quite innocent German element, and in rebellions against the authorities, or found a vent in emigration. On the other hand, the people took refuge in the protection of the German law; Polish villages and towns under the Slavonic law wished, in order to increase their prosperity, to be "promoted " to the German law. German customs, language, and culture would obviously spread rapidly under these conditions. The devastations of the Tartars and the civil wars helped on the German colonisation. Silesia was soon completely Germanised, and in other provinces the German element at any rate grew steadily stronger. If the Silesian Piasts succeeded in temporarily driving the Casimirids from the throne of Cracow, they owed that in no small degree to the support of their German subjects. A Germanisation of the entire Polish state lay already within the range of probability. A national crisis now took the place of the economic crisis which had been partially relieved by the German colonisation. This was the more dangerous since the Teutonic knights had now formed a third party in the country by the side of the Germans and the Empire.

This situation was especially gloomy for Poland and all Slavs, since it was no longer the courts and castles of the ruling class, but rather the towns, that formed the centres of political, economic, and social life. The Slavs had, however, adopted their municipal organisation directly from the Germans, who were far ahead of them in this respect, and they usually found that their requirements in culture were satisfied to a far higher degree among the Teutons than the Latins.

D. THE UNITED KINGDOM OF THE LAST PIASTS (1320-1370)

(a) Vladislav Lokietek. Such was the state of affairs in Poland when, in 1320, Vladislav Lokietek was crowned king in Cracow. The removal of all abuses in the interior of the realm, the improvement of the administration and judicature, the revision of the system of taxation, the establishment of equitable relations between the various sections of the people, the restraint of the Germanising movement, the encouragement of culture, and the protection of the realm against foreign attacks, such was the task of the restored monarchy. It was the more difficult since Poland had no friend, at the most some moderate support from the Roman Curia, which was again in conflict with the empire. Lokietek saw clearly that the Teutonic Order was the most dangerous enemy of Poland. He therefore sued the knights in the Roman Curia respecting Pomerania. He formed an alliance with Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and married his daughter Elizabeth with the Hungarian king, Charles Robert of Anjou (see genealogical tree at page 384). He also succeeded in gaining the friendship of Lithuanian princes, who were already hostile to the Order. In 1325 he married his son Casimir to Aldona, daughter of the warlike Lithuanian Gedymin (Withen). Thus strengthened, he advanced himself against the Order. The first engagements proved favourable to him. But the results were temporarily unimportant; and the Roman suit brought him no advantage. This was partly due to the hostile attitude of King John of Bohemia, who could not disguise his impulse toward the North. John so far accomplished his purpose between the years 1327 and 1331, that most of the Silesian princes did homage to him (p. 248); and he undertook a campaign against Lithuania, receiving on the way the homage of a Masovian prince. The

Hungarian assistance, which Lokietek received, alone checked the Bohemian king from further steps. In spite of all this, the neighbouring States noticed that the position of Poland was strengthened when Lokietek died in 1333.

(b) Casimir the Great. Work enough was left for his son Casimir. Lokietek had, it is true, already restored to a large extent the unity of the empire, and its independence was actually acknowledged by the Holy Roman Empire. But Poland, which had hardly been cemented together, was so exhausted that it could only be permanently saved by a strong hand. Casimir proved himself the wishedfor strong king. The times had changed. The formerly despotic ruler had now to share his power with the priests and the nobles. By the side of these the towns rose continuously victorious. Chivalry soon lost its peculiar value; on the one hand firearms had been invented, on the other the ideas and objects of men changed with the growing prosperity of trades and industries. The laws, the military system, and the government required reform; they were to suit the conditions of a new era.

Casimir was competent for his task; with unerring eye he recognised that chivalry was nearing its end; and he did not fritter his time away in tournaments as King John did, but turned his attention with all the greater zeal to important economic, political, and social questions. Thus in 1335, making full use of the favourable situation, he concluded with John of Bohemia the treaty of Visegrád. John abandoned his claims on Poland, in return for which Casimir paid him. one hundred and twenty thousand Bohemian groschen, and recognised the Bohemian suzerainty over Silesia and Plock. Casimir's relations with the Teutonic Order did not turn out so favourably for Poland. The kings of Bohemia and Hungary decided in favour of the knights; the Roman Curia played a double game. Thus Pomerania, which was lost, could only be won back by the sword. Casimir must have been resolved to do so, since he concluded a treaty with Charles Robert of Hungary in 1339 at Visegrád. Having no male issue, he promised the succession in Poland to Lewis, the son of the latter and his own nephew, on the understanding that Lewis would win back the lost provinces, especially Pomerania, would fill the offices and high posts only with Poles, would impose no new taxes, and would respect the ancient privileges. The purport of this hereditary alliance was certainly hostile to the Order. But Casimir's attention was turned to another direction.

When the childless prince Boleslav Troidenovicz was poisoned in Red Russia (Halicz) by the Boyars, Casimir was bound to interfere, if he did not wish that the Lithuanians or the Tartars should seize the country and thus become his immediate neighbours. When Casimir took Halicz and Lemberg in 1340, the Lithuanians occupied Volhynia; an event of the greatest importance for all Eastern Europe. Even the question of the Teutonic Order at once became less weighty and urgent for Poland. In 1343 Casimir concluded a treaty with the Knights at Kalisch, by which he ceded to them Pomerania and the region of Michelau and Chelm, while he only recovered Kujavia and Dobrzyn. Half voluntarily Poland thus barred her own access to the Baltic Sea. But in return there was the glimpse of hope in the future of pressing onwards to the East, of reaching perhaps the Black Sea, and finally, through the increase of power there acquired, of wreaking vengeance on her ancient foes, and winning back the provinces lost to Bohemia

and the Teutonic Order. Perhaps this goal hovered before Casimir's eyes when he concluded in 1339 the settlement of the succession with Hungary; there were then clear signs of ferment in the region of Halicz. At first, however, Casimir was unfortunate; the war with Lithuania and the Tartars was by no means easy. It was only towards 1366 that he permanently secured Lemberg, Halicz, and a part of Volhynia for Poland. Meanwhile he had also reconquered a part of Silesia; the prince of Masovia also took the oath of fealty to him. He still, however, bore the title "Heir to Pomerania; " a proof that he continued to think about that country.

But it was not in his conquests and his advancement of his realm that the true greatness of Casimir lay, but in his administration and organisation. He would not have been able to achieve any political successes had he not been intent upon internal reform. In the first place, he gave Poland, which had hitherto only been a personal union of distinct countries, a centralised organisation. He unified the administration by creating new imperial offices in addition to the local offices which had existed since the times of the petty principalities. He then proceeded to improve the judicial system. He first of all ordered the customary law, which was preserved only in oral tradition and naturally was different in the different districts, to be written down, and then had a universal code prepared for all Polish countries. He allowed the flourishing towns which lived according to the code of Kulm or Magdeburg to retain their laws, but forbade any appeal to the mother towns outside the kingdom. He substituted a superior court of German law in every district, which decided cases according to the principles of the Magdeburg Code and the Sachsenspiegel; the magistrates of all the German villages were subordinated to this court. As the tribunal of highest instance for all local courts he established the Supreme Court of Justice at Cracow in 1356, at the head of which he stood the governor of Cracow and a royal procurator-general, with seven qualified lawyers as assessors. The towns were in this way severed from Germany, and since they gradually lost any tendency to become Germanised, the national feelings of Poland were cautiously fostered and developed.

It seemed as if Casimir from the same motives had specially favoured the nobility, in order to prevent the German town element from acquiring political importance. The arrogance of the slachta certainly increased from the fact of his taking the advice of assemblies of nobles; indeed, there was actually formed among the nobility a league whose head suffered the death penalty by order of the king on account of outrages which had been committed. The king, however, continued to regard the nobles as the advisers of the crown. This tendency was visible in the actions of his successors; the national opposition between Poles and Germans was then very strong.

The reorganisation of the military system was not less important. Hitherto only the wealthy nobles had furnished troops, since the cost of equipment was heavy and the landowning clergy were exempt from the duty. Casimir now decided that for the future, in order to raise the sunken state of the army, the duty of service should be imposed upon all possessors of land. Thus the citizen became equally available for the army; the clergy had to send substitutes. Regulations as to levying troops were also drawn up. In addition to this he ordered that stone. fortresses should be constructed everywhere in place of wooden; he transformed churches into castles (hence the Polish kosciól, Bohemian kostel, in the sense of

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church) and built good roads. The later successes of Poland were considerably influenced by these military reforms.

He took not less effective steps to advance the trade of the country, since he conferred special privileges on the towns, guaranteed security of person and property to foreign merchants, and gave them rights, built roads and bridges, founded markets, multiplied the number of fairs, opened up trade-routes into the interior, extirpated brigandage, and, which was the most important point, introduced a uniform coinage. The prosperity of the kingdom suddenly revived, and the reputation of the king grew so greatly that he was chosen to arbitrate between the emperor Charles IV and King Lewis of Hungary. The former of these sovereigns married at Cracow, as his fourth wife, Casimir's granddaughter Elizabeth (a daughter of Boguslav V of Pomerania). On this occasion Casimir gave his guests, the kings of Hungary, Bohemia, Cyprus, and Denmark, a brilliant reception. The event is described in the "Chronica Cracoviæ " of John of Czarnkov, archdeacon of Gnesen. Casimir put the coping-stone on his labours when he founded in 1364 a university at Cracow. Now for the first time Poland entered the ranks of civilized states, and could perform her duty in the east of Europe. He considered in this scheme the interests of all classes, nations, and creeds. He protected the peasants from the nobles, and was therefore called the Peasants' King. He granted rights to Armenians, Jews, and others. Himself a Roman Catholic, he nevertheless instructed the Byzantine patriarch to found bishoprics in his Russian dominions.

When Casimir died in 1370 the formerly exhausted and despised Poland was a rich and respected civilized state. The old dynasty of the Piasts became extinct with him. And with him also closes the first great epoch of Polish history. In conformity with the arrangement which had been made respecting the succession, King Lewis of Hungary took over the government. Piasts still ruled, it is true, in the petty principality of Masovia, but Casimir had been forced to exclude from the succession these ultra-conservative and insignificant relations, in the interests of the realm, which could only attain greater importance in alliance with a second power.

E. THE PERSONAL UNION BETWEEN POLAND AND HUNGARY

THE reign of the Angevin Lewis brought no prosperity to the country of Poland, which was regarded merely as an appanage of Hungary. After his coronation in Cracow Lewis returned home with the Polish royal insignia, and sent his mother Elizabeth, the sister of Casimir, to Poland as regent (cf. p. 384). He only thought of securing the crown of Poland for one of his daughters, since he had no male heirs, who alone were regarded in the succession treaty by Casimir. The agreement with the Polish nobles was signed at Kaschau in 1374. The king in return pledged himself to reconquer the lost Polish provinces, to remit the dues of the nobility except the sum of two groschen from each plough, to confer all offices only on Poles of the district concerned, and to give special pay for military service outside the borders of the country. He was not concerned by the thought that the military and fiscal strength of Poland was thus much reduced and that the nobility were expressly recognized as the dominant influence; indeed, he actually united Red Russia with the Hungarian throne, and sent his own governor thither. He it was, also, who largely promoted the Roman Catholic propaganda in the Russian

territory, and thus generated a movement which not only cost Hungary Red Russia, but later proved disastrous to Poland also. The arrogance of the nobility increased during his reign, and with it disorders in the country, so much that there was no longer any justice. The property of the poor was continually plundered by the Captains and Burggraves. And when after large payments to the Chancery a petitioner came back from Hungary with a royal letter, the noble brigands took no notice of it at all. Merchants and travellers were continually robbed and plundered on the highroads without the slightest interference on the part of the Captains.

6. CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES AND IN LITHUANIA DOWN TO 1386

A. THE ETHNOLOGY OF THE SOUTHERN REGIONS OF THE BALTIC

ON the southern shores of the Baltic, where nature has not marked any sharply defined limits landwards, the Slavs, Fins, and Lithuanians influenced each other reciprocally. In the first place, the Slavs, who were the earliest to found states in those parts, ruled the others. Thus Poland, following the course of the Vistula, turned against the Prussian Lithuanians in order to set foot on the Baltic. We find the Finnish Livonians at an early period of history the vassals of the Russian princes of Polock, who ruled the whole course of the Dwina as far as the sea. The Esthonians finally became dependent on the Novgorodian Slavs on the Lake of Ilmen, who founded there Jurjev (Dorpat) and other towns.

But when Russia became weakened by civil wars, and the princes of Polock could therefore not assert their authority over the tribes on the Dwina (p 462), other nations tried to gain a firm footing there. The country was more accessible from the sea than from the interior of the continent of Eastern Europe, and could not escape the influence of those nations who navigated the Baltic Sea. The Danes were the first to try to settle in Livonia. The Swedes also, who navigated the whole Baltic coast and established a large emporium at Wisby on the island of Gotland, came into contact with the Finnish tribes in Livonia and Esthonia. But even they failed to achieve permanent successes. The situation changed only when the German trading towns of the North came into prominence. Lübeck also possessed an emporium and trading factories in Wisby, but then tried to come into direct communication with the Finnish tribes without Swedish intervention. The German ship that had sailed to seek out these tribes was driven by a storm into the Gulf of Riga. The natives flocked together, as the older Livonian Rhymed Chronicle (c. 1291) tells us, and attacked the Germans. But when they were beaten off, they proffered peace and began to trade by barter (the founding of the castle Üxküll, usually assigned to the year 1143, really dates from four decades later). This first contact of Germans with Livonians, Lithuanians, and Slavs was purely due to a commercial policy. But it did not continue so. The races of Western Europe were then permeated by a deep religious feeling. The paganism of the Finnish and Lithuanian tribes attracted attention. The awakening missionary zeal found supporters in Germany the more readily since it promised to be remunerative both in its political and economic aspects.