1.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
2.
Lithuanian language
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Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.9 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania, Lithuanian is a Baltic language, related to Latvian. It is written in a Latin alphabet, Lithuanian is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages. Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant, among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is extraordinarily conservative, retaining many archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. For this reason, it is one of the most important sources in the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation, the Proto-Balto-Slavic languages branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic, according to some glottochronological speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between AD400 and AD600. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name, the Galindai and Sudinoi in the 2nd century AD, the differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after AD800, for a long period, they could be considered dialects of a single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century, also, the 13th- and 14th-century occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin by the German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages independent development. The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of the Lords Prayer, the Hail Mary, printed books existed after 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century, and books were not commonly available. Brought into the country by book smugglers despite the threat of prison sentences. Jonas Jablonskis made significant contributions to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language and his proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his native Western Aukštaitijan dialect with some features of the eastern Prussian Lithuanians dialect spoken in Lithuania Minor. These dialects had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouring Old Prussian language, Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet era, it was used in official discourse along with Russian, Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century, such an opinion was first represented by the likes of August Schleicher, and to a certain extent, Antoine Meillet. Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact while Schleicher, Meillet and others argued for a kinship between the two families. An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by Jan Michał Rozwadowski and he proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities, they had posterior contact. The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody, vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov believed in the unity of Balto-Slavic, but not in the unity of Baltic. In the 1960s, they proposed a new division, that into East-Baltic, West-Baltic, the Ivanov–Toporov theory is gaining ground among students of comparative-historic grammar of Indo-European language, and seems to be replacing the previous two stances in most PIE textbooks
3.
Lublin
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Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland and the second largest city of Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 349,103, Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River, and is located approximately 170 kilometres to the southeast of Warsaw by road. One of the events that contributed to the citys development was the Polish-Lithuanian Union of Krewo in 1385. In 1474, Lublin, which was part of the Sandomierz region. Lublin also witnessed the early stages of Reformation in the 16th century, a Calvinist congregation was founded and certain groups of radical Arians also appeared in the city, making it an important national centre of Arianism. Until the partitions at the end of the 18th century, Lublin was a city of the Crown Kingdom of Poland. Its delegates and nobles had the right to participate in the Royal Election, although Lublin was not spared from severe destruction during World War II, its picturesque and historical Old Town has been preserved. The district is one of Polands official national Historic Monuments, as designated May 16,2007, the city is viewed as an attractive location for foreign investment and the analytical Financial Times Group has found Lublin to be one of the best cities for business in Poland. The Foreign direct investment ranking placed Lublin second among larger Polish cities in the Cost-effectiveness category, Lublin is also noted for its green spaces and a high standard of living. Archaeological finds indicate a presence of cultures in the area. A complex of settlements started to develop on the site of Lublin and in its environs in the 6th-7th centuries. Remains of settlements dating back to the 6th century were discovered in the center of todays Lublin on Czwartek Hill, the next period of the early Middle Ages was marked by intensification of habitation, particularly in the areas along river valleys. The settlements at the time were centered around the stronghold on Old Town Hill, when the tribal stronghold was destroyed in the 10th century, the center shifted to the north-east, to a new stronghold above Czechówka valley, and after the mid-12th century to Castle Hill. At least two churches are presumed to have existed in Lublin in the medieval period. One of them was most probably erected on Czwartek Hill during the rule of Casimir the Restorer in the 11th century. The castle became the seat of a Castellan, first mentioned in sources from 1224. The oldest historical document mentioning Lublin dates from 1198, so the name must have come into use some time earlier. The location of Lublin at the borders of the Polish lands gave it military significance
4.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
5.
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
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The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, or simply the Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, including Poland proper. The kingdom has been dated back to c. 966, when Mieszko I and his pagan Slavic realm joined Christian Europe and his oldest son and successor, Prince Bolesław I Chrobry, Duke of Poland, became the first crowned King of Poland in 1025. The creation of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was a milestone in the evolution of Polish statehood and it represented the concept of the Polish kingdom as distinctly separate from the person of the monarch. A related concept that evolved soon afterward was that of Rzeczpospolita, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was also related to other symbols of Poland, such as the capital, the Polish coat of arms and the flag of Poland. The concept of the Crown also had a geographical aspects, particularly related to the indivisibility of the Polish - Crown -territory. It can be seen as a unit of administrative division. Parts formed part at the early Kingdom of Poland, then, at the same time, the Crown also referred to all lands that the Polish state could claim to have the right to rule over, including those that were not within Polish borders. The term distinguishes those territories federated with the Crown Grand Duchy of Lithuania from various fiefdom territories, such as the Duchy of Prussia and the Duchy of Courland. Prior to the 1569 Union of Lublin, Crown territories may be understood as those of Poland proper, inhabited by Poles, with the Union of Lublin, however, most of present-day Ukraine, passed onto Polish administration, thus becoming Crown territory. During that period, a term for a Pole from the Crown territory was koroniarz - or Crownlander in English - derived from Korona - the Crown and this often meant a distinction between persons loyal to the elected King and persons loyal to Polish magnate. Crown lands were divided into two provinces, Lesser Poland and Greater Poland and these were further divided into administrative units known as voivodeships. Royal Prussia included Pomerelia, Chełmno Land, Malbork Voivodeship, Gdańsk, Toruń, Polish historian Henryk Wisner writes that Royal Prussia belonged to the Province of Greater Poland. The towns affected were, Biała, Lubica, Wierzbów, Spiska Sobota, Poprad, Straże, Spiskie Włochy, Nowa Wieś, Spiska Nowa Wieś, Ruszkinowce, Wielka, Spiskie Podgrodzie, Maciejowce, Twarożne. Wenceslaus I sold the Duchy of Siewierz to the Archbishop of Kraków, Zbigniew Cardinal Oleśnicki, after that point it was considered to be associated with the Lesser Poland Province and was the only ecclesiastical duchy in Lesser Poland. In 1641 it became part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Duchy of Livonia was held as a condominium with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was held as a condominium with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, jan Herburt, Statuta Regni Poloniae, in ordinem alphabeti digesta, Cracoviae 1563. Jan Dąbrowski, Korona Królestwa Polskiego w XIV wieku, studium z dziejów rozwoju polskiej monarchii stanowej, stanisław Szczur, Historia Polski Średniowiecze, Wydawnictwo Literackie 2002, ISBN 83-08-03272-9
6.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
7.
Elective monarchy
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An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected monarch, in contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the nature of candidate qualifications, historically it is not uncommon for elective monarchies to transform into hereditary ones over time, or for hereditary ones to acquire at least occasional elective aspects. Many, if not most, kingdoms were officially elective historically, the kings of Macedon and of Epirus were elected by the army, which was similar in composition to the ecclesia of democracies, the council of all free citizens. Military service often was linked with citizenship among the members of the royal house. In the ancient Kingdom of Rome, the kings were elected by the Assemblies, therefore, the office of Roman and Byzantine emperor remained vaguely elective and heredity never was, and could never be, formally established in law. The Holy Roman Empire is perhaps the best-known example of an elective monarchy, however, from 1453 to 1740, a Habsburg was always elected emperor, the throne becoming unofficially hereditary. During that period, the emperor was elected from within the House of Habsburg by a council of nobles called prince-electors. The secular electoral seats were hereditary, however, spiritual electors were usually elected by the cathedral chapters as religious leaders, but simultaneously ruled as monarch of a territory of imperial immediacy. Thus the prince-bishoprics were elective monarchies too, the same holds true for prince-abbeys, whose prince-abbesses or prince-abbots were elected by a college of clerics and imperially appointed as princely rulers in a pertaining territory. In the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, the kingship was partially elected, during the height of the kingdom in the mid-12th century there was a royal family and a relatively clear line of succession. Nevertheless, the king was elected, or at least recognized, here the king was considered a primus inter pares, and in his absence his duties were performed by his seneschal. Originally, the Kings of Sweden were elected by all men at the Mora Thing. Elective monarchy continued until 1544, when the Riksdag of the Estates designated the heirs of King Gustav Vasa as the heirs to the throne, the Danish monarchy was also officially elective, although the eldest son of the reigning monarch was usually elected. This continued until 1660, when a hereditary and absolute monarchy was instituted by Frederick III, though the monarchy of Norway was originally hereditary, it too became elective in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Candidates had to be of royal blood, but the kingship was elected by a council of noblemen, in 1905 Prince Carl was elected King of Norway, after the male population in an election decided Norway should still be a monarchy. Bernadotte eventually ascended the throne as Charles XIV John of Sweden, in Poland, after the death of the last Piast in 1370, Polish kings were initially elected by a small council, gradually, this privilege was granted to all members of the szlachta. During the election period, the function of the king was performed by an interrex and this unique Polish election was termed the free election. Since medieval times, the King of Bohemia was elected by the Estates of Lands of the Bohemian Crown, since 1526, when the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I assumed the Bohemian Crown, it was always held by the Habsburgs, who expected this situation to go on indefinitely
8.
Sigismund II Augustus
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Sigismund II Augustus was the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. Married three times, the last of the Jagiellons remained childless, and through the Union of Lublin introduced an elective monarchy. Lord and heir From the outset of his reign, Sigismund came into collision with the countrys nobility, so violent was the agitation at Sigismunds first sejm that the deputies threatened to renounce their allegiance unless the King repudiated his wife Barbara. He refused and won the day, Sigismund soon lost all hope of children by his third bride, he was the last male Jagiellon in the direct line so the dynasty was threatened with extinction. He sought to remedy this by adultery with two of the most beautiful of his countrywomen, Barbara Giżanka and Anna Zajączkowska but was unable to either of them. The sejm was willing to legitimatize, and acknowledge as Sigismunds successor, any male heir who might be born to him, however, the Kings marriage was a matter of great political import to Protestants and Catholics alike. The Polish Protestants hoped that he would divorce and remarry and thus bring about a breach with Rome at the crisis of the religious struggle in Poland. He was not free to remarry until Queen Catherines death on 28 February 1572, Sigismunds reign was a period of internal turmoil and external expansion. A less imposing figure than his father, the elegant and refined Sigismund II Augustus was nevertheless an even more effective statesman than the stern and majestic Sigismund I the Old. Sigismund II possessed to a degree the tenacity and patience that seem to have characterized all the Jagiellons. No other Polish king seems to have so understood the nature of the Polish sejm. Both the Austrian ambassadors and the papal legates testify to the care with which he controlled his nation, everything went as he wished, they said, because he seemed to know everything in advance. Like his father, a pro-Austrian by conviction, he contrived even in respect to carry with him the nation. He avoided serious complications with the powerful Turks, Sigismund II mediated for twenty years between the Catholic Church and the Protestants. His most striking memorial may have been the Union of Lublin, also, German-speaking Royal Prussia and Prussian cities were included. This achievement might well have been impossible without Sigismund, Sigismund died at his beloved Knyszyn on 6 July 1572, aged 51. In 1573, Henry III of Valois was elected King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for a few months, shortly thereafter, Sigismunds sister Anna of Poland married Stefan Batory, and they ruled as King and Queen of Poland. In addition to his connections, Sigismund II was allied to the Imperial Habsburgs by his pledge as member of the Order of the Golden Fleece
9.
Jagiellonian dynasty
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The dynasty reigned in several Central European countries between the 14th and 16th centuries. Members of the dynasty were Kings of Poland, Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Kings of Hungary, one Jagiellonian briefly ruled both Poland and Hungary, and two others ruled both Bohemia and Hungary and then continued in the distaff line as a branch of the House of Habsburg. The cultural flowering had its base in the prosperity of the elites. The name comes from Jogaila, the first Grand Duke of Lithuania to become King of Poland, the rule of Piasts, the earlier Polish ruling house had ended with the death of King Casimir III the Great. Gediminids, the predecessors of the first Jagiellonian, were rulers of medieval Lithuania with the title of Grand Duke. Their realm, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was inhabited by Lithuanians and Ruthenians. Jogaila, the eponymous first ruler of the Jagiellonin dynasty, started as the Grand Duke of Lithuania, as a result of the Union of Krewo he then converted to Christianity and married the 11-year-old Hedwig of Poland. Thereby he became King of Poland and founded the dynasty, angevin rulers were the second and Jagiellonian third dynasty of Polish Kings. In 1385 the Union of Krewo was signed between Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the last pagan state in Europe, the act arranged for Jogailas baptism and for the couples marriage and constituted the beginning of the Polish–Lithuanian union. The Union strengthened both nations in their opposition to the Teutonic Knights and the growing threat of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Uniquely in Europe, the union connected two states located on the opposite sides of the great civilizational divide between the Western or Latin, and the Eastern or Byzantine worlds. The intention of the Union was to create a state under Władysław II Jagiełło. Geographic consequences of the union and the preferences of the Jagiellonian kings accelerated the process of reorientation of Polish territorial priorities to the east. The political influence of the Jagiellonian kings was diminishing during this period, the royal dynasty, however, had a stabilizing effect on Polands politics. The Jagiellonian Era is often regarded as a period of political power, great prosperity, and in its later stage. The offensive that followed lost its impact with the siege of Malbork. The failure to take the fortress and eliminate the Teutonic state had for Poland dire historic consequences in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the Peace of Thorn had given Poland and Lithuania rather modest territorial adjustments, including Samogitia. Afterwards there were negotiations and peace deals that didnt hold, more military campaigns and arbitrations, one attempted, unresolved arbitration took place at the Council of Constance
10.
Royal Prussia
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Royal Prussia or Polish Prussia was a region of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was previously part of the State of the Teutonic Order. Until the 1569 Union of Lublin the region enjoyed a substantial autonomy, after 1569, Royal Prussia was directly administered by the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The former Pomerelian Lauenburg and Bütow Land in the far west was held by the Pomeranian dukes as a Polish fief. Royal Prussia is distinguished from later Ducal Prussia, the parts of Prussia around Königsberg. After secularisation in 1525 it was held by Lutheran dukes of the Hohenzollern dynasty, from 1618 this area was in personal union by the Electors of Brandenburg. In 1657 feudal overlordship was removed from Poland by the Treaty of Wehlau, before 1308 the Pomerelian part of the region, with Gdańsk, was part of the first Polish state, enjoying periods of autonomy and independence. This event caused a dispute between Poland and the Teutonic Order over the control of Pomerelia. It resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout 14th and 15th centuries, after their defeat at the Battle of Grunwald, the Teutonic Knights according to the 1411 Peace of Thorn had to pay large contributions to the Polish kings, which strongly affected the public budget. In view of rising taxes, several nobles and Hanseatic cities in 1440 established the Prussian Confederation at Marienwerder protesting against the Orders internal and financial policies. The Confederation was led by the citizens of Danzig, Elbing, the gentry from Chełmno Land and Pomerelia participated as well. Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen demanded the dissolution and in 1453 searched for help from Pope Nicholas V, in this act, Prussian delegates declared the Polish king the only true heir of those lands, parts of which were earlier illegally separated from Poland. After the Prussian Confederation pledged allegiance to Casimir on 6 March 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon appointed Baysen as the first war-time governor of Royal Prussia. On 28 May 1454 the king took an oath of allegiance from the citizens of Toruń and in June a similar oath from the citizens of Elbing and Königsberg. The rebellion also included major cities from the part of the Orders lands, such as Kneiphof. Though the Knights were victorious at the 1454 Battle of Chojnice, according to the 1454 Incorporation Statute issued by King Casimir IV, Royal Prussia enjoyed substantial autonomy as part of the Crown of Poland, it had its own treasury, monetary unit, and armies. It was governed by a council, subordinate to the Polish king, whose members were chosen from local lords, prussians had also seats provided for them in the Sejm, but they chose not to use this right until the Union of Lublin. Toruń, Elbing, and Danzig gained privileges similar to the status of a Free imperial city, the Bishop of Warmia had claimed Imperial Prince-Bishopric status, as mentioned in the Golden Bull of 1356 by Emperor Charles IV. Although the area was never directly under the Emperors jurisdiction and the claim seems unsupported by any bestowal document, the bishopric continued defending this status until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806
11.
Duchy of Livonia
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The Duchy of Livonia was a territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania—and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—that existed from 1561 to 1621. It corresponds to the areas of northern Latvia and southern Estonia. Livonia had been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1561, since the Livonian Order was secularized by the Union of Vilnius and it was a province of Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1569. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, it became a joint domain of the Polish Crown, the larger part of the Duchy was conquered by Swedish Empire during the Polish–Swedish wars, and their gains were recognized in the Truce of Altmark in 1629. The title Grand Duke of Livonia was added to the title of later Russian Emperors
12.
Grand Duke of Lithuania
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The following is a list of rulers over Lithuania—grand dukes, kings, and presidents—the heads of authority over historical Lithuanian territory. The timeline includes Lithuania as an entity or legitimately part of a greater sovereign entity as well as Lithuania under control or occupation of an outside authority. The incumbents and office-holders are listed by names most commonly used in English language, where appropriate, the alternations in Lithuanian, Ruthenian and Polish are included. The state of Lithuania formed in 1230s, when threatened by the Livonian Order in the north and he became the only crowned king of Lithuania. His state became known as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after Grand Duke Jogaila became also king of Poland in 1386, the two states became closer connected and since 1440 both were ruled by a common ruler. In 1569 Union of Lublin was signed and a new entity—the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—emerged, the commonwealth was partitioned in 1795 and Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire till 16 February 1918. The Council of Lithuania was able to establish the sovereignty only in 1919, the first republic of Lithuania existed until 1940 when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. During the Soviet-German War, Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany, in 1944, as Germany was losing the war, Russia re-occupied Lithuania and established the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence, the restored Republic of Lithuania is a democratic republic, a member of both the European Union and NATO. Title, Grand Duke except for Mindaugas, who became king of Lithuania, dates are approximate because of scant written sources. The act of union with Poland was signed as early as 1385, however. The monarchs retained separate titles for both parts of the state, and their numbering was kept separately, the Jagiellon dynasty was a direct continuation of the Gediminids. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was established by Union of Lublin in 1569, the elected King of Poland was to be elected by Lithuanian noble families as a Grand Duke of Lithuania. The first ruler of the country was Sigismund II Augustus. Following the partitions in 1772,1793, and 1795, the commonwealth ceased to exist, there are some gaps in the timeline as it took a while to elect a new king. Title, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the Council of Lithuania declared independence on 16 February 1918 and invited Wilhelm of Urach to become king of Lithuania. The name of the state was the Kingdom of Lithuania, on 9 July 1918, the council declared that the Duke of Urach is to become King Mindaugas II of Lithuania. However, on 2 November, the council revoked this decision because of its unpopularity, the institution of President was created on 4 April 1919
13.
Senate
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A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature or parliament. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate, so-called as an assembly of the senior and therefore allegedly wiser, thus, the literal meaning of the word senate is, Assembly of Elders. Many countries have a named an senate, composed of senators who may be elected, appointed, have inherited the title, or gained membership by other methods. Modern senates typically serve to provide a chamber of second thought to consider legislation passed by a lower house, whose members are usually elected. The modern word Senate is derived from the word senātus, which comes from senex, the members or legislators of a senate are called senators. The Latin word senator was adopted into English with no change in spelling and its meaning is derived from a very ancient form of social organization, in which advisory or decision-making powers are reserved for the eldest men. This form adaptation was used to show the power of those in body and for the process to be thorough. The original senate was the Roman Senate, which lasted until 580, in the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Senate continued until the Fourth Crusade, circa 1202–1204. This may include minimum age required for voters and candidates, proportional or majoritarian or plurality system, typically, the senate is referred to as the upper house and has a smaller membership than the lower house. In some federal states senates also exist at the subnational level, in the United States all states with the exception of Nebraska have a state senate. There is also the US Senate at the federal level, córdoba and Tucumán changed to unicameral systems in 2001 and 2003 respectively. In Australia and Canada, only the house of the federal parliament is known as the Senate. All Australian states other than Queensland have a house known as a Legislative council. Several Canadian provinces also once had a Legislative Council, but these have all been abolished, in Germany, the last Senate of a State parliament, the Senate of Bavaria, was abolished in 1999. Senate membership can be determined either through elections or appointments, for example, elections are held every three years for half the membership of the Australian Senate, the term of a senator being six years. The terms Senate and Senator, however, do not necessarily refer to a chamber of a legislature, The Senate of Finland was, until 1919, the executive branch. The Senate of Latvia fulfilled a similar function during the interbellum. In a number of cities which were members of the Hanse, such as Greifswald, Lübeck, Rostock, Stralsund, or Wismar
14.
Sejm
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The Sejm of the Republic of Poland is the lower house of the Polish parliament. It consists of 460 deputies elected by ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. In the Kingdom of Poland, Sejm referred to the entire three-chamber parliament of Poland, comprising the house, the upper house. It was thus a three-estate parliament, since the Second Polish Republic, Sejm has referred only to the lower house of the parliament, the upper house is called the Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Sejm stems from an Old Slavic word meaning gathering and its origin was the Kings Councils, which gained power during the time of Polands fragmentation. The Sejm in Łęczyca was the most notable of these councils and it forbade arbitrary sequestration of supplies in the countryside and takeover of bishopric lands after the death of a bishop. These early Sejms were not an event, they convened at the Kings behest. After the 1493 Sejm in Piotrków, it became a regularly convening body, the bicameral system was also established there. The Sejm now comprised two chambers, the Senat of 81 bishops and other dignitaries, and the Chamber of Envoys, over time, the envoys in the lower chamber grew in number and power as they pressed the king for more privileges. The Sejm eventually became more active in supporting the goals of the privileged classes when the King ordered that the landed nobility. Its chambers reserved the final decisions in legislation, taxation, budget, and treasury matters, foreign policy, until the end of the 16th century, unanimity was not required, and the majority-voting process was the most commonly used system for voting. Later, with the rise of the Polish magnates and their increasing power, additionally, if the envoys were unable to reach a unanimous decision within six weeks, deliberations were declared void and all previous acts passed by that Sejm were annulled. From the mid-17th century onward, any objection to a Sejm resolution, by either an envoy or a senator, automatically caused the rejection of other, previously approved resolutions. This was because all resolutions passed by a session of the Sejm formed a whole resolution. It is estimated that between 1493 and 1793, a Sejm was held 240 times, the total sum of which was 44 years. The Chamber of Envoys, despite its name, consisted not only of 77 envoys from the hereditary nobility, all deputies were covered by Parliamentary immunity, with each individual serving for a term of office of six years, with half of the deputies being elected every two years. Candidates for deputy had to be able to read and write, the legal voting age was 21, except for those citizens serving in the military, the personnel of which were not allowed to vote. Parliamentary sessions were initially convened every two years, and lasted for 30 days, however, after many clashes between liberal deputies and conservative government officials, sessions were later called only four times
15.
Tsardom of Russia
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From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year. After a military victory over Sweden and Poland, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721. While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus and the Russian land, in the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions the sceptre of Russian lordship. In England of the 16th century, it was both as Russia and Muscovy. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, muscovites refute this, saying that their country was originally called Russia. When they are asked what nation they are, they respond Russac, which means Russians, and when they are asked what place they are from, by the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a ruler or emperor on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan. At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the meaning of an independent ruler. Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Russian Orthodox Church and that concept was to resonate in the self-image of Russians in future centuries. The development of the Tsars autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, Ivan strengthened the position of the Tsar to an exceptional degree, demonstrating the risks of unrestrained power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from breakdowns of paranoia and depression, Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547, reflecting Moscows new imperial claims, Ivans coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms, in the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare, the key documents prepared by the so-called Select Council of advisors and promulgated during this period are as follows. Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in 1549 and this provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively, further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553, upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan the Terrible used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I, despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand
16.
Szlachta
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The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges between 1333 and 1370 during the reign of King Casimir III the Great, in 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown Kingdom of Poland, the existing Lithuanian nobility formally joined this class. As the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth evolved and expanded in territory, its membership grew to include the leaders of Ducal Prussia, the origins of the szlachta are shrouded in obscurity and mystery and have been the subject of a variety of theories. Traditionally, its members were owners of landed property, often in the form of manor farms or so-called folwarks, the nobility negotiated substantial and increasing political and legal privileges for itself throughout its entire history until the decline of the Polish Commonwealth in the late 18th century. During the Partitions of Poland from 1772 to 1795, its members began to lose these legal privileges, the legal privileges of the szlachta were legally abolished in the Second Polish Republic by the March Constitution of 1921. The notion that all Polish nobles were social equals, regardless of their status or offices held, is enshrined in a traditional Polish saying. —which may roughly be rendered, The noble on the croft Is the voivodes equal, or the tenant farmer noble stands equal to the noble army commander. The term szlachta is derived from the Old High German word slahta, the Polish rycerz and the Polish herb. Poles of the 17th century assumed that szlachta came from the German schlachten, early Polish historians thought the term may have derived from the name of the legendary proto-Polish chief, Lech, mentioned in Polish and Czech writings. Some powerful Polish nobles were referred to as magnates and możny, see Magnates of Poland, the Polish term szlachta designated the formalized, hereditary noble class of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In official Latin documents of the old Commonwealth, hereditary szlachta are referred to as nobilitas and are indeed the equivalent in status of the English nobility. Today the word szlachta in the Polish language simply translates to nobility, in its broadest meaning, it can also denote some non-hereditary honorary knighthoods granted today by some European monarchs. Occasionally, 19th-century non-noble landowners were referred to as szlachta by courtesy or error, in the narrow sense, szlachta denotes the old-Commonwealth nobility. In the past, a misconception sometimes led to the mistranslation of szlachta as gentry rather than nobility. This mistaken practice began due to the status of some szlachta members being inferior to that of the nobility in other European countries. The szlachta included those almost rich and powerful enough to be magnates down to rascals with a lineage, no land, no castle, no money, no village. As some szlachta were poorer than some non-noble gentry, some particularly impoverished szlachta were forced to become tenants of the wealthier gentry. In doing so, however, these szlachta retained all their constitutional prerogatives, as it was not wealth or lifestyle, but hereditary juridical status, an individual nobleman was called a szlachcic, and a noblewoman a szlachcianka
17.
Absolute monarchy
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Absolute monarchy, or despotic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which one ruler has supreme authority that is not restricted by any written laws, legislature, or customs. These are often, but not always, hereditary monarchies, in contrast, in constitutional monarchies, the head of states authority derives from and is legally bounded or restricted by a constitution or legislature. Some monarchies have weak or symbolic legislatures and other bodies that the monarch can alter or dissolve at will. Countries where a monarch still maintains absolute power are Brunei, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the individual emirates composing the United Arab Emirates, Swaziland, in Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh wielded absolute power over the country and was considered a living god by his people. In ancient Mesopotamia, many rulers of Assyria, Babylonia and Sumer were absolute monarchs as well, in ancient and medieval India, rulers of the Maurya, Satahavana, Gupta and Chalukya Empires, as well as other major and minor empires, were considered absolute monarchs. In the Khmer Empire, the kings were called Devaraja and Chakravartin, in Kingdom of Siam, the kings were esestablished Somburanaya-sittiraj. Throughout Chinese history, many emperors and one empress wielded absolute power through the Mandate of Heaven, in pre-Columbian America, the Inca Empire was ruled by a Sapa Inca, who was considered the son of Inti, the sun god and absolute ruler over the people and nation. Throughout much of European history, the right of kings was the theological justification for absolute monarchy. Many European monarchs, such as those of Russia, claimed supreme autocratic power by right. James VI of Scotland and his son Charles I of Scotland and England tried to import this principle, there is a considerable variety of opinion by historians on the extent of absolutism among European monarchs. Some, such as Perry Anderson, argue that quite a few monarchs achieved levels of absolutist control over their states, a widely held story about Louis XIV of France is that he proclaimed Létat, cest moi. What Louis did say was, The interests of the state come first, when one gives these priority, one labors for ones own good. These advantages to the state redounds to ones glory, although often criticized for his extravagances, such as the Palace of Versailles, he reigned over France for a long period, and some historians consider him a successful absolute monarch. More recently, revisionist historians have questioned whether Louis reign should be considered absolute, the King of France concentrated in his person legislative, executive, and judicial powers. He was the judicial authority. He could condemn men to death without the right of appeal and it was both his duty to punish offenses and stop them from being committed. From his judicial authority followed his power both to make laws and to annul them and this law consequently authorized the king to abolish all other centers of power. Most important was the abolition of the Council of the Realm and his actions largely originated the militaristic streak of the Hohenzollern
18.
Partitions of Poland
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The First Partition of Poland was decided on August 5,1772. Two decades later, Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth again, Austria did not participate in the Second Partition. The Third Partition of Poland took place on October 24,1795, with this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist. In Polish, there are two words for the two meanings. In Polish historiography, the term Fourth Partition of Poland has also been used, the term Fourth Partition in a temporal sense can also mean the diaspora communities that played important political role in re-establishing the Polish sovereign state after 1918. A single member of parliaments belief that a measure was injurious to his own constituency, even after the act had been approved and it became increasingly difficult to undertake action. The liberum veto also provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways and this applies particularly to the last Commonwealth King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who for some time had been a lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Their alliance later became known in Poland as the Alliance of the Three Black Eagles, the Commonwealth could never be liquidated unless its long-time ally, Austria, allowed it, so Catherine had to use diplomacy to win Austria to her side. Frederick II retaliated by ordering enough Polish currency counterfeited to severely affect the Polish economy and this new constitution undid the reforms made in 1764 under Stanisław II. The liberum veto and all the old abuses of the last one, the irregular and poorly commanded Polish forces had little chance in the face of the regular Russian army and suffered a major defeat. In 1769 Austria annexed a small territory of Spisz and in 1770 – Nowy Sącz and these territories had been a bone of contention between Poland and Hungary, which was a part of the Austrian crown lands. In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna, early in August, Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops simultaneously invaded the Commonwealth and occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. The partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on September 22,1772, to Austria fell Zator and Auschwitz, part of Lesser Poland embracing parts of the counties of Kraków and Sandomir and the whole of Galicia, less the city of Kraków. Catherine of Russia was also very satisfied, by this diplomatic document Russia came into possession of that section of Livonia that had remained in Commonwealth control, and of Belarus embracing the counties of Vitebsk, Polotsk and Mstislavl. By this partition, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population, by seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealths total foreign trade. Through levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth, after having occupied their respective territories, the three partitioning powers demanded that King Stanisław and the Sejm approve their action. By 1790 the First Polish Republic had been weakened to such a degree that it was forced into an unnatural and terminal alliance with its enemy, the Polish–Prussian Pact of 1790 was signed. The conditions of the Pact contributed to the succeeding and final two partitions of Poland–Lithuania, the May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of the Repnin Sejm
19.
Jan Matejko
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Jan Alojzy Matejko was a Polish painter known for paintings of notable historical Polish political and military events. His works include oil on canvas paintings like Rejtan, Union of Lublin or Battle of Grunwald, numerous portraits, a gallery of Polish kings. He is counted among the most famous Polish painters, Matejko spent most of his life in Kraków. His teachers at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts included Wojciech Korneli Stattler, later, he became a director at this institution, which eventually was renamed the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. A number of his students became prominent painters themselves, including Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer, Matejko was born on June 24,1838, in the Free City of Kraków. His father, Franciszek Ksawery Matejko, a Czech from the village of Roudnice, was a graduate of the Hradec Králové school who became a tutor. He first worked for the Wodzicki family in Kościelniki, Poland, then moved to Kraków, Jan was the ninth child of eleven that his parents had. He grew up in a building on Floriańska Street. After the death of his mother in 1845, Jan and his siblings were cared for by his maternal aunt, Anna Zamojska. At a young age he witnessed the Kraków revolution of 1846 and the 1848 siege of Kraków by the Austrians and his two older brothers served in them under General Józef Bem, one died and the other was forced into exile. He attended St. Anns High School, which he dropped out of in 1851 because of poor results, from his earliest days Matejko showed artistic talent, but he had great difficulty with other subjects. He never mastered a foreign language, despite that and because of his exceptional talent he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków from 1852 to 1858. His teachers included Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and he selected historical painting as his specialization, and finished his first major work, Tsars Shuyski before Zygmunt III, in 1853. During this time, he began exhibiting paintings at the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts. His seminal project for his graduation in 1858 was Sigismund I the Old ennobles the professors of the Jagiellonian University, following his graduation, Matejko received a scholarship to study under Hermann Anschütz at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in 1859. Next year he received a scholarship to study at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, but after a few days. There he opened a studio at his house at Floriańska Street. It would however be years before he would gain success, for a time he was the proverbial starving artist
20.
Magnate
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Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus, great, designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities. In reference to the Middle Ages, the term is used to distinguish higher territorial landowners and warlords such as counts, earls, dukes. In England, the class went through a change in the later Middle Ages. It had previously consisted of all tenants-in-chief of the crown, a group of more than a hundred families, the emergence of Parliament led to the establishment of a parliamentary peerage that received personal summons, rarely more than sixty families. A similar class in the Gaelic world were the Flatha, in the Middle Ages a bishop sometimes held territory as a magnate, collecting the revenue of the manors and the associated knights fees. In the Tudor period, after Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field, Henry VII would make parliament attaint undesirable nobles and magnates, thereby stripping them of their wealth, protection from torture, and power. Henry VII also used the Court of the Star Chamber to have powerful nobles executed, Henry VIII continued this approach in his reign, he inherited a survivalistic mistrust of nobles from his father. Henry VIII ennobled very few men and the ones he did were all new men, novi homines, greatly indebted to him, the term was specifically applied to the members of the Upper House in the Apostolic Kingdom of Hungary, the Főrendiház or House of Magnates. In the Early and High Middle Ages the highest title was vojvoda, during the Serbian Empire the higher court members held titles such as despot, sevastokrator and kesar. During foreign rule, under the Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, Republic of Venice, and later in the Revolution, in Spain, since the late Middle Ages the highest class of nobility hold the appellation of Grandee of Spain. In Sweden, the wealthiest medieval lords were known as storman, great men, a similar description and meaning as the English term magnate. Aristocracy Szlachta, in Poland Boyar, in Eastern Europe Velikaš, in Serbia and Croatia Magnat This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
21.
Livonian War
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During the period 1558–1578, Russia dominated the region with early military successes at Dorpat and Narva. Russian dissolution of the Livonian Confederation brought Poland–Lithuania into the conflict while Sweden, Magnus attempted to expand his Livonian holdings to establish the Russian vassal state Kingdom of Livonia, which nominally existed until Magnus defection in 1576. This was followed by a campaign through Russia culminating in the long. Under the 1582 Truce of Jam Zapolski, which ended the war between Russia and Poland–Lithuania, Russia lost all its holdings in Livonia and Polotsk to Poland–Lithuania. The following year, Sweden and Russia signed the Truce of Plussa with Sweden gaining most of Ingria, by the mid-16th century, economically prosperous Old Livonia had become a region organised into the decentralised and religiously divided Livonian Confederation. Its territories consisted of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, the prince-bishoprics of Dorpat, Ösel–Wiek, as well as Courland, the Archbishopric of Riga and the city of Riga. Together with Riga, the cities of Dorpat and Reval, along with the knightly estates, the only common institutions of the Livonian estates were the regularly held common assemblies known as landtags. As well as a political administration, there were also persistent rivalries between the archbishop of Riga and the landmeister of the Order for hegemony. As war approached, Livonia had a weak administration subject to internal rivalries, lacked any powerful defences or outside support, and was surrounded by monarchies pursuing expansionist policies. Frost notes of the region, Racked with internal bickering and threatened by the political machinations of its neighbours. Only the archbishopric of Riga successfully overcame resistance of the lesser nobles, Wilhelm and Christoph were to pursue Alberts interests in Livonia, among which was the establishment of a hereditary Livonian duchy styled after the Prussian model. At the same time the Order agitated for its re-establishment in Prussia, by the time the Livonian War broke out, the Hanseatic League had already lost its monopoly on the profitable and prosperous Baltic Sea trade. While still involved and with increasing sales, it now shared the market with European mercenary fleets, most notably from the Dutch Seventeen Provinces, a long bar of Danish territories in the south and her lack of sufficient year-round ice-free ports severely limited Swedens access to the Baltic trade. Through its absorption of the principalities of Novgorod and Pskov, the Tsardom of Russia had become Livonias eastern neighbour, the conflict between Russia and the Western powers was exacerbated by Russias isolation from sea trade. The new Ivangorod port built by Tsar Ivan on the shore of the Narva River in 1550 was considered unsatisfactory on account of its shallow waters. The Livonians eventually promised to pay this sum to Ivan by 1557, Ivan continued to point out that the existence of the Order required passive Russian support, and was quick to threaten use of military force if necessary. The Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Sigismund II Augustus was wary of Russian expansionist aspirations, expansion of Russia into Livonia would have meant not only a stronger political rival but also loss of lucrative trade routes. Therefore, Sigismund supported his cousin Wilhelm von Brandenburg, archbishop of Riga, in his conflicts with Wilhelm von Fürstenberg, Sigismund hoped that Livonia, just like the Duchy of Prussia under Duke Albert, would become a vassal state of Poland–Lithuania
22.
Jadwiga of Poland
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Jadwiga, also known as Hedwig, reigned as the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland from 16 October 1384 until her death. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, also known in Poland as Louis the Hungarian, King of Hungary and Poland, Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, but had more close ancestors among the Polish Piasts. She was canonized in the Roman Catholic Church in 1997 and her marriage to William of Austria was planned in 1375 and she lived in Vienna between 1378 and 1380. However, Louis died and Mary was crowned King of Hungary on the demand of her mother in 1382, Sigismund of Luxemburg tried to seize Poland, but the Polish noblemen countered that they would only obey a daughter of King Louis if she settled in their country. Queen Elizabeth then nominated Jadwiga to reign in Poland, but did not send her to Kraków to be crowned, during the interregnum, Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, became a candidate for the Polish throne. The nobles of Greater Poland especially favoured him, proposing he marry Jadwiga, however, the noblemen of Lesser Poland opposed his election and persuaded Queen Elizabeth to send Jadwiga to Poland. Jadwiga was crowned king in Kraków on 16 October 1384 and her crowning either reflected the Polish lords opposition to her intended future husband, William, adopting the royal title without a further Act or only emphasized that she was a queen regnant. With her mothers consent, Jadwigas advisors opened negotiations with Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila signed the Union of Krewo, promising to convert to Roman Catholicism and to promote his pagan subjects conversion. Meanwhile, William of Habsburg hurried to Kraków to demand the consummation of his marriage with Jadwiga. Jogaila, who received the baptismal name Władysław, married Jadwiga on 15 February 1386, legend says that she had only agreed to marry him after long prayers, seeking divine inspiration. Władysław-Jogaila was crowned king on 4 March, as her co-ruler, Władysław closely cooperated with his wife. She acted as mediator between her husbands quarreling kinsmen, and between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, after her sister, Mary died in 1395, Jadwiga and Władysław-Jogaila laid claim to Hungary against the widowed Sigismund of Luxemburg, but the Hungarian lords did not support them. Jadwiga was the third and youngest daughter of Louis I, King of Hungary and Poland, both her grandmothers were Polish princesses, connecting her to the native Piast dynasty of Poland. Historian Oscar Halecki concluded that Jadwigas genealogical tree shows that had more Polish blood than any other. The date of her birth is unknown and she was probably born after 3 October 1373, on this day, her father issued a charter which listed her two older sisters, Catherine and Mary, without mentioning Jadwiga. Her name was first recorded in her fathers instructions to his envoys to France on 17 April 1384, if by then, Jadwiga had reached twelve years, she must have been born before 18 February 1374. She was named after her distant ancestor, Saint Hedwig of Silesia, King Louis who had not fathered any sons, wanted to ensure his daughters right to inherit his realms. Therefore, European royals regarded his three daughters as especially attractive brides, Leopold III, Duke of Austria, proposed his eldest son, William, to Jadwiga already on 18 August 1374
23.
Elected monarchy
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An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected monarch, in contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the nature of candidate qualifications, historically it is not uncommon for elective monarchies to transform into hereditary ones over time, or for hereditary ones to acquire at least occasional elective aspects. Many, if not most, kingdoms were officially elective historically, the kings of Macedon and of Epirus were elected by the army, which was similar in composition to the ecclesia of democracies, the council of all free citizens. Military service often was linked with citizenship among the members of the royal house. In the ancient Kingdom of Rome, the kings were elected by the Assemblies, therefore, the office of Roman and Byzantine emperor remained vaguely elective and heredity never was, and could never be, formally established in law. The Holy Roman Empire is perhaps the best-known example of an elective monarchy, however, from 1453 to 1740, a Habsburg was always elected emperor, the throne becoming unofficially hereditary. During that period, the emperor was elected from within the House of Habsburg by a council of nobles called prince-electors. The secular electoral seats were hereditary, however, spiritual electors were usually elected by the cathedral chapters as religious leaders, but simultaneously ruled as monarch of a territory of imperial immediacy. Thus the prince-bishoprics were elective monarchies too, the same holds true for prince-abbeys, whose prince-abbesses or prince-abbots were elected by a college of clerics and imperially appointed as princely rulers in a pertaining territory. In the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, the kingship was partially elected, during the height of the kingdom in the mid-12th century there was a royal family and a relatively clear line of succession. Nevertheless, the king was elected, or at least recognized, here the king was considered a primus inter pares, and in his absence his duties were performed by his seneschal. Originally, the Kings of Sweden were elected by all men at the Mora Thing. Elective monarchy continued until 1544, when the Riksdag of the Estates designated the heirs of King Gustav Vasa as the heirs to the throne, the Danish monarchy was also officially elective, although the eldest son of the reigning monarch was usually elected. This continued until 1660, when a hereditary and absolute monarchy was instituted by Frederick III, though the monarchy of Norway was originally hereditary, it too became elective in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Candidates had to be of royal blood, but the kingship was elected by a council of noblemen, in 1905 Prince Carl was elected King of Norway, after the male population in an election decided Norway should still be a monarchy. Bernadotte eventually ascended the throne as Charles XIV John of Sweden, in Poland, after the death of the last Piast in 1370, Polish kings were initially elected by a small council, gradually, this privilege was granted to all members of the szlachta. During the election period, the function of the king was performed by an interrex and this unique Polish election was termed the free election. Since medieval times, the King of Bohemia was elected by the Estates of Lands of the Bohemian Crown, since 1526, when the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I assumed the Bohemian Crown, it was always held by the Habsburgs, who expected this situation to go on indefinitely
24.
Vilnius Voivodeship
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Geographically the area was centered on the city of Vilnius, which has always been the capital of the entity and the seat of a voivode. However, the territory of the voivodeship varied over time. Together with the Trakai Voivodeship it was known as Lithuania propria, before the reform, the area, centered on Vilnius, was known as the Duchy of Lithuania or sometimes as the Duchy of Vilnius. Vilnius Voivodeship became the capital voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in 1793, voivodeships of Breslauja and Merkinė were created from northern part of it. Breslauja Voivodeship consisted from Breslauja, Vilkmergė and Anykščiai counties and Merkinė one conisisted from Merkinė, Prienai, after the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the territory of Vilnius Voivodeship was incorporated into the Russian Empire, most of the territory becoming a part of Vilna Governorate. Northern part of it was passed to Kovno Governorate in 1843, after World War I former Vilnius Voivodeship was divided between Lithuania and Poland. After World War II, Soviet Union transferred most of Polish portion of the voivodeship to Belarus SSR
25.
Podlachia
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Podlasie, or Podlachia is a historical region in the eastern part of Poland. Between 1513 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the capital in Drohiczyn, now the part north of Bug River is included in the modern Podlaskie Voivodeship with the capital in Białystok. There are two opinions regarding the origin of the name of the region, commonly people derive it from the Slavic word les or las meaning forest, i. e. it is an by the wood or area of forests, making Podlachia close in meaning to adjacent Polesia. The theory has been questioned, as it does not properly take into consideration the vowel shifts a > e > i in various Slavic languages, the second opinion holds that the term comes from the expression pod Lachem, which may be translated literally as under the Poles. Some claim it to mean under Polish rule, though in the Middle Ages Podlachia was only partially under Polish rule, hence pod Lachem would mean near the Poles, along the border with Poland. The historical Lithuanian name of the region, Palenkė, has exactly this meaning, Podlasie is divided along the Bug River, at which the traditional capital Drohiczyn lies, into northern and southern parts. The former is included in the modern-day Podlaskie Voivodeship with its capital at Białystok, sometimes, Siedlce has been considered the capital of the region. Throughout its early history, Podlasie was inhabited by tribes of different ethnic roots. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the area was inhabited by Lechitic tribes in the south, Baltic tribes in the north. Between the 10th and 14th centuries, the area was part of the Ruthenian principalities and Polish, the area became perhaps a part of the Medieval Slavic territory of Cherven Cities. In the 14th century the area was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in 1446 Podlachia became part of the Grand Duchy, but since 1496 southwestern parts of Podlachia and since 1501 the northern part used Polish law instead of Lithuanian. In 1513 King Sigismund I the Old formed the Podlaskie Voivodeship, in 1566 the southeastern part of Podlachia became part of the newly formed Brest Litovsk Voivodeship as the Brest Litovsk County. In 1569, after the Union of Lublin, Podlasie was ceded to the Kingdom of Poland and it was the northernmost part of the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown. The voivodeship was divided in three lands, the Drohiczyn, Mielnik and Bielsk Land, in the 18th and 19th century the private town of Białystok became the main center of the region, thanks to the patronage of the Branicki family and the textile industry development. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 Podlachia was divided between the Kingdom of Prussia, the Habsburg Monarchy and the Russian Empire. In 1807 the western part of Podlachia became part of the Duchy of Warsaw, in the 19th century the region was a stronghold of Polish resistance against Russian rule. The last partisan of the January Uprising Stanisław Brzóska operated here until 1865 and he was hanged publicly by the Russians in Sokołów Podlaski in May 1865. Poland regained Podlachia after restoring independence in 1918, Podlasie is the land of the confluence of cultures – mainly Polish and Belarusian – and is indicative of the ethnic territories limits
26.
Volhynia
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Volhynia or Volyn is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe straddling Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, while the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, Volhynia has changed hands numerous times throughout history and been divided among competing powers. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been part of the independent nation of Ukraine, among important cities are Lutsk, Rivne, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Iziaslav, Novohrad-Volynskyi. In other versions, the city was located over 20 km to the west of Volodymyr-Volynskyi near the mouth of Huczwa River, before the partitions of Poland, eastern edge stretched a little west along the right-banks of Sluch River or just east of it. Volhynia is located in basins of Western Bug and Prypyat, therefore most of its rivers flow either in northern or western directions, relative to other historical regions, it is northeast of Galicia, east of Lesser Poland, and northwest of Podolia. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, and it is considered to overlap a number of other regions, among which are Polesia. Territories of historical Volhynia are now part of the Volyn, Rivne, major cities include Lutsk, Rivne, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Kremenets, and Starokostiantyniv. Before World War II, many Jewish shtetls, such as Trochenbrod, at one time all of Volhynia was part of the Pale of Settlement designated by Imperial Russia on its southwesternmost border. The land was mentioned in works of the Arabian scholar Al-Masudi who denoted the local tribe as people of Valin, in his work of 947-948 Al-Masudi mentions that Valinians as an intertribal union were ruled by their leader Madjak. In the opinion of Ukrainian historian Yuriy Dyba, the chronicle phrase «и оустави по мьстѣ, и по лузѣ погосты и дань и ѡброкы» reflects the actual route of the Olgas raid against Drevlians further to the west up to the Western Bugs right tributary Luha River. As early as 983, Vladimir the Great appointed his son Vsevolod the ruler of the Volhynian Principality and in 988 established the city of Volodymer. The first records can be traced to the Ruthenian chronicles, such as the Primary Chronicle, which mentions tribes of the Dulebe, Buzhan, volhynias early history coincides with that of the duchies or principalities of Halych and Volhynia. These two successor states of the Kievan Rus formed Halych-Volhynia between the 12th and the 14th centuries, after 1569 Volhynia formed a province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period many Poles and Jews settled in the area, the Roman and Greek Catholic churches became established in the province. In 1375 was established a Roman Catholic Diocese of Lodomeria but it was suppressed in 1425, many Orthodox churches joined the latter organization in order to benefit from a more attractive legal status. Records of the first agricultural colonies of Mennonites date from 1783, after the Third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Volhynia was annexed as the Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire. It covered an area of 71,852.7 square kilometers, many Roman Catholic church buildings were also given to the Russian Church, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutsk was suppressed on orders of Empress Catherine II. In 1897, the population amounted to 2,989,482 people and it consisted of 73.7 percent East Slavs,13.2 percent Jews,6.2 percent Poles, and 5.7 percent Germans
27.
Kiev
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Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974, Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many industries, higher education institutions. The city has an infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport. The citys name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, during its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city probably existed as a centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the Khazars, until seized by the Varangians in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus, completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by Poland. The city prospered again during the Russian Empires Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, in 1917, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from the Russian Empire, Kiev became its capital. From 1919 Kiev was an important center of the Armed Forces of South Russia and was controlled by the White Army. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, during World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union. During the countrys transformation to an economy and electoral democracy. Kievs armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science, Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine where parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections. As a prominent city with a history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. The early English spelling was derived from Old East Slavic form Kyjev, the name is associated with that of Kyi, the legendary eponymous founder of the city. Early English sources use various names, including Kiou, Kiow, Kiew, on one of the oldest English maps of the region, Russiae, Moscoviae et Tartariae published by Ortelius the name of the city is spelled Kiou. On the 1650 map by Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is Kiiow, in the book Travels, by Joseph Marshall, the city is referred to as Kiovia
28.
Bratslav
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Bratslav is an urban-type settlement in Ukraine, located in Nemyriv Raion of Vinnytsia Oblast, by the Southern Bug river. Population,5, 557 The first written mention of Bratslav dates back to 1362, city status was granted Magdeburg Rights in 1564. In the early 16th century, the Starosta of Bratslav and Vinnytsia was Hetman Kostiantyn Ostrozky, nevertheless, Ostrozky was unable to protect Bratslav and its castle from destruction in 1497, when the town was raided by Crimean Tatars. During this time, Bratslav by the authorities, was property of Polish kings, in 1570, a special commission of the Polish Sejm marked boundaries of the Bratslav Voivodeship. In the west, it reached the Dniestr and the Murachwa rivers, with top-quality soil, the so-called chernozem, Bracław Voivodeship was the most fertile region of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1589 in Warsaw, the Sejm granted coat of arms to the town, on October 5,1594, Zaporozhian Cossacks under Severyn Nalyvaiko murdered near Bratslav Castle a tabor of the local Polish nobility, who tried to escape the Nalyvaiko Uprising. In 1648, during the Bohdan Khmelnytsky rebellion, Bracław became a Cossack regimental city, part of the Ukrainian Hetman state, in 1667, under the Treaty of Andrusiv, Muscovy returned the city to Poland. The city was ruled by Ottoman Empire between 1672-1699, returning then to Poland once more and it became part of the Russian Empire after the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, along with the rest of the formerly Polish Right-bank Ukraine. Under Russia, Bratslav was a center in the Podolia governorate. As the city had no access to a railroad, its importance, Bratslav is famous in Judaism as the place where Rabbi Nachman lived and taught between 1802 and 1810. Rabbi Nachman was the founder of one of the branches of Hasidism, Breslover Hasidism. After the 1917 revolution Judaism had been strongly persecuted, the history of this persecution is well illustrated by the life of Bratslav rabbi Moishe Yankel Rabinovich who served as a rabbi from 1919 to 1968. In 1926 Bratslav had a population of 7,842, during World War II, Bratslav was occupied by German and Romanian armies on July 22,1941, and was made into a ghetto for Jews of Bratslav and its vicinities. According to Romanian reports, there were 747 Jews in Bratslav in the end of December 1941, on January 1,1942, most Jews were transferred to an extermination camp, and 50 people were drowned in the South Bug river. Two labor camps for German construction companies Todt-Dorman and Horst und Jessen were opened in August 1942 and they hosted about 1,200 Jews deported from Romania, as well as about 300 Ukrainian Jews. The labor schedule was designed to exhaust all prisoners, work in masonry, without days off, from dawn till dusk, on September 23,1942, all elderly and children were shot in a neighboring forest. The executions continued regularly after that date, in April 1943, Todt-Dorman camp was closed, and the prisoners were transferred to Horst und Jessen. Bratslav was part of Transnistria Governorate in Kingdom of Romania till its liberation in 17 March 1944 by Red Army, ivan Volosheniuk — a Ukrainian writer
29.
Podolia
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Podolia or Podilia is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central and south-western parts of Ukraine and in northeastern Moldova. The term is derived from Old Slavic po, meaning by/next to/along, the area is part of the vast East European Plain, confined by the Dniester River and the Carpathian arc in the southwest. It comprises an area of about 40,000 km2, extending for 320 km from northwest to southeast on the bank of the Dniester. In the same direction run two ranges of low hills separated by the Southern Bug, ramifications of the Avratynsk heights. Podolia lies east of historic Red Ruthenia, i. e. the eastern half of Galicia, beyond the Seret River, in the northwest it borders on Volhynia. It is made up of the present-day Ukrainian Vinnytsia Oblast and southern, the Podolian lands further include parts of adjacent Ternopil Oblast in the west and Kiev Oblast in the northeast. In the east it consists of the parts of Cherkasy, Kirovohrad and Odessa Oblasts. The Dniester forms an important channel for trade in the areas of Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Zhvanets, in Podolia, black earth soil predominates, making it a very fertile agricultural area. Marshes occur only beside the Bug, a moderate climate predominates, with average temperatures at Kamianets-Podilskyi of 9 °C. Russian-ruled Podolia in 1906 had an population of 3,543,700. Significant minorities included Poles and Jews, as well as 50,000 Romanians, some Germans, in Moldova, the major Podolian cities are Camenca and Rîbniţa. Podolia is known for its cherries, mulberries, melons, gourds, the country has had human inhabitants since at least the beginning of the Neolithic period. Herodotus mentions it as the seat of the Graeco-Scythian Alazones and possibly Scythian Neuri, subsequently, the Dacians and the Getae arrived. The Romans left traces of their rule in Trajans Wall, which stretches through the districts of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Nova Ushytsia. During the Great Migration Period, many passed through this territory or settled within it for some time. Nestor in the Primary Chronicle mentions four apparently Slavic tribes, the Buzhans and Dulebes along the Southern Bug River, the Avars invaded in the 7th century. Prince Oleg of Kiev, extended his rule over this territory known as the Ponizie and these lowlands later became a part of the Rus principalities of Volhynia, Kiev, and Galicia. In the 13th century Bakota served as its political and administrative centre, Polish colonisation began in the 14th century
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Ruthenia
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Ruthenia is a proper geographical exonym for Kievan Rus and other, more local, historical states. It was applied to the area where Ruthenians lived, the word Ruthenia originated as a Latin rendering of the region and people known originally as Rus. A group of Varangians known as the Rus settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik. In European manuscripts dating from the 13th century, Ruthenia was used to describe Rus, a territory long disputed as an early part of Hungary, and from the 10th century Ruthenia and Poland, formed the Chervian Towns, now mostly in Poland, partly in Ukraine. This laid the foundation of the modern Russian state, the Muscovy population was Eastern Orthodox and used the Greek transcription of Rus, being Rossia, rather than the Latin Ruthenia. Due to their usage of the Latin script rather than the Cyrillic script, other spellings were also used in Latin, English and other languages during this period. The use of the term Ruthenia in the lands of ancient Rus survived longer as a used by Ukrainians for Ukraine. By 1840 the superior term, Малая Русь, Little Rus, or Rus Minora, for Ruthenians became derogative in the Russian Empire, and they began calling themselves Ukrainians, for Ukrayina. In the 1880s and 1900s, the popularity of the ethnonym Ukrainian spread, in time the term Ruthenian became restricted to western Ukraine, an area then part of the Austro-Hungarian state. By the early 20th century, the term Ukraine had replaced Ruthenia in Galicia/Halychyna, rusin has been one of official self-identifications of the Rus population in Poland. Until 1939, for many traditional Ruthenians and Polish, the word Ukrainiec meant a person involved in or friendly to a nationalist movement, however, some other Slavish languages definitely separate the Ruthenian meaning from its Russian neighbour. While Galician Ruthenians considered themselves to be Ukrainians, the Carpatho-Ruthenians were the last East Slavic people that kept the ancient historic name, nowadays, the term Rusyn is used to describe the ethnicity and language of Ruthenians who are not forced to the Ukrainian national identity. Carpatho-Ruthenia formed part of the Hungarian Kingdom from the late 11th century, in May 1919, it was incorporated with nominal autonomy into Czechoslovakia. After this date, Ruthenian people have been divided among three orientations, on 15 March 1939 the Ukrainophile president of Carpatho-Ruthenia, Avhustyn Voloshyn, declared its independence as Carpatho-Ukraine. On the same day Hungarian Army fascist regular troops, allies of Adolf Hitler, in 1944 the Soviet Army occupied Carpatho-Ruthenia, and in 1946, annexed it to the Ukrainian SSR. Officially, there were no Rusyns in the USSR, in fact, Soviet and some modern Ukrainian politicians, as well as Ukrainian government claim that Rusyns are part of the Ukrainian nation. Nowadays some of the population in the Zakarpattya oblast of Ukraine consider themselves Rusyns yet they are still a part of the whole Ukrainian national identity, a Rusyn minority remained after World War II in northeastern Czechoslovakia. According to critics, the Ruthenians rapidly became Slovakized, in 1995 the Ruthenian written language became standardized
31.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
32.
Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz
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Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz was a 16th-century Lithuanian noble. He was one of the most famous Lithuanian magnates of the 16th century, raised a Calvinist he studied at the Universities of Königsberg, Leipzig, and Wittenberg, and entered in the service of Emperor Charles V from 1552 to 1555. After that he entered the service of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, in 1558 Jan Chodkiewicz was made Livonia Hetman and sent to defend Livonia against Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible who was trying to enforce a passage to the Baltic Sea. With the help of Michael Radziwiłł, Great Chancellor of Lithuania, but this territory remained for long the main target of Russian attacks. In 1564 he became Elder of Samogitia, in 1566 Grand Marshal of Lithuania and governor of Livonia, as his uncle he was a strong opponent to the Union of Lithuania with Poland. King Zygmunt August in 1569 he succeeded formally to found one integrated state instead of a loose Polish-Lithuanian federation. The Lithuanian delegation to the preparing the Act of Union was led by Jan. Finally bowing to the power, he pointed out those parts of the Act of Union which were unacceptable to Lithuania. In practice the Union of Lublin in 1589 made sure that the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania retained its own form of government, in 1570 Jan Hieronimowicz converted to Catholicism and became a great benefactor of the Jesuits. He married the Calvinist Krystyna Zborowska before 1559 in Crakow, daughter of Marcin Zborowski, Cracow castellan and she remained Calvinist despite his conversion and raised some of their daughters in that religion despite their fathers will. He died on 4 August 1579 and was buried in Vilnius Cathedral, Jan Hieronim married Krystyna Zborowska h. Jastrzębiec in 1559 and had seven children, Aleksander Chodkiewicz, voivode of Troki, dębno, the daughter of voivode of Podole Jan Sienieński h. Krucyni, the daughter of Konstanty Korniakt h, krucyni Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, voivode of Wilno and Hetman, married Zofia Mielecka h. Gryf, the daughter of voivode of Podole and Hetman Mikołaj Mielecki h, gryf and Princess Elżbieta Radziwiłł h. His second wife was Princess Anna Alojza Ostrogska h, Ostrogski, the daughter of voivode of Wołyń Prince Aleksander Ostrogski h. Dąbrowa Hieronim Chodkiewicz, unmarried Zofia Chodkiewicz, married Grand Marshal of Lithuania Krzysztof Drohostajski h. Leliwa Anna Chodkiewicz, pogoń Litewska Aleksandara Chodkiewicz, married Prince Adam Wiśniowiecki h. Korybut Elżbieta Chodkiewicz, married Prince Jan Żyliński and castelan of Nowogródek Samuel Wołłowicz h, bogorya House of Chodkiewicz Lithuanian nobility Grand Duchy of Lithuania Danuta Bogdan, Students of the Republic at the University of Königsberg, in Królewice and Poland, Olsztyn 1993, p 82. Leszek Kieniewicz the Senate for the Stefan Batory Foundation, Warsaw 2000, T.3, Brozek Jan – Chwalczewski Francis
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Jan Karol Chodkiewicz
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His coat of arms was Chodkiewicz, as was his family name. His most famous victory was the Battle of Kircholm in 1605 and he died on the front lines during the battle of Chocim, in the besieged Khotyn Fortress, a few days before the Ottomans gave up on the siege and agreed to negotiate. He visited Padua before returning to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1590 and he started his military career soon after returning to the Commonwealth, raising a rota of 50 to 100 men. He gained military experience in the fight against the rebellious Cossacks during the Severyn Nalyvaikos uprising under Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, during that conflict he participated in the battle of Kaniów on 14 April 1596, and in the siege of the Cossack tabor near Lubny. In 1599, he was appointed the Elder of Samogitia, Chodkiewicz subsequently assisted Chancellor and Great Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski in his victorious Wallachian campaign, in which Chodkiewicz participated in the battle of Ploiești on 15 October 1600. For that campaign, he was given that year the office of the Field Lithuanian Hetman. He oversaw the fighting in the Livonia theater after Zamoyskis return to Poland in 1602, in April 1603, he captured Dorpat and defeated the Swedish forces at Biały Kamień on 23 September 1604. For that feat he received letters of congratulation from Pope Paul V, most of the Catholic royalty of Europe, and even the sultan of Turkey and the shah of Persia. Soon afterward, he was rewarded with the rank of Grand Lithuanian Hetman, in addition to a number of land grants. Yet this great victory was virtually fruitless, owing to the domestic dissensions, Chodkiewicz was one of the magnates who remained loyal to king Sigismund III, and helped him to defeat the Sandomierz rebellion in 1606–1607. A fresh invasion of Livonia by the Swedes recalled him once more. He improvised a small fleet and dealt a blow to the Swedish Navy at the Battle of Salis. Meanwhile, the Dimitriad wars with Muscovy broke out, eventually their differences subsided, and Chodkiewicz was sent against the Muscovites, operating first near Smolensk and Pskov. Chodkiewicz was tasked by the king with an advance on Moscow, however, the Sejm neglected to pay for the maintenance of the Army once more, with the result that some units mutinied. Chodkiewicz fought several battles against the Muscovites in the fall of 1611. Disappointed with that outcome, he once again estranged from the king. Over the next few years, in the period of 1613–15, Chodkiewicz defended the Commonwealth gains in the Smolensk area, not till the crown prince, Władysław arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war could assume a more offensive character once again. The army, nominally commanded by Władysław, but in practice under the command of Chodkiewicz
34.
Federation
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A federation is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central government. The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is known as federalism and it can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. Federations are often multiethnic and cover an area of territory. The initial agreements create a stability that encourages other common interests, at some time, that is recognized and a movement is organized to merge more closely. At other times, especially when common cultural factors are at such as ethnicity and language. The Old Swiss Confederacy was an example of formal non-unitary statehood. Several colonies and dominions in the New World consisted of autonomous provinces, the oldest continuous federation, and a role model for many subsequent federations, is the United States. Some of the New World federations failed, the Federal Republic of Central America broke up into independent states ten years after its founding, others, such as Argentina and Mexico, have shifted between federal, confederal, and unitary systems, before settling into federalism. Brazil became a federation only after the fall of the monarchy, australia and Canada are also federations. Germany is another nation-state that has switched between confederal, federal and unitary rules, since the German Confederation was founded in 1815, the North German Confederation, the succeeding German Empire and the Weimar Republic were federations. The Russian Federation has inherited a similar system, Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Malaysia became federations on or shortly before becoming independent from the British Empire. In some recent cases, federations have been instituted as a measure to handle ethnic conflict within a state, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq since 2005. The component states are in some sense sovereign, insofar as certain powers are reserved to them that may not be exercised by the central government, however, a federation is more than a mere loose alliance of independent states. The component states of a federation usually possess no powers in relation to foreign policy, however, German Länder have that power, which is beginning to be exercised on a European level. Some federations are called asymmetric because some states have more autonomy than others, an example of such a federation is Malaysia, in which Sarawak and Sabah agreed to form the federation on different terms and conditions from the states of Peninsular Malaysia. A federation often emerges from an agreement between a number of separate states. The purpose can be the will to solve problems and to provide for mutual defense or to create a nation state for an ethnicity spread over several states. The former was the case with the United States and Switzerland, however, as the histories of countries and nations vary, the federalist system of a state can be quite different from these models
35.
Lublin Castle
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The Lublin Castle is a medieval castle situated in Lublin, Poland, adjacent to the Old Town district and close to the city center. It is one of the oldest preserved Royal residencies in Poland, the hill on which it is located was first fortified with a wood-reinforced earthen wall in the 12th century. In the first half of the 13th century, the keep was built which survives to this day and is the tallest building of the castle. In the 14th century, during the reign of Casimir the Great, probably at the same time the castles Holy Trinity church was built to serve as a royal chapel. In the first decades of the 15th-century king Władysław II commissioned a set of paintings for the chapel. The author was a Ruthenian Master Andrej, who signed his work on one of the walls, due to their unique style, mixing Western and Eastern Orthodox influences, they are acclaimed internationally as an important historical monument. Under the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty the castle enjoyed royal favor, in the 16th century, it was rebuilt on a grandiose scale, under the direction of Italian masters brought from Kraków. The most momentous event in the history was the signing in 1569 of the Union of Lublin. As a consequence of the wars in the 17th century the castle fell into disrepair, only the oldest sections, the keep and the chapel, remained intact. The new buildings were in English neogothic style, completely different from the structures they replaced, only the keep and the chapel were preserved in their original state. Just before withdrawing in 1944, the Nazis massacred its remaining 300 prisoners, in 1954 the castle prison was finally closed. Following reconstruction and refurbishment, since 1957 it has been the site of the Lublin Museum. Lublin Castle and Lublin Museum webpage
36.
Constitution of May 3, 1791
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The Constitution of 3 May 1791 was adopted by the Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dual monarchy comprising Poland and Lithuania. Drafted over 32 months beginning on 6 October 1788, and formally adopted as the Government Act, the system of Golden Freedoms, also known as the Nobles Democracy, had conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility and over time had corrupted politics. The constitution sought to supplant the prevailing anarchy fostered by some of the magnates with a more democratic constitutional monarchy. It introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It banned parliamentary institutions such as the veto, which had put the Sejm at the mercy of any deputy who could revoke all the legislation that had been passed by that Sejm. The Commonwealths neighbours reacted with hostility to the adoption of the constitution, the King, a principal co-author, eventually capitulated to the Confederates. The 1791 document remained in force for less than 19 months, by 1795, the Second and Third Partitions of Poland ended the existence of the sovereign Polish state. Over the next 123 years, the Constitution of 3 May,1791, was seen as proof of successful internal reform, in the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, it was the last will and testament of the expiring Country. Polish constitutionalism can be traced to the 13th century, when government by consensus, the emergence of parliamentary bodies, the sejm and sejmiki, followed. This system, which benefited the Polish nobility, came to be known as the nobles democracy. In the 1590s, at the peak of the nobles democracy, as the Sejm failed to implement sufficient reforms, the state machinery became increasingly dysfunctional. A major cause of the Commonwealths downfall was the liberum veto, the threat of the liberum veto could only be overridden by the establishment of a confederated sejm, which was immune to the liberum veto. Declaring that a sejm either constituted a confederation or belonged to one was a prominently used by foreign interests in the 18th century to force a legislative outcome. By the early 18th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania controlled the state, the ineffective monarchs who were elected to the Commonwealth throne in the early 18th century, Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland of the House of Wettin, did not improve matters. Only 8 out of 18 Sejm sessions during the reign of Augustus II passed legislation, for 30 years during the reign of Augustus III, only one session was able to pass legislation. The government was near collapse, giving rise to the term Polish anarchy, the Enlightenment greatly influenced certain Commonwealth circles during the 1764–95 reign of its last king, Stanisław II August Poniatowski. Poniatowski was an enlightened Polish magnate who had been a deputy to several Sejms between 1750 and 1764 and had an understanding of Polish politics than previous monarchs. In part because his election was imposed by Empress Catherine the Great and these measures had already been authorized by the Convocation Sejm, more legislative and executive improvements inspired by Familia or the King were implemented during and after the 1764 Sejm
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Unitary state
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The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states,165 of them are governed as unitary states, unitary states are contrasted with federal states. In a unitary state, sub-national units are created and abolished, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an example of a unitary state. Many unitary states have no areas possessing a degree of autonomy, in such countries, sub-national regions cannot decide their own laws. Examples are the Republic of Ireland and the Kingdom of Norway, in federal states, the sub-national governments share powers with the central government as equal actors through a written constitution, to which the consent of both is required to make amendments. This means that the units have a right of existence. The United States of America is an example of a federal state, under the U. S. Constitution, powers are shared between the federal government and the states
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Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations
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The document was to be an integral part of the pacta conventa and thus binding on King Stanisław August Poniatowski and all subsequent monarchs of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The document defined the character of the state and asserted the equal representation within the bodies of state governance of its two constituents. The document declared that the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth remained a union of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and it specified that they shared a common government, military and treasury, but Lithuanian tax revenues were to be spent only within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The military and treasury commissions were to have numbers of Polish and Lithuanian members and were to be presided over by Polish. The membership of the Police Commission was to be two-thirds Polish-Crown, Poland and Lithuania were to have the same numbers of principal officials. The Constitution of May Third and the assurance of the Two Nations
