Glossary

Unless otherwise indicated, terms are Polish.

Annexed territories Lands of Kievan Rus^' annexed by the Gediminids and not absorbed into Lithuania Proper: the duchies of Vilnius and Trakai. See Chapter 6, 67.

Boyar (Ruth. боярь; Lith. bajoras) Noble. The term boyar is originally Slavic, derived from the word for warrior.

Camp sejm (sejm obozowy) Also ‘horseback sejm’. A sejm formed after the assembly of the noble levy. A form of confederation, camp sejms were regarded as particularly representative by the szlachta.

Castellan Originally the keeper of a royal castle. Castellans were below palatines in the local hierarchy of office, apart from in Cracow—and later in Vilnius. Ex officio members of the royal council, when the Polish sejm was institutionalized after 1493 castellans became members of the senate. In Poland there was a distinction between major castellans (one or sometimes two per palatinate) and minor castellans in less important towns. There were no minor castellans in Lithuania.

Castle court (sąd grodzki) The main royal court in the localities, presided over by the starosta.

Chałupnik Cottar. A poor peasant.

Confederation The principle of confederation emerged in the fourteenth century to provide a legal basis for associations formed for specific aims. Its political merits became apparent to the nobility after 1352, the first noble confederation. The confederations of 1382 and 1384 that settled the succession embedded the principle within Polish political practice. A formal pact or foedus was drawn up, and oaths were taken to uphold it.

Gosudar ⁰ (Russ.) Literally ‘lord’, gosudar ⁰ denoted independent authority. The term was used by Vytautas and was borrowed by the grand dukes of Muscovy in the fifteenth century, who used it in their official titles to claim authority over all the Ruthenian lands from the reign of Ivan III (Государь всея Русию).

Hetman The commander of the army.

Hide (łan) The main measure of land in Poland, known as the włoka in Mazovia and Lithuania. Two main systems were used: the Flemish hide (16.7 to 17.5 hectares), and the Franconian hide (22.6 to 25.36 hectares).

Indygenat (Lat. indigenus) The principle of indigeneity, by which only those born in an individual province could hold office there and enjoy all the provincial privilege. The principle of indigeneity was granted to Royal Prussia in the incorporation acts of 1454 and 1466.

Kmieć (pl. kmiecie) The non-noble tenant farmers at the apex of village society. The kmiecie were the main tenants of noble landowners, farming the lands designated as farmland for tax purposes.

Komornik A landless rural labourer who received board and lodging from lords or wealthier peasants in return for his labour.

Land court (sąd ziemski) The principal local civil court for cases involving landed property and a wide range of other civil matters. It was presided over by elected judges. The system was extended to Lithuania by the Second Lithuanian Statute in 1566.

Lithuania proper (Lat. Lithuania propria) The heartland territories of Aukštaitija formed by the core Lithuanian duchies of Vilnius and Trakai.

Metryka The main chancery archive.

Palatine (wojewoda) The principal provincial office-holder. Responsible for organizing the local noble levy in time of war and for the defence of his palatinate. A member ex officio of the royal council and, after the establishment of the sejm, of the senate.

Pan (pl. pany) Lord. Originally the term referred to members of the elite of the nobility; over time it became the standard form of address for all the szlachta.

Pańszczyzna Labour service (literally ‘that which is owed to the lord’).

Poddaństwo Subject status. Peasants were subject to the baronial courts of their landlords, and could not, after the early sixteenth century, appeal against their verdicts in the royal courts. In this sense they were the subjects of their lord, although in Poland-Lithuania they were never his possessions.

Pomest⁰e (Russ.) The basis of the military service system in Muscovy after the 1470s. Pomest ⁰e estates were allocated in return for military service.

Poradlne The main, permanent land tax paid by the Polish szlachta. From 1374 it was levied at a rate of 2 groszy per hide.

Prawo rycerskie (Lat. ius militaris) ‘Military Law’. Lands were granted under military law to nobles in Poland in frontier provinces, in particular in the Ruthenian palatinate, in return for which they had to perform various specified military services.

Rokosz A form of confederation, a rokosz was a formal act of rebellion against a monarch considered to be acting in breach of his coronation oath. It derived its name from Rákos in Hungary, where Hungarian nobles gathered to protest against their kings.

Sejm Diet or parliament.

Sejmik Dietine. The sejmiks were parliamentary bodies at the local level, attended by the noble citizens. Their position in the Polish system was established by the 1454 Nieszawa privileges.

Serebshchyzna (Ruth.) ‘The silver tax’. Introduced by the 1507 Lithuanian sejm, the silver tax was levied on land on several occasions thereafter.

Shliakhta (Ruth.) See szlachta.

Sluzhba (Ruth.) ‘Service unit’. In Lithuania a sluzhba was formed by grouping households in order to determine the level of military service owed by individual nobles

Starosta, Starosty (lit. elder). Starostas were the chief royal administrative officials, who also had judicial powers, being responsible for the castle court in the local gród (castle). The term starosty was used to denote complexes of royal estates leased out or mortgaged to individual nobles, but without judicial or administrative powers. Their holders were known as ‘non-judicial starostas’ (starostowie niegrodowi). See Chapter 23, 275–6.

Starosta General The provinces of Wielkopolska and Małopolska had general starostas. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these officials had considerable power and prestige among the local nobles, and took a leading role in the provincial sejmiks.

Szlachta (Ruth. Шляхта/Shliakhta) Nobility. Derived from the German Geschlecht (family). The privileges granted by monarchs between 1374 and 1454 established the szlachta as the dominant political estate.

Tivun (Ruth.) (ciwuń) A local royal official in Lithuania. Roughly equivalent to a Polish starosta, but without judicial powers: the main responsibility was to administer the royal domain and collect taxes.

Vivente rege (Lat.) An election held in the lifetime of the king.

Włoka (Ruth. Voloka) See hide.

Wójt Headman. Under German law, the wójt (Vogt) was the headman of the village; in a town, the mayor.

Zagrodnik (pl. zagrodnicy) A peasant granted a small plot of land (literally a garden). The zagrodnicy formed the labour force for the noble manor. They were often hired by tenant farmers to provide the labour-rent owed on their plots.

Gazetteer

The first column gives the form used in the book; the remaining columns give the equivalents in other languages: Cz. = Czech; Hun. = Hungarian; Lat. = Latin; Slk. = Slovakian; Sln. = Slovenian; Ro. = Romanian; Russ. = Russian.

Place names in Polish

Place names in Lithuanian

Place names in German

1 The Polish name for the village of Tannenberg is Stębark, which is where the Teutonic Knights were positioned. The Poles derived the name ‘Grunwald’ from Grünfeld, another village on the battlefield. The Lithuanian Žalgiris is a direct translation of Grunwald.

Place names in Ukrainian

Place names in Belarusian

Place names in other languages

¹ This was the ancient Phoenecian settlement, then the Genoese colony of Montecastro; ruled by Moldavia from 1359, it was renamed Akkerman by its Turkish conquerors.