Kanclerz (Polish for Chancellor, from latin:castellanus) was one of the highest officials in the historic Poland. His office functioned from the early Polish kingdom of the 12th century until the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. Chancellors powers risen together with the increasing importance of the written documents. In the 14th century the office of Chancellor of Kraków (Polish: "Kanclerz krakowski") evolved into the Chancellor of the Crown (Polish: "Kanclerz koronny") and from that period the chancellor powers were greatly increased, as they became responsible for the foreign policy of the entire Kingdom (later, the Commonwealth). Chancellor was also supposed to ensure the legality of monarch actions, especially if they are not illegal in the context of pacta conventa (an early set of documents containing important laws, in some aspects resembling today's constitutions). Finally, Chancellor was also responsible for his office, the chancellery (Polish: kancelaria). A 16th century Polish lawyer, Jakub Przybylski , described the Chancellor as the king's hand, eye and ear, translator of his thoughts and will.
From 15th century there were two separate Chancellors, none of them subordinate to each other: Great Chancellor (Polish: Kanclerz wielki) and Deputy Chancellor (Polish: Podkanclerz). In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, there were four Chancellors: Great Chancellor of the Crown (Polish: Kanclerz wielki koronny), Great Chancellor of Lithuania, (Polish: Kanclerz wielki litewski), Deputy Chancellor of the Crown (Polish Podkanclerzy koronny) and Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania (Podkanclerzy litewski).
History
During the times of fragmentation of Poland, each Polish prince had his own chancellor, but with the reunification of Poland, the office of Chancellor of Kraków (contemporary capital of the Kingdom of Poland) became dominant and other, local chancellors dissapeared by the early 15th century. Also in the 15th century, the Chancellor office split into that of the Great Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor (however the Lithuanian Deputy Chancellor was created later, in the mid-16th century). The Deputy Chancellor was however not a subordinate of the Chancellor and his independence was specifically confirmed by the lwas passed during the reign of the king Alexander the Jagiellonian. The Sejm of 1504 confirmed the Chancellors office, its powers and responsibilities for the first time, specifically stating that one person cannot hold both Chancellor's offices.
After the Union of Lublin in 1569 those offices were doubled yet again (into Crown - Poland proper - and Lithuanian chancellors), thus resulting in four Chancellors (one Chancellor and one Deputy for Crown, and another pair for Lithuania).
At first, the Chancellor office was always given to the ecclesiastic person. From 1507, Sigismund I the Old decoded that the title of Great Crown Chancellor would be rotated between secular and ecclesiastic nobles, and at least one Chancellor (both in the Great and Deputy pair and in the Crown and Lithuanian one after the Union of Lublin) was required to be a secular person.
Power and responsibilities
Chancellors, as most of the other offices in Poland and later, the Commonwealth, were nominated to the office for life by the King during the Sejm (Parliament) session. From 15th and 16th century, after the reforms of Alexander, Sigismund I and the Union of Lublin, the power and importance of the Chancellor office was stabilised, as the senatorial office lesser then the hetmans (military commanders who had however no right to vote in the Senat) and the Grand Marshals, but more important then that of the Grand Treasurers, Court Marshal and others.
By custom, the Greater Chancellor of the Crown directed the Commonwealth foreign policies towards the west - Western Europe and south - [[Ottoman Empire], while the Greater Chancellor of the Lithuania the policies towards the east - Muscovy (later, the Russian Empire).
Chancellor and the Deputy Chancellor (who was not a direct subordinate of the chancellor) were responsible for the work of their chancelleries, respectively Greater and Minor one. They were supposed to be in constant contact and develop common policies, since their powers were equal. They were specifically forbidden from issuing illegal and contradictory documents, and could judge any documents contrary to the existing law 'irrelevant and without power'. In theory, the power of the Chancellors were equal. In practice, much depended on their personalities and political influence. Conflicts between Chancellors, while rare, when occured, could paralyse the entire country. Such were the case during the conflict between Krzesław z Kurozwęk and Maciej Drzewicki between 1501 and 1503.
Among their other responsibilities were the matters of foreign affairs (correspondence with other countries) and to a smaller extent, the internal affairs, as they had also judiciary powers, presiding over the ‘assessors’ courts ’ (Polish: Asesoria), that were the highest appeal courts for people subjected to crown laws (i.e. not subjected to ecclesiastic or magnates courts, but when chancellor was an esslesiastic person, he could judge the priests of the king's court). They could judge in various cases, with the exception of when sides have already reached a compromise or in cases of the territorial disputes.
The Chancellors offices were the Chancelleries (respectively Crown and Lithuanian, Greater and Minor ones). Chancelleries were staffed with offcials known as the chancellists (Polish: kancelista): the regent (regent kancelarii), secretaries (sekretarz in Crown)1, writers (pisarz in Lithuania, equivalent to the secretary in Crown), archivists (Polish: archiwista), [metricant]]s (Polish: metrykant) and other clerks. Regent divided the work between the clerks. 2 secretaries (one responsible for private correspondence, second for official) presented the ready letters to the king for his signature. Writers designed the letters, clerks readied the final drafts. No copies were made, but instead they were written into the archives - books called Metrics (Polish: Metryki), who were taken care by the two metricans (respectively 2 in Poland and 2 in Lithuania). Metrican of Great Chancellor was called the Great Metrican, the one serving Deputy Chancellor was a Minor Metrican. The staff of Chancellery had no wage, just like the Chancellors, but in the middle of each reception room was the box into which all clients were supposed to deposit a varying amount of money, and nobody who planned on coming back could afford to be mean. Of much smaller importance were the local, provincial chancellaries, which mostly served as archives for copies of various documents.
Besides their official functions, the royal chancelleries functioned as a kind of semi-official, very prestigious schools. The officials of the chancelleries, who often started their work after their studies, after several years of work, often went forward in the administrative hierarchy, often reaching important posts of bishops or other ecclesiastic or secular offices. Many enlightened chancellors did not restrict the posistions in their staff to nobilty (szlachta), and often sponsored intelligent applicants from other social classes, not only by hiring them to the chancellary but by paying for their studies at universities in Poland and abroad. Among the most esteemed 'graduates' of chancelleries were Jan Dlugosz, Martin Kromer and Jan Zamoyski.
Chancellor often gave speeches representing the royal will. The symbol of their office was the seal, which was used to seal all documents passing through his office. He also sealed documents signed by the monarch and could refuse to seal a document he considered illegal or damaging to the country (such documents had no power without his seal). When the king died, the seal was destroyed during funeral and new one given to him by the succeeding king. The seal importance gave a rise to another name of the Chancellor - the sealer (Polish pieczętarz). Due to their imporant power the Chancellors were considered the guardians of the king and country, making sure the kings folly would not endanger the country by forcing it into an unnecessary war (among the wars prevented by the chancellors was the the great crusade against the Ottoman Empire planned by Wladyslaw IV Waza in 1630s).
The chancellor powers combined with the fact that wars required funds which were given by the Senat. The nobles (the szlachta) who controlled the Senate were usually unwilling to increase taxes and levvied upon them, which meant that Poland very rarely declared wars on its own. Usually it was attacked by its neighbors, and while it repelled all attacks till the end of 18th century, it almost never utilised any of its victories. The army was undermanned and under equipped (since usually any suggestion of bigger military budget when enemy was not on the doorstep was labeled as warmongering) and lands of Rzeczpospolita were constantly ravaged by new invasions, crippling its economy.
Other chancellors
Besides the Crown and Deputy Chancellors, there were many less important chancellors in the country. There was the Chancellor of the Queen. He had much less power then other (King's) Chancellors, he gurded the seal of the queen and was second most important official of her court, after her Court Marshall. He had no right to seat in the Senate. Even less important were the chancellors of crown princes and princessess, first introduced around the reign of Sigismund I. Then there was the chancellor of the most important of bishops, Primate, Archbishop of Gniezno. Finally some proud magnates had officials who titled themselves chancellors.
List of chancellors
- Kanclerz - Chanceller - various local chancellors, until late 14/early 15th centiry
- Kanclerz krakowski - Chancellor of Kraków - until 14th century, when he superceeded all other Polish local chancellors and transformed into
- Kanclerz koronny - Chancellor of the Crown - from 14th century until 1569. Sometimes also called Kanclerz Królestwa Polskiego - Chancellor of the Polish Kingdom'
- Kanclerz wielki koronny - Great Chancellor of the Crown - from 1659 until 1795 (end of Commonwealth)
- Kanclerz wielki litewski - Great Chancellor of Lithuania - as above
- Podkanclerzy koronny - Deputy Chancellor of the Crown - as above
- Podkanclerzy litewski - Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania - as above
See also
Notes
- Secretaries in Crown and writers in Lithuania were often just a honorary title given to people for their service to the state in the areas of administration and such. The normal secreatries should not be confused with the Great Secretaries , who serverd as Chancellors when the Chancellors were absent, but had no right to vote in the Senat.
References
Last updated: 10-18-2005 19:56:11
