Through Words and Deeds

Polish and Polish American Women in History

John Bukowczyk, John Bukowczyk

• Editore: University of Illinois Press
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780252053146
• Argomento: History
• Categoria: World History

Though often overlooked in conventional accounts, women with myriad backgrounds and countless talents have made an impact on Polish and Polish American history. John J. Bukowczyk gathers articles from the journals Polish Review and Polish American Studies to offer a fascinating cross-section of readings about the lives and experiences of these women. The first section examines queens and aristocrats during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but also looks at the life of the first Polish female doctor. In the second section, women of the diaspora take center stage in articles illuminating stories that range from immigrant workers in Europe and the United States to women's part in Poland's nationalist struggle. The final section concentrates on image, identity, and consciousness as contributors examine the stereotyping and othering of Polish women and their portrayal in ethnic and émigré fiction.

A valuable and enlightening resource, Through Words and Deeds offers an introduction to the many facets of Polish and Polish American womanhood.

Contributors: Laura Anker, Robert Blobaum, Anna Brzezi?ska, John J. Bukowczyk, Halina Filipowicz, William J. Galush, Rita Gladsky, Thaddeus V. Gromada, Bo?ena Karwowska, Gra?yna Kozaczka, Lynn Lubamersky, Karen Majewski, Nameeta Mathur, Lori A. Matten, Jan Molenda, James S. Pula, W?adys?aw Roczniak, and Robert Szymczak

Part One

The Polish Female Ideal and Real

Oscar Halecki’s Vision of Saint Jadwiga of Anjou

Thaddeus V. Gromada

On the face of it, it seems incredible or impossible that a young princess who lived toward the end of the fourteenth century, who happened to be made “king” of Poland at the age of ten, and died fifteen years later at the tender age of 25, could have decisively influenced not only the development of Poland but the whole region of the European continent called East Central Europe. Yet this is the thesis of one of Poland’s greatest historians, Oskar Halecki, my mentor, who died in 1973. Halecki believed that Queen Jadwiga’s greatness was comparable to the greatness of Bolesław Chrobry and Casimir the Great. Thus, according to Halecki, Jadwiga is not only Poland’s greatest queen but one of Poland’s greatest rulers. This historical judgment was shared by one of America’s greatest specialists in Slavic and Eastern European history, S. Harrison Thomson of the University of Colorado, who in his splendid work Europe in Renaissance and Reformation wrote in 1963, “the queen on her part showed statesmanlike qualities perhaps superior to those of her brilliant husband (Władysław Jagiełło).” Noting her great contribution in the cultural, religious, and social fields, he added “She was, simply put, one of Poland’s greatest rulers” (pp. 193–194).

Who was this Jadwiga of Anjou? She was the daughter of Louis the Great (King of Hungary, Ruler of Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, who also claimed the crown of Naples, and from 1370, was also King of Poland), and of Elizabeth of Bosnia. She was born on February 18, 1374, in Buda, more than 600 years ago. Both of Jadwiga’s parents were half Polish. On her father’s side, her grandmother was Elizabeth of the Piast family, Queen Mother, sister of Casimir the Great (d. 1380), and the daughter of Władysław Łokietek, who knew Jadwiga well, leaving her an inspiring Polish heritage. Her other grandmother was Elizabeth, Princess of Gniewków, also of the Piast family. At least three of her great grandmothers were also Polish. Halecki shows in his posthumous monograph that Jadwiga had more Polish blood than any other. Her genealogical tree clearly shows that no less than seven of its branches directly lead to the earliest members of the Piast family. Despite this, Jadwiga does not belong exclusively to Poland, but rather to all the nations of East Central Europe who contributed to her Western, later Catholic, heritage in the field of ideas. Jadwiga was reared in a religious atmosphere above and beyond that which was required. She was always present at daily Mass at which the king and his entire court were in attendance. She was named after St. Jadwiga of Silesia, one of her direct ancestors, who was the wife of the Silesian Duke, Henry the Bearded, and mother of Henry the Pious. She was famous for her ascetic piety and was canonized in 1267. The devotion to the cult of St. Jadwiga was strong in Buda and must have been a strong example to the young Jadwiga.

Before coming to Poland at the age of ten, Jadwiga lived at the highly sophisticated courts of Buda and Vienna (1378–1380) where Italian and French influences were great, and where she was being trained to be a queen. She was in Vienna for some time because the future Queen of Poland was originally to have married a Habsburg, Prince William, and rule Austria.

When her father, Louis of Anjou died in 1382, Jadwiga inherited the Polish crown. She was considered by the Poles as the natural, legitimate successor of the last Piast king rather than the successor of her unpopular father, Louis of Anjou. Jadwiga, however, did not arrive in Poland until 1384, probably in the month of May. Then, a few months later, she was joyfully crowned King of Poland (Hedvigis coronatur, in regem Poloniae), thus ending the growing disorder and confusion in Poland during the interregnum.

It is a rather interesting coincidence that only a few weeks before Jadwiga’s coronation Vladislaus II of Opole, Duke of Silesia, close collaborator of Louis of Anjou, brought the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary (the famous Black Madonna) to the Monastery of Częstochowa, founded in 1382. The young Jadwiga, under the impression of this event, offered a gift to Bishop Jan Radlica, in whose diocese Częstochowa was located, a chalice on which she had engraved an inscription asking “Blessed Virgin Mary to take Poland under her protection.” Many historians, including some Polish specialists, continue to emphasize that Jadwiga, in the first crucial period of her reign—that is, 1384–1388—was simply a child, a mere passive tool of her advisors. Professor Halecki disputed this interpretation. He pointed out that Jadwiga was an exceptional teenager who matured rapidly, and that she was recognized as such by her contemporaries. Her stimulating experiences and painful trials and challenges only encouraged Jadwiga’s rapid emotional and intellectual development.

One of the greatest trials that Jadwiga had to face very early was the necessity to give up any chances for personal happiness for the good of Poland and Christianity, that is, to give up her beloved William of Habsburg for the 36-year-old Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Halecki insisted that Jadwiga ultimately made a free decision to give up William of Habsburg. It was not an easy decision to make because Jadwiga really loved William. But this only underscores the greatness of her sacrifice. No wonder that Jadwiga’s sacrifice had become a symbol of the noblest ideals in Polish national life. It does seem that she was finally moved to a decision to renounce William and accept Jogaila from religious motives.

Jogaila had made an offer to the Poles that they hardly could afford to refuse. He promised in the Treaty of Krewo (August 14, 1385) to unite the Lithuanian and Ruthenian lands with Poland to help recover the terras suas Lithuaniae et Russiae coronae Regni Poloniae perpetuo applicare. One should never forget that Jadwiga was a co-king and was much more active in governing and making decisions than many historians care to admit.

What would have happened if Jadwiga had not married Jogaila? One can only speculate. Jogaila certainly would have had to follow an appeasement policy toward the growing Grand Duchy of Moscow and perhaps even toward the German State of the Teutonic Order. Tensions between East and West would have developed creating a dangerous situation for Poland and the rest of Europe. The marriage of Jadwiga and Jogaila is sometimes compared to the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in the fifteenth century which permitted the Union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, facilitated the expulsion of the Moors and launched Spain into a period of great power status and cultural greatness.

The establishment of a loose union of Poland and Lithuania created a state with potentially great power, a state that reached the frontiers of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and close to the sphere of influence of the Tatar Mongols around the Black Sea. It was immediately challenged from the outside by the Teutonic Knights, who lost their reason for existence with the peaceful Christianization of Lithuania, and by Sigismund of Luxembourg, co-king of Hungary (with Jadwiga’s sister Mary). There was also an internal challenge, coming from Lithuania from Jogaila’s (Jagiełło’s) jealous cousin Vytautas (Witold). Indeed, there was a plan for partitioning Poland among Hungary, Brandenburg and the Teutonic Order, to whom the whole of Lithuania was to be abandoned, whereas it seems that ambitious and brilliant Vytautas was planning to separate Lithuania from Poland and set up a separate kingdom with himself as king.

If the new, precarious Polish-Lithuanian Union survived the very critical period, roughly from 1389 to 1396, it was due largely to the wisdom, to the diplomatic skills of the Anjou princess, Jadwiga. Very often, the role of Jadwiga is underestimated in this protracted crisis. She was a very skillful negotiator, noted for her wisdom and fairness. It was this skill which she used in negotiating with her brother-in-law, Sigismund, in 1392, that caused the abandonment of the partition plan. The same year, Jadwiga was chiefly responsible for arranging a compromise between Jogaila and Vytautas, thus ending a dangerous situation, and inaugurating an era of close collaboration between the two cousins which lasted until their deaths. Vytautas, after that compromise agreement, paid Jadwiga an unusual solemn act of homage on August 4, 1392.

It was Jadwiga who facilitated the peaceful transfer of the Halicz region to Poland in 1387, from Hungarian administration, by personally leading Polish forces into the area as far as Lwów. This almost automatically expanded Polish influence into Moldavia and the Black Sea region. The Hospodar of Moldavia immediately paid her homage and became a vassal of Poland and Lithuania. Yet, when her sister Mary died in Hungary in 1395, she did not enforce her hereditary rights to the crown of Hungary. Hungary was threatened by the Ottoman Moslem Turks and she did not wish to involve Poland in a needless war.

Poland used Jadwiga’s diplomatic talents in dealing with its most dangerous enemies, the German Teutonic Knights, especially in 1397–1398. In personal discussions with their Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen, Jadwiga tried to bring the Teutonic Order to reason and justice. She argued with patience for Polish rights, and, at one point, warned prophetically that if the Teutonic Knights did not make concessions, they would be punished for all the harm they had done to Poland after the death of the peace-loving queen.

Sometimes Jadwiga is criticized for following a peaceful, appeasement policy in regard to the German order. Yet, she wisely postponed a war which was unavoidable, but for which Poland and Lithuania at that time were not ready. Jogaila (Jagiełło) later recognized this when he faced the Teutonic Knights in 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald. He was grateful that Jadwiga had given him more time, delaying a premature action which would have led to a fatal defeat. Charlotte Kellogg, Jadwiga’s biographer, has written that “Jadwiga’s diplomatic struggle to bring the Teutonic Order to reason and justice was to stand as one of the extraordinary episodes of European history” (Poland’s Great Queen, New York: 1931).

I believe that Queen Jadwiga would have preferred to concentrate her attention on cultural and religious matters rather than on diplomatic matters and international policies. Her accomplishments in the cultural, social and religious fields are perhaps even greater from the long-range point of view than in the political-diplomatic areas, and therefore we must examine them here briefly.

Jadwiga was known for her charitable activities. She was continuously involved in establishing new hospitals, schools, monasteries, and churches, and enlarging older ones. She visited the sick and unfortunate, and listened to appeals for justice and mercy.

Very importantly, Jadwiga seems to be one of the first to appreciate the beauty and importance of the Polish language. It was through her insistence that Polish was used in church services (in hymn singing and prayers). Also, it was Jadwiga who ordered the translation of the Scriptures into the Polish language. In this way, and in many other ways, she prepared the way for the Polish Renaissance by introducing the vernacular language.

Jadwiga realized that in order to strengthen the Polish-Lithuanian Union, mere legalistic arrangements would not suffice. It would be necessary to create a cultural community between the two nations. This is what motivated her and her husband to revive and enlarge the university that had been founded by King Casimir the Great in 1364 but which was in bad order and in need of complete reorganization, in particular the need to add to its various schools a faculty of theology modeled after that of the University of Paris. In a document, Jadwiga speaks of many sleepless nights, concerned about this problem and what to do about it.

It was in January 1397 that Pope Boniface IX granted Jadwiga’s request to enlarge Cracow University and, at the same time, praised her and Jagiełło for their devotion. Since Jadwiga considered it urgent that Lithuanians and their neighbors (meaning Ruthenians) should have a well-trained, mature clergy, she did not wait for the reorganization of Cracow University, which she knew would take several years. She decided to immediately endow a college for Lithuanians at the University of Prague on July 20, 1397.

As far as the reorganization of Cracow University is concerned, Jadwiga drew on the experience and help of such academicians as Matthew, the learned Cracovian doctor from the University of Prague, who left Heidelberg as rector and came to Cracow; also Peter Wysz, doctor of Padua University, who in 1372 had become Bishop of Cracow thanks to Jadwiga. Mention should be made at this point that Jadwiga had the support of women in her ...