The hierarchy of noble titles in Poland was relatively uncommon throughout most of its history. Polish nobility szlachta enjoyed the principle of political equality of all its members. [1] For this reason the idea of introducing the noble / aristocratic titles was strongly opposed, with a number of exceptions. [2]
After Polish–Lithuanian unions, aristocratic titles of the Lithuanian nobility and Ruthenian nobility (Polish: kniaź, Ruthenian: knyaz , Lithuanian: kunigaikštis) were preserved.
The title książę was used to translate foreign titles of prince or duke.
Polish magnates readily accepted the foreign aristocratic titles.
The title hrabia was matching to that of count. The title was adopted from Czech, [3] in which itself is a loanword from the Old German title grāve (cf. modern German Graf ). Polish kings had the privilege to grant the title of hrabia, but they did this mostly for foreign nationals, as well as for Lithuanian and Ruthenian aristocrats. Examples of the latter are Chodkiewicz and Tyszkiewicz family.
The monarchs of the House of Habsburg as Holy Roman Emperors gave out the titles of counts and dukes Sacri Imperii Romani. In Poland, this title was rendered as hrabia cesarstwa rzymskiego ("Count of the Roman Empire").
Just before the fall of the Commonwealth, the Polish sejm , against tradition, started giving out aristocratic titles, e.g., to Poniatowskis (1764) and a line of Ponińskis (1773, for Adam Karol książe Poniński, Marshal of the Sejm).
After the Partitions, the junior branch of Poninskis in Galicia (Eastern Europe) received the title of książę (Prinz) from Austria with the coat of arms Poniński (herb książęcy) , while the elder branch received the title of hrabia (Graf) from Prussia with the coat of arms Poniński Hrabia .
Polish–Lithuanian Tatars used the title mirza . They were also given Polish-style titles of książę or hrabia.
The 1921 March Constitution of Poland abolished all noble titles. However, the April Constitution of Poland abolished the March one, hence formally the legality of titles was restored. The interim Small Constitution of 1947 partially reverted to the March one, abolishing the titles again. The subsequent constitutions, both of Communist Poland and the modern one, say nothing of the titles. Therefore legally they remain abolished. However eurodeputy Róża Thun styles herself as Róża Maria Barbara Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein in official documents ("Gräfin" is German for "countess"). [4]
According to the Polish Nobility Association, there are quite a few "fraternities" and other organizations which endow their members with noble titles, preying on the ignorant, vain and ambitious. [5]
The szlachta were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and, as a social class, dominated those states by exercising political rights and power. Szlachta as a class differed significantly from the feudal nobility of Western Europe. The estate was officially abolished in 1921 by the March Constitution.
Poland–Lithuania, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and also referred to as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the First Polish Republic, was a federative real union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between 1569 and 1795. It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th- to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 km2 (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million. Polish and Latin were the two co-official languages. Catholicism was the state religion, though religious freedom was established in 1573.
The Nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or the Szlachta of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was historically a legally privileged hereditary elite class in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth consisting of Lithuanians from Lithuania Proper; Samogitians from Duchy of Samogitia; following Lithuania's eastward expansion into what is now Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, many ethnically Ruthenian noble families (boyars); and, later on, predominantly Baltic German families from the Duchy of Livonia and Inflanty Voivodeship.
Prince Jeremi Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, nicknamed Hammer on the Cossacks, was a notable member of the aristocracy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prince of Vyshnivets, Lubny and Khorol in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the father of the future King of Poland, Michael I.
Royal elections in Poland were the elections of individual kings, rather than dynasties, to the Polish throne. Based on traditions dating to the very beginning of the Polish statehood, strengthened during the Piast and Jagiellon dynasties, they reached their final form in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth period between 1572 and 1791. The "free election" was abolished by the Constitution of 3 May 1791, which established a constitutional-parliamentary monarchy.
The Familia was the name of an 18th-century Polish political faction led by the House of Czartoryski and allied families. It was formed towards the end of the reign of King of Poland Augustus II the Strong. The Familia's principal leaders were Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski, Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, his brother August Aleksander Czartoryski, Voivode of Ruthenia (Rus), their sister Konstancja Czartoryska, and their brother-in-law, Stanisław Poniatowski, Castellan of Kraków.
The Constitution of the Republic of Poland is the supreme law of the Republic of Poland, which is also commonly called the Third Polish Republic in contrast with the preceding systems.
The House of Sapieha is a Polish-Lithuanian noble and magnate family of Ruthenian origin, descending from the medieval boyars of Smolensk and Polotsk. The family acquired great influence and wealth in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the 16th century.
The Kurnatowski family is a Polish aristocratic family. The family has been highly prominent for centuries, first in the Kingdom of Poland, later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and presently in the Republic of Poland.
Karpiński is one of the Polish families of the heraldic clan that used the Korab coat of arms. Their family motto is: "For the greater glory of God".
The Ruthenian nobility originated in the territories of Kievan Rus' and Galicia–Volhynia, which were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later the Russian and Austrian Empires. The Ruthenian nobility became increasingly polonized and later russified, while retaining a separate cultural identity.
The sejm was an early parliament in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was active from 1445 to 1569, when it was officially abolished by the Union of Lublin. The Sejm was an irregular gathering of the Lithuanian nobility, called as needed by the Grand Duke or during an interregnum by the Lithuanian Council of Lords. The meetings would usually last one or two weeks. Sejm gradually evolved from a meeting of the most powerful magnates to a full legislative institution representing all of the nobility. The Sejm was not the main political player as it was overshadowed by the Council of Lords. The Union of Lublin created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and joined the Sejm of Lithuania with Sejm of Poland into one Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, the Sejm continued to convene under the name of Lithuanian Convocation. In total there were 40 Sejm and 37 Convocations.
The early modern era of Polish history follows the Late Middle Ages. Historians use the term early modern to refer to the period beginning in approximately 1500 AD and lasting until around the Napoleonic Wars in 1800 AD.
The free election of 1573 was the first ever royal election to be held in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It gathered approximately 40,000 szlachta voters who elected Henry of Valois king.
The history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648) covers a period in the history of Poland and Lithuania, before their joint state was subjected to devastating wars in the mid-17th century. The Union of Lublin of 1569 established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state, replacing the previously existing personal union of the two countries. The Union was largely run by the Polish and increasingly Polonized Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobility, through the system of the central parliament and local assemblies, but from 1573 led by elected kings. The formal rule of the nobility, which was a much greater proportion of the population than in other European countries, constituted a sophisticated early democratic system, in contrast to the absolute monarchies prevalent at that time in the rest of Europe.[a]
The History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–1795) is concerned with the final decades of existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The period, during which the declining state pursued wide-ranging reforms and was subjected to three partitions by the neighboring powers, coincides with the election and reign of the federation's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski.
The Union of Lublin was signed on 1 July 1569 in Lublin, Poland, and created a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the personal union of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy, as Sigismund II Augustus, the last of the Jagiellons, remained childless after three marriages. In addition, the autonomy of Royal Prussia was largely abandoned. The Duchy of Livonia, tied to Lithuania in real union since the Union of Grodno (1566), became a Polish–Lithuanian condominium.
The privileges of the szlachta formed a cornerstone of "Golden Liberty" in the Kingdom of Poland and, later, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795). Most szlachta privileges were obtained between the late-14th and early-16th centuries. By the end of that period, the szlachta had succeeded in garnering numerous rights, empowering themselves and limiting the powers of the elective Polish monarchy to an extent unprecedented elsewhere in Europe at the time.
The magnates of Poland and Lithuania were an aristocracy of Polish-Lithuanian nobility (szlachta) that existed in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, from the 1569 Union of Lublin, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.
Ranging from the poorest landless yeomen to the great magnates, the szlachta insisted on the equality of all its members. As a political nation it was more numerous (8–10 percent) than the electorate of most European states even in the early 19th century.