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The second half of the 17th century history of the Great Duchy of Lithuania was dominated by the hegemony of two families: the Pac family and the Sapieha family. The latter managed to seize control over all spheres of public life and made decisions regarding the attitude of Lithuania with regard to the king and the Republic of Poland. The period of domination of the Sapieha family dates from 1685 to the early 1690s., when the plans of Jan III Sobieski, who attempted to build a political force that could withstand and counterbalance the influence of the Sapieha family, started to come to fruition. This, in turn, resulted in armed conflicts in the late 1690s aimed against the Sapieha family and an eventual civil war in Lithuania. After the lost battle at Olkieniki and the unsuccessful attempts at pacifying Lithuania, the Sapieha family started to look for protection, in the face of the actions ofthe Polish military. To this end, they supported Charles XII of Sweden, who went to war against the Polish Republic. The help of Charles’s troops guaranteed the Sapieha family that they would recover their lost estates.On March 6, 1702, the Sapieha family announced a manifesto, in which they attempted to justify their actions to the nobility and aristocracy. Their alliance with Sweden was dictated by personal reasons which nonetheless influenced the functioning of the entire family, as evidenced by the repeated mentions of the ruin of their estates and the inability of the republic to keep their promises. The Sapieha goods, which constituted the foundations of not only the family’s existence, but also the functioning of their entire faction, became the first object of aggression on the part of the republicans, who, driven by vengeance and greed, attempted to destroy the foundations of the functioning of the Sapieha faction as well as the family itself. There can be no doubt that the Sapieha family turned to Charles XII for help in an attempt at regaining the lost political influence as well as their fortune, and that they planned to bring the perpetrators of their downfall to — what was in their opinion — justice.
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The aim of this article is to conduct a preliminary overview of the Speakers of the Poznań and Kalisz Voivodeships Regional Assembly (sejmik) during the reign of Augustus III. The nobility of Poznań and Kalisz Voivodeships of those times met at eighty-five assemblies, but there exist records of only thirty-three speakers. Due to the fact that some of the aforementioned speakers were elected more than once, the article presents the figures of twenty-four individuals total, who accounted for a sample of the regional elite of the Greateer Poland.
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The article aims at presenting the political activity of Anna Jabłonowska during the Bar Confederation. The research is based on the letters of Anna Jabłonowska, the wife of the Voivod of Bracław, to Teofila Sapieha, kept in the Stefanyk National Science Library in Lvov. The author discusses first and foremost the events which took place in the Great Duchy of Lithuania, paying particular attention to the conflict between Józef Sapieha and Michał Ogiński, regarding the leadership position over the confederate Lithuanian forces, as well as the issues regarding the political involvement of the duchess.
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Puszta is a widely known phenomenon that primarily denotes a deserted countryside and not the flat areas, vegetation, cattle grazing and some picturesque landscape items that are usually associated with. In Southern Transdanubia, a borderline during Ottoman rule for 143 years, settlement desertion became a crucial and overwhelming factor from 1543 to 1686. My paper addresses the age of reorganization (1686–1720), right after the Ottomans were defeated, and focuses on land use and the general appearance of the land. There are two major views on this situation. Some historians hold that the elaboration took place in a scarcely populated and “wild,” natural area, thus the process of colonization was inevitable. Meanwhile, other scholars who worked with local archival sources have pointed out that plenty of families survived there whose livelihood changed during the Ottoman occupation but they filled the land with human activities. This resulted in a different type of land structure, which was far from the so-called medieval landscape. In my paper I follow the second theory and depict the landscape in a minor area on the basis of archival data. I analyze the practices of land use in order to show the way the “puszta” did and did not exist. I also investigate the key factors that affected a new landscape shift, which brought about the colonial landscape.
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The study examines the kinship network of the highest echelons of the Hungarian elite in the last two decades of the eighteenth century and in the Reform Era until the mid-nineteenth century, that is, the lay dignitaries of real national influence and power, including judges royal, chamberlains (magister tavarnicorum), court chancellors, and chief justices (personalis regiae). In order to generate comparable and analysable data, the author used a network analysis software to quantify the family relationships connecting the dignitaries of the period. The data was then analysed to reconstruct general tendencies and flag interesting and unusual individual cases.The study differentiated between newcomers and those who came from the traditional stock of the powerful elite. It reveals that the elite in power had a tightly knit core whose members always came from the latter group. At the end of the eighteenth century, members of this core were somewhat more closely interrelated with one another than those in the Reform Era. In addition, the study also demonstrates that the number of newly established members of the elite was higher than that in the Reform Era.About half of the newcomers at the end of the eighteenth century were closely related to one another but had loose ties with the aforementioned core group. It is thus justifiable to suggest that they used their family ties already in the process of their upward mobility. The family ties among themselves, however, were not sufficient to establish stronger bonds with the networks of the old elite, which meant that they were unable to integrate into the existing web of power in the long run. At the same time, the rest of the newcomers, both at the end of the eighteenth century and in the Reform Era, entertained closer ties only to the core group coming from the traditional stock. These relationships were often forged after the newcomers’ arrival to the scene and they were only related to one another through their shared connections with the core group. From one generation to another, these individuals – those who rose to their elite positions without the help of family ties – were more successful in establishing strong bonds with members of the old elite and eventually managed to establish their families as integral parts of the traditional core.
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Miklós Alpár: Idegen utazók Erdély és Máramaros sóbányáiban (18–19. század) Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, Kvár, 2017.
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At the end of August 1755 at the tribunal in Wilno (Vilna, Vilnius) there was a bloody incident. It was a symptom of intensifying rivalry between the factions in Lithuania. Both sides – the camps around the Radziwiłł and the Czartoryski families – accused each other of lawlessness and sent the relevant ‘diaries’ to the royal court in Dresden, and Michał Czartoryski asked Russia for help before the resumption of the Lithuanian tribunal in 1756.
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In November 1768 Kazimierz Adam Czartoryski visited Diderot in his house. Mrs Geoffrin gave him a smart dressing-gown to make Diderot look noble. According to an aesthetic theory that a part of a picture must harmonize with every other to form a whole, Diderot was obliged to change the modest design of his house to make it match the dressing-gown. He soon claimed that his old dressing-gown was his complaisant friend whereas the new one a despotic master. As a result of this event, Diderot engages in philosophical deliberation about the dialectics of a master and a slave and fetishizing the household articles. The deliberation is included in his philosophical miniature which was written after Czartoryski’s visit: „Les regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre”. In this work Diderot criticizes luxury and a lust for riches: „poverty gives freedom, wealth restricts”. Wealth is a courtesan, Lais, who must be possessed before it possesses you.
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This article presents issues connected with military safety of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and condition of state army during interregnum of 1764 and its political consequences leading to short-lived civil war. Author tries to state most important aspects of use of State army and private militia against Russian soldiers. Moreover, author presents military issue from the parliamentarian point of view and includes legal arguments and discussion concerning activity of Grand Hetman of the Crown Jan Klemens Branicki.Artykuł ma na celu wskazanie zagadnień związanych z obronnością i stanem wojska w okresie bezkrólewia 1764 r. oraz jego politycznymi następstwami prowadzącymi do krótkotrwałej wojny domowej. Autor stara się przedstawić najważniejsze kwestie związane z wykorzystaniem wojska państwowego oraz milicji magnackich, które stoczyły walki z oddziałami rosyjskimi. Jednocześnie prezentuje sejmowy punkt widzenia sytuacji oraz omawia ówczesne wątpliwości prawne co do wykorzystania wojska przez hetmana wielkiego koronnego.
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Pavle Nenadović’s administration of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci (1749–1768) was marked by the struggle to preserve the Serbs’ privileges interpreted in a way that suited him and the Serbian Church. This interpretation often differed from the Court’s interpretation, especially in the centralising, reformatory period of Maria Theresa’s rule. In addition, there were many cases in which the privileges were infringed upon contrary to the Court’s attempts and Nenadović would report these to the authorities and collaborate with them on correcting these injustices. The political situation sometimes permitted meeting Nenadović’s expectations, while on other occasions the authorities took a significantly firmer stand, but this was not the solution they strived for. What they sought to achieve was rather the development of a permanent working system related to Serbian rights. It was for this reason that the Metropolitan was summoned to Vienna in 1762, where he stayed for a year. However, his three lawsuits, which he handed over to the ruler on his arrival, were perceived as insolent, as according to Maria Theresa, the letters accused her of infringing on the privileges, even though she was well known to be the main advocate of these rights. Nevertheless, this list of complaints on the part of the Metropolitan represents a list of realistic problems which burdened the relationship between him and his believers on the one side, and the Court on the other.
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During the 18th century, at the time of the reform in the Metropolis of Sremski Karlovci, the Serbian religious calendar was reformed as well. The annulment of the jussive holidays that were celebrated as non¬working days was done in three steps by the Holy Synod of Bishops which was under a heavy pressure by the ruler. At the beginning of the reform in 1769, the orthodox calendar had 121 jussive holidays. After the third reduction, made in 1786, there were 29 of them left. At the time of the second reduction of orthodox holidays, which started in 1774, among the repealed holidays were those dedicated to Serbian saints. In the calendar there was only one Serbian holiday dedicated to Saint Sava, who was proclaimed the national defender. Two documents, presented in this paper, were created during the session of the Holy Synod of Bishops in 1774. The first document contains the list of 35 jussive holidays which, in the opinion of the Bishops, must not be repealed. Among them are 13 holidays dedicated to Serbian saints. Although this was not the final solution, this decision indicates that the Synod attempted to reject demands and resist the pressures from Vienna. The second document contains mostly Maria Theresa’s remarks on the former work and decisions of the Synod, as well as new requirements indicating the direction in which the reform of the orthodox calendar should continue.
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The basis of the paper were speeches of these deputies. The greatest activity of deputies of Wielun region was in 1780. Deputies of Wielun region did not speak at all only at the assembly of 1782. Wielun region was represented in seym by smaller senator, who was castellan of Wielun. Moreover, every two years two deputies were chosen on Wielun assemblies. The speeches of Wielun deputies on Stanislav’s seyms had patriotic character. This is seen the best on the example of the Assembly of 1776, when representatives of Wielun region critically assessed the first partition. At the same time Wielun deputies were related with royal party on all seyms of 1776–1786. They tried to strengthen the authority of the Permanent Council, its departments and other governmental committees of the Republic in most speeches.
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Niniejsza publikacja jest kontynuacją zapoczątkowanej w poprzednim tomie „Rocznika Wieluńskiego” tematyki wieluńskiej Komisji Boni Ordinis. Przed¬miotem wydania jest spisany przez Komisję w 1781 r. sumariusz praw i przywi¬lejów, jakie otrzymał Wieluń na przestrzeni wieków. Podstawę źródłową stano¬wi rękopis znajdujący się w Archiwum Głównym Akt Dawnych w Warszawie.
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Przedmiotem wydania są trzy akty Komisji Dobrego Porządku dla miasta Wielunia z dnia 13 VIII 1781 r. Podstawę źródłową stanowią rękopisy znajdują- ce się w Archiwum Głównym Akt Dawnych w Warszawie . Dokumenty spisane zostały w języku polskim na papierze stemplowym o wartości 1 gr, co poświadcza odcisk pieczęci w prawym górnym rogu pierwszej strony każdego z nich. Karty, o wymiarach 19,5/20,5 cm x 34/35 cm, w żadnym miejscu nie są uszkodzone, jednak sposób oprawienia utrudnia odczytanie aktu 1. (według numeracji niniejszego wydania). Każdy akt zaczyna się na nowej stronie. Akty 1. i 3. spisane zostały jedną ręką — Fryderyka Jakuba Psarskiego. Akt 2. został spisany inną ręką, a jedynie podpisany przez F.J. Psarskiego. Oba charaktery pisma są czytelne. We wszystkich dokonano kilkudziesięciu poprawek, poprzez nadpisanie wyrazów lub przekreślenie jednego lub kilku słów. Większości poprawek w aktach 1. i 2., polegających na zmianie liczby mnogiej, będącej wynikiem używania formy „my komisarze” na liczbę pojedynczą związaną ze słowem Komisja, dokonał F.J. Psarski prawdopodobnie dopiero po napisaniu aktu 3., w którym od razu zastosował liczbę pojedynczą.
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Inwentarze dóbr i mienia z epoki staropolskiej doczekały się już bogatej literatury. Wykorzystywane są do badań nad szeroko pojętą kulturą materialną . W wielu przypadkach jest to jedyne źródło wiedzy do historii poszczególnych wsi. O ich znaczeniu dla badań historycznych pisali już m.in. J. Leskiewiczowa i W. Kula . Niezwykle pomocny w badaniach nad staropolskimi inwentarzami ziemskimi jest katalog opracowany w Archiwum Głównym Akt Dawnych w Warszawie.
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Powszechne zjazdy szlachty, zwłaszcza sejmiki, były ważnym wydarzeniem w życiu miasta. Po przybyciu na sesje sejmiku szlachta nie tylko przyjmowała uchwały lub wybierała miejscowych funkcjonariuszy i reprezentantów do różnych instytucji państwowych, lecz w wolnym od obrad czasie była zmuszona kontaktować się z przedstawicielami innych warstw społecznych. Miasta ożywiały się, jak w dniach jarmarków, a na politycznym „targu” przybyła szlachta bawiła się i wesoło spędzała czas. Związany z Potockimi, anonimowy autor z połowy XVIII w., nieco przejaskrawiając, trafnie opisał społeczny kontekst sejmików: „Miasto całe miejscem sejmików było. Każdy kościół, każda ulica, każdy dom, każda na koniec karczma, piwnica i jama w nim się znajdująca przyzwoitym sejmikowania była by miejscem […]”.
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Prezentowana poniżej edycja źródłowa dotyczy powinności mieszkańców Tykocina spisanych w 1701 r. Tykocin to niewielkie miasto leżące dziś na terenie województwa podlaskiego w powiecie białostockim. W czasach Rzeczpospolitej szlacheckiej była to stolica powiatu, położonego w ziemi bielskiej ówczesnego województwa podlaskiego.
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Book-Review: Zbigniew Anusik ̶ Józef Maroszek, Dzieje województwa podlaskiego do 1795 roku, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, Białystok 2013, ss. 757.
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In 1790 there was a political breakthrough in the debates of the Great Seym. It was marked by: a crisis of social trust in the Potocki family, the gentry’s support for the king, taking over the initiative to draft the constitution by Stanisław August. From the very beginning of 1790 the Potocki family were more and more often accused of oligarchic tendencies and an attempt to seize the control of the country for their own benefit. On the other hand, joining the Polish-Prussian alliance by Stanisław August (March 1790) made the king more and more popular both in the Seym and in the provinces. The king, having definitely rejected the pro-Russian orientation, started to be perceived by the landed gentry as a much more reliable advocate for the democracy of the gentry than the Puławy party. A special role in the breakthrough mentioned above and in taking over the constitutional initiative by the king was played by the elite of the gentry who wanted to shape the Commonwealth following the model of the leading free states of the contemporary world. The article looks at the parliamentary sessions that were held in August 1790. It is during these sessions that for the first time the gentry presented, as strongly as never before, their critical attitude towards the Potocki family showing at the same time their support for the king. The August parliamentary sessions became the announcement of the political breakthrough in the seym debates which was about to happen. This breakthrough came in the first half of September 1790 when Stanisław August received the right of nomination for the highest offices, contrary to the initial intention of Ignacy Potocki (session from 13th September 1790).
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