Polish gentry: the history of origin, the first mention, representatives

In modern Poland, its citizens are equal in rights and have no class distinctions. However, every Pole knows the meaning of the word "gentry" well. This privileged class existed in the state for almost a thousand years, from the 11th century to the early 20th, when in 1921 all privileges were abolished.

History of occurrence

There are two versions of the emergence of the supreme nobility of Poland, the nobility.

According to the first, which is considered more plausible and accepted officially, it is believed that the Polish gentry evolved as a result of socio-economic transformations.

The scattered Slavic tribes living on the territory of Eastern Europe, gradually expanded and merged into alliances. The largest was named as opole. Initially, the head of the opol was the Council of Elders, who were selected from the representatives of the most powerful and respected clans. In the future, the management of individual territories was divided among the elders and became inherited, and the elders themselves became known as princes.

Constant wars and conflicts between princes led to the need to create military units. Warriors were recruited from among free people who were not tied to the ground. From this and that class a new privileged class, the nobility, has grown up. In German, the word "gentry" means "battle".

And this is the second version of the origin of the estate. It belongs to the professor of the University of Cracow, Francishek Xavier Pekosinsky, who lived in the 19th century. According to the scientist, the Polish gentry was not born evolutionarily in the depths of the Polish people. He is convinced that the first noblemen were descendants of poles, militant Slavic tribes who invaded Poland in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. The fact that the Slavic runes are depicted on the ancestral arms of the oldest noble families are in favor of his assumption.

The first chronicles

The first mention of the Polish knights, who became the ancestors of the nobility, remained in the annals of Galla Anonymous, who died in 1145. Despite the fact that the "Chronicle and Acts of Princes and Rulers of Poland", compiled by him, sometimes sins with historical inaccuracies and gaps, it nevertheless became the main source of information about the formation of the Polish state. The first mention of the szlachta is associated with the names of Mieszko 1 and his son, King Boleslaw 1 Brave.

In the reign of Boleslav, it was established that the status of "ruler" was assigned to every soldier who rendered the king a significant service. About this there is a record, dated 1025 year.

King of Polish Knights

Boleslav 1 Brave gratified the honorary title not only to princes, but also to slaves, although the former demanded a special status - "moznovlady", which they were particularly proud of. Until the end of the 11th century, the lords, they are knights, they are also the ancestors of the nobility, did not have their own landed estates.

In the 12th century, under Boleslaw Krivoust, the knightly estate from the rolling-field turned into landowners.

Europe in the middle of the last century knows knights as warriors of the church, carrying the Christian faith to the Gentiles. Polish knights did not begin as warriors of the church, but as defenders of princes and kings. Boleslav 1 Brave, who committed this class, and was first a prince of Poland, and then a self-proclaimed king. He ruled for almost 30 years and remained in history as a very smart, cunning and brave politician and warrior. With him, the Kingdom of Poland was significantly expanded due to the accession of Czech territories. Boleslav introduced part of Great Moravia into Poland. Thanks to him, the city of Krakow, the capital of Little Poland, entered the Kingdom of Poland forever. For a long time he was the capital of the state. This is to this day - one of the largest cities in the country, the most important cultural, economic and scientific center of the country.

Piastas

The Piast dynasty, to which King Boleslav belonged, ruled the country for four centuries. It was during the Piastas that Poland experienced a period of the most rapid development in all areas. The foundations of modern culture of Poland were laid just then. Not the least role in this played the Christianization of the country. The crafts and agriculture flourished, strong trade relations with border states were established. The gentry estate actively participated in the processes that contribute to the development and glorification of Poland.

Separation of the nobility and chivalry

By the 14th century the Polish gentry was a fairly large and very influential estate. Now to enter into it just like that, for knightly deed, it became impossible. Laws were adopted on the indigen, adoption and nobilitatsii. The noblemen fenced themselves off from other classes, putting pressure on the king. They could afford it, because for several centuries they became the largest landowners in the state. And in the reign of King Louis of Hungary they achieved unprecedented privileges.

Kositsky grafted

Ludovic had no sons, and his daughters had no right to the throne. In order to obtain this right for them, he promised the noblemen of the nobility to abolish almost all duties in relation to the monarch. Thus, in 1374, the famous Kositsky grafted out. Now all the important government positions were occupied by the Polish gentry.

In accordance with the new treaty, the nobility essentially limited the power of the royal family and the supreme clergy. The nobility were exempted from all taxes, except for land, but he was scanty - from one field per year only 2 pennies were charged. At the same time, the nobles received their salaries if they took part in hostilities. They were not obliged to build and repair castles, bridges, city buildings. During the royal tour through Poland, the gentry no longer escorted her as a guard and honorable escort, and the duty to provide the king with food and shelter was also removed from them.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

In 1569, the Kingdom of Poland merged with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single state, Rzeczpospolita. The political system in the new state is usually called the gentry democracy. In fact, there was no democracy. At the head of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the life-elected king. His title was not inherited. Together with the monarch the government of the country was carried out by the Diet.

The Sejm consisted of two chambers - the Senate and the Ambassadorial hut. The Sejm consisted of the highest state officials and the supreme clergy, and the Posolskaya hut was elected by representatives of the nobility. As a matter of fact, the history of Rzeczpospolita is the history of how the nobility autonomously and unreasonably managed its own state.

The szlachta power over Poland

With a weak monarchy, the Polish noblemen made a huge impact on the legislative and executive bodies of power. Historians gentry self-government is assessed as a prerequisite for anarchy.

This conclusion is based on the unlimited influence of the gentry on the political and economic processes in the country. The szlachta had the right of veto, if the king intended to convene a militia, to adopt some law or establish a new tax, the last word, whether to be this or not, always stood behind the szlachta. And this despite the fact that the gentry estate itself was protected by the law on personal and property inviolability.

Relations between the gentry and peasants

After joining in the 14-15 centuries. To Poland, the sparsely populated Chervonnaia Rus', Polish peasants began to move to new territories. With the development of trade, agricultural products produced on these lands began to be used in high demand abroad.

In 1423, the freedoms of communities of peasant immigrants were limited by another law introduced under the pressure of a noble estate. Under this law, the peasants were converted to serfs, they undertook to perform the panshchina and did not have the right to leave the land on which they lived.

Relations between the gentry and the petty bourgeoisie

The history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also remembers how the gentry treated the urban population. In 1496, a law was issued banning philistines from buying land. The reason seems contrived, since the argument for the adoption of this resolution was only that the townspeople tend to evade military duties, and the peasants assigned to the land are potential recruits. And their city masters-philistines will prevent the call of their subjects for military service.

Under the same law, the work of industrial enterprises and trade establishments was controlled by the elders and voevoda appointed from among the gentry.

Gentry worldview

Gradually, the Polish gentry began to perceive themselves as the highest and best of the Polish classes. Despite the fact that in the general mass of the gentry were not magnates, but rather modest possessions and did not have a high level of education, they had an extremely high self-esteem, because the nobleman is primarily an ambition. In Poland, the word "gonor" still has no negative connotations.

On what was this unusual worldview based? First of all, every nobleman elected to the Government had the right to veto. The then gentry culture implied even a disdainful attitude toward the king, whom she chose at her own discretion. Rokos (the right of disobedience to the king) put the monarch on one level with subjects from the gentry estate. A nobleman is a man who despises all estates in the same way except his own, and if the king himself is not an authority for the nobleman, and even more so not the God's anointed one, what can he say about peasants and philistines? Their nobles were called serfs.

What took its time this idle part of the population of the Commonwealth? Favorite classes szlachtichi were feasts, hunting and dancing. The mores of the Polish nobles are colorfully described in the historical novels of Henrik Sienkiewicz "Pan Volodyevsky", "Fire and sword" and "The Flood".

However, everything ever ends. Ended and the autocracy of the gentry.

Poland in the Russian Empire

At the end of the 18th century, part of the territories of the Commonwealth became part of the Russian Empire. That's when the so-called szlachta elections began. This term is understood as a set of measures taken by the Russian government. They were aimed at limiting the undivided and impractical, within the framework of state development, the power of the Polish nobility. By the way, at that time the percentage of the noble population in Poland was 7-8%, and in the Russian Empire barely reached 1.5%.

The property status of the noblemen did not reach the accepted status in Russia. According to the sovereign Decree of September 25, 1800, the inhabitants of Privislinskie gubernias (the so-called Polish lands in Russia) could be attributed to the nobility, who will be able to present documentary evidence of their status, dated to the gentry revision tale of 1795, within two years. All the rest will be distributed according to other estates - peasant, middle-class and free-hulber. During the szlachta self-government in the Commonwealth the nobility was actively replenished with new members. By the time of accession to the Russian Empire among the noblemen there were those who managed to obtain this status from the Nobility Assembly, but had no confirmation from the Gerold of the Senate. This category was excluded from the list considered on the list of the nobility.

After the Polish Uprising of 1830-1831, the Senate passed a resolution on the ordering of the Poles, referring themselves to the gentry, and on dividing them into three categories, with subsequent assignments to the nobility.

The Poles, who own estates with peasants or possess citizens, but do not have land, were included in the first category, regardless of whether they are approved by the Nobility Assembly or not.

To the second category belonged the Poles, who did not have land and subjects, but were confirmed by the Nobility Assembly.

To the third category belonged the Poles, who considered themselves to be gentry, but did not have land and subjects and were not approved by the Nobility Assembly.

Since the entry into force of this Decree, noble assemblies were forbidden to extradite to the Poles certificates of the nobility, unless the said status was certified in Geroldia.

Poles-nobles, who submitted documents for the granting of the nobility, were recorded by citizens or fellow citizens. All the rest were recorded in state peasants.

The nobility, not approved in the Russian nobility, had no right to buy land with peasants. In the end, they joined the philistine class and the peasantry.

The End of the Gentry Estate

The era of the Polish gentry ended with Poland (in the early 20th century) gaining independence from the Russian Empire. In the new Constitution of 1921-1926. Never mentioned the words "gentry" or "nobility". From now on, in the newly proclaimed Republic of Poland, all its citizens were equalized in rights and duties.