Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
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Home " History " Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
“Litwo, ojczyzno moja! Ty jesteś jak zdrowie;
ile Cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie,
Kto Cię stracił.”
“Lithuania, my homeland, you are like health, only one who has lost you can know your value,” so goes the opening line of Adam Mickiewicz’s (1798 – 1855) national epic poem, Pan Tadeusz (1834). But how could this phrase lamenting the loss of Lithuanian statehood speak to a Polish national narrative? The answer lies in the late 14th century, for it is then that the Kingdom of Poland and the Duchy of Lithuania started on the path to join and eventually become the formidable entity known as the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 – 1795).
The death of Kazimierz III Wielki (Casimir III the Great; 1310 – 1370) spelled the end of the Piast Dynasty. Without an heir, his throne passed to a nephew, Ludwik Węgierski (Louis I of Hungary; 1326 – 1370), who was also the king of Hungary. Ludwik’s daughter, Jadwiga Andegaweńska (Hedwig of Poland; c. 1373 – 1399), would go on to be crowned as the first female Polish monarch in 1384. The queen regnant (like Britain’s Elizabeth II, equivalent in rank to king) married the very recently baptized Lithuanian duke, Władysław Jagiełło (c. 1351 – 1434) in 1386, thus affirming a Polish-Lithuanian Union and starting the mighty Jagiellonian Dynasty. The union was desperately needed if both nations were to push back against the Teutonic Order. This German military monastic order had taken over Prussia, a region in what is now northern Poland and southern Lithuania and was poised to expand into both realms. Jageiłłó’s Catholic baptism rendered the Teuton’s missionary imperative to Christianize (and overtake) the pagan Lithuania moot. Krzyżacy, or the “Knights of the Cross,” as the German order is known in Polish, did not give up easily. Their retreat from the Prussian stronghold of Marienburg (pol. Malbork) came only after a rousing Polish-Lithuanian victory in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. Though Malbork didn’t fall to Jagiełło’s forces, the knights were weakened and by the middle of the 15th century, control over most of Prussia was ceded to the Polish kingdom. Those curious to see the world’s largest castle can still visit the mighty Malbork, today a tourist attraction and UNESCO world heritage site in northern Poland.
Jan Matejko’s epic painting, the Battle of Grunwald (1872 – 1878). The original is held by the<br>National Museum in Warsaw.
Poland and Lithuania of the 15th century; map included in Tymowski et al. Note that the Black Sea is in the lower right hand corner of the map.
Jagiełło’s second son, Kazimierz IV (1427 – 1492) cemented the return to dynastic rule when he assumed the Polish throne in 1447, three years after his older brother Władysław, king of Poland and Hungary, perished in the Battle of Varna, a joint Polish-Hungarian effort against the Ottoman Empire. Kazimierz, under whose reign the Teutonic Order was finally vanquished, oversaw a period of great expansion. It is important to note, however, that despite the almost two centuries of Jagiellonian rule, the Polish throne was decided by election, even if sometimes this vote simply ratified the ascendancy of an obvious direct heir to the throne.
During the Commonwealth period, Poland, already quite multicultural, gained in ethnic and religious diversity. Renewed access to sea routes in the northern Pomerania allowed trade to flourish and goods flowed up the Wisła (Vistula) River to the city of Gdańsk (Danzig). Timber (necessary to sustain the oceanic expansion of Western European states), furs, and increasingly into the following centuries, grain, flowed to the West. At home, food production expanded, especially given the agricultural development of Lithuanian lands made possible by the union. Kraków, the Jagiellonian capital until 1569, became not only an important political and economic hub, but also continued to grow as a center of learning with the re-establishment of the Uniwersytet Jagielloński (Jagiellonian University) in 1400 (originally founded in 1364). The 15th century also saw the emergence of literary Polish, which was used throughout the kingdom, and art developed both in relation to Western European and Eastern influences. By the time Kazimierz IV died in 1492, Poland was well positioned to attain its 16th-17th century Golden Age.
Wawel Castle in Kraków. This was the seat of one of the Polish state until the late 16th century, when the capital moved to Warsaw. Photo by Tomasz Warszewski (Adobe Stock #517333178).
The union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was both close and distant in the 15th century. It was legally formalized as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...