Skip to main content

IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 1608: Power, Expansion, and Domination in Medieval Poland, 13th-15th Centuries

Thursday 10 July 2014, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Sobiesław Szybkowski, Instytut Historii, Uniwersytet Gdański
Moderator/Chair:Paul Knoll, Department of History, University of Southern California
Paper 1608-aFrom Rags to Riches: Unraveling Ups and Downs of Władysław Łokietek's Political Career
(Language: English)
Wojciech Kozłowski, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
Index terms: Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1608-bThe Confrontation of Two Local Empires: The Contention between the Polish-Lithuanian State and the Teutonic Order in Prussia for Domination in the South-East Part of the Baltic Sea Basin at the End of 14th and at the Beginning of the 15th Centuries
(Language: English)
Sobiesław Szybkowski, Instytut Historii, Uniwersytet Gdański
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1608-cThe Papal Power over Polish Society: The Penitentiary (Poenitentieria Apostolica) – The Universal Authority in Action, 1471-1492
(Language: English)
Monika Saczyńska, Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii, Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warszawa
Index terms: Daily Life, Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

The subject of power, domination, and expansion is interwoven into the whole medieval history of Poland. It can be presented only by depiction of individual examples. A question of explaining mechanisms, which led to the elevation of Władysław the Elbow-high from the position of a political bankrupt to assuming power in Poland (and renewal of the Kingdom of Poland) in 1320 is similarly significant. In turn, Poland's union with Lithuania gave her status of a local power, which led to a multifaceted contention for influence in the area of south-east part of the Baltic Sea basin with other local power, the Prussian-Livonian state of the Teutonic Order. Interestingly enough, this conflict had not taken a form of a great military clash up to 1409. Throughout the entire period of Middle Ages, the papacy exerted a very important influence on Polish history. Its impact on Polish-Lithuanian society is shown in the prism of activities of Apostolic Penitentiary during the period of 1471-1492.