Czynnik wyznaniowy w polityce nominacyjnej Stefana Batorego na starostwa grodowe w Koronie – początek kontrreformacji?

• Authors: Kazimierz Bem
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

Religion as a factor in king Stefan Batory’s nomination policy in the Polish Crown lands – the beginning of the Counter-Reformation?For many years Stefan Batory was viewed as a religiously tolerant monarch who, unlike his successor Zygmunt III Waza, promoted nobles without discrimination based on their religion. The article examines Batory’s so-far overlooked nomination policies to the rank of starosta grodowy. This was an office responsible for enforcing the courts’ decrees in their respective localities. It became especially important in the decade after the king’s death, when the Roman Catholic church relied on their assistance to regain possession of churches turned over for Protestant worship in the 1550s and 1560s.The article looks at the politics of nomination from the time of the monarch’s coronation (1 May 1576) to that of his death on 12 December 1586. Overall 52 offices and their respective office holders are analyzed in the land of the Polish Crown (Korona), excluding the heavily Roman Catholic province of Masovia (Mazowsze). The Autor contends that in his nomination policy the King worked to limit the number of Protestant office holders. In fact, his reign saw a dramatic reversal of Protestant starostas in Lesser Poland. From a clear majority of office holders they became a minority. Many of the new starostas were fresh converts to Roman Catholicism and dedicated Counter-Reformation activists, and appointed to areas that were heavily Protestantized. Indeed, it was Stefan Batory who became the first monarch to limit advancement to certain posts only to Roman Catholic nobility. The author shows that after 1582 (with one exception) he did not nominate a single new Protestant starosta. By the end of his reign Protestant starostas shrunk form 52% to just 34%, a third of whom were nominated by his predecessor. Thus, the king’s deliberate and consistent policy of favouring Roman Catholics in the lands of the Crown should be seen as the beginning of the Counter-Reformation in Commonwealth of Two Nations.

Keywords

PL

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historyczny
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 122
• Issue: 3

Dates

published

2015

online

2015-03-01

Contributors

author

Kazimierz Bem

Identifiers

DOI

10.12775/KH.2015.122.3.02