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Revision as of 17:05, 18 September 2008 by Piotrus (talk | contribs) (lead)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Episcopal Duchy of WarmiaBiskupie Księstwo Warmińskie (pl) Fürstbistum Ermland (de) Dioecesis Varmiensis (la) | |||||||||
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| 1466–1772 | |||||||||
Coat of arms
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 Episcopal Duchy of Warmia in 1635, marked in red on the map of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth | |||||||||
| Status | Prince-Bishopric, of Jagiellon Poland and then of the Rzeczpospolita | ||||||||
| Capital | Olsztyn (Allenstein) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Polish, German | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||
| Government | Theocracy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
| • Established | Second Peace of Thorn (1466) 1466 | ||||||||
| • Bishopric founded as a Teutonic fief | 1243 | ||||||||
| • Gained Reichsfreiheit | 1356 | ||||||||
| • Subjugated to the Polish Crown | 1479 | ||||||||
| • Two-thirds annexed by by Prussia | 1525 | ||||||||
| • Annexed by Prussia | August 5 1772 | ||||||||
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The Episcopal Duchy of Warmia (Template:Lang-pl) (Template:Lang-de) , sometimes also referred to as Duchy of Warmia or Bishopric of Warmia was an administrative district of Royal Prussia in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was detached from the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights by the Peace of Thorn in 1466
After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Episcopal Duchy of Warmia was directly included as part of the Polish crown within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the same time the territory continued to enjoy substantial autonomy, with many legal differences from neighbouring lands. For example, the bishops were by law members of the Polish Senat. The land elected MPs to the Sejmik of Royal Prussia as well as MPs to the Sejm of Poland. After the Second Partition of Poland in 1772, the Duchy became part of the Kingdom of Prussia as the bishopric of Ermland, and after 1945 it returned to Poland as bishopric and later, archbishopric of Warmia.
History
Along with Culm, Pomesania, and Samland, Warmia was one of four dioceses in Prussia created in 1243 by the papal legate William of Modena. After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, both the Sambian and Warmian bishops paid homage to Jogaila of Poland and Lithuania.
The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) removed the bishopric from the control of the Teutonic Knights and placed it under the sovereignty of the King of Poland. The bishops insisted on large privileges and ruled the territory as de-facto prince-bishops although the Polish king did not share this point of view. This led to conflict when the Polish king claimed the right to name the bishops, as he did in the Kingdom of Poland. The chapter did not accept this and elected Nicolaus von Tüngen as bishop, which led to the War of the Priests (Warmia Stift Feud, 1467-1479) between King Casimir IV Jagiellon (1447–1492) and Nikolaus von Tüngen (1467-89) who was supported by the Teutonic Order and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.
The Polish king accepted Tüngen as prince-bishop in the First Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski, while Tüngen inversely accepted the Polish king's suzerainty and obliged the chapter to elect only candidates approved by the Polish king. However, when Tüngen died in 1489, the chapter elected Lucas Watzenrode as bishop and Pope Innocent VIII supported Watzenrode against the wishes of Casimir IV Jagiellon, who preferred his son Frederic. This problem finally led to the exemption of the bishopric in 1512 by Pope Julius II. In the Second Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (December 7, 1512) Warmia conceded to King Alexander Jagiellon the right to propose four candidates to the chapter for the election.
The Bishopric of Warmia lost two-thirds of its parishes in 1525 when the Order's Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories to create the Duchy of Prussia during the Protestant Reformation.
After the Council of Trent the later cardinal Stanislaus Hosius (1551-79) held a diocesan synode (1565) and the same year the Jesuits came to Braunsberg. While nearly all of Prussia took on evangelical Protestant religion, the prince-bishops Hosius and Cromer and the Jesuits were instrumental in keeping much of Warmia's population Catholic. The Congregation of St. Catherine, founded at Braunsberg by Regina Protmann, engaged in education, especially schooling for girls.
Several times in the 17th and early 18th centuries Warmia was exposed to fighting between Polish and Sweden troops in the Polish-Swedish wars.
By the late 18th century, the prince-bishop was an ex officio Senator of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
As a result of the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia's province of East Prussia as Ermeland. Under the Potsdam Agreement in 1945 Ermeland returned to Poland as Warmia.
See also
References
- Hirshfeld, Alan. Parallax. Macmillan. ISBN 9780716737117.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie @ Google books
- Fürstbistum Ermland @ Google books
- Lukowski, Jerzy (2006). A Concise History of Poland. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521853323.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003). Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415939218.
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| Administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth | ||
|---|---|---|
| Province of Greater Poland |  | |
| Province of Lesser Poland | ||
| Grand Duchy of Lithuania | ||
| Polish Livonia | ||
| Fiefs | ||