Poland but to Casimir III personally, while Charles IV of Bohemia renounced his claims in return for concessions from Casimir over Silesia.¹ When Casimir died in 1370 without an heir, however, the formal link with the Polish crown was broken, and Płock, which had been left to Casimir on the death of Bolesław III, its last, childless duke, in 1351, was restored to Mazovia, reuniting the whole duchy under Siemowit.²

Siemowit publicly demonstrated his independence by failing to attend Louis of Anjou’s coronation in Cracow. Although his relations with Louis were, on the whole, friendly and he subsequently renewed his 1355 oaths, the Mazovian Piasts showed little desire to tighten their links with the Polish monarchy before or after Krewo. All of Siemowit’s sons married Lithuanians: the eldest, Janusz I († 1429), married Danutė (Anna) daughter of Kęstutis; his second son Siemowit IV († 1426) married Algirdas’s daughter Alexandra—Jagiełło’s favourite sister—in 1387, and the third son, Henryk, married Kęstutis’s daughter Ryngailė following his embassy to the Order in 1391–2 to negotiate with Vytautas.³

Mazovian unity did not outlast Siemowit III’s death in 1381. The duchy was first divided between Janusz I and Siemowit IV, and then parcelled out among their descendants on their deaths: Janusz had one son, but Siemowit had five, only one of whom—Alexander—entered the church.⁴ Further disintegration was prevented by the failure of that generation to proliferate: only one of Siemowit IV’s sons, Władysław I († 1455), produced male heirs—Siemowit VI (1446–62) and Władysław II († 1462)—and although Janusz’s grandson Bolesław IV († 1454) had four sons, only one of them, Konrad III († 1503) produced male heirs.

Siemowit IV’s relations with Jagiełło were complicated by his candidacy for the Polish throne. Although his bid failed, and he attended Jagiełło’s baptism and coronation, it is not clear that he swore homage to Jadwiga and Jagiełło, as Janusz I certainly did. He probably did so, however, in 1387 as the price of his marriage to Alexandra. Thereafter Siemowit and Alexandra frequently visited Cracow, and Siemowit’s son Siemowit V spent much of his youth at the Polish court.⁵ Despite a certain reluctance on account of their fear of potential reprisals, Siemowit and Janusz broadly supported Jagiełło during the war of 1409–11 with the Order, although Siemowit, unlike Janusz, failed to turn up for the Tannenberg campaign, only sending a token force, and maintained links with Sigismund of Luxembourg, who paid him a pension until 1412. Jagiełło accused Siemowit of involvement in a plot to forge money and kill him in 1421, though relations were soon restored.⁶ Siemowit V and Casimir II confirmed Mazovia’s feudal dependence on Poland in 1425 on behalf of their sick father, but if Siemowit V, Trojden II, and Władysław I all swore homage in 1426, Casimir II, encouraged by Vytautas, did not, while the archdeacon of Płock caused a rumpus by stating during the negotiations that Mazovia was an independent duchy with no ties to the Polish crown. Siemowit V supported Jagiełło against Švitrigaila, but Bolesław IV occupied Lithuanian territory in 1440 with Žygimantas’s permission, which provoked a brief war with Casimir in 1444. Bolesław’s candidature for the Polish throne in 1446–7 did not help relations, and although both he and Władysław I attended Casimir IV’s coronation, there was an unseemly incident over precedence; it is probable that neither of them ever swore homage to him. Władysław III contested the return of certain Ruthenian holdings of Siemowit V to Poland after his death, while the Lithuanians claimed parts of the territory of Bełz—including Horodło—in a dispute that rumbled on into the 1450s. Although they were both sympathetic to calls from the Order for support against the Bund, Bolesław died in 1454 and Władysław a year later. In the absence of any adult duke, pressure from the Poles ensured that the Mazovians did not support the Order during the war, although many were recruited into the Order’s army and a 1459 truce with the Order irritated the Poles considerably. Bolesław’s holdings were divided among his four young sons, and were not reunited until the deaths of the three younger brothers between 1480 and 1495 left them in the hands of the eldest, Konrad III. Władysław I was succeeded by his infant sons Siemowit VI and Władysław II.⁷

Siemowit VI’s death on 1 January 1462, followed rapidly by that of Władysław II, the last male descendant of the junior branch of the Mazovian Piasts, on 27 February, began the slow process by which Mazovia’s feudal relationship with Poland was transformed into closer union. Siemowit VI and Władysław II were dukes of Płock, Wizna, Zawkrze, Sochaczew, Gostyń, and Bełz. Various claimants to their duchies emerged, among whom Catherine, daughter of Siemowit IV and widow of Mykolas Žygimantaitis, and Margaret, duchess of Oleśnica, pursued their claims energetically. Casimir moved quickly. The starosta of Rawa, supported by the local nobility, opted for incorporation into Poland, beating off an attack on the castle by forces supporting Catherine. Terms were agreed at the Piotrków assembly in November, and Casimir travelled to Rawa and Gostyń, incorporating them on 7 and 17 December respectively; Bełz, where support for incorporation was also strong, soon followed.⁸

Thus some Mazovians at least were prepared to support Polish rule, though Casimir’s efforts to incorporate other territories failed. He occupied Płock castle and bullied some of the local szlachta into swearing oaths of loyalty, but the local elites and the cathedral chapter declared for Catherine, and then Konrad III. The imbroglio required Bohemian mediation and took until 1465 to sort out. In the end, Casimir spent 20,000 red złoties—a considerable sum in time of war—buying off the claims of the children of Konrad V, duke of Oleśnica. In 1476 Casimir persuaded Konrad’s daughter Anna to cede her duchy of Sochaczew in return for granting her lifelong tenure of several properties. Initial resistance was bought off by the concession of the full rights of the Polish nobility. Similar tactics finally overcame resistance in Płock: in 1494, John Albert granted Rawa Polish law; when Janusz II died a year later without issue, he incorporated his duchy of Płock into Poland. Konrad III tried to claim all Janusz’s lands, but John Albert flexed his muscles, upholding his right to the territories on the basis of judgements of 1462 and 1468 when neither Konrad nor Catherine answered four summonses to appear before tribunals appointed by Casimir to hear the case at general assemblies. When agreement was reached in 1496 Konrad was left with Wyszogród, while only Czersk was recognized as his hereditary possession; his other Mazovian holdings were granted for life only. Although Alexander, on Łaski’s advice, was more generous, allowing all Konrad’s lands to be passed on to his heirs after his death, John Albert had won an important victory and Alexander secured much-needed money in return for his concession.⁹

Casimir and John Albert’s claims stemmed from the terms of the oaths of homage sworn by the Mazovian Piasts concerning the eventual extinction of ducal families in the male line and, in the case of Płock, the 1351 treaty, when it had been returned by Casimir III to Bolesław III. Mazovia was regarded by Casimir and the Polish szlachta as an integral part of the historic corona regni. Calls for its complete incorporation grew more frequent after the 1503 death of Konrad III, who left two infant sons, Stanisław, born in 1500, and Janusz III, born in 1502. Their mother, Anna, daughter of Mikalojus Radvilaitis, became regent, chairing the ducal council on their behalf, and continued to rule de facto after they reached their majorities, until her death in 1522. Her sons did not long survive her. Renowned for their debauched lifestyles, Stanisław died in August 1524; Janusz in March 1526. Their deaths were surrounded by scandal: rumours circulated that they had both been poisoned, with fingers pointed at Bona Sforza and Katarzyna Radziejowska, wife of the palatine of Rawa. They were given substance by the abrupt disappearance from Warsaw of the apothecary Jan Alantzee, and Sigismund was forced to call a commission of enquiry which failed to dispel them, although when their bones were exhumed in 1953 tests proved inconclusive. Few scholars now believe the story, and tuberculosis is the most probable cause of death.¹⁰

Incorporation was by no means inevitable while the Piasts survived. Poles might regard Mazovia as part of the corona regni, but Mazovians had been separated from the kingdom for nearly four centuries. They had their own unique social structure, with a far higher proportion of nobles than in the other Polish lands, and a far lower proportion of wealthy nobles. They had their own political institutions, their own traditions, and spoke their own dialect of Polish. Historical tradition and a substantial Polish-speaking population were not sufficient to secure reunification. Yet there were important differences between Mazovia and Silesia or Prussia. The Mazovian Piasts had not become Germanized like their Silesian cousins, Mazovia was never part of the Empire, and there had been no great influx of German settlers. Mazovian institutions owed much to Polish models: Siemowit III introduced starostas in the fourteenth century, and ducal power remained strong, even after Mazovia developed a parliamentary culture, with assemblies meeting regularly after 1454 in the various duchies, although essentially they were meetings of the ducal councils and office-holders, with the participation on occasion of all nobles who cared to turn up, though their active part in debates was limited.¹¹ The Mazovian church lay within the archbishopric of Gniezno, and although it defended its autonomy fiercely—Casimir’s attempt to persuade the Płock chapter to elect his candidates in 1463 was rejected—nevertheless the monarchy’s influence over church patronage became dominant after the incorporation of Płock in 1496: in 1497, when the diocese fell vacant Cardinal Frederick turned up to browbeat the local chapter and its candidate, Canon Mikołaj Bartnicki. He persuaded Bartnicki to assign him his votes, and then renounced the bishopric in favour of his protégé Jan Lubrański. Henceforth the bishops of Płock favoured Mazovia’s integration into Poland.¹²

Factors favouring integration now began operating strongly. The most powerful were economic and social. The incorporation of Royal Prussia opened up trade down the Vistula through Danzig and Elbing; since the Vistula flowed through Mazovia and Warsaw, Mazovia was firmly integrated into the developing Polish-Lithuanian economy long before 1526. It benefited from its strategic location between Poland and Lithuania, as the transit trade to Silesia and beyond began to develop, particularly in cattle, raised in the great lowlands round the Vistula, Bug, and Narew, and driven through Mazovia to the Prussian and Silesian markets. Salt flowed down the Vistula from Wieliczka, Bochnia, and Ruthenia. Rawa and Płock, incorporated in 1462 and 1494, benefited from receiving the liberties accorded to towns under Polish law, and demonstrated its advantages to the rest of Mazovia.¹³

The same process took place among the Rawa and Płock nobility who, on their incorporation into Poland, came under Polish law and were accorded the rights and liberties of their Polish counterparts, including freedom from ordinary taxes. This made a difference, since the Mazovian szlachta were not protected by the Koszyce privileges, and paid a ducal rent—an ordinary tax equivalent to the poradlne—at rates of up to 12 groszy: around 1500 its average annual rate was 4.7 groszy.¹⁴ The acquisition of Polish-style privileges was therefore a substantial incentive, as was the Polish system of local government, in which more authority lay in the hands of the local nobility. Rawa, Płock, and Bełz were established as palatinates after their incorporation. Rawa and Płock were joined to Wielkopolska; Bełz to Małopolska, and the whole panoply of local offices on the Polish pattern was opened up to the local nobility. Intermarriage meant that Mazovian noble families had ever closer connections to families across the border, and a growing minority owned property in Poland. Substantial numbers of impoverished Mazovian nobles sought employment in Poland: many served on the disastrous 1497 campaign, and some were rewarded for their loyalty with grants of land taken from Poles who failed to turn up for the levy.¹⁵

Thus when the extinction of the dynasty removed the main focus for the maintenance of a separate identity, the incorporation and integration of Mazovia into the corona regni proved a relatively uncontroversial and smooth process that was, on the whole, accepted by the Mazovian elites. On 13 September 1526, six months after Janusz III’s death, Sigismund accepted oaths of loyalty from his new subjects in Warsaw. It was unclear, however, on what basis Mazovia had returned under the crown. The Polish szlachta regarded it as an integral part of the corona regni that should formally be reincorporated, but Sigismund and Bona were tempted by the prospect of establishing it as a base for Jagiellon power, in which royal authority was not as limited as it was in the rest of Poland, a notion supported by some members of the Lithuanian council.¹⁶

These were pipedreams. There were other claimants, most worryingly Albrecht von Hohenzollern, duke of Prussia, and considerable support among the Mazovian szlachta for the full incorporation that would bring them the rights and liberties of their Polish brethren. There were also many Mazovian opponents of incorporation, and strong support for preservation of elements of the Mazovian system, since the Poles were keen for the Mazovians to share the burdens of taxation, which had risen so considerably in recent years. This issue was aired at the 1527 Cracow sejm. The chamber rejected the idea that Mazovia should remain a feudal dependency of the crown, demanding a written confirmation from Sigismund that it had been incorporated into the kingdom. For Mazovia to take a full part in the sejm would require the establishment of Polish-style sejmiks: it was only Mazovian dignitaries who were summoned to the 1527 sejm.¹⁷

Mazovian envoys were invited to the 1527–8 sejm, which refused to debate supply until Mazovia’s position was clarified, but this proved impossible as the Mazovians wrangled over the terms of incorporation. It was agreed that a sejm should be summoned to Warsaw in January 1529 to allow for full discussion. It opened on 6 January; after tough negotiations lasting a month, Mazovian concerns were sufficiently accommodated for formal incorporation on 11 February. The sejm defined the meaning of Sigismund’s 1526 privilege, stating that Mazovia was thereby united and incorporated into the kingdom.¹⁸ Mazovian nobles were freed from all burdens laid upon them by their dukes, and granted the liberties of the Polish szlachta, although their traditional laws and customs were to remain in force insofar as they did not breach Polish law. They were to pay the poradlne at two groszy per hide; all other impositions, taxes, and levies could only be raised with their consent. Offices were to be filled by local nobles.¹⁹ Mazovia was constituted as a palatinate; its palatine and six castellans were to join the senate. It was divided into ten districts, each of which had a sejmik that sent two envoys to the sejm. A separate Mazovian sejm continued to exist until 1540, when it was abolished along with the office of governor, and the former central offices of the grand ducal government.²⁰ A commission was established to investigate the differences between Mazovian and Polish law; various problems were cleared up in a new codex of Mazovian law, approved at the 1540 sejm, after which there were relatively few differences between the two. From 1536–7, Mazovians were summoned to the sejm in the same manner as the rest of the kingdom.²¹ The province’s integration into the kingdom following incorporation had been rapid, but Mazovia’s unique social structure meant that its politics remained distinct from those of Wielkopolska and Małopolska until the partitions.