147-656: Czernihów (Chernihiv) Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo czernihowskie ) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland (part of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ) from 1635 until Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648 (technically it existed up until 1654). Also it was used as a fictitious title in the Commonwealth until the Partitions of Poland in 1772/1795. In 1635, Marcin Kalinowski
294-560: A cloak; rather the men among them wear garments that only cover half of his body and leaves one of his hands free." Liutprand of Cremona , who was twice an envoy to the Byzantine court (949 and 968), identifies the "Russi" with the Norse ("the Russi, whom we call Norsemen by another name") but explains the name as a Greek term referring to their physical traits ("A certain people made up of
441-560: 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
588-737: 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. Kievan Rus Kievan Rus' , also known as Kyivan Rus ' ,
735-484: 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
882-462: A mythic tale of Oleg's death. A sorcerer prophesies that the death of the prince would be associated with a certain horse. Oleg has the horse sequestered, and it later dies. Oleg goes to visit the horse and stands over the carcass, gloating that he had outlived the threat, when a snake strikes him from among the bones, and he soon becomes ill and dies. The Chronicle reports that Prince Igor succeeded Oleg in 913, and after some brief conflicts with
1029-473: A navy to attack the city in 863–66, catching the Byzantines by surprise and ravaging the surrounding area, though other accounts date the attack in 860. Patriarch Photius vividly describes the "universal" devastation of the suburbs and nearby islands, and another account further details the destruction and slaughter of the invasion. The Rus' turned back before attacking the city itself, due either to
1176-477: 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
1323-527: A new voivodeship. Only after the Treaty of Polyanovka did the Sejm decide in 1635 to turn Duchy of Czernihow into Czernihow Voivodeship, with two counties, those of Nowogrod Siewierski and Czernihow. There were two starostas , local sejmik at Czernihow, and two senators. First voivode was named Marcin Kalinowski "in honor of his bloody deeds", while first castellan was Mikolaj Kossakowski (...) On 30 January 1667,
1470-745: A part of the Norse, whom the Greeks call [...] the Russi on account of their physical features, we designate as Norsemen because of the location of their origin."). Leo the Deacon , a 10th-century Byzantine historian and chronicler, refers to the Rus' as " Scythians " and notes that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs. According to the Primary Chronicle , the territories of the East Slavs in
1617-410: A scholarly consensus (at least outside of nationalist historiography), was summarized by the historian, F. Donald Logan, "in 839, the Rus were Swedes ; in 1043 the Rus were Slavs ". Ahmad ibn Fadlan , an Arab traveler during the 10th century, provided one of the earliest written descriptions of the Rus': "They are as tall as a date palm , blond and ruddy, so that they do not need to wear a tunic nor
SECTION 10
#17327875356591764-411: A staunch pagan . Due to his abrupt death in an ambush in 972, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to a fratricidal feud among his sons, which resulted in two of his three sons being killed. It is not clearly documented when the title of grand prince was first introduced, but the importance of
1911-730: A storm dispersing their boats, the return of the Emperor, or in a later account, due to a miracle after a ceremonial appeal by the Patriarch and the Emperor to the Virgin. The attack was the first encounter between the Rus' and Byzantines and led the Patriarch to send missionaries north to engage and attempt to convert the Rus' and the Slavs. Rurik led the Rus' until his death in about 879 or 882, bequeathing his kingdom to his kinsman, Prince Oleg , as regent for his young son, Igor . According to
2058-823: 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
2205-542: Is more likely that he adopted Byzantine Christianity in order to strengthen his diplomatic relations with Constantinople. Vladimir's choice of Eastern Christianity may have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the Dnieper River . According to the Primary Chronicle , Vladimir was baptised in c. 987, and ordered
2352-427: Is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra ( monastery ). In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants shared power over Kievan Rus'. The means by which royal power was transferred from one Rurikid ruler to the next is unclear, however, historian Paul Magocsi mentioned that 'Scholars have debated what the actual system of succession
2499-587: The Primary Chronicle , which was produced in the 12th century. Nationalist accounts on the other hand have suggested that the Rus' were present before the arrival of the Varangians, noting that only a handful of Scandinavian words can be found in Russian and that Scandinavian names in the early chronicles were soon replaced by Slavic names. Nevertheless, the close connection between the Rus' and
2646-602: 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
2793-501: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania for the next 150 years (...) In 1493 (see also Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars ), the province was captured by the Grand Principality of Moscow , where it remained until 1618. Officially, Czernihow belonged to the Commonwealth for 59 years, until 1667 (see also Truce of Andrusovo ) (...) Since the 1618 Truce of Deulino was to expire after 16 years, the Commonwealth did not find it necessary to create
2940-684: 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
3087-575: The Hunnic invasion of the 370s halted Christianisation for several centuries. Some of the earliest Kievan princes and princesses such as Askold and Dir and Olga of Kiev reportedly converted to Christianity, but Oleg , Igor and Sviatoslav remained pagans. The Primary Chronicle records the legend that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of traditional Slavic paganism , he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. They visited
SECTION 20
#17327875356593234-526: 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
3381-582: The Old Norse name Garðaríki , which, according to a common interpretation , means "land of towns". Prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, most of the area north of the Black Sea was primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes. In the northern region around Novgorod were the Ilmen Slavs and neighboring Krivichi , who occupied territories surrounding the headwaters of
3528-567: 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
3675-582: The Polotsk Princes . The position of the grand prince of Kiev was weakened by the growing influence of regional clans. The rival Principality of Polotsk was contesting the power of the Grand Prince by occupying Novgorod, while Rostislav Vladimirovich was fighting for the Black Sea port of Tmutarakan belonging to Chernigov. Three of Yaroslav's sons that first allied together found themselves fighting each other especially after their defeat to
3822-525: The Primary Chronicle , Vladimir assembled a host of Varangian warriors, first subdued the Principality of Polotsk and then defeated and killed Yaropolk, thus establishing his reign over the entire Kievan Rus' realm. Although sometimes solely attributed to Vladimir, the Christianization of Kievan Rus' was a long and complicated process that began before the state's formation. As early as
3969-526: The Primary Chronicle , in 880–82, Oleg led a military force south along the Dnieper river, capturing Smolensk and Lyubech before reaching Kiev, where he deposed and killed Askold and Dir: "Oleg set himself up as prince in Kiev, and declared that it should be the "mother of Rus' cities". Oleg set about consolidating his power over the surrounding region and the riverways north to Novgorod, imposing tribute on
4116-952: 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
4263-579: 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
4410-677: 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
4557-728: The Slavic peoples . This literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy , science, and historiography without the necessity of learning Greek (there were some merchants who did business with Greeks and likely had an understanding of contemporary business Greek). Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Kievan church maintained communion with both Rome and Constantinople for some time, but along with most of
Chernihiv Voivodeship - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-633: The Smolensk War , Polish Parliament ( Sejm ) introduced a bill in which both land court and starosta office were established at Czernihow. In 1634 the Treaty of Polyanovka confirmed that Czernihow remained part of Poland, so finally in 1635 the Sejm created the voivodeship, with two senators – the Voivode and the Castellan of Czernihow. Both county elected two deputies to the Sejm, and one deputy to
4851-589: 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
4998-527: 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
5145-514: The Truce of Deulino , the Commonwealth gained control of the towns of Smolensk , Czernihow and Nowogród Siewierski . Since the truce was set to expire in 14.5 years, new acquisitions were not organized in official way. Smolensk was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , while both Czernihow and Nowogrod became part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland forming the Duchy of Siveria . In 1633, during
5292-890: The West Dvina , Dnieper and Volga rivers. To their north, in the Ladoga and Karelia regions, were the Finnic Chud tribe. In the south, in the area around Kiev, were the Poliane , the Drevliane to the west of the Dnieper, and the Severiane to the east. To their north and east were the Vyatichi , and to their south was forested land settled by Slav farmers, giving way to steppelands populated by nomadic herdsmen. There
5439-416: 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
5586-491: 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
5733-433: The steppe region, leading to military conflict, disruption of trade, and instability within the Khazar Khaganate. The Rus' and Slavs had earlier allied with the Khazars against Arab raids on the Caucasus, but they increasingly worked against them to secure control of the trade routes . The Byzantine Empire was able to take advantage of the turmoil to expand its political influence and commercial relationships, first with
5880-456: 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
6027-413: The 12th century also as Ruthenia or Rutenia . Various etymologies have been proposed, including Ruotsi , the Finnish designation for Sweden or Ros , a tribe from the middle Dnieper valley region. According to the prevalent theory, the name Rus ' , like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden ( *rootsi ), is derived from an Old Norse term for 'men who row' ( rods- ) because rowing
Chernihiv Voivodeship - Misplaced Pages Continue
6174-404: The 12th-century Orthodox priests who authored the Chronicle as an explanation how the Vikings managed to conquer the lands along the Varangian route so easily, as well as to support the legitimacy of the Rurikid dynasty. The three brothers— Rurik , Sineus and Truvor —supposedly established themselves in Novgorod, Beloozero and Izborsk , respectively. Two of the brothers died, and Rurik became
6321-442: 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
6468-438: The 1st century AD, Greeks in the Black Sea Colonies converted to Christianity, and the Primary Chronicle even records the legend of Andrew the Apostle 's mission to these coastal settlements, as well as blessing the site of present-day Kyiv. The Goths migrated to through the region in the 3rd century, adopting Arian Christianity in the 4th century, leaving behind 4th- and 5th-century churches excavated in Crimea, although
6615-416: The 9th century were divided between the Varangians and the Khazars. The Varangians are first mentioned imposing tribute from Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859. In 862, various tribes rebelled against the Varangians, driving them "back beyond the sea and, refusing them further tribute, set out to govern themselves". They said to themselves, "Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to
6762-496: The Balkans to drive the Rus' back, and a naval contingent reportedly destroyed much of the Rus' fleet on its return voyage (possibly an exaggeration since the Rus' soon mounted another attack). The outcome indicates increased military might by Byzantium since 911, suggesting a shift in the balance of power. Igor returned to Kiev keen for revenge. He assembled a large force of warriors from among neighboring Slavs and Pecheneg allies, and sent for reinforcements of Varangians from "beyond
6909-403: 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
7056-411: The Byzantines deteriorated, as Byzantium increasingly allied with the Pechenegs against them. The Pechenegs were thus secure to raid the lands of the Khazars from their base between the Volga and Don rivers, allowing them to expand to the west. Relations between the Rus' and Pechenegs were complex, as the groups alternately formed alliances with and against one another. The Pechenegs were nomads roaming
7203-416: The Christians of the Latin Church , the Jews , and the Muslims before finally arriving in Constantinople. They rejected Islam because, among other things, it prohibited the consumption of alcohol, and Judaism because the god of the Jews had permitted his chosen people to be deprived of their country. They found the ceremonies in the Roman church to be dull. But at Constantinople, they were so astounded by
7350-476: The Commonwealth handed Czernihow over to the Tsardom of Russia , which was confirmed on 3 May 1686 in the Eternal Peace Treaty . Poland kept the titles of civil servants of Czernihow Voivodeship, and later on, the number of fictitious deputies was raised from 4 to 6. Voivodeship Governor ( Wojewoda ) seat: Administrative divisions: 51°29′38″N 31°17′03″E / 51.493908°N 31.284207°E / 51.493908; 31.284207 Crown of
7497-431: 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
SECTION 50
#17327875356597644-432: 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
7791-431: The Cuman forces in 1068 at the Battle of the Alta River . The ruling Grand Prince Iziaslav fled to Poland asking for support and in a couple of years returned to establish the order. The affairs became even more complicated by the end of the 11th century driving the state into chaos and constant warfare. On the initiative of Vladimir II Monomakh in 1097 the Council of Liubech of Kievan Rus' took place near Chernigov with
7938-399: The Don river, and into the lower Volga region. The Rus' were raiding and plundering into the Caspian Sea region from 864, with the first large-scale expedition in 913, when they extensively raided Baku, Gilan, Mazandaran and penetrated into the Caucasus. As the 10th century progressed, the Khazars were no longer able to command tribute from the Volga Bulgars, and their relationship with
8085-400: The Drevlians and the Pechenegs, a period of peace ensued for over twenty years. In 941, Igor led another major Rus' attack on Constantinople, probably over trading rights again. A navy of 10,000 vessels, including Pecheneg allies, landed on the Bithynian coast and devastated the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. The attack was well timed, perhaps due to intelligence, as the Byzantine fleet
8232-410: 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
8379-515: The East Slav tribes. In 883, he conquered the Drevlians , imposing a fur tribute on them. By 885 he had subjugated the Poliane, Severiane, Vyatichi, and Radimichs , forbidding them to pay further tribute to the Khazars. Oleg continued to develop and expand a network of Rus' forts in Slavic lands, begun by Rurik in the north. The new Kievan state prospered due to its abundant supply of furs, beeswax, honey and slaves for export, and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe . In
8526-521: The Eastern churches it eventually split to follow the Eastern Orthodox. That being said, unlike other parts of the Greek world, Kievan Rus' did not have a strong hostility to the Western world. Yaroslav , known as "the Wise", struggled for power with his brothers. A son of Vladimir the Great , he was prince of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, he did not have uncontested rule of all of Kievan Rus' until 1036. Like Vladimir, Yaroslav
8673-409: 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)
8820-430: 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
8967-431: The Khazars and later with the Rus' and other steppe groups. The Byzantines established the Theme of Cherson , formally known as Klimata, in the Crimea in the 830s to defend against raids by the Rus' and to protect vital grain shipments supplying Constantinople. Cherson also served as a key diplomatic link with the Khazars and others on the steppe, and it became the centre of Black Sea commerce. The Byzantines also helped
SECTION 60
#17327875356599114-423: The Khazars build a fortress at Sarkel on the Don river to protect their northwest frontier against incursions by the Turkic migrants and the Rus', and to control caravan trade routes and the portage between the Don and Volga rivers. The expansion of the Rus' put further military and economic pressure on the Khazars, depriving them of territory, tributaries and trade. In around 890, Oleg waged an indecisive war in
9261-410: The Kiev principality was recognized after the death of Sviatoslav I in 972 and the ensuing struggle between Vladimir and Yaropolk . The region of Kiev dominated the region for the next two centuries. The grand prince (or grand duke) of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his formally subordinate relatives ruled the other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith of the state's power came during
9408-463: 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
9555-416: The King, and remaining in use until the Partitions of Poland . The nobility of former Czernihow Voivodeship had its sejmiks at Wlodzimierz Wolynski . Last voivode of Czernihow was a man named Ludwik Wilga, nominated in 1783. In 1785, Stanisław August Poniatowski gave fictitious title of starosta of Nowogrod Siewierski to Tadeusz Czacki . Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of
9702-402: The Kingdom of Poland 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 the patrimonial property of the monarch or dynasty, but became
9849-426: 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
9996-432: The Lands of Old Poland gives a detailed description of Czernihow Voivodeship: Czernihow on the Desna river is one of the eldest Slavic gord of Kievan Rus , as it was first mentioned in 907 (...) In 1238 it was captured and burned by the Tatars , after which the province of Czernihow – Nowogrod Siewierski turned into a ruin. Lithuanian Duke Algirdas captured this land in the mid-14th century, and it remained part of
10143-406: The Law." They accordingly went overseas to the Varangian Rus'. ... The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs and the Ves then said to the Rus', "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us". They thus selected three brothers with their kinfolk, who took with them all the Rus' and migrated. Modern scholars find this an unlikely series of events, probably made up by
10290-451: The Lesser Poland Tribunal at Lublin . In 1637, construction of a fortress at Konotop began, whose purpose was to protect the newly acquired province. The fortress was completed in 1642. The Commonwealth lost control of the province as early as 1648, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In the Treaty of Hadiach (1658), the Duchy of Ruthenia was created out of Czernihow Voivodship, Kiev Voivodeship and Bracław Voivodeship . The idea however
10437-424: The Norse is confirmed both by extensive Scandinavian settlement in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine and by Slavic influences in the Swedish language. Though the debate over the origin of the Rus' remains politically charged, there is broad agreement that if the proto-Rus' were indeed originally Norse, they were quickly nativized , adopting Slavic languages and other cultural practices. This position, roughly representing
10584-520: The Norse origins of the Rus' have been supported directly by state policy in some cases, and the resultant foundation myths have been included in some school textbooks in Russia. While Varangians were Norse traders and Vikings , many Russian and Ukrainian nationalist historians argue that the Rus' were themselves Slavs. Normanist theories focus on the earliest written source for the East Slavs ,
10731-409: The Patriarch announced that the Rus' had accepted a bishop, and in 874 he speaks of an "Archbishop of the Rus'." Relations between the Rus' and Byzantines became more complex after Oleg took control over Kiev, reflecting commercial, cultural, and military concerns. The wealth and income of the Rus' depended heavily upon trade with Byzantium. Constantine Porphyrogenitus described the annual course of
10878-698: The Pechenegs to attack the Magyars from their rear. Boxed in, the Magyars were forced to migrate further west across the Carpathian Mountains into the Hungarian plain, depriving the Khazars of an important ally and a buffer from the Rus'. The migration of the Magyars allowed access for the Rus' to the Black Sea, and they soon launched excursions into Khazar territory along the sea coast, up
11025-458: 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
11172-723: 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
11319-609: 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
11466-581: The Rus' attacked Constantinople again in 907, probably to secure trade access. The Chronicle glorifies the military prowess and shrewdness of Oleg, an account imbued with legendary detail. Byzantine sources do not mention the attack, but a pair of treaties in 907 and 911 set forth a trade agreement with the Rus', the terms suggesting pressure on the Byzantines, who granted the Rus' quarters and supplies for their merchants and tax-free trading privileges in Constantinople. The Chronicle provides
11613-564: The Rus' in later campaigns against the Byzantines, yet allied with the Byzantines against the Rus' at other times. After the Rus' attack on Constantinople in 860, the Byzantine Patriarch Photius sent missionaries north to convert the Rus' and the Slavs to Christianity. Prince Rastislav of Moravia had requested the Emperor to provide teachers to interpret the holy scriptures, so in 863 the brothers Cyril and Methodius were sent as missionaries, due to their knowledge of
11760-610: The Rus', including stringent regulations on the conduct of Rus' merchants in Cherson and Constantinople and specific punishments for violations of the law. The Byzantines may have been motivated to enter the treaty out of concern of a prolonged alliance of the Rus', Pechenegs, and Bulgarians against them, though the more favorable terms further suggest a shift in power. Following the death of Igor in 945, his wife Olga ruled as regent in Kiev until their son Sviatoslav reached maturity (c. 963). His decade-long reign over Kievan Rus'
11907-399: The Russian state owed its existence and origins to the supposedly racially superior Norse tribes. More recently, in the context of resurgent nationalism in post-Soviet states, Anglophone scholarship has analyzed renewed efforts to use this debate to create ethno-nationalist foundation stories, with governments sometimes directly involved in the project. Conferences and publications questioning
12054-571: 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
12201-867: The Slavonic language. The Slavs had no written language, so the brothers devised the Glagolitic alphabet , later replaced by Cyrillic (developed in the First Bulgarian Empire ) and standardized the language of the Slavs, later known as Old Church Slavonic . They translated portions of the Bible and drafted the first Slavic civil code and other documents, and the language and texts spread throughout Slavic territories, including Kievan Rus'. The mission of Cyril and Methodius served both evangelical and diplomatic purposes, spreading Byzantine cultural influence in support of imperial foreign policy. In 867
12348-509: The Varangians to the Greeks ," continuing to the Black Sea and on to Constantinople. Kiev was a central outpost along the Dnieper route and a hub with the east–west overland trade route between the Khazars and the Germanic lands of Central Europe. and may have been a staging post for Radhanite Jewish traders between Western Europe, Itil and China. These commercial connections enriched Rus' merchants and princes, funding military forces and
12495-704: The Volga-Don steppes to eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus during the 8th century, an era historians call the ' Pax Khazarica ', trading and frequently allying with the Byzantine Empire against Persians and Arabs. In the late 8th century, the collapse of the Göktürk Khaganate led the Magyars and the Pechenegs , Ugrians and Turkic peoples from Central Asia, to migrate west into
12642-705: 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
12789-597: The Wise ( r. 1019–1054 ); his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda , shortly after his death. The state began to decline in the late 11th century, gradually disintegrating into various rival regional powers throughout the 12th century. It was further weakened by external factors, such as the decline of the Byzantine Empire , its major economic partner, and
12936-504: The accompanying diminution of trade routes through its territory. It finally fell to the Mongol invasion in the mid-13th century, though the Rurik dynasty would continue to rule until the death of Feodor I of Russia in 1598. The modern nations of Belarus , Russia , and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor, with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it, and
13083-632: 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
13230-504: The beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the liturgical service held there that they made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Byzantine Rite was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged to marry Princess Anna , the sister of Byzantine emperor Basil II . Historically, it
13377-477: 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
13524-511: The broader one, encompassing all the lands under the hegemony of Kiev's grand princes. The Russian term Kiyevskaya Rus' ( Russian : Ки́евская Русь ) was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography to refer to the period when the centre was in Kiev. In the 19th century it also appeared in Ukrainian as Kyivska Rus' ( Ukrainian : Ки́ївська Русь ). Later, the Russian term
13671-660: 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
13818-454: The cities of Kiev, Chernigov , and Pereyaslavl and their surroundings came under Varangian control. From the late tenth century, Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav the Wise tried to associate the name with all of the extended princely domains. Both meanings persisted in sources until the Mongol conquest: the narrower one, referring to the triangular territory east of the middle Dnieper, and
13965-662: 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
14112-555: The construction of churches, palaces, fortifications, and further towns. Demand for luxury goods fostered production of expensive jewelry and religious wares, allowing their export, and an advanced credit and money-lending system may have also been in place. The rapid expansion of the Rus' to the south led to conflict and volatile relationships with the Khazars and other neighbors on the Pontic steppe . The Khazars dominated trade from
14259-536: The controversy is related to the foundation myths of modern states in the region. This often unfruitful debate over origins has periodically devolved into competing nationalist narratives of dubious scholarly value being promoted directly by various government bodies in a number of states. This was seen in the Stalinist period, when Soviet historiography sought to distance the Rus' from any connection to Germanic tribes, in an effort to dispel Nazi propaganda claiming
14406-511: 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
14553-471: The coveted throne of Kiev. Whatever the case, according to professor Ivan Katchanovski 'no adequate system of succession to the Kievan throne was developed' after the death of Yaroslav the Wise ( r. 1019–1054 ), commencing a process of gradual disintegration. The unconventional power succession system fomented constant hatred and rivalry within the royal family. Familicide was frequently deployed to obtain power and can be traced particularly during
14700-404: 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
14847-533: 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
14994-430: 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
15141-595: 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
15288-679: 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
15435-410: The flames, jumped overboard, preferring water to fire. Some sank, weighed down by the weight of their breastplates and helmets; others caught fire." Those captured were beheaded. The ploy dispelled the Rus' fleet, but their attacks continued into the hinterland as far as Nicomedia , with many atrocities reported as victims were crucified and set up for use as targets. At last a Byzantine army arrived from
15582-445: 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) ,
15729-473: 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
15876-460: 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
16023-403: 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
16170-439: 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
16317-582: The lands of the lower Dniester and Dnieper rivers with the Tivertsi and the Ulichs , who were likely acting as vassals of the Magyars, blocking Rus' access to the Black Sea. In 894, the Magyars and Pechenegs were drawn into the wars between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire . The Byzantines arranged for the Magyars to attack Bulgarian territory from the north, and Bulgaria in turn persuaded
16464-424: 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
16611-603: The main intention to find an understanding among the fighting sides. By 1130, all descendants of Vseslav the Seer had been exiled to the Byzantine Empire by Mstislav the Great . The most fierce resistance to the Monomakhs was posed by the Olegovichi when the izgoi Vsevolod II managed to become the Grand Prince of Kiev. The Rostislavichi , who had initially established in the lands of Galicia by 1189, were defeated by
16758-717: The name Kievan Rus' derived from what is now the capital of Ukraine. During its existence, Kievan Rus' was known as the " Rus' land" ( Old East Slavic : ро́усьскаѧ землѧ́ , romanized: rusĭskaę zemlę , from the ethnonym Роусь , Rusĭ ; Medieval Greek : Ῥῶς , romanized : Rhos ; Arabic : الروس , romanized : ar-Rūs ), in Greek as Ῥωσία , Rhosia , in Old French as Russie, Rossie , in Latin as Rusia or Russia (with local German spelling variants Ruscia and Ruzzia ), and from
16905-749: The north, Novgorod served as a commercial link between the Baltic Sea and the Volga trade route to the lands of the Volga Bulgars , the Khazars, and across the Caspian Sea as far as Baghdad , providing access to markets and products from Central Asia and the Middle East. Trade from the Baltic also moved south on a network of rivers and short portages along the Dnieper known as the " route from
17052-589: 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
17199-720: 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,
17346-574: 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
17493-577: The population of Kiev to be baptised in August 988. The greatest resistance against Christianisation appears to have occurred in northern towns including Novgorod, Suzdal, and Belozersk. Adherence to the Eastern Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from Greek that had been produced for
17640-518: The princes of Kiev, collecting tribute from client tribes, assembling the product into a flotilla of hundreds of boats, conducting them down the Dnieper to the Black Sea, and sailing to the estuary of the Dniester, the Danube delta, and on to Constantinople. On their return trip they would carry silk fabrics, spices, wine, and fruit. The importance of this trade relationship led to military action when disputes arose. The Primary Chronicle reports that
17787-401: The reigns of Vladimir the Great ( r. 980–1015 ) and Prince Yaroslav I the Wise ( r. 1019–1054 ). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus' that had begun under Oleg. Vladimir had been prince of Novgorod when his father Sviatoslav I died in 972, but fled to Scandinavia in 977 after his half-brother Yaropolk killed his other half-brother Oleg. According to
17934-570: 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
18081-513: 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
18228-463: The sea". In 944, the Rus' force advanced again on the Greeks, by land and sea, and a Byzantine force from Cherson responded. The Emperor sent gifts and offered tribute in lieu of war, and the Rus' accepted. Envoys were sent between the Rus', the Byzantines, and the Bulgarians in 945, and a peace treaty was completed. The agreement again focused on trade, but this time with terms less favorable to
18375-541: The sole ruler of the territory and progenitor of the Rurik dynasty . A short time later, two of Rurik's men, Askold and Dir , asked him for permission to go to Tsargrad ( Constantinople ). On their way south, they came upon "a small city on a hill", Kiev, which was a tributary of the Khazars at the time, stayed there and "established their dominion over the country of the Polyanians ." The Primary Chronicle reports that Askold and Dir continued to Constantinople with
18522-476: The steppe raising livestock which they traded with the Rus' for agricultural goods and other products. The lucrative Rus' trade with the Byzantine Empire had to pass through Pecheneg-controlled territory, so the need for generally peaceful relations was essential. Nevertheless, while the Primary Chronicle reports the Pechenegs entering Rus' territory in 915 and then making peace, they were waging war with one another again in 920. Pechenegs are reported assisting
18669-644: The time of the Yaroslavichi (sons of Yaroslav), when the established succession system was skipped in the establishment of Vladimir II Monomakh as the Grand Prince of Kiev ( r. 1113–1125 ), in turn creating major squabbles between the Olegovichi (sons of Oleg I ) from Chernigov, the Monomakhovichi from Pereyaslavl, the Izyaslavichi (sons of Iziaslav ) from Turov – Volhynia , and
18816-403: 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
18963-409: 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
19110-430: 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
19257-407: 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
19404-573: Was Oleg the Wise ( r. 879–912 ). He extended his control from Novgorod south along the Dnieper river valley to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east, and took control of the city. Sviatoslav I ( r. 943–972 ) achieved the first major territorial expansion of the state, fighting a war of conquest against the Khazars . Vladimir the Great ( r. 980–1015 ) spread Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, extended it to all inhabitants of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus' reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav
19551-402: Was at the center. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east, uniting the East Slavic tribes. According to the Primary Chronicle , the first ruler to unite East Slavic lands into what would become Kievan Rus'
19698-463: 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
19845-415: 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
19992-401: 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
20139-543: Was eager to improve relations with the rest of Europe, especially the Byzantine Empire. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Eupraxia , the daughter of his son Vsevolod I , was married to Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor . Yaroslav also arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary and Norway. Yaroslav promulgated the first law code of Kievan Rus', the Russkaya Pravda ; built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod ; patronized local clergy and monasticism ; and
20286-420: 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
20433-404: Was marked by rapid expansion through the conquest of the Khazars of the Pontic steppe and the invasion of the Balkans . By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets on the Danube in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity , Sviatoslav, like his druzhina , remained
20580-460: Was occupied with the Arabs in the Mediterranean, and the bulk of its army was stationed in the east. The Rus' burned towns, churches and monasteries, butchering the people and amassing booty. The emperor arranged for a small group of retired ships to be outfitted with Greek fire throwers and sent them out to meet the Rus', luring them into surrounding the contingent before unleashing the Greek fire. Liutprand of Cremona wrote that "the Rus', seeing
20727-488: Was once controversy over whether the Rus' were Varangians or Slavs (see anti-Normanism ), however, more recently scholarly attention has focused more on debating how quickly an ancestrally Norse people assimilated into Slavic culture. This uncertainty is due largely to a paucity of contemporary sources. Attempts to address this question instead rely on archaeological evidence, the accounts of foreign observers, and legends and literature from centuries later. To some extent
20874-399: Was or whether there was any system at all.' According to historian Nancy Kollmann, the rota system was used with the princely succession moving from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for
21021-461: Was quickly abandoned, and after the Truce of Andrusovo (1667), Czernihow Voivodeship was annexed by the Tsardom of Russia . The history of Czernihow Voivodeship does not end in 1667. Following the example of other provinces lost by the Commonwealth in the mid-17th century (e.g. Smolensk Voivodeship ), the government in Warsaw continued to claim it as a titular voivodeship, with fictitious titles of voivode, senators, deputies and starostas named by
21168-470: Was rendered into Belarusian as Kiyewskaya Rus' or Kijeŭskaja Ruś ( Belarusian : Кіеўская Русь ) and into Rusyn as Kyïvska Rus' ( Rusyn : Київска Русь ). In English, the term was introduced in the early 20th century, when it was found in the 1913 English translation of Vasily Klyuchevsky 's A History of Russia , to distinguish the early polity from successor states, which were also named Rus ' . The Varangian Rus' from Scandinavia used
21315-413: Was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic , Norse , and Finnic , it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty , founded by the Varangian prince Rurik . The name was coined by Russian historians in the 19th century to describe the period when Kiev
21462-504: Was the first voivode (governor) of the Chernihiv Voivodeship. The voivodeship was part of the Lesser Poland Province , and was divided into two counties : Czernihów and Nowogród Siewierski. Local sejmiks took place at Czernihów, and it had two senators in the Polish–Lithuanian Senate . Together with Kijów Voivodeship ( Kyiv ) and Bracław Voivodeship ( Bratslav ) it made the territory that came to be known as Ukraine. The history of Czernihow Voivodeship dates back to 1618, when after
21609-429: Was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen ( Rus-law ) or Roden . The name Rus ' would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi . When the Varangian princes arrived, the name Rus' was associated with them and came to be associated with the territories they controlled. Initially
#658341