of his own views, and published pamphlets on the necessity of constitutional reform; in fact, he did not shrink from employing the headsman's axe in order to show the great officials that they were not masters of the state. He began by favouring the lesser nobility, in order to pit them against the magnates. This policy led later to the change in the constitution. There was popular talk in Lithuania of conquering Podolia by force of arms, and the bitterness between Lithuania and Poland soon reached such a pitch that an open revolt of Lithuania threatened in 1456.

If Casimir had persevered in his action he would certainly have gained his end. But financial straits forced him to concessions. Poland was confronted with a war against the Order. The Slachta, which met at Cerekwica, refused to take the field before their privileges had been confirmed. Casimir himself required money, since he wished to marry Elizabeth, the sister of the Hungarian king Ladislaus Posthumus; and since according to the laws the country had to furnish the dowry for the queen, the king was forced in 1453 to give way, and at the imperial diet at Piotrkov, in the presence of twelve knights and twelve barons, took the constitutional oath at the hands of the cardinal whom he detested. regal power was still more restricted by the appointment of four councillors as assessors to the king, without whose consent no ordinance of the king should have the force of law. This first defeat of the crown was followed by others under Casimir's successors.

The

At the same diet at Piotrkov the further resolution was passed that the diet should for the future conduct its deliberations in two separate groups, one consisting of the great dignitaries (consiliarii, barones, proceres), and the other of the remaining nobles. Since that time there were, therefore, two chambers in Poland, -the chamber of the magnates and that of the knights. Casimir introduced a third innovation in the year 1468. In order to keep up the grant of taxes, he commanded two plenipotentiaries to be elected every two years in each province, who as provincial deputies should represent the provinces; but other nobles might voluntarily take part in the meeting of the deputies. The chamber of deputies (izba poselska) and the chamber of magnates, also called the Senate, deliberated independently of each other; both together composed the imperial diet (sejm walny). Since the deputies had to send home reports of their labours (sejmiki relacyjne) and received instructions from the provinces, the whole constitutional power lay there (in the "nation"), a democracy based upon the most popular element in the Slachta.

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From the time of Casimir onwards we can notice two currents in the national life of Poland: the majority of the nobles worked for the enlargement of their privileges, while the second party aimed at strengthening the royal power and a restriction of personal liberty. This division of aims was to be found in every State of Europe. A contemporary of Casimir was the Florentine Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), who in his "Principe," which was addressed to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1514, published a treatise for the guidance of princes, to whom he wished to communicate the art of attaining an unrestricted authority. And at the court of Poland lived a representative of this school, the humanist Filippo Buonaccorsi († 1496; better known under the Latin name of Callimachus Experiens), to whom, together with John Dlugosz, Casimir had intrusted the education of his children. But while in many European countries the imperialistic party won the day, the republican party in Poland continuously gained the upper hand.

THE CORONATION OF ALEXANDER I OF POLAND AT CRACOW IN 1501. (From an illuminated manuscript in the Czartoryski Library at Cracow.)

(c) Polish Legislation under the Sons of Casimir IV. Casimir's son and successor John I Albert (1492-1501) vigorously prosecuted his father's plan, but in the end, like him, had to acknowledge failure. He is said to have planned nothing less than a coup d'état in order to overthrow the nobles and strengthen the monarchical power. He governed without the Senate. When the primate Olesnicki died, John Albert set his brother Frederic on the archiepiscopal throne. He introduced greater magnificence at court and made difficulties, whenever possible, about the admission of the magnates. He concluded a treaty with his brother Vladislav (II) of Bohemia and Hungary († 1516; cf. pp. 265 and 386), in which they pledged themselves to help each other "in case of any rebellion of their subjects or any attempt by them to restrict the monarchical power." The most certain means of increasing his power seemed to him to be a victorious war; he proposed to conquer Moldavia for his youngest brother Sigismund. All the Jagellons, with the exception of Alexander of Lithuania, assembled at Leutschau in Hungary in 1494 to discuss that campaign. They had, besides, every cause to join forces, since the Hapsburgs had concluded an alliance with Moscow against Poland. Preparations were made under pretext of a war against the Turks. Then the same situation came about as under Casimir, the nobles would not vote any supplies, and Albert saw himself compelled to grant extensive concessions to the nobility at the diet at Piotrkov in 1496. Besides this, he suffered an overwhelming defeat in 1497 at Cozmin in the Bukovina (p. 367).

The new and at the same time monstrous feature of the legislation of John Albert, extorted in 1496 by the Slachta, was that it formally surrendered the peasant population to the nobility. The pressure of the Slachta must have been great indeed when it could be complained in the diet that the country-folk left their fields in crowds and that the villages were empty. On the basis of the enactments of Casimir the Great (who had checked emigration so far that only a peasant who had more than one son should be allowed to send one to school or to business in the town, and then only on a certificate from his lord) it was enacted that henceforward in every year only one peasant might leave his village. This restriction was not modified until 1501. In another article townsfolk were prohibited from acquiring and owning property according to provincial law. Further, the admission of non-nobles into the ecclesiastical hierarchy was restricted. Formerly, indeed, no non-nobles were admitted to the higher offices in the cathedrals at Gnesen, Cracow, Posen, and Plock, but now the superior posts generally, to the exclusion of foreigners, were reserved for natives of noble birth alone. These two provisions were ostensibly designed to increase the military force. If, according to the tenor of the military system of Casimir the Great, only landowning nobles were under any obligations of military service, in the interests of public defence the admission of non-nobles to ecclesiastical offices ought to be prevented, and the sale of "noble " property to them forbidden, because they were exempt from military service. Only certain benefices might be conferred upon "plebeians." Still more unjust were the regulations as to the prices of agricultural produce. Every palatine was to fix in his own voivodship, with the assistance of the starosts, the measure and price of the crops and the industrial products of the peasants, that is to say, of corn, cloth, and other things, an oppressive rule which goes back to the year 1423. The articles concerning workmen were equally harsh: they were forbidden to go to Prussia and Silesia to work at harvest-tide, in order

that there might be no want of labour in Poland and that the wages might not need to be raised. The destitute were to be employed on the construction of fortresses on the Turkish or Tartar frontiers. The statute of 1496 significantly recounts that there were more beggars in the realm of Poland than anywhere else. The poor population, therefore, took refuge by hundreds in those ownerless districts on the Dnieper where freedom and a less degrading existence were still to be found, and they found a suitable employment in campaigns against Osmans and Tartars. From these people arose the avengers of Polish oppression.

The same characteristics are shown by the laws passed under Albert's brothers Alexander I (1501-1506; see the plate "The Coronation of Alexander I of Poland at Cracow in the Year 1501") and Sigismund (Zygmunt) the Elder or the Great (1506-1548; cf. infra, pp. 527-534). The imperial diets were bent on further restricting the royal power. Thus we may call attention to the provision that the king had not to decide anything by himself, but merely to lead the deliberations of the Senate; for "an oligarchical government was better than a monarchical." Further, the famous statute Nihil novi declared that the king henceforth might not introduce any new measure without the assent of the Senate and the provincial deputies; this strengthened the provisions of 1453 and 1454.

High offices were to be conferred according to length of service and not at the caprice of the monarch. Grave consequences ensued from the decree of the diet of 1504, by which the king might not pledge or give away crown lands except with the knowledge of the diet and the assent of the Senate. The legislative proposals which aimed at the increase of the defensive powers of the realm are noteworthy, and they would doubtless have achieved their purpose had they been carried out. According to them, not merely were the townsfolk who owned landed property liable to military service, but every tenth man from the country population was to be drafted into the militia (pospolite ruszenie), which was then intended to form the basis of the military organisation of the kingdom. The diets under Sigismund frequently occupied themselves with this question. Under him the liberty of the peasants to leave their homes was still more restricted, since they were made solely and absolutely dependent on the lord, while the rights of private jurisdiction were extended. In the legislative enactments of Melnik, of 1501, which, however, are not to be found in the Volumina legum of Jan Laski [John a Lasco; 14661531], it is laid down that, in case the king should prosecute any innocent person, or not conform to the enactments of the council and act contrary to the wellbeing of the empire, the whole empire was released from the oath of loyalty and might regard the king as a tyrant and a foe.

Such proceedings could not produce any good impression in Lithuania. When John Albert's brother, Alexander, became Grand Duke of Lithuania, this was done without the assent of Poland. The union, therefore, was formally non-existent. Alexander, in fact, trod in the footsteps of Witold and Casimir, since he similarly entered into alliance with Moscow. Only the war against the Order brought both parties quickly together again.