Wydawnictwo Biały Kruk: Hołd Pruski - political compromise or prologue of tragedy?

Prusian Worship: a political compromise or a prologue of tragedy? Prof. Stefan Ciara on secularization of Prussia.

In the first half of the 16th century, Rzeczpospolita conducted its policy in an highly complicated global situation. Europe was at the time a scene of violent spiritual and political change: the Reformation started by Marcin Luther, the lasting devastating Italian wars between the top powers of the continent, and at the same time the increasing threat to the Christian planet was the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

In specified realities, Poland's conflict with the Teutonic Order ceased to be only a regional dispute, becoming part of a wider political game in Europe. As Prof. Stefan Ciara reminds us in his latest book “Prussian hoards. In this context, decisions leading to a breakthrough compromise with Albrecht Hohenzollern have matured.

The solution came from another way:

"In the fall of 1523 Albrecht Hohenzollern spoke to Marcin Luther and his closest associate Philip Melanchton. They advised the liquidation of the Order and its State as an anachronistic institutions and the establishment of secular principality, preferably with the introduction of Lutheran changes in the approach to Christ's faith. Unfortunately, there were besides more and more signs of the progressive depravation of spiritual knights, who committed even common crimes. Secularization of the Order and the Teutonic State has long matured. Frederick Saski, or Wettyn, the large master since 1498, and his successor Albrecht introduced new, more efficient and modern ways of administration to the spiritual state. The way of life for themselves and their spiritual contratras was laicized, deviating more and more from the monastic ascetic.

Nevertheless, the way to secularization was not simple and smooth, alternatively winding and bumpy... At the end of the duration of the truce, in July 1524, a convention of the states of Prussia of Teutonic Knights gathered in Królewiec, which refused to pass taxes until a warrant was obtained to establish a lasting peace with Poland. Under the influence of MPs from Królewiec, this convention reported a circumstantial vote of distrust against Albrecht, opposing his entrustment with hereditary princeship in the event of the secularization of Prussia. On the another hand, the anticipation of handing over power over the Prusai to the master of the Inflantic Order was considered, but provided that it concluded a peace agreement with Poland. The Prussian states did not regulation out any further leaving of any, possibly even modified form of the spiritual superiority of the Teutonic Knights, but held from distant Inflant. Thus the possible supervision of the Order as superior authority would not be besides burdensome for the Prussian lands.

Albrecht himself, despite opposition from the Prussian states and ardent hopes for aid from the Reich, did not regulation out the anticipation of returning to a military solution. With the elector of Brandenburg, Joachim allied himself with the Danish king Chrystian II of the nickname Cruel, expelled from Sweden as well as from Denmark itself. In the following months, however, the opposition to the task of secularization of this country as an hereditary evangelical principality with Albrecht Hohenzollern was gradually weakening in Prussia itself. This was confirmed by a convention held in 1524 in Bartoszice with the participation of leading Prussian noble families.

The destiny of Albrecht and the Order Prussia now depended mainly on Poland's decision, which initially sought strict respect for the Toruń compromise of 1521 and opposed the Crusaden attempts made since mid-1522 in the Reich to entrust the courts of that country with the judgement in the Prusai case, uncovering this to be contrary to the arrangements which only provided for the emperor – alongside the Hungarian king Louis Jagiellończyk – as a mediator.

In 1524, the function of the Philohabsburg group with Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowacki at the head was temporarily reduced in the presence of the king. A crowned alliance of negotiations was established with France, the chief rival of Emperor Charles V. The influences of the Primate John Łaski and his supporters among the nobility to resume the war with the Order after the truce. This brought Poland closer to the Baltic region: to the fresh Danish king Frederick holsztyński, Duke of Mecklenburg Henry, and to the Pomeranian princes Barnim and George. At the initiative of the Primate of Łaski, a coalition of these monarchs against the Order and the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg was concluded in Gdańsk on 14 March 1524.’

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