ZASTAWY JAGIELLOŃSKIE NA MAZOWSZU DO 1506 ROKU - ZARYS PROBLEMATYKI
JAGIELLONIAN PLEDGES IN MAZOVIA UNTIL 1506: AN OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUE

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the pledges made by the rulers of the Jagiellonian dynasty (Casimir IV Jagiellon, John I Albert, and Alexander Jagiellon) in Mazovia between 1462 (annexation of the lands of Gostynin and Rawa) and 1506. The issue is presented in a broader context. The Jagiellonian pledges in that region were closely related to historical circumstances. The annexation of part of historic Mazovia to the Kingdom of Poland, on the one hand, increased the monarch's assets (and thus gave the ruler additional opportunities to pledge property), but on the other hand, some of these assets had already been pledged earlier by the Dukes of Mazovia, and the Jagiellonian dynasty, by confirming the sums owed to their owners, committed themselves de facto to paying off the debts of their predecessors, which placed an additional burden on the treasury. However, such confirmations also provided an opportunity to strengthen the ties between the former Mazovian elites and the royal court and to gain their favor. There are also no specific characteristics of the group of people receiving pledges. Apart from tenants who had owned their tenures since the times of the Mazovian princes, Polish kings did not take territorial origin into account in new grants. Pledged estates in Mazovia were granted to people from all over Poland, often from families who were closest to the rulers at the time. It is worth noting that all royal estates in the Mazovia region, which was part of the Kingdom of Poland at the time, were pledged by the rulers at some point before 1506. Apparently, the Jagiellonian dynasty treated their new Mazovian estates as an additional resource allowing them to continue their previous policy of pledging and as an opportunity to improve the situation of the royal treasury and win the favor of their closest associates.

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