Research Team for the Study of Courts and Elites of Power

Head:
Dr hab. Bożena Czwojdrak, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia

Deputy Head:
Dr hab. Marek Ferenc, Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University

Secretary:
Dr Marta Piber-Zbieranowska, Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Team:
Dr hab. Bożena Czwojdrak, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia
Dr hab. Marek Ferenc, Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University
Dr hab. Agnieszka Januszek-Sieradzka, Institute of History, the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Dr hab. Katarzyna Kuras, Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University
Dr hab. Piotr Węcowski, Institute of History, University of Warsaw

Cooperators:
Professor Urszula Augustyniak, Institute of History, University of Warsaw
Dr Aleksandra Barwicka, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia
Szymon Brzeziński, MA, National Library of Poland
Dr Dana Dvorackova-Mala, Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Dr hab. Marek Janicki, Institute of History, University of Warsaw
Dr hab. Petr Kozak, Regional Archives in Opava
Dr Dominik Kadzik, Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University
Professor Bożena Popiołek, Institute of History and Archival Studies of the Pedagogical University in Kraków
Professor Henryk Lulewicz, Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences – the late
Professor Rimvydas Petrauskas, Institute of History, Vilnius University
Dr Tomasz Ratajczak, Institute of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Dr Grażyna Rutkowska, Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences – the late
Dr hab. Aleksandra Skrzypietz, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia
Dr Angela Sołtys, Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum
Paweł Tyszka, MA, Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum
Dr František Záruba, Charles University in Prague
Tomasz Zawadzki, MA, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia
Dr Jan Zelenka, Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Research work of the Team

The primary task of the team is to gather together researchers studying the elites of power and the courts of monarchs and nobles. Research on this particular topic has been continually carried out by historians and representatives of other academic disciplines. It has also attracted the attention of history lovers. Very sadly, however, contacts between specialists across research fields and historical periods are limited, hence the need to organise a forum of researchers of various periods and specialisations in order to present opportunities for meetings and conversation. It is our hope that the ensuing collaboration will produce a synthetic study of Polish courts in the Middle Ages and the modern period, presenting the results of research carried out by historians, art historians, historians of literature, musicologists and other interested researchers. Another aim of the team is to stimulate research that only on the court, but also on other elite circles in the Middle Ages and the modern era.

The foundational event for establishing that forum was the international workshop on the royal courts of the late Middle Ages and early modern period held in Siewierz in 2014. The meeting lay the groundwork for our co-operation with scholars from the Czech Republic who form a similar research team under the auspices of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague (Výzkumné centrum Dvory a rezidence ve středověku). The state of research on medieval courts was presented in the publication entitled Curia regis, curia reginalis. Dwory królewskie w średniowiecznej Europie Środkowej – stan badań, postulaty badawcze, eds. B. Czwojdrak, A. Januszek-Sieradzka, Sandomierz, 2014. The second meeting in this series was held in Prague in June 2017, while another is planned in Warsaw in the spring of 2019.

Aims of the Team

1. We plan to organise regular meetings of the team members and invited guests from Poland and abroad to discuss various topics related to the activities and functioning of Polish and European courts, as well as all closely related elite circles. The first meeting shall present the state of research and indicate directions for further study of the subject.

2. Our close co-operation with other institutions includes organising conferences and workshops bringing this interesting subject to the attention of the wider public. The first of these consists in organising “Medical Consultations” dealing with issues of the health, illness and death of Polish monarchs and their family members. The project will involve the circle of medical doctors presided by Dr Artur Pałasz of the Medical University of Silesia, who is known for his long-standing interest in the matter. The results of this co-operation may challenge some of the established truths of historiography, as it involves a return to the approach which seeks correlations between the decisions of Polish monarchs and their health and well-being. Every meeting will begin with a presentation about the health and illnesses of the given monarch or member of the royalty given by a historian; it will be based on relevant source material and will be approached from the perspective of modern-day medicine. The project is aimed not only to stimulate cooperation between various academic milieus, but also to involve the public in the discussion at the events.

3. The team aims to formulate and pursue research projects on the courts and elites of power. Our first initiative is the project entitled “Dworzanin polski na dworze Jagiellonów i królów elekcyjnych. Pozycja społeczna, system wartości, wzorzec osobowy” [“The Polish courtier at the courts of the Jagiellons and the elected monarchs. Social positions, value systems, personal models”]. The scope of enquiry spans from the estate-based monarchy of the Jagiellons to the republic of the nobles governed by elected monarchs (to 1795) and aims to study the hitherto neglected topics stated in the project title. The working hypothesis, based primarily on tentative results of preliminary research, is that the social position, value system and personal models of Polish courtiers drew heavily on European court traditions, but also evinced specific characteristic features which resulted from the original socio-political system of Poland. It was Łukasz Górnicki, the author of Dworzanin polski, a Polish adaptation of Castiglione’s classic work, who first made this observation, which is for us a starting point for discussion.

Other planned research-related activities include the study of the exercise of power in the outer fringes of the state and the role of foreigners at the court.

4. Editorial projects, study aids and publications on the topic. The team has set itself the task of coordinating activities leading to the publication of relevant source material and study aids (inventories, catalogues of courtiers, bibliographical references, etc.) as well as of coordinating research work on the subject.

5. International cooperation. Considering the developments in the study of European courts and the elites of power, it is our intention to collaborate with other similar research units already in place in the Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, the United Kingdom, France and Spain. We believe that our co-operation with the Czech group Výzkumné centrum Dvory a rezidence ve středověku is an important stepping stone to our further involvement in research on an international scale.