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110-806: Its capital city was Płock . Płock Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo Płockie ) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland from the 15th century till the partitions of Poland in 1795. Together with the Rawa Voivodeship and Masovian Voivodeship it formed the province of Mazovia . Lublin Voivodeship was one of the voivodeships of Congress Poland . Formed from Płock Department , transformed into Płock Governorate . 52°32′48″N 19°41′20″E  /  52.546555°N 19.689014°E  / 52.546555; 19.689014 This Poland location article

220-570: A Crown Guard, expounded this doctrine in his works Commentarius De Sacra Regni Hungariae Corona ( Explanation of the Holy Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary , Augsburg 1613) and De monarchia et Sacra Corona Regni Hungariae ( On the Monarchy and Holy Crown of Hungary , Frankfurt 1659). Under this doctrine, the crown itself is a legal person identical to the state of Hungary. It is superior to

330-506: A contemporary Polish chronicler, John Sigismund wore this cross on his chest till the end of his life, "... because he who possesses this cross will again come into possession of the missing parts which, subjected to the power of the cross, had belonged to it". Later, the cross became the property of Sigismund Bathory who, persuaded by his confessor, bestowed it on Emperor Rudolf II. This was reported by an Italian envoy in Prague who also told

440-586: A crown also. Give them the crown, as they deserve it." The next day Astrik arrived, and the Pope gave the crown to him. Hartvik’s legend appeared in liturgical books and breviaries in Hungary around 1200, naming the then-existing Pope Sylvester II . Subsequently, the story of the crown sent by Sylvester II spread throughout the Christian world, and was published in 1613 by the crown guard Péter Révay. However,

550-404: A crown as a gift from one of the popes, reciprocating his – historically documented – gifts. The picture of the apostles, however, based on their style, cannot be dated to around 1000. The intersecting bands are edged with beaded gold wire that close off the lower end of the bands and finish off the system of decoration. There are twelve pearls on the central panel and

660-827: A joint domain ( Condominium ) of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1462, during the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars , Caffa placed itself under the protection of King Casimir IV of Poland . The proposition of protection was accepted by the Polish king but when the real danger came, help for Caffa never arrived. Holy Crown of Hungary The Holy Crown of Hungary ( Hungarian : Szent Korona [ˈsɛnt ˈkoronɒ] , Latin : Sacra Corona ), also known as

770-484: A loan of sixty times the amount of 37,000 Prague groschen (approximately seven tonnes of pure silver), 16 rich salt-producing towns in the area of Spisz (Zips) , as well as a right to incorporate them into Poland until the debt was repaid. The towns affected were: Biała , Lubica , Wierzbów , Spiska Sobota , Poprad , Straże , Spiskie Włochy , Nowa Wieś , Spiska Nowa Wieś , Ruszkinowce , Wielka , Spiskie Podgrodzie , Maciejowce , Twarożne . Wenceslaus I sold

880-529: A negligible Polish population and had until then been governed by Lithuania ), passed under Polish administration, thus becoming Crown territory. During that period, a term for a Pole from the Crown territory was koroniarz (plural: koroniarze ) – or Crownlander(s) in English – derived from Korona – the Crown. Depending on context, the Polish "Crown" may also refer to " The Crown ", a term used to distinguish

990-732: A new monarch it did not seek a crown to inaugurate a king, but a king worthy of the Crown. He also said "the Holy Crown is for the Hungarians what the Lost Ark is for the Jewish people". Since 2000, the Holy Crown has been on display in the central Domed Hall of the Hungarian Parliament Building . As with all European Christian crowns, the Holy Crown symbolizes a halo signifying the wearer's divine right to rule. According to popular tradition, St Stephen I held up

1100-453: A total of seventy-two altogether on the corona latina , symbolising the number of Christ's disciples (Acts 10.1). The central panel is decorated with a square cloisonné enamel picture depicting Christ Pantokrator. Each band has two (altogether eight) pictures of standing apostles identical to the first eight listed in Acts 1.13. Éva Kovács and Zsuzsa Lovag suggest that the corona latina

1210-823: Is a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1791 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . In 1791 it gained full independence, but on March 28, 1795, it was annexed by the Russian Empire in the Third Partition of Poland . The duchy also had colonies in Tobago and Gambia. The Duchy of Prussia was a duchy in the eastern part of Prussia from 1525 to 1701. In 1525 during

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1320-420: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kingdom of Poland (1385%E2%80%931569) The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( Polish : Korona Królestwa Polskiego ; Latin : Corona Regni Poloniae ) was a political and legal concept formed in the 14th century in the Kingdom of Poland , assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state. Under this idea, the state was no longer seen as

1430-537: Is also typical of Byzantine crowns. When the intersecting bands were added to the corona graeca during the rule of Béla III, who had been brought up in Constantinople, the bands were decorated just as the corona graeca was, perhaps with the intention of imitating the Byzantine pattern. Beside the using of the intersecting bands of the corona latina , which probably came from the treasury of St. István, at

1540-468: Is considered to date back to Stephen I, and was made circa 1030. Old records describe the robe as handiwork of the queen and her sisters and the mantle's middle back bears the king's only known portrait (which shows his crown was not the currently existing one). A circular inscription sewn in Latin identifies the coat as a bishop's chasuble . The sceptre is considered the artistically most valuable piece of

1650-455: Is no mention of a crown. There are also more romantic theories putting the origin of the crown into the far past in Asia. The question to what extent the upper part of the Holy Crown belonged to the crown of King Stephen I remained open until 1978, when the coronation insignia was returned to Hungary and a thorough examination was carried out. The differing styles and techniques used in making

1760-602: The Archbishop of Gniezno also played an important role; its boundaries coincided with those of the kingdom. Gniezno , as the second centre of the state, and the place of coronation, nurtured the cult of the second patron saint, St Adalbert . His influence, however, was less. In 1295, the Duke of Greater Poland Przemysł II, although his power did not extend to Kraków, and was crowned king in Gniezno Cathedral , as

1870-735: The Crown of Saint Stephen , named in honour of Saint Stephen I of Hungary , was the coronation crown used by the Kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence; kings were crowned with it since the twelfth century. The Crown symbolized the King's authority over the Lands of the Hungarian Crown (the Carpathian Basin ), and it was a key mark of legitimacy . Through the history of Hungary , more than fifty kings were crowned with it, with

1980-633: The Great Sejm convened, and they read and adopted the new constitution. It enfranchised the bourgeoisie, separated the government into three branches, abolished liberum veto , and stopped the abuses of the Repnin Sejm . It made Poland a constitutional monarchy with the King as the head of the executive branch with his cabinet of ministers , called the Guardians of the Laws . The legislative branch

2090-526: The Jagiellon realm , becoming a vassal of Władysław II on September 26, 1387. This gesture was to have unexpected consequences: Petru supplied the Polish ruler with funds needed in the war against the Teutonic Knights , and was granted control over Pokuttya until the debt was to be repaid; as this is not recorded to have been carried out, the region became disputed by the two states, until it

2200-512: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on July 1, 1569 with a real union between the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . Before then, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania only had a personal union . The Union of Lublin also made the Crown an elective monarchy; this ended the Jagiellonian dynasty once Henry de Valois was elected on May 16, 1573 as monarch. On May 30, 1574, two months after Henry de Valois

2310-901: The Protestant Reformation , the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights , Albert of Hohenzollern, secularized the Prussian State of the Teutonic Order , becoming Albert, Duke in Prussia . His duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg ( Kaliningrad ), was established as a fief of the Crown of Poland , as had been Teutonic Prussia since the Second Peace of Thorn in October 1466. This treaty had ended

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2420-579: The Russian Empire for any political reform; she argued that Poland had fallen prey to radical Jacobinism that was prominent in France at the time. Russia invaded the Commonwealth in 1792. The Constitution was in place for less than 19 months; it was annulled by the Grodno Sejm . The creation of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was a milestone in the evolution of Polish statehood and

2530-677: The Siege of Marienburg ), and placed his own choice of rulers in Wallachia. His reign was one of the most successful in Moldavia's history, but also saw the first confrontation with the Ottoman Turks at Cetatea Albă in 1420, and later even a conflict with the Poles. A deep crisis was to follow Alexandru's long reign, with his successors battling each other in a succession of wars that divided

2640-589: The Swedish-Polish War under the same favorable conditions the House of Pomerania had enjoyed before. Lauenburg and Bütow Land was officially a Polish fiefdom until the First Partition of Poland in 1772 when King Frederick II of Prussia incorporated the territory into Prussia and the subsequent Treaty of Warsaw in 1773 made the former conditions obsolete. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

2750-579: The Treaty of Wehlau in Wehlau (Polish: Welawa; now Znamensk), whereby Frederick William renounced a previous Swedish-Prussian alliance and John Casimir recognised Frederick William's full sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia. Full sovereignty was a necessary prerequisite for upgrading the Duchy to Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The Duchy of Livonia was a territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – and later

2860-522: The True Cross and that it was the presence of the True Cross in the Holy Crown which made it holy. She states that “Szabolcs Vajay called to my attention a strange incident in the crown’s history which had completely escaped everybody’s attention. Before Queen Isabella handed over the regalia to Ferdinand in 1551, she broke the cross off the crown’s peak for her son, John Sigismund. According to

2970-416: The congress of Visegrad in 1335, Casimir bought off John of Bohemia claims to the title of king of Poland. This allowed for the expansion of the semantic scope of the term "Kingdom of Poland," ( Lithuanian : Regnum Poloniae ) which was often interpreted in a particularistic manner and limited only to Greater Poland. From that moment, in a territorial sense, it began to denote all the lands currently under

3080-551: The flag of Poland . The concept of the Crown also had geographical aspects, particularly related to the indivisibility of the Polish Crown's territory. It can be also seen as a unit of administrative division , the territories under direct administration of the Polish state from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century (currently part of Poland , Ukraine and some border counties of Russia , Belarus , Moldova , Slovakia , and Romania , among others). Parts formed part at

3190-573: The patrimonial property of the monarch or dynasty, but became a common good of the political community of the kingdom. This notion allowed the state to maintain stability even during periods of interregnum and paved the way for a unique political system in Poland, characterized by a noble-based parliament and the free election of the monarch. Additionally, the concept of the Crown extended beyond existing borders, asserting that previously lost territories still rightfully belonged to it. The term Crown of

3300-564: The Árpád dynasty , heirs to St. Stephen's crown . The shift came with the twilight of the Anjou dynasty , as the diet legitimized the succession through the female line. During the rule of Sigismund of Luxembourg the Holy Crown was finally distinguished from the King, and the Hungarian estates emphasized the ruler’s obligations to the Crown. By the 15th century, the Crown gained legal personality, standing above both King and Estates, becoming

3410-442: The 13th century, when it had fully developed, the term corona regni Angliae signified the inalienable and enduring royal dignity, authority, and rights, primarily encompassing the king’s judicial power and the state as a whole, including territories that had been lost. Similar developments occurred in other European regions, each shaped by local conditions. In France, the term appeared slightly later and initially referred mainly to

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3520-558: The Brave , Duke of Poland , became the first crowned King of Poland in 1025. And although his son and successor Mieszko II was forced to relinquish the crown, as was his great-grandson Boleslaw II the Bold , the idea of a kingdom survived. Even during the period of deep partition and the collapse of the central ducal power, Poland was still regarded as a kingdom, and the Piast princes, ruling

3630-561: The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia ( Polish : Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie , ) was a semi independent ecclesiastical state , ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Warmia , and a protectorate of Kingdom of Poland , later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Peace of Thorn (1466–1772) After

3740-597: The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The union concluded at Krewo was not an ordinary personal union, common in Europe at that time, precisely because one party was the Corona Regni , that is, the community of the Kingdom of Poland, and not a dynasty or ruler, as was the case with the agreement between Casimir the Great and Louis the Great , which elevated the latter to the throne. Both Jogaila and Jadwiga were elected to

3850-669: The Crown was kept for about three months in the Palanok Castle at Munkács (now Mukachevo, Ukraine). Lajos Kossuth took the crown and the coronation jewels with him after the collapse of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and buried them in a wooden box in a willow forest, near Orsova in Transylvania (today Orşova , Romania ). They were subsequently dug up and returned to the royal castle in Buda in 1853. At

3960-622: The Duchy of Siewierz to the Archbishop of Kraków , Zbigniew Cardinal Oleśnicki , for 6,000 silver groats in 1443. After that point it was considered to be associated with the Lesser Poland Province and was the only ecclesiastical duchy in Lesser Poland. The junction of the duchy with the Lesser Poland Province was concluded in 1790 when the Great Sejm formally incorporated the Duchy, as part of

4070-465: The European identity. It represented the concept of the Polish kingdom (nation) as distinctly separate from the person of the monarch. The introduction of the concept marked the transformation of the Polish government from a patrimonial monarchy (a hereditary monarchy ) to a "quasi- constitutional monarchy " ( monarchia stanowa ) in which power resided in the nobility, the clergy and (to some extent)

4180-430: The Great's testament in 1370 was essentially the first act undertaken in the name of the interests of the Crown. Ludwik was initially inclined to recognize the will, but strong opposition forced him to refer the matter to the court, which ruled that the ruler could not diminish the territory of the Crown of the Kingdom, a decision that Ludwik accepted. Similarly, the new king, Louis the Great, committed himself to reclaiming

4290-471: The Géza depicted on the corona graeca is not King Géza I but St Stephen's father . This view is confirmed by the fact that Grand Prince Géza is depicted on the corona gracea without a crown, although carrying a royal sceptre. The keresztpántos (cross straps) corona latina ("Latin Crown") is made of four 5.2-cm-wide gold strips welded to the edge of a square central panel (7.2 × 7.2 cm);

4400-611: The Holy Crown of Hungary was moved to the Hungarian Parliament Building from the Hungarian National Museum . The sceptre , orb and the coronation sword were also moved to the Parliament. The very large coronation mantle remains in a glass inert gas vault at the National Museum due to its delicate, faint condition. Unlike the crown and accompanying insignia, the originally red coloured mantle

4510-403: The Hungarian royal inventory. It contains a solid rock crystal ball decorated with engraved lions, a rare product of the 10th-century Fatimid caliphate. Its handle contains a wooden rod surrounded by very fine wrought silver ornaments. The orb is unusual in having a patriarchal cross instead of a simple cross, as on the crown. The ceremonial straight sword kept in the Holy Crown collection

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4620-580: The Isabella-John Sigismund story.” She also notes that “Several small fragments of the True Cross were in possession of the Arpad dynasty. As a point of interest, it is precisely the smallest ones, those set into the cross on the chest, that are attributed to St. Stephen. About a tiny fragment of the True Cross, a Russian chronicler recording King Geza II’s campaigns wrote that it had been the holy king’s property and, despite its small size, it

4730-617: The King), such as the Duchy of Prussia (        ) and the Duchy of Courland (        ). Prior to the 1569 Union of Lublin , Crown territories may be understood as those of the Kingdom of Poland proper, inhabited by Poles , or as other areas under the sovereignty of the Polish king (such as Royal Prussia ) or the szlachta . With the Union of Lublin, however, most of present-day Ukraine (which had

4840-426: The Kingdom of Poland also referred to all the lands under the rule of the Polish king. This meaning became especially significant after the union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , when it began to be commonly used to denote the Polish part of the joint Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . The idea of the Crown in Central Europe first appeared in Bohemia and Hungary, from where the model was taken by kings Ladislaus

4950-406: The Polish throne by the nobles; their natural rights to the throne were weak, and their power rested solely on the agreement between them and the Crown of the Kingdom. According to Robert I. Frost, the aim of the Union of Krewo was not the annexation of Lithuania by Poland, but its incorporation into the community of the kingdom, that is, the Crown. The Union of Lublin created the single state of

5060-456: The Pope. In 1320, the Archbishop of Gniezno crowned him king in Kraków, which formally did not infringe on the rights of the Přemyslids ' successor, King John of Bohemia , who still considered himself king of Poland. Władysław's successor Casimir III the Great was also crowned in Kraków in 1333. Casimir, like his father, considered himself the inherent ruler of the kingdom, the heir of the ancient Bolesławs. He strove to extend his power over

5170-426: The Province of Greater Poland. The history of Moldavia has long been intertwined with that of Poland. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians (under the name Wallachians ) as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Władysław I , against the Margraviate of Brandenburg . The Polish state was powerful enough to counter the Hungarian Kingdom which was consistently interested in bringing

5280-465: The Short and Casimir III the Great to strengthen their power. During the reign of Louis the Great in Poland, who spent most of his time in Hungary , as well as during the interregnum following his death and the regency during the minority of his daughter Jadwiga , the idea was adopted by the lords of the kingdom to emphasize their own role as co-responsible for the state. The concept of corona regni first emerged in early 12th-century England . By

5390-484: The St. Stephen's cross reliquary that came to be regarded as holy through its traditional association with St. Stephen. Éva Kovács further notes in this regard the early use of the patriarchal or double-barred cross and crown in the ancient Hungarian royal coat of arms. Since reliquary crosses frequently take such a double-barred form, the use of a patriarchal cross in the royal arms would be a direct reference to and representation of this royal relic. This association between

5500-495: The War of the Cities or Thirteen Years' War and provided for the Order's cession of its rights over the western half of its territories to the Polish crown, which became the province of Royal Prussia , while the remaining part of the Order's land became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569) . In the 17th century King John II Casimir of Poland submitted Frederick William to regain Prussian suzerainty in return for supporting Poland against Sweden. On July 29, 1657, they signed

5610-470: The agreement to return the jewels contained many conditions to ensure the people of Hungary, rather than its Communist government, took possession of the jewels. The majority of the Hungarian-American population opposed the decision to return the crown. On January 6, 1978, US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance returned the Crown to Hungary in Budapest. Uniquely in Europe, most of the medieval ensemble of coronation regalia has survived. On 1 January 2000,

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5720-435: The antique-style capital letters, the T in Thomas and the second U in Paulus are formed in the style characteristic of the Latin letters used on Byzantine coins, a practice abandoned in the middle of the eleventh century. They may have decorated a reliquary box or a portable altar given to István I by the pope, or possibly the treasure binding of a book. It is also possible, although it cannot be verified, that István I received

5830-512: The area that would become Moldavia into its political orbit. Ties between Poland and Moldavia expanded after the Polish annexation of Galicia in the aftermath of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars and the founding of the Moldavian state by Bogdan of Cuhea . Bogdan, a Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathian Mountains in 1359, took control of Moldavia, and succeeded in transforming it into an independent political entity. Despite being disfavored by

5940-410: The brief union of Angevin Poland and Hungary (the latter was still the country's overlord), Bogdan's successor Lațcu , the Moldavian ruler also likely allied himself with the Poles. Lațcu also accepted conversion to Roman Catholicism around 1370, but his gesture was to remain without lasting consequences. Petru I profited from the end of the Hungarian-Polish union and moved the country closer to

6050-417: The bulk of the United States' gold reserves and other priceless historical items. After undergoing extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, it was returned to the people of Hungary by order of U.S. President Jimmy Carter on 6 January 1978. Most current academic knowledge about Hungarian royal garments originates from this modern research. Following substantial U.S. political debate,

6160-475: The childless death of the last of the House of Pomerania , Bogislaw XIV in 1637, Lauenburg and Bütow Land again became a terra (land, ziemia ) of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1641 it became part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . After the 1657 Treaty of Bydgoszcz , which amended the Treaty of Wehlau , it was granted to the Hohenzollern dynasty of Brandenburg-Prussia in return for her help against Sweden in

6270-430: The clause which formed the personal union. After being baptized at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków on February 15, 1386, Jogaila began to formally use the name Władysław. Three days after his baptism, the marriage between Jadwiga and Władysław II Jagiełło took place. Over the next few years, the Lithuanian princes from the Gediminid dynasty paid homage to Jogaila, himself a Lithuanian and Gediminid, his wife Jadwiga, and

6380-457: The country until the murder of Bogdan II and the ascension of Peter III Aaron in 1451. Nevertheless, Moldavia was subject to further Hungarian interventions after that moment, as Matthias Corvinus deposed Aron and backed Alexăndrel to the throne in Suceava . Petru Aron's rule also signified the beginning of Moldavia's Ottoman Empire allegiance, as the ruler agreed to pay tribute to Sultan Mehmed II . The principality of Moldavia covered

6490-452: The cross on the top tilted at an angle. There are four hanging pendants ( pendilia ) dangling from chains on each side of the diadem and one in the back. There is no monde . The abroncs (rim, hoop) corona graeca ("Greek Crown") is 5.2 cm wide with a diameter of 20.5 cm. The two aquamarine stones with cut surfaces on the back of the diadem were added as replacements by King Matthias II (1608–1619). The enamel picture on

6600-410: The crown and this royal relic would also help to substantiate the theory that the Holy Crown was always intended to serve its historical role of legitimatizing the position of its wearer as the true divinely appointed king of Hungary. The form of the Holy Crown is identical to that of the kamelaukion -type crowns with closed tops, as introduced in the Byzantine Empire. The presence of multiple pictures

6710-424: The crown before his death (in the year 1038) to consecrate it and his kingdom to the Virgin Mary . After this, Mary was depicted not only as patrona (patron saint) of the Kingdom of Hungary , but also as regina (queen). This consecration was supposed to empower the crown with divine force to help the future kings of Hungary under the "Doctrine of the Holy Crown" ( Hungarian : Szentkorona-tan ). Péter Révay ,

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6820-415: The crown was damaged, possibly by the top of the iron chest housing the insignia being hastily closed without the crown having been placed in it properly. The cross has since been left in this slanted position, and is now typically depicted as such. Éva Kovács suggests that the present plain cross on the top of the crown is a replacement of an original double-barred reliquary cross containing three pieces of

6930-404: The death of Ludwik in 1382, which ended with the coronation of Jadwiga in 1384, was evidence of the vitality of the Crown of the Kingdom. During this period, the magnates ( regnicolae regni Poloniae ) managed the affairs of the state, avoiding a bloody civil war and successfully leading to the coronation of new ruler. Moreover, the basis of power began to rest on an agreement between the dynasty and

7040-533: The early Kingdom of Poland , then, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until its final collapse in 1795. At the same time, the Crown also referred to all lands that the Polish state (not the monarch) could claim to have the right to rule over, including those that were not within Polish borders. The term distinguishes those territories federated with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (        ) from various fiefdom territories (which enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy or semi-independence from

7150-430: The elites of Lesser Poland, who saw it as a way to elevate their role. This was facilitated by the rule of a foreign king, the regency in Poland by his mother, Elizabeth , as well as disputes over the succession after his death, which resulted in a woman, Queen Jadwiga , ascending the Polish throne. In the perception of the time, this violated the old laws and required the consent of the lords. The interregnum following

7260-410: The emperors’ names are in red, while the Hungarian king's is in dark blue or black. The enamel plaques on the circular band, the panel depicting Christ Pantokrator, and the picture of Emperor Michael were all affixed to the crown using different techniques. The picture of the emperor could not be attached to the rim in the same way as the Pantokrator picture on the front. The frame was folded upwards and

7370-399: The enamel pictures and the fact that the inscriptions on the diadem are in Greek and on the bands in Latin suggest that the two parts were probably made in two different periods. However, there are no known representations in which the crown is separated: the Holy Crown is always shown as one. The Crown is a coronation crown , which should be worn only on the occasion of a coronation, and for

7480-425: The end can also be dated to the time of St István. On the seals of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor , and Rudolph III of Burgundy , the rulers are holding identically shaped sceptres. Such short-staffed sceptres ending in orbs were not in use as insignia earlier or later. After the fall of the Hungarian People's Republic , the crown was reincorporated into the national coat of arms in 1990. The National Assembly chose

7590-446: The end of the Second World War the crown jewels were recovered in Mattsee , Austria, on 4 May 1945 by the U.S. 86th Infantry Division . The crown jewels were transported to Western Europe and eventually given to the United States Army by the Hungarian Crown Guard for safekeeping from the Soviet Union . For much of the Cold War the crown was held at the United States Bullion Depository ( Fort Knox , Kentucky ) alongside

7700-430: The entire geographic region of Moldavia. In various periods, various other territories were politically connected with the Moldavian principality. This is the case of the province of Pokuttya , the fiefdoms of Cetatea de Baltă and Ciceu (both in Transylvania ) or, at a later date, the territories between the Dniester and the Bug rivers. As one of the terms of the Treaty of Lubowla , the Hungarian crown exchanged, for

7810-573: The first Piast since 1076. He was, however, assassinated a year later. He was succeeded by Wenceslas II , King of Bohemia, who from 1291 ruled Lesser Poland , conquered Greater Poland and in 1300 was crowned King of Poland in Gniezno. This meant the loss of central power for the Piast dynasty . This situation did not last long, however, as Wenceslas II died in 1305, followed by his son and successor, Wenceslas III, in 1306. The Duke of Kuyavia , Władysław Łokietek , managed to occupy first Lesser Poland and then Greater Poland, and made efforts to be crowned by

7920-634: The front depicts Christ Pantokrator . On the rim to the right and left of Jesus are pictures of the archangels Michael and Gabriel , followed by half-length images of the Saints George and Demetrius , and Cosmas and Damian . In the arched frame on the back of the diadem Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071–1078) is depicted. Below it to the left is the half-length picture of "Kon. Porphyrogennetos", this probably being either Emperor Michael's brother and co-emperor Konstantios Doukas or of his son and heir Constantine Doukas , both having been born in

8030-445: The hand of Queen Jadwiga of Poland. Once Jogaila confirmed the prenuptial agreements on August 14, 1385, Poland and Lithuania formed a personal union . The agreements included the adoption of Christianity, repatriation of lands lost by the Crown. Jogaila also pledged to permanently attach his Lithuanian and Ruthenian lands to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( terras suas Lithuaniae et Rusie Corone Regni Poloniae perpetuo aplicare) ,

8140-421: The king's rule, and in an ideological sense, all the territories that once belonged to the Piast dynasty. Particularly noteworthy was the situation of Ruthenia , which was conquered by Casimir III. Formally, it was a separate kingdom, on whose throne Casimir sat as the heir of his relative, Yuri II Boleslav of the Piast dynasty. The king, however, regarded himself as a patrimonial ruler who could freely manage

8250-511: The kingdom and its lands. An expression of this attitude was the appointment of his nephew, King Louis the Great of Hungary, as his successor, rather than any of the numerous male representatives of the Piast dynasty. In his testament, he bequeathed a significant portion of the borderlands to his grandson, Casimir IV , Duke of Pomerania from the House of Griffins . However, the court annulled this provision after Louis's coronation, as it fragmented

8360-403: The kingdom's community. The nobles respected the natural right of Louis's daughters to the throne, but this right was conditional upon adherence to the oaths and obligations made by the ruler to the Crown of the Kingdom. The Union of Krewo was a set of prenuptial agreements made at Kreva Castle on August 13, 1385, between Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila and Polish lords, who were offering him

8470-439: The kingdom's territory. This was an open challenge to the ruler's claim of having the full freedom to manage the territory and resources of the state. The concept of Corona Regni appears in the documents of Casimir the Great only three times, and all three documents were produced by foreign chanceries in the king's name. This idea, which limited the monarch's power, gained popularity only after his death. The annulment of Casimir

8580-701: The last being Charles IV in 1916. The only kings not so crowned were Wladyslaw I , John Sigismund Zápolya , and Joseph II . The enamels on the crown are mainly or entirely Byzantine work, presumed to have been made in Constantinople in the 1070s. The crown was presented by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas to the King Géza I of Hungary ; both are depicted and named in the Greek language on enamel plaques in

8690-450: The legend is not supported by historical evidence. Mieszko I did not live at the same time as St. Stephen I or Pope Sylvester II. Also, the "Greater Legend" of St Stephen, written around 1083, makes no mention of the Crown's Roman provenance: "in the fifth year after the death of his father...they brought a Papal letter of blessing...and the Lord’s favoured one, Stephen, was chosen to be king, and

8800-424: The lost territories not for himself, but for the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, during his coronation. Jan Radlica was the first royal chancellor who stopped referring to himself as "of Kraków" or "of the court" chancellor and began to use in 1381 the title regni Poloniae supremus cancellarius (supreme chancellor of the Kingdom of Poland). The concept of the Crown being the real sovereign began to be promoted by

8910-474: The lower crown. However, in popular tradition the Holy Crown was thought to be older and of Papal provenance, dating to the time of the first King Stephen I of Hungary crowned 1000/1001. It is one of two known Byzantine crowns to survive, the other being the slightly earlier Monomachus Crown in the Hungarian National Museum , which may have had another function. The Holy Crown has probably been remodelled using elements of different origins. The date assigned to

9020-589: The notion of the corona regni Bohemiae , incorporating the Silesian and Upper Lusatian territories bounding them to the perpetual Crown. The history of Poland as an entity has been traditionally traced to c.  966 , when the pagan prince Mieszko I and the West Polans adopted Christianity . The Baptism of Poland established the first true Polish state, though the process was begun by Mieszko's Piast ancestors. His son and successor, Bolesław I

9130-667: The oldest codified national constitution in Europe; the oldest being the United States Constitution . It was called the Government Act ( Ustawa Rządowa ) Drafting for it began on October 6, 1788, and lasted 32 months. Stanisław II Augustus was the principal author of the Constitution, and he wanted the Crown to be a constitutional monarchy, similar to the one in Great Britain. On May 3, 1791,

9240-635: The personal influence and private assets of the Commonwealth's current monarch from government authority and property. It often meant a distinction between persons loyal to the elected king (royalists) and persons loyal to Polish magnates (confederates). After the Union of Lublin (1569) Crown lands were divided into two provinces : Lesser Poland (Polish: Małopolska) and Greater Poland (Polish: Wielkopolska). These were further divided into administrative units known as voivodeships (the Polish names of

9350-471: The picture of the emperor was nailed to the edge. We can thus conclude that the picture of Michael VII was not originally designed for this crown, but was probably used first somewhere else. The corona graeca with its pointed and arched plaques is identical to the form of the crowns of the Byzantine empresses – in other words it was a woman's crown. It was given by Emperor Michael Dukas VII to King Géza's wife, known only as Synadene , around 1075. The gift

9460-511: The pre-war coat of arms over the crown-less Kossuth arms of 1849. The Holy Crown has had a varied history; having been stolen, hidden, lost, recovered, and taken abroad several times. During the Árpád dynasty (1000–1301), the coronation insignia was kept in the coronation city of Székesfehérvár . Later, the crown was housed in one of three locations: Visegrád (in Pest county ); Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia); or Buda . In 1805–1806

9570-427: The present configuration of the Holy Crown is most commonly put around the late 12th century. The Hungarian coronation regalia consists of the Holy Crown, the sceptre, the orb, and the mantle. The orb has the coat of arms of Charles I (1310–1342). The name "Holy Crown" was first used in 1256. By the 14th century it became the unique symbol of royal power. As written by Crown Guard Péter Révay , when Hungary needed

9680-631: The purple . To the right there is a picture of the Hungarian King Géza I (1074–1077), with the Greek inscription: ΓΕΩΒΙΤΖΑϹ ΠΙΣΤΟϹ ΚΡΑΛΗϹ ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑϹ ( Geōbitzas pistós králēs Tourkías , meaning " Géza I , faithful kralj of the land of the Turks "). The contemporary Byzantine name for the Hungarians was "Turks", while the Hungarian branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church , under Constantinople 's jurisdiction,

9790-570: The remaining Piast princes and to regain all the lands ruled by the former kings of Poland. The Silesian princes were referred to in Poland as duces Poloniae , although they paid homage to the Bohemian Crown . Casimir also abandoned the coat of arms of the Kuyavia line of the Piasts, a hybrid of eagle and lion, in favour of a crowned white eagle, which was also the symbol of the Kingdom. At

9900-457: The request of King Könyves Kálmán , in which the "Pope" sent King Stephen I "his blessings and a crown". According to " Hartvik’s legend ", St. Stephen sent Archbishop Astrik of Esztergom to Rome to acquire a crown from the " Pope ", who is not named. Despite Astrik's haste, the envoy of Mieszko I of Poland arrived at Rome first. In a dream, the Pope saw an angel who told him: "There will be another envoy from an unknown folk, who will ask for

10010-659: The rest of the time two crown guards (koronaőr) guard it. Apart from this, there are only two other people who can touch it, the nádorispán (the highest secular title), who puts it onto a pillow during the coronation, and the Archbishop of Esztergom ( primate of Hungary, the highest ecclesiastical title), who places it on the head of the king. The Holy Crown was made of gold and decorated with nineteen enamel "pantokrator" pictures (Greek meaning "master of all") as well as semi-precious stones, genuine pearls, and almandine . It has three parts: "abroncs" (rim, hoop) ( corona graeca ), "keresztpántok" (cross straps) ( corona latina ), and

10120-458: The royal domain but also extended to the lands held by royal vassals. In Aragon , the Crown denoted a collection of kingdoms and territories united chiefly by their shared ruler, the King of Aragon . For Poland, the significant development was the emergence of the concept of corona regni in Hungary in the late 12th century. Initially, it represented the kingdom as a territorial entity linked to

10230-576: The ruling monarch, who rules "in the name of the crown". According to the most accepted theory, in the publications of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Catholic Episcopal Conference , the Holy Crown consists of three parts: the lower abroncs (rim, hoop), the corona graeca ; the upper keresztpántok (cross straps), the corona latina ; and the uppermost cross, tilted at an angle. It

10340-408: The senior emperor or monarch in Byzantine imperial protocol) and to provide a base for the reliquary cross at its summit (see § Cross ). The cross is attached to the crown in a rough manner, rising from the midriff of Christ in the central enamel plaque at the top of the crown. This addition might have been made during the 16th century. The cross was knocked crooked during the 17th century when

10450-401: The strips are usually assumed to have been originally made for some other object, and adapted for the crown. It is not an independent object, as it has no function alone. It was designed to be attached to the top rim of the corona graeca and provides a dome-shaped top. The inscription on the pictures of the saints and the style of their lettering suggest the date when they were made. Amidst

10560-400: The time of the creation of the crown there existed further expectation that the coronation insignia would eventually include additional gold works that could be linked to the first, beatified Hungarian king, István. The inscription embroidered onto the coronation mantle indicates with all certainty that István I and Queen Gizella had it made in 1031. The coronation sceptre with the orb at

10670-459: The true sovereign. In Bohemia, the concept of the corona regni emerged primarily in connection with the territorial expansion and consolidation of the state. The Luxemburg dynasty 's unsuccessful pursuit of the Polish throne underscored the necessity of uniting the Silesian principalities with the Bohemian crown. In 1348, Charles IV formalized the feudal structure of the state and introduced

10780-473: The various provinces, as members of a royal dynasty and princes of Poland. A special role was played by Kraków , which was regarded as the main city of the kingdom, as the Wawel Cathedral held the royal jewels. Also important was the cult of Saint Stanislaus Bishop of Kraków , who was presented as the patron saint of the kingdom and its unification. A unified ecclesiastical metropolis headed by

10890-430: The voivodships and towns are shown below in parentheses). Royal Prussia ( Polish : Prusy Królewskie ) was a semi-autonomous province of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1772. Royal Prussia included Pomerelia , Chełmno Land (Kulmerland) , Malbork Voivodeship (Marienburg) , Gdańsk (Danzig) , Toruń (Thorn) , and Elbląg (Elbing) . Polish historian Henryk Wisner writes that Royal Prussia belonged to

11000-512: The working class, also referred to as an "elective monarchy" . A related concept that evolved soon afterward was that of Rzeczpospolita ("Commonwealth"), which was an alternate to the Crown as a name for the Polish state after the Treaty of Lublin in 1569. The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was also related to other symbols of Poland , such as the capital ( Kraków ), the Polish coat of arms and

11110-405: Was a relic of great force. We are, perhaps, not off the track when surmising that the Hungarian crown was holy because it had once been reinforced with a fragment of the victory-bringing relic. . . . we know quite few reliquary crowns. To mention but the most obvious example, let us cite Charles I’s crown provided with a cross containing a thorn relic.” Later, it was the Crown itself, rather than

11220-433: Was anointed with oil and auspiciously crowned with the diadem of royal honour". Moreover, Vatican archives have found no record of the granting of the crown, despite the prestige that would accrue from such a discovery. Another document giving doubtful evidence is by Thietmar von Merseburg (died 1018): he wrote that Holy Roman Emperor Otto III consented to Stephen's coronation, and that the Pope sent his blessings, but there

11330-686: Was bicameral with an elected Sejm and an appointed Senate ; the King was given the power to break ties in the Senate, and the head of the Sejm was the Sejm Marshal . The Crown Tribunal , the highest appellate court in the Crown, was reformed. The Sejm would elect their judges for the Sejm Court (the Crown's parliamentary court) from their deputies ( posłowie ). The Government Act angered Catherine II who believed that Poland needed permission from

11440-467: Was challenged by Sigismund of Hungary , whose expedition was defeated at Ghindăoani in 1385; however, Stephen disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Although Alexander I was brought to the throne in 1400 by the Hungarians (with assistance from Mircea I of Wallachia ), this ruler shifted his allegiances towards Poland (notably engaging Moldavian forces on the Polish side in the Battle of Grunwald and

11550-508: Was created under Byzantine influence during the reign of the Hungarian King Béla III , who was brought up in the Byzantine court and was briefly heir to the Byzantine throne. This was several decades after the crowning of Stephen I marked the beginning of Hungarian statehood, variously given as Christmas 1000 or 1 January 1001. Another version of the origin of the crown was written by bishop Hartvik around 1100–1110 at

11660-401: Was crowned King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania on February 22, 1574, he was made King of France , and was crowned King of France on February 13, 1575. He left the throne of the Crown on May 12, 1575, two months after he was crowned King of France. Anna Jagiellon was elected after him. The Constitution of May 3, 1791 is the second-oldest, codified national constitution in history, and

11770-617: Was lost by Moldavia in the Battle of Obertyn (1531). Prince Petru also expanded his rule southwards to the Danube Delta . His brother Roman I conquered the Hungarian-ruled Cetatea Albă in 1392, giving Moldavia an outlet to the Black Sea , before being toppled from the throne for supporting Fyodor Koriatovych in his conflict with Vytautas the Great of Lithuania . Under Stephen I , growing Polish influence

11880-509: Was named the " Metropolitanate of Tourkia " (Hungary), and the head of this church was the " Metropolitan of Tourkia" (Hungary). As was customary in the hierarchy of the Byzantine state, clear differentiation is made between style of the emperors and that of the Hungarian king by using a hellenized form of the common South Slavic word for "king" ( Kralj ) for Géza. The saints and the Greek rulers have halos while Géza does not. The inscriptions of

11990-459: Was not a new crown, but rather an old crown designed for a woman that had to be selected from the Emperor's treasury and remodelled. The enamel pictures that become outdated were removed, since either represented earlier historical figures or were not appropriate for the Hungarian queen according to court protocol. It was in this form that the crown was sent to Hungary . There is another view that

12100-400: Was originally a large Byzantine liturgical asterisk from a Greek monastery in Hungary. In order to get it to fit into its new role the apostles at the bottom of each of the four arms of this asterisk were cut off before it was very crudely attached to the inside of the corona graeca to transform this Byzantine open crown into a closed crown (i.e., the type of crown proper to the autocrat,

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