The ladies’ court of the queen in late medieval Poland was less numerous and as such less important than the king’s court. I t differed from the latter also in the existence of the so-called fraucymer, that is the courtly entourage of women who supported the queen in her official duties and private life, cared for her good mood and comfort, provided her entertainment as well as advice and guidance on cosmetics, robes and jewelry when needed. The term is derived from the German word, but it is not known whether it was used also in Poland in the fifteenth century. Surely, some of the women were personally chosen by the queen, being her friends, companions, confidantes and advisors in difficult decisions. The household of the court included maid servants, i.e. ladies-in-waiting, matrons — highly respected married women or widows with established social standing, and female servants supervised by a housekeeper.

A description of the parish village of Tłokinia near Kalisz in a register of endowments of Gniezno archdiocese (1521) includes a reference to the settlement called “Szremino” belonging to the parish priest, which was confirmed by a document issued by Duke Przemysł II . Such a document is not known today, but it is mentioned in a constistory register from the fifteenth century on the occasion of lawsuits between parish priests and their noble neighbors. Undoubtedly, the lost document of Przemysł concerned the grant of the village to the parish church at Tłokinia. The issue of the charter could be associated with the duke’s visit to Tłokinia, evidenced in a preserved document of 1 A ugust 1284. Historical material I have collected makes it possible to reconstruct the fate of a lost settlement, probably called Szaromin (Żaromin?). The article is an example of how it is possible to obtain reliable information about lost medieval charters from the early modern registers.

This study addresses the issue of the 1320 A ngevin-Piast marriage contract between Charles I of Hungary and Elisabeth, a daughter of King W ładysław Łokietek of Poland. I n time this marriage emerged to be the fundament of the A ngevin-Piast alliance, which over decades transformed into a succession project. Louis the Great of Hungary’s ascension to the Polish throne in 1370 and the materialization of the Hungarian-Polish monarchy was a watershed in medieval C entral E uropean constellations, and it retrospectively made the 1320 marriage acquire special significance. Seeking the origins of the marriage, the primary source accounts are collected and interpreted. Subsequently, the contexts of C harles I and Łokietek’s political actions in the early fourteenth century are briefly summarized. This is followed by a reconsidered exposition of the dynastic and political motivations and objectives that may have inspired the marriage. C ontrary to conventional explanations available in the Polish scholarship (emphasizing the role of the Europe-wide rivalry between the Habsburgs and W ittelsbachs in stimulating political behaviors on the regional level to balance the power of the competing political blocks), the study argues that the marriage is sufficiently explained within the framework of dynastic logic, which expected of lords (kings, dukes and other members of the elites) to produce legitimate offspring and provide it with adequate lordships.

Peter of Duisburg (Dusburg) used stylistic means characteristic of literary language. They included also metaphors and comparisons. An often mentioned figure in Duisburg’s chronicle is Duke Świętopełk, who is presented as an evil ruler hostile to Christianity. His conduct is compared to the behavior of two animals — the fox and the lion. He was attributed such character traits as cunning, deceit, falsehood and vileness, which are defining features of the fox. The position of the lion in the Middle A ges was special. I t was often used in comparisons carrying predominantly positive meanings, but also some negative as well. In Duisburg’s chronicle, too, the lion is used to describe both positive and negative personal traits. In reference to the duke and his son Mściwoj comparisons to the lion drew by Peter of D uisburg were of negative character. I n these fragments the lion symbolizes the devil; here Peter of Duisburg drew on the comparison found in the First Epistle of St Paul.

In the present article the author investigates the problem of identification of noblemen participating in Spytko of Melsztyn’s confederation convened in 1439. Their list is known from the document of the confederation, already published twice, but with reading errors that had an impact on the identification of people listed in the text. After the author verified and corrected those errors, it is possible to say that there were 170 Polish noblemen who participated in the confederation. A thorough analysis, based on unknown so far archival sources, makes it possible to identify the places of origin and social background of the following supporters of Spytko: J an Kowalowski of Zaryszyn, Klemens of Kłaj, Moniaczkowski (of Moniaczkowice, probably Mikołaj), Mikołaj of W łoszynów, O tłuczony of Kręciszki in the Land of Łęczyca (probably Paweł or Mikołaj of R ola coat of arms), J an of Milejów, C racow sword-bearer Mikołaj of C hrząst  Melsztyn’s C onfederation of 1439, the original of which is kept in the Central A rchives of Historical R ecords in W arsaw.

 After a 30-year peace concluded by Bulgarian Khan Omurtag with Byzantine E mperor Leo V the Armenian in 815, the khan turned his attention to the conflicts in the borderlands with the Frankish state. Special occasion for interference to matters of the neighboring country ruled at that time by Louis the Pious was offered by a Slavic uprising of 819–822, headed by D uke Ljudevit Posavski. However, as ttempts to resolve the conflict between the Bulgarians and Franks through negotiation, made by O murtag in 824 or 825, failed, in 827 the Bulgarians invaded — to the detriment of Frankish interests — the lands of Pannonian Slavs, deposed local dukes and subjected the people to the local administration being a tool in their hands. I n response, in 827 the Franks organized an expedition against the Bulgarians, headed by E mperor Louis the Pious’ son, Louis the German.
But the operations against the Bulgarians could not succeed at that time, for the Frankish kingdom was too weak after Louis the Pious issued an edict (Orinatio Imperii, 817) regulating the imperial succession. Under the edict, the main part of the Frankish territory together with the title of emperor went to Louis’s eldest son Lothair I , who was also given the kingship of I taly. Lothair’s brothers, Pippin and Louis, were to be kings in their dependent kingdoms, but only after their father’s death. O nce a year they had to come to the emperor’s court to discuss the most mportant matters concerning common good and preservation of peace. W ithout the emperor’s consent they could not declare war or make peace, and they could independently negotiate only in less important matters. They had to inform Lothair about everything what was happening in the borderlands of their kingdoms. I n return they could expect military support in fight against foreign peoples. But the edict failed to stabilize the situation; on the contrary, it caused many internal conflicts between the members of the emperor’s family and their political parties.
In 830 a rebellion broke out in the state of Franks, called “loyal revolution”, which led to hostile actions of Louis’ sons Pippin and Louis against their father. The thorny issue was regulations of the Orinatio Imperii. The internal fights of the 830s weakened the Frankish state so much that it was unable to successfully withstand actions of the hostile neighbors, including the Bulgarian state.

Wenceslaus III , Duke of Rybnik (in Polish: W acław III ), was an indirect descendant of the Přemyslids who in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries ruled in the D uchy of Opava and Racibórz (Ratibor). The duchy, however, from the end of the fourteenth century entered a period of internal divisions. After the death of his father Nicholas V († 1452) Duke Wenceslaus III and his brother John I V divided the inheritance, with John I V taking Krnov and Wodzisław, and Wenceslaus III — R ybnik, Pszczyna and Żory with neighboring districts. W enceslaus III reign witnessed the rivalry between the Jagiellons and Matthias I Corvinus of Hungary for the Bohemian Crown. But the duke of Rybnik pursued a very hesitant policy, siding, in turn, with one party or another. At the same time he failed to secure good relations with his neighbors, Silesian dukes, and was constantly fighting against them. All this led to the interference by Matthias I who annexed a part of his duchy (and gave it to Henry the Younger of Poděbrady) and imprisoned the duke himself. W enceslaus died imprisoned in 1478, without getting the help of the Polish king with whom he maintained friendly relations.

In A pril 1442 an envoy of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Konrad von E rlichshausen appeared before the participants of provincial synod at Piotrków in the person of a parish priest from Sępopol Mikołaj W etterheim. He wanted to present the transumpts of the bulls of Pope A lexander I V and Martin V issued for the Teutonic O rder. I n the face of the opposition of the council fathers, the Teutonic envoy took care to record all those circumstances in a notarial act which sheds light on an unknown aspect of the Polish-Teutonic relations in the early 1440s. A n assumption can be made that the mentioned bulls concerned the right to present Teutonic candidates to fill the vacancies in Pomerania territory, that is under the authority of bishop of W łocławek and archbishop of Gniezno. The mentioned notarial instrument broadens our knowledge about the participants and course of the synod at Piotrków, as well as provides us with additional arguments on the separation of the synod and a general assembly of the nobility convened soon afterwards to Sieradz, because in some literature on the subject those two events were treated as one.

The article presents an unstudied problem of armed escort of urban war wagons in late medieval and early modern Poland. From the thirteenth century on, towns and cities were obliged to provide food on carts sent to war. Those carts were usually accompanied by an armed escort. But the first document — specifying this obligation for the entire Polish Kingdom together with the number of escorting men and their protective and offensive weapons — dates to 1521. An analysis of this source and some other fragmentary references (from both earlier and later times) makes it possible for us to say that most often the escort included urban infantry. Another interesting conclusion is that from the early sixteenth century crossbows were being gradually replaced with firearms. A detailed table juxtaposes different types of protective and offensive weaponry used

The article presents the beginnings of the Tarnowski family of J elita coat of arms from the village of Tarnówek near Szadek (voivodeship of Sieradz). I ts progenitor W incenty was probably from one of the three villages with the name of Tarnów (Tarnowo) in the land of Łęczyca. The fact that he moved to the land of Sieradz could probably be associated with his marriage to a woman originating from the family of Pomian coat of arms, with a heritage at R ossoszyca and neighboring villages. A fter the marriage, W incenty acquired some lands at R ossoszyca and Boczki. The progenitor of the Tarnowskis was very active in land courts and local borough courts of Sieradz voivodeship as assessor and vice-official. He was a client of the voivode of Łęczyca and royal plenipotentiary in W ielkopolska (Greater Poland) Wojciech Malski. A ppointed by him, from 1441 he served as land subjudge for the district of Sieradz, but in 1447, after the coronation of King Casimir J agiellon, was removed from his position. Then he became a client of the Kurozwęckis of Poraj (Róża) coat of arms, holding on their behalf offices in the local administration of O strzeszów. His other patrons were the Zarembas of Kalinowa, holding in pledge the starostwo of W ieluń. Here again W incenty was an official of the starost administration. Until his death in 1472 he was also very active serving as an assessor at noble courts in Sieradz voivodeship.

Wincenty had two sons from his three marriages. The first marriage gave him Klemens who took over the estate at R ossoszyca. The second marriage brought him J an (later, a father of at least eight children), a progenitor of the Tarnowskis of Tarnówek near Szadek, still active in Sieradz voivodeship in the early modern perio

Studya Heraldyczne (Heraldic Studies), a book published in 1890 by the scholar from Lvov A ntoni Małecki may be the most important work in the accomplishments of the study into heraldry of the Polish lands. O bviously, not all his establishments and theses were proved by later research, yet the book offered a new and different look at the adaptation of heraldry in Poland. A t the same time, it cleared the research area by successfully questioning the validity of a theory about runic genesis of Polish coat of arms in consequence of an invasion by the Scandinavians who established the Polish state and imposed its ruling class (the nobility). Małecki correctly separated proprietary marks, with their different functions, of Polish noblemen found on their seals to the turn of the fourteenth century from their later coats of arms. Małecki’s Studya Heraldyczne provoked an animated discussion on the origins of heraldry in Poland and the function of coat of arms. The present article emphasizes its most important elements and theses, touching also upon some social questions, especially the beginnings of kinship organization of the medieval Polish nobility. The discussion, bringing about many valuable observations, did not, however, lead to any decisive conclusions. A n explanation of the emergence of coats of arms and names was given by the research of J anusz Bieniak in the last quarter of the twentieth century, who starting from a synthetic image drawn by A . Małecki, demonstrated a process of development of family coats of arms and names at the turn of the fourteenth century.

The published document is known to the older literature on the subject, but through a nineteenth-century popularizing article, and this fact alone justifies its full edition. I t was issued by the land court of D obrzyń Land on the redrawing of the boundary between two villages in the county of R ypin: the village of O siek belonging to Piotr Lebel, and the village of W rzeszewo belonging to J akub Ś winka of Strzygi. A part from valuable data on the boundary between the villages, the document informs us about a social and political situation in D obrzyń Land two years after it was bought back from the Teutonic Knights by King W ładysław (Ladislaus) J agiello in June 1405. A n analysis of the group of arbiters who set the boundary between W rzeszewo and O siek and a comparison of its result with the list of owners of these villages reveals that the pro-Teutonic party among the D obrzyń nobility which formed during the Teutonic rule in 1391/1392–1405 maintained its relative internal unity, for its members did mutual legal favors (such as playing the role of arbiter fixing the boundary between villages). A personal analysis of the list of witnesses, on the other hand, indicates an advantage among the D obrzyń officials of persons that could be associated with the supporters of the C rown in 1391/1392–1405. But there are also two representatives of the pro-Teutonic party, with one of them forced by royal reprisals to leave for Teutonic Prussia a year later.