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106-810: Swarzewo was a royal village of the Polish Crown , administratively located in Puck County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship . During the German occupation of Poland ( World War II ), Swarzewo was one of the sites of executions of Poles , carried out by the Germans in 1939 as part of the Intelligenzaktion , and in 1942 the Germans expelled several Polish families, whose farms were then handed over to German colonists as part of

212-934: A couple of months altogether. Negotiations with the Polish nobility frequently took place in Hungary. Hungarians themselves were unpopular in Poland, as was the king's Polish mother who governed the kingdom. In 1376, circa 160 Hungarians in her retinue were massacred in Kraków and the queen returned to Hungary disgraced. Louis replaced her with their relative, Vladislaus II of Opole . The Hungarian-Polish union fell apart after Louis died in 1382. The dissatisfied Polish nobles demanded that his successor in Hungary, Mary , move to Kraków and reign over Hungary and Poland from there. Mary's mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia (widow of Louis and grandniece of Casimir III's father, Vladislaus I ), knew that

318-730: 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. Capetian House of Anjou The Capetian House of Anjou , or House of Anjou-Sicily , or House of Anjou-Naples

424-484: 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

530-529: 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

636-579: 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 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

742-427: A victim of power clashes in the court of Naples. Robert's claim to the throne was rather tenuous and did not follow primogeniture . Andrew's grandfather, Charles Martel of Anjou , had died young; therefore, the throne should have passed to Andrew's father. However, due to fears of impending invasion from Sicily, it was felt that a seven-year-old heir was too risky and would not be able to hold off invasions. The throne

848-584: A window. Isolde, Andrew's Hungarian nurse took the Prince's corpse to the church of the monks, and remained with it until next morning mourning it. When the Hungarian knights arrived she told them everything in their mother tongue so no one else would learn about the truth, and soon they left Naples reporting everything to the Hungarian King. The deed would taint the rest of Joanna's reign, although she

954-764: 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

1060-707: Is shown below. Charles also felt that he inherited the Hohenstaufen claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem , symbolized by Charles impaling the arms of Jerusalem with his own. This was shown in several different versions: Charles' son and successor Charles II of Naples married the hieress of Hungary. Their son Charles Martel quartered France ancien with the arms of the Hungarian Royal Árpád dynasty to symbolize their claim. Charles Martel's son Charles Robert became Hungarian King and impaled

1166-417: Is unproved) determined to forestall Andrew's coronation. During a hunting trip at Aversa , Andrew left his room in the middle of the night and was set upon by the conspirators. A treacherous servant barred the door behind him, and, as Joanna cowered in their bed, a terrible struggle ensued, Andrew defending himself furiously and shrieking for aid. He was finally overpowered, strangled with a cord, and flung from

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1272-490: The Lebensraum policy. The expelled Poles were enslaved as forced labour to serve Germans in other villages in the region. This Puck County location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Crown of 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

1378-684: 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

1484-608: The Hohenstaufen king, Manfred of Sicily . The newer arms can be seen in the contemporary illustration of Charles battling Manfred for control of the Kingdom of Sicily at the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266, where he carries his newer arms on his shield, the shields of his soldiers, and his pennant. Manfred's troops carry the while eagle alluding to the imperial Hohenstaufens. When Charles became King, he started minting coinage with his arms on it. An example

1590-526: 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

1696-508: 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 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

1802-512: 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

1908-952: 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

2014-579: 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

2120-677: 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

2226-589: 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

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2332-579: 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

2438-552: 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 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

2544-551: 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

2650-517: 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 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

2756-439: 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 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

2862-576: The Angevian arms with Hungary. His son, Louis I the Great carried this through to his arms when he ruled Poland. As seen above, when Louis I of Hungary died without male hiers, Charles III of Naples , considered himself the heir to the Hungarian throne as the senior Angevin male and male descendant of the Arpads. He added the arms of Hungary to Jerusalem and Anjou, coming up with

2968-649: The Capetians had wrested from the House of Plantagenet only a few decades earlier. Charles married an heiress of the County of Provence named Beatrice of Provence . She was a member of the House of Barcelona ; this meant Charles' holdings were growing as Count of Provence . After fighting in the Seventh Crusade , Charles was offered the Kingdom of Sicily by Pope Clement IV . At the time this included not only

3074-561: 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

3180-545: 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

3286-622: 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

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3392-465: 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)

3498-462: 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 the kingdom's territory. This was an open challenge to

3604-531: The House of Anjou-Durazzo became extinct in the male line with the death of King Ladislaus of Naples in 1414, and totally extinct with the death of his sister Joanna II in 1435. During the Middle Ages , there were several marriages between the Árpád dynasty and the House of Capet . Charles I , founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily, with his first wife, Beatrice of Provence fathered his eldest son, Charles II of Naples . (Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth

3710-641: The Hungarian commander Ulrich von Wolfart commanded a strong resistance in Apulia. Joanna and Louis would await a new trial on Andrew's assassination, to be held in Avignon. The verdict was Joanna's acquittal from any charge in January 1352, and a peace was signed with Hungary on 23 March 1352. Ultimately, 37 years later, Louis' kinsman Charles III of Naples conquered Naples with Hungarian aid and put Joanna to death. Stephen of Anjou (1332–1354), Duke of Slavonia ,

3816-463: The Hungarian crown, backed by his mother, and the Pope. He started to style himself King of Hungary, but he never managed to gain enough support from the Hungarian magnates to realize his claim. With Andrew III's childless death (1301), the "last golden branch" of the tree of King Saint Stephen's family ended. The Hungarian diet was determined to keep the blood of Saint Stephen (first king of Hungary) on

3922-575: The Hungarian throne as the senior Angevin male, and ousted Louis' daughter Mary of Hungary in December 1385. It was not difficult for him to reach the power, as he counted with the support of several Croatian lords, and many contacts which he made during his period as Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. However, Elizabeth of Bosnia, widow of Louis and mother of Mary, arranged to have Charles assassinated on 7 February 1386. He died of wounds at Visegrád on 24 February. His son, Ladislaus of Naples would try to obtain

4028-617: 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

4134-578: The Kingdoms of Sicily , Naples , Hungary , Croatia , Albania and Poland . A younger son of the House of Capet king Louis VIII of France the Lion , Charles was first given a noble title by his brother, Louis IX of France who succeeded to the French throne in 1226. Charles was named Count of Anjou and Maine ; the feudal County of Anjou was a western vassal state of the Kingdom of France , which

4240-439: 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 the kingdom and its lands. An expression of this attitude was the appointment of his nephew, King Louis

4346-531: The Polish nobility's opposition to her intended husband, William, becoming king without further negotiation, or simply emphasized her status as queen regnant. With her mother's consent, Jadwiga's advisors opened negotiations with Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania , who was still a pagan, concerning his potential marriage to Jadwiga. Jogaila signed the Union of Krewo , pledging to convert to Roman Catholicism and to promote his pagan subjects' conversion. Jogaila, who took

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4452-634: 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 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

4558-406: 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

4664-406: The Polish–Lithuanian union grew into a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and lasted until the Third Partition in 1795. The Kingdom of Albania , or Regnum Albaniae , was established by Charles of Anjou in the Albanian territory he acquired from the Despotate of Epirus in the year 1271. He took the title of "King of Albania" in February 1272. The kingdom briefly extended from

4770-426: 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

4876-495: 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

4982-487: The albanians to a small area centered around Durrës. The Angevins held Durrës until 1368, when Karl Thopia who was the great great grandson of Charles I of Naples captured the city. As a younger (youngest) son of Louis VIII the Lion of France, Charles was assigned the arms based on the coat of arms of France of the Capetian dynasty differenced, like his brothers, with the gold castle of Castile on red/ gules based on his mother, Blanche of Castile 's arms . Charles

5088-443: The approval of Pope Clement VI , Joanna was crowned sole monarch of Naples in August 1344. Fearing for his life, Andrew wrote to his mother Elizabeth that he would soon flee the kingdom. She intervened, and made a state visit, before she returned to Hungary allegedly bribing Pope Clement to reverse himself and permit the coronation of Andrew. Hearing of the Pope's reversal, a group of noble conspirators (the involvement of Queen Joanna

5194-512: 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

5300-422: The arms of his paternal France , the fleur-de-lys with a simple red label. The label is most commonly depicted with 3 tabs, but can be seen with 4 or 5 tabs. He was not the first to use these arms. His uncle Philippe le Hurepel , count of Clermont used them until his death in 1234. Charles was invested by the Pope as King of Sicily in June 1265, and crowned by 5 cardinals on 5 January 1266 in opposition to

5406-426: The baptismal name Władysław, married Jadwiga on 15 February 1386. Jogaila, now in Polish styled Władysław Jagiełło , was crowned King of Poland on 4 March 1386. As Jadwiga's co-ruler, Jagiełło worked closely with his wife. Hedvig (or Jadwiga) was childless for over a decade. She became pregnant in late 1398 or early 1399. A newborn princess named Elizabeth Bonifacia was delivered on 22 June 1399 at Wawel Castle. However,

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5512-410: 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

5618-475: 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

5724-430: 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

5830-457: 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

5936-740: The crown of Hungary in the future, but never reached his goal. In 1355, the last Piast king of Poland, Casimir III , designated his sororal nephew, the Angevin king Louis I of Hungary , as his heir presumptive by the Privilege of Buda . Upon the death of Casimir (5 November 1370), who left no legitimate sons, Louis ascended the Polish throne virtually unopposed. The Polish nobility welcomed his accession, rightly believing that Louis would be an absentee king who would not take much interest in Polish affairs. He sent his mother Elizabeth , sister of Casimir III, to govern Poland as regent. Louis probably considered himself first and foremost king of Hungary; he visited his northern kingdom three times and spent there

6042-430: 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 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

6148-404: 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

6254-533: 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

6360-486: The early 1320s. I. Charles I of Anjou 1226/7–1285 king of Sicily(-Naples) = Beatrice of Provence The three surviving sons of Charles Robert (Charles I of Hungary) were Louis I of Hungary (1326–1382), Andrew, Duke of Calabria (1327–1345), and Stephen, Duke of Slavonia (1332–1354). Louis I had only two surviving daughters, Mary of Hungary (1371–1395), who married the future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg , and Hedwig of Poland (1373/74–1399), who

6466-430: 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

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6572-430: 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

6678-415: 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 the congress of Visegrad in 1335, Casimir bought off John of Bohemia claims to

6784-413: The government of Poland. Margaret gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth (in 1370 she married Philip of Taranto ), and a son John , who inherited Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia from his father, but he was still a child when he died in 1360. On the death of Louis I of Hungary, Charles III of Naples , son of Louis of Durazzo (1324–1362), the great-grandson of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary, claimed

6890-445: 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) ,

6996-410: The infant died after only three weeks, on 13 July 1399.[153] Jadwiga, too, was on her deathbed. She died on 17 July 1399, four days after her newborn daughter. Thus, the Polish throne went over to the Jagiellonian dynasty of Lithuanian origin. The union of Poland and Lithuania was a decisive moment in the histories of both countries; it marked a beginning of the four centuries of shared history. By 1569,

7102-451: The island of Sicily but also the southern half of the Italian Peninsula . Pope Clement IV offered it to Charles because of a conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire , and the latter was represented by the ruling House of Hohenstaufen . It was at the Battle of Benevento that the Guelph Capetians gained the Sicilian kingdom from the Ghibelline Swabians, this was cemented after victory at Tagliacozzo . In keeping with

7208-454: The kingdom's barons swore loyalty to the new ruler as he marched to Naples from Benevento. While visiting Aversa, where his brother had been murdered, Louis had Charles of Durazzo assassinated in revenge by his condottiero. The Neapolitans, who had quickly grown unhappy with the severe Hungarian rule, called back Joan, who paid for her return expedition by selling her rights on Avignon to the popes. She landed near Naples and easily captured it, but

7314-403: 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

7420-445: 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 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,

7526-443: The lack of supporters would render her influence at least as restricted as that of her mother-in-law and refused to move. She abandoned the idea of attempting to subdue the Polish nobility by force and agreed to send her younger surviving daughter, Hedwig , to be crowned as Louis' successor in Poland. Hedvig (known as Jadwiga in Poland) was crowned "king" in Poland's capital, Kraków, on 16 October 1384. Her coronation either reflected

7632-424: 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

7738-520: The meantime had married her cousin Louis of Taranto and had signed a peace with Naples' traditional enemy, the Kingdom of Sicily. The army of Naples, 2,700 knights and 5,000 infantrymen, was led by Louis of Taranto. On 11 January 1348, in the Battle of Capua, the king of Hungary defeated the army of Louis of Taranto. Four days later the queen repaired to Provence, while her husband followed soon afterwards. All

7844-667: 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,

7950-584: 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

8056-551: The political landscape of the period, Charles is described by scholars as shrewd, energetic and highly ambitious. He signed the Treaty of Viterbo in 1267 with Baldwin II of Courtenay and William II of Villehardouin , the political alliance gave many of the rights of the Latin Empire to Charles and a marriage alliance for his daughter Beatrice of Sicily . The Byzantines had taken back the city of Constantinople in 1261 and this

8162-432: 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 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

8268-516: The region of Dyrrhachium (present-day Durrës in Albania) south along the coast to Butrint . A major attempt to advance further in direction of Constantinople, failed at the Siege of Berat (1280–1281) . A Byzantine counteroffensive soon ensued, which drove the Angevins out of the interior by 1282. The Sicilian Vespers further weakened the position of Charles, and the kingdom was soon reduced by

8374-518: 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 the remaining Piast princes and to regain all the lands ruled by

8480-485: 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 the true sovereign. In Bohemia, the concept of the corona regni emerged primarily in connection with the territorial expansion and consolidation of

8586-413: 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 the Great's testament in 1370

8692-590: The southern half of the Italian Peninsula , the Kingdom of Naples . The house and its various branches would go on to influence much of the history of Southern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages until it became extinct in 1435. Historically, the house ruled the Counties of Anjou , Maine , Touraine , Provence and Forcalquier ; the Principalities of Achaea and Taranto ; and

8798-599: 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 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

8904-496: The third surviving son of Charles Robert , died before his older brother. For this reason, he (and his son) had no chance to take over the rule neither in Hungary, nor in Poland. In 1350, he married Margaret of Bavaria . His marriage with a German princess made him unpopular in Poland. The Polish noblemen acknowledged Louis as Casimir III's sole heir in July 1351 only after he had promised that he would not allow Stephen to participate in

9010-416: The throne in the maternal line at least. In the upcoming years, a civil war followed between various claimants to the throne. After the short period of rule of Wenceslaus of Bohemia (1301–1305), and Otto of Bavaria (1305–1307) the civil war ended with Charles Robert's (1308–1342) victory, the son of Charles Martel of Anjou , but he was forced to continue fighting against the powerful Hungarian lords up to

9116-423: 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 the king's rule, and in an ideological sense, all the territories that once belonged to

9222-430: 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

9328-512: 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

9434-654: Was a royal house and cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty . It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as Angevin , meaning "from Anjou" in France . Founded by Charles I of Anjou , the youngest son of Louis VIII of France , the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century. The War of the Sicilian Vespers later forced him out of the island of Sicily , which left him with

9540-723: Was a plan to take it back from Michael VIII Palaiologos . It also recognised Charles' possession of Corfu and cities in the Balkans such as Durazzo , as well as giving him suzerainty over the Principality of Achaea and sovereignty of the Aegean islands aside from those already held by the Republic of Venice . For a while Charles was preoccupied helping his French brother in the unsuccessful Eighth Crusade on Tunis . After this he once again focused on Constantinople, but his fleet

9646-686: 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

9752-474: 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

9858-401: 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

9964-647: 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 the Pope. In 1320, the Archbishop of Gniezno crowned him king in Kraków, which formally did not infringe on

10070-400: 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

10176-524: Was given in marriage to the Grand Duke of Lithuania Władysław II Jagiełło , the future King of Poland . (See the section of Poland.) After Louis I's death without male heirs, Mary's husband, Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437) managed to be accepted as Mary's co-ruler, by the Hungarian lords. When the queen died (1395) the Hungarian crown passed over to the House of Luxembourg. In 1333, the six years old second son of Charles Robert, Andrew (1327–1345)

10282-528: Was given in marriage to the future Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1269, but Ladislaus preferred his mistresses to her, and the marriage remained childless). In 1270, Charles II married Mary of Hungary , daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman . They had fourteen children which provided the House of Anjou-Sicily with a secure position in Naples. The childless Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1262–1290),

10388-459: 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 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

10494-454: Was invested in August 1246 by his brother Louis IX of France as Count of Anjou and Maine . Also, in 1246 Charles married an heiress of the County of Provence , Beatrice of Provence . She was a member of the House of Barcelona ; this meant Charles became Count of Provence in right of his wife. The arms that Charles had were changed sometime on or after 1246 to the ones below,

10600-617: 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

10706-437: Was offered to the next son of Charles II of Naples , Louis , but he refused on religious grounds, and it thus passed to Robert. To recompense Andrew's father, Charles II decided to assign him the claim to Hungary. When King Robert died in 1343, in his last will and testament, he formally bequeathed his kingdom to his granddaughter Joanna, making no mention of Andrew and thus denying him the right to reign along with Joanna. With

10812-513: Was succeeded by Andrew III as King of Hungary. He was the son of Stephen the Posthumous , considered by Stephen's much older half-brothers ( Béla IV of Hungary , Coloman of Halych , Andrew II of Halych ) a bastard son of infidelity. For this reason, after the death of Ladislaus IV. some of the Árpád dynasty 's cognates sought the family as extinct. In Naples, Charles Martel of Anjou , the eldest son of Mary of Hungary announced his claim to

10918-511: Was taken to the court of Naples by his father for dynastic purposes, who put him under guardianship of Robert the Wise . Andrew was betrothed in 1334 to his cousin Joanna, granddaughter and heiress apparent of King Robert of Naples; Andrew's father was a fraternal nephew of King Robert. At the age of 15 he married Joanna I of Naples . After the death of Robert (1343), the King of Naples, Andrew became

11024-502: Was twice acquitted of any charge in the trials that followed. Andrew's elder brother Louis I of Hungary several times invaded the Kingdom of Naples and drove out Joanna, only to meet with reverses. In November 1347, Louis set out for Naples with some 1,000 soldiers (Hungarians and Germans), mostly mercenaries. When he reached the border of Joanna's kingdom, he had 2,000 Hungarian knights, 2,000 mercenary heavy cavalry, 2,000 Cuman horse archers and 6000 mercenary heavy infantry. Joanna in

11130-524: Was well received by local chiefs. Charles was driven out of Sicily in 1282, but his successors ruled Naples until 1435. This House of Anjou included the branches of Anjou-Hungary, which ruled Hungary (1308–1385, 1386–1395) and Poland (1370–1399), Anjou- Taranto , which ruled the remnants of the Latin Empire (1313–1374) and Anjou-Durazzo, which ruled Naples (1382–1435) and Hungary (1385–1386). The senior line of

11236-590: Was wrecked in a freak storm off the coast of Trapani . With the elevation of Pope Gregory X , there was a truce between Charles and Michael in the form of the Council of Lyons , as Christians focused on improving ecumenical relations, with hopes of regaining the Kingdom of Jerusalem back from the Muslims. Charles had fully solidified his rule over Durazzo by 1272, creating a small Kingdom of Albania for himself, out of previously Despotate of Epirus territory; he

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