Anniversary of the celebration of King of Poland 1 of the sons of Kazimierz IV Jagiellończyk.
Today in our calendar we will look at the times of the reign of John Olbracht.
On June 7, 1492, Kazimierz IV Jagiellończyk died. He appointed his boy Alexander as Lithuanian ruler. Poles were “recommended” by another son, John Olbracht. due to the fact that Poland, unlike Lithuania, was not an hereditary monarchy of the Jagiellonians, so Kazimierz could not straight appoint his successor in Poland. The brothers of John, Władysław and Zygmunt, and the Duke of Masovian Janusz II besides sought the crown after his father.
Part of the nobility was ready to advocate for the large Lithuanian prince Alexander, but this one, with his youngest brother Frederick and queen mother, supported Jan Olbracht. Władysław Czech-Hungarian, Olbracht's main countercandidate, did not start more active efforts for the Polish crown. Finally, on August 27, Jan Olbracht was elected king of Poland (at the end of the parliament in Piotrków). The vote was nameless and the consequence was almost unanimous in his favor.
Following the vote, the talker of the Sejm, Rafał Jarosławski, left the Chamber and, having stood before all the noble Members in the Sejm, announced the result, after which he asked them 3 times whether it was their will. erstwhile the assembled 3 times answered, “There is, there is!” Olbracht’s election as king was sanctioned. However, this meant breaking the individual union with Lithuania, but both countries remained in a strict political and military alliance.
After the coronation, the fresh ruler swore all, previously obtained by the nobles privileges, in return for which he obtained an increase in taxes for military purposes. For the money he earned, he reinforced permanent troops defending the confederate east ends called common defense. In interior politics, like his father, Jan Olbracht placed the average noble against the born, rich magnatery.
In 1496, he released the so-called. Piotrków statutes, or a collection of fresh privileges for knighthood. The statues exempt the nobility from customs and more strictly restricted the right to leave peasants from the countryside. Since then, only 1 peasant per year could leave the village. While the abolition of duties was an economical affirmative move, the issue of emigration de facto abolished the individual freedom of peasants. They became assigned to the earth everlasting tenants.
The statues besides introduced a ban on the wearing of gold chains by the owners, and a fewer years later they were denied the right to have weapons at their side and to play dice (as an honorary game, thus intended only for higher castes). The fresh privileges of the nobles prohibited the acquisition of land by the townspeople and the holding of all government offices. The rights of the clergy were besides limited – from now on priests outside the state of nobility could not sit in the chapters and academic cathedrals and hold advanced church offices.
Finally, the law on the sale and granting of earthly donations to orders and Catholic parishes has been abolished since the baptism of Poland. In these fresh activities, Kallimach’s hand was clearly seen as 1 of the leading royal advisers.
In abroad policy, Jan Olbracht sought to strengthen the position of the Crown and territorial expansion. In 1494 he bought the Duchy of Zatorskie, and a year later he incorporated Płocka Land into Poland. In the face of the ever-increasing Turkish power, the king planned a large expedition to reflect the Black Sea ports and safe the confederate borders of the country by restoring Moldovan hospodars under the Polish curatela. The likely intent of the expedition was to place the king's brother Sigismund the Old on the throne of Moldova.
The powerful Polish army, with about 40,000 soldiers and a large number of guns, crossed Dniestr and headed south. The ineffective siege of the hospoder capital, Suczawa and the uphill fight led by the peasant Stefan, who switched to Turkey, caused the Polish retreat decision in the camp. During it, Moldovans, fed by Turks and Tatars, ambushed at Kozmin and killed a large part of Polish forces.
The expedition ended with a full disaster, which was aggravated by a devastating Tatar raid on the stripped of border troops. The memorial of these events is the saying “for King Olbracht the nobles have perished.”
The Moldovan expedition fiasco was of large importance internationally. In addition to the Tatar invasions, it caused the Moscow attack, the final consequence of which was the defeat of the combined Polish-Lithuanian forces in the conflict of Vienna in 1500. Almost 1/3 of Lithuania's territory by Moscow was occupied.
The Russian-German agreement was increasingly marked with a view to weakening the Jagiellonian states. Emperor Maximilian I occupied Silesia with large autonomy, and demanded the dismissal from the position of the Lenna Order of the Teutonic Knights and the surrender of the lands occupied by the Second Toruń Peace.
Strengthened by the capture of a strong protector, the Grand Master of the Order refused to pay homage to the Polish King. Jan Olbracht prepared an expedition to punish him, but died during the concentration of forces in Toruń on 17 June 1501, most likely on syphilis.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
