Historical calendar: the anniversary of the signing by the Kingdom of Poland of the treaty with Albrecht Hohenzollern, establishing the Polish lenna Prusa Principe.
Today in our calendar we will look at the circumstances accompanying this event.
The Teutonic Order, which never accepted the provisions of the Torun peace of 1466, utilized all chance to rebel against the Polish sovereign. In 1511, the Grand Master of the Order became Albrecht Hohenzollern, cousin of the bishop who led to the Protestant revolution. The policy of the fresh leadership of the spiritual state was a continuation of the conflict to regain full sovereignty. Additionally, ambitious Albrecht sought ways to increase individual glory and wealth.
He dreamed of a powerful country where he would regulation as an hereditary monarch. This, of course, was impossible in the order, where the ultimate authority came from election, and the vows of poorness and chastity, though frequently unobserved, prevented the success of his dynastic plans. Albrecht's model and object of jealousy was his older brother Georg, whose career and state of the vault were much better. Georg, of the insignificant boy of Margrave Ansbach, became an influential figure in Germany; a prince of Karniov and Bytom and later besides of Racibor.
It was thanks to his intercession that Albrecht became the master of the Teutonic Order. utilizing the Protestant Revolution, Georg abandoned Catholicism and, like another princes of the insignificant amphibian, found in this way to repair his budget by stealing ecclesiastical and monastic assets. Of course, everything took place in white gloves at the slogans of the Church's improvement and the fight against the greedy clergy (sic!).
When Polish diplomacy forced the Emperor in 1515 Maximilians halt supporting the Order, Grand Master has begun to negociate an alliance with Moscow. On March 10, 1517, the terms of the agreement were signed, under which Vasily III promised to give the crusaders money to enlist nearly 12,000 soldiers. The next step was to hit Poland and Lithuania together. Especially noteworthy is the complete rejection by the spiritual authorities of the thought of fighting pagans and heretics, after all, allied Moscow was an Orthodox country.
A certain aid from Moscow's protector Albrecht, he requested that he be given to areas occupied with the power of Toruń peace and that Poland pay compensation for 50 years of their occupation. The Sejm of Prussian states, then the Parliament of the Kingdom of Poland, decided to declare war on the Order, and passed taxes on the army.
Polish armies began to conquer further enemy cities, but shortly the strong army from Germany entered Wielkopolska and Pomerania in a force of about 27,000 soldiers. The efficient Polish defence of the beards in Wisla prevented the combined forces of the enemy and the driveway war led by the Kashubians exhausted the attackers. erstwhile Albrecht ran out of money to pay the mercenaries, they simply withdrew to Brandenburg.
Unfortunately, the Polish king besides began to deficiency funds, through which the Teutonic Knights went into counteroffensive. Their attack on Olsztyn, however, failed, thanks to the efficient defence, organized by the property admin of the Warmia Chapter, the celebrated mathematician and astronomer, Mikołaj Copernicus. The fresh German emperor Charles V called the fighting parties to a truce, which was signed on 5 April 1521 for 4 years.
The truce passed in 1525. During this time Albrechta left all allies, both Moskale and the emperor. Therefore, he was feverishly looking for a solution to the situation in which, in the event of the Polish invasion, he was sentenced to complete defeat. The solution was found by his brother Georg, who led to a gathering between Albrecht and Marcin Luther in late 1523 in Wittenberg.
During the talks, Luther persuaded the Grand Master to transition to Protestantism, marry, dissolve the Order and transform it into a secular state. The reformer's arguments hit the fertile ground, as they met all Hohenzollern's political and dynastic ambitions.
The Polish side, and especially the mediate nobility and clergy with the Archbishop of Gniezno Jan Łaski at the head, demanded the continuation of the war, the demolition of the Order and its joining Poland. As the four-year truce came to an end, at the Seym in Piotrków, the nobility collectively advocated the final solution of the Teutonic issue - "The Order must be removed from these lands."
Sigismund Old, however, was persuaded by the influential Georg Hohenzollern, who, together with the Duke of Legnica Frederick, lobbied at the court of Kraków for an option secularisation the order or its secularization. The nobles and bishops were outraged by the king's attitude, but this, with the support of Senators and the most powerful magnates, carried out his plans to the end.
Under alleged provisions Treaty of Kraków of April 8, 1525, the Teutonic Order ceased to be and a secular Prussian principality was established in his place, whose hereditary ruler was Albrecht Hohenzollern. The fresh prince and all successor of him was to take oaths to the Polish kings, and, in the event of war, to exposure only 100 knights to their needs. Albrecht paid his tribute to lenna called Prussian tribute a fewer days later, April 10, 1525.
Interestingly, on the basis of the Treaty of Krakow, not only Albrecht's offspring were included in the succession of the princely throne in Prussia. In the event of his childlessness, the throne was to befall Brother Georg and his descendent. It is clear what Georg himself was going to do – at the time of the treaty he had a wife and children, while Albrecht, being 35, did not have a wife for apparent reasons.
The relation of Prince Prussia to the Crown, in retrospect proved to be small different from the Teutonic attitude. More rulers conspired increasingly powerfully against Poland, which was helped not only by linguistic and cultural differences between Poles and Prussians but besides by spiritual issues. This is due to the fact that Albrecht, erstwhile going to Lutheranism, began a zealous evangelization of his subjects, making the princes a Lutheran spiritual state.
He founded printing plants and founded the university in Królewiec, where it spread very quickly, besides to Poland and Lithuania, Protestantism. In specified conditions, the differences between the Prussian and Polish people were not buried, but even deepened, creating a clear barrier between Poles – Catholics and Germans – Protestants.
The disaster of past that became a part of Sigismund the Old was that, as a Catholic ruler, with full premeditation led to the creation of the first Protestant spiritual state in Europe. To date, reformation has only been a propaganda justification for the plundering of ecclesiastical property by local nobles. most likely the full thought would be exhausted after a while, exposed as a tool for the ideological explanation of the crime.
In imitation of Albrecht, however, successive European rulers cut off from Catholicism and turned to Protestantism. They besides frequently proclaimed themselves heads of national churches. Thus Protestant explanation was converted into practice, and mostly spontaneous so far plunder, institutionalized.
It is not entirely clear what was actually done by the Polish king, who was a legalist his full life, and on the Teutonic Knights he so powerfully opposed the will of nobility and bishops. The views of modern historians about the king's broad tolerance for innoisseurs must be rejected. In the 1920s, Sigismund issued respective edicts condemning Luther's teachings, and in 1526 he entered Gdańsk with the army, where he punished and expelled Protestant preachers.
Other European rulers were amazed by the Polish king that he did not include Prussia in the Crown erstwhile he had the perfect chance to do so erstwhile the opponent was lying on his knees.
Following a Prussian tribute, the Catholic king's arrangement with a Protestant lentil may seem to be considered an act of large tolerance. In practice, however, it proved to be a symptom of the shortsightedness and deficiency of political realism of the Polish monarch. Unfortunately, respective twelve at a later time the same was done with another Lenna – Kurland. She maintained her loyalty to Poland for a long time, but yet besides betrayed.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here..
