Natalia Nowakowska | |
---|---|
Born | Natalia Magdalena Nowakowska 1977 (age 47–48) |
Nationality | English |
Occupation(s) | Historian and academic |
Title | Professor of European History |
Spouse | Nick Kerigan |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Lincoln College, Oxford |
Thesis | Papacy and piety in the career of Cardinal Fryderyk Jagiellon, Prince of Poland, 1468-1503 (2003) |
Doctoral advisor | Nicholas Davidson |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions | King's College London University College, Oxford Somerville College, Oxford |
Natalia Magdalena Nowakowska (born 1977) is an English historian of late medieval and Renaissance Europe with a particular interest in the Kingdom of Poland. She is Professor of European History at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in History at Somerville College. [1]
Nowakowska grew up in the Polish diaspora community which formed in London after the Second World War. She read History at Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculating in 1995. [2] After graduating she briefly worked in social policy research before returning to Lincoln College to work on her doctorate on the life and career of Cardinal Fryderyk Jagiellon, which she completed in 2003. Her doctoral supervisor was Nicholas Davidson. [3]
Nowakowska then took up a one-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at King's College London before joining University College, Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow in October 2005. [3] In 2006 she was elected to a Tutorial Fellowship in History at Somerville College. [4] In October 2019 Nowakowska was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of European History by the University of Oxford. [5] She has previously served on the governing board of the university's Faculty of History. [6]
Nowakowska's first monograph, based on her doctoral research, was published by Ashgate in 2007. For the book Nowakowska was named co-winner of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies' Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies alongside Geneviève Zubrzycki. [7] A Polish translation of the book was published in 2011. [8]
In 2012 Nowakowska was awarded a €1.4 million European Research Council Starting Grant to undertake an international project entitled "The Jagiellonians: Dynasty, Identity and Memory in Central Europe". She and her team of five postdoctoral researchers analysed the cultural memory of the Jagiellonian dynasty, producing a 2018 public exhibition at the Bodleian Library and a series of essays and monographs from this research. [4] Nowakowska's edited collection, Remembering the Jagiellonians, was published by Routledge in 2018.
In 2018 Nowakowska's study of the early Reformation in Poland, King Sigismund of Poland and Martin Luther: The Reformation Before Confessionalization, was published by Oxford University Press. The book won a total of four prizes, including a second Kulczycki Book Prize and the Gerald Strauss Prize awarded by the Sixteenth Century Society for the best book published in the field of German Reformation history. Her research for the book was supported by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. [9]
Nowakowska is currently working on a new global history of the Jagiellonian dynasty. [1]
Nowakowska has contributed to two blogs related to the discipline of history: one, Somerville Historian, explores teaching and writing history at the University of Oxford and was begun in 2010; the other, History Monograph, documented Nowakowska's process of researching and writing a history book during the year of her British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2012-13).
In 2022 Nowakowska appeared as an interviewee in the BBC Radio 4 series The Invention of Poland hosted by Misha Glenny. [10] In 2024 she was interviewed for another Radio 4 serial, The Reinvention of Poland, hosted by Anne McElvoy. [11] She has also appeared as a guest in podcasts by the Historical Association and BBC History exploring the history of late medieval and early modern Poland and Lithuania [12] and the role of the Jagiellonians in shaping central Europe during these periods.
Nowakowska is married to Nick Kerigan. [13]
Casimir III the Great reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, retaining the title throughout the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He was the last Polish king from the Piast dynasty.
Casimir IV was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. He was one of the most active Polish-Lithuanian rulers; under him, Poland defeated the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Years' War and recovered Pomerania.
Sigismund II Augustus was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the last male monarch from the Jagiellonian dynasty.
Sigismund I the Old was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV and younger brother of Kings John I Albert and Alexander I Jagiellon. He was nicknamed "the Old" in later historiography to distinguish him from his son and successor, Sigismund II Augustus. Before ascending to the Polish and Lithuanian thrones, he was Duke of Głogów from 1499, Duke of Opava from 1501, and governor of Silesia from 1504 on behalf of his brother, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary.
The Polish Golden Age was the Renaissance period in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, roughly corresponding to the period of the Jagiellonian dynasty (1386-1572). Some historians argue that the Polish Golden Age continued into the mid-17th century, when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was ravaged by the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–57) and by the Swedish and Russian invasion. During its Golden Age, the Commonwealth became one of the largest kingdoms of Europe and at its peak stretched from modern-day Estonia in the north to Moldavia in the south and from Moscow in the east to Brandenburg in the west.
John I Albert was King of Poland from 1492 to his death and Duke of Głogów from 1491 to 1498. He was the fourth Polish sovereign from the Jagiellonian dynasty and the son of Casimir IV and Elizabeth of Austria.
The Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars were a series of wars between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, allied with the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which was later unified with other Russian principalities to eventually become the Tsardom of Russia. After several defeats at the hands of Ivan III and Vasily III, the Lithuanians were increasingly reliant on Polish aid, which eventually became an important factor in the creation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Before the first series of wars in the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania controlled vast stretches of Eastern European land, from Kiev to Mozhaysk, following the collapse of Kievan Rus' after the Mongol invasions. Over the course of the wars, particularly in the 16th century, the Muscovites expanded their domain westwards, taking control of many principalities.
Sigismund's Chapel is a royal chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland. Built as a funerary chapel for the last members of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, it has been hailed by many art historians as "the most beautiful example of the Tuscan Renaissance north of the Alps". Financed by King Sigismund I the Old, it was built in 1519–33 by Italian architect Bartolomeo Berrecci.
Hedwig Jagiellon was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty as a daughter of Sigismund I the Old of Poland. She was Electress of Brandenburg by marriage to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg.
Erazm Ciołek (1474–1522) was a Polish diplomat and writer, Bishop of Płock from 1504 to his death. He was also the author of Ciołek's Missal, one of the oldest works of Polish literature, and patron of the artists.
Helena Ivanovna of Moscow was Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Queen of Poland as the consort of Alexander Jagiellon. She was a daughter of Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, and she was never crowned as she would not convert from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism. Her childless marriage to Alexander was a constant source of tension between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Instead of guaranteeing peace, Helena's marriage gave her father Ivan III an excuse to interfere in Lithuanian affairs accusing Alexander of mistreating Helena and repressing Orthodox believers. This became the pretext to renew the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars in 1500. The war ended with a six-year truce in 1503; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania lost about a third of its territory. Despite political tensions and religious differences, the marriage was a loving one and the royal couple was close. After her husband's death in 1506, Helena wanted to return to Moscow but was not allowed. When she planned to run away, she was arrested and reportedly poisoned.
Catherine of Hungary, a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, was heir presumptive to the thrones of Hungary and Poland as eldest child of King Louis the Great and his second wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia.
Władysław Oporowski (1395–1453) was a Polish medieval political and religious leader. Deputy Chancellor of Poland (1429–1434), Bishop of Kujawy (1434–1449), archbishop of Gniezno and primate of Poland (1449–1453). It is recognized that he was a much better diplomat and politician than church official.
The rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Poland between 1386 and 1572 spans the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in European history. The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila founded the dynasty; his marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland in 1386 strengthened an ongoing Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast territories controlled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for both the Polish and Lithuanian people, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.
Frederick Jagiellon was a Polish prince, Archbishop of Gniezno, Bishop of Kraków, and Primate of Poland. He was the sixth son and ninth child of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his wife Elizabeth of Austria, known as 'Matka Jagiellonów'.
The Jagiellonian or Jagellonian dynasty, otherwise the Jagiellon dynasty, the House of Jagiellon, or simply the Jagiellons, was the name assumed by a cadet branch of the Lithuanian ducal dynasty of Gediminids upon reception by Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, of baptism as Ladislaus in 1386, which paved the way to his ensuing marriage to the Queen Regnant Hedwig of Poland, resulting in his ascension to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland as Ladislaus II Jagiełło, and the effective promotion of his branch to a royal dynasty. The Jagiellons were polyglots and per historical evidence Casimir IV Jagiellon and his son Saint Casimir possibly were the last Jagiellons who spoke in their patrilineal ancestors' Lithuanian language; however, even the last patrilineal Jagiellonian monarch Sigismund II Augustus maintained two separate and equally lavish Lithuanian-speaking and Polish-speaking royal courts in Lithuania's capital Vilnius. The Jagiellons reigned in several European countries between the 14th and 16th centuries. Members of the dynasty were Kings of Poland (1386–1572), Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Kings of Hungary, and Kings of Bohemia and imperial electors (1471–1526).
Alexandra Marie Walsham is an English-Australian academic historian. She specialises in early modern Britain and in the impact of the Protestant and Catholic reformations. Since 2010, she has been Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and is currently a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. She is co-editor of Past & Present and vice-president of the Royal Historical Society.
Chronica Polonorum is a treatise about Polish history and geography written in Latin by a Polish renaissance scholar Maciej Miechowita, a professor of Jagiellonian University, historian, geographer, astrologer, and royal physician of king Sigismund I the Old. Chronica Polonorum was first published in 1519.
The siege of Smolensk was an unsuccessful attempt to capture Smolensk by the forces of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in summer 1502. It was the last major military engagement during the Muscovite–Lithuanian War (1500–1503).
Jan Konarski (1447–1525) was a Polish nobleman who was Bishop of Kraków (1503–1524).