Historical calendar – anniversary of the Chervin privilege. This was another step towards building a strategy of noble democracy in Poland.
Today, in our calendar, we will look at the circumstances surrounding the expansion of the rights for nobles in the first half of the 15th century. As it turns out, the reason for extending privileges was fundamentally the request for war.
The victorious war against the Teutonic Order from 1409-1411 did not mean the end of conflicts with this state. At the border, it continued to boil, leading to larger armed clashes. The fresh conflict broke out already in 1414 u and did not lead to a resolution, but confirmed the military advantage of the Polish side. The Teutonic Knights, fearing a fresh defeat to measurement Grunwald or Crown, closed in locks and avoided clashing with the Polish army in the field.
Poles, in turn, were not willing to lead long-term sieges, so they did not take them. The situation continued until the end of Jagiello's reign.
Therefore, the King of Poland focused on deepening his union with Lithuania. It was strengthened by an agreement signed at Horodle in 1413. Both parties undertook to agree on the choice of the Polish King and the Grand Duke of Lithuania at rallies. Although Lithuania's state distinctness was preserved, it introduced a territorial division, known from Poland, into voivodships and chestnuts.
Lithuanian fighters gained many fresh privileges that brought them closer to the Polish nobility. The symbol of the fresh times was the authoritative reception by 47 Polish noble families, militant families to their coat of arms.
Thanks to political stableness in the east, the Polish component has developed rapidly in trade and colonization of Russian lands. The second and 3rd decades of the 15th century were besides a period of economical change in Poland. Wood, coal, tar, fur, cattle for slaughter and another goods were exported to Western Europe. In particular, grain exports were steadily increasing. increasing and wealthier land estates were formed, which were geared solely to profitable agricultural production.
The increase in wealth of landowners rapidly caused centrifugal tendencies that aimed at further expanding the importance of the noble state.
In 1422 a fresh conflict with the Order broke out. The site of the concentration of the troops became Czerwińsk. There, gathered for an expedition against the Knights knighthood demanded further rights. He utilized blackmail and threatened the ruler not to fight the enemy unless he gained fresh privileges.
The King had no choice. The alleged Czerwiński Privilege issued on 23 July this year guaranteed the nobility immunity without a court judgement and judging only on the basis of written rights. In addition, a ban on acting simultaneously as a justice and a castelan was established, i.e. the real division of power into legislative and enforcement and judicial. But that is not the end.
In 1423, in the alleged Warti Statute, the king restricted the right of peasants to leave the village and guaranteed the right of the nobility to remove the "croward" chiefs by buying out the village. A very economically harmful provision of the Statute was the introduction of the alleged voivod tax, i.e. the right of voivods to set maximum prices for urban craft products. This law, which existed until the times of partitions, perpetuated the dominance of the nobility over burgherhood, and in the long run hampered the improvement of craftsmanship and trade.
The nobles gained a lot, which only strengthened her appetite. The privilege of one-Krakowski from 1430-1433 introduced the rule neminem captivabimus or individual immunity of better-born. Since then, no nobleman could go to prison without a court sentence.
Privileges given during the time of Władysław Jagiełła became the basis on which the strategy of nobility democracy developed in Poland. Since then, power in the state was concentrated in the hands of 1 of the states, which gradually increased its advantage over others.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
