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Igor Kąkolewski Warsaw The Prussian Homage of 1525 as a ‘site of memory’ in Old-Polish culture1 The phrase ‘historical politics’ has got well settled in the Polish scholarly and jour- nalistic discourse. A high number of conferences on historical politics and collec- tive historical memory recently held in Poland are worth consideration indeed. At the same time, in the recent dozen-or-so years, Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de memoire – ‘sites of memory’ – has been much en vogue especially in the French and German historiographies.2 To give an example, it was the Polish-German ‘sites of memory’, Erinnerungsorte, that a cycle of international symposia held in 2008-2009 by the Berlin-based Historical Research Centre was devoted to, with a multivolume edition of articles and essays edited by Robert Traba and Hans-Hennig Hahn to be the expected outcome of this enormous project. Both said historians set as the target for themselves to gather authors ready to deal with so-called second-grade history whose essence is making attempts to answer the question why, how, and what for, do we memorise what has been or happened, as opposed to the Rankian striving for getting a ‘what it was like in reality’ answer. In a brief approach, the ‘site of memory’ concept may include a geographic site associated with an important historic event (e.g. the Grunwald battlefield of 1410); an important historic event or occurrence itself (e.g. incorporation of Prussia in the Polish Crown, 1454; the Prussian Homage, 1525); an institution (e.g. the Teutonic Order or a historical figure (for instance, Duke Albrecht Hohenzollern; Nicolaus Co- pernicus). Thus, a ‘site of memory’ can be a site/place, event/occurrence, institution, an individual or a group of individuals that has/have settled on a permanent basis in the collective historical awareness and culture of memory, and function in this area 1 This essay is an extended version of a paper delivered as part of the panel Węzłowe prob- lemy z dziejów dawnej Rzeczypospolitej w pamięci historycznej [‘Some key issues in the history of the early-period Polish Commonwealth as situated in the historical memory’], at a Polish Historical Society (PTH) Convention in Olsztyn, September 19, 2009. 2 Les lieux de memoire, ed. P. Nora, vol. 1-7, Paris 1984-1992. Also, see: Deutsche Erin- nerungsorte, Hg. E. Francois, H. Schulze, vol. 1-3, München 2001. as ‘icons’ evoking a variety of historic(al)-content-related or topical-political items, in a varied emotional setting (be it patriotic-sentimental or aggressive-nationalist). The short reply I can offer to those sceptics whoever might shrug their shoulders at the concept in question, regarding it as yet another so-called scientific factoid, is that the interesting and inspiring aspect of the extensive concept built upon Nora’s afterthought is the way the following issue is put forth: In what ways, and using what messages or techniques, do we solidify and reinforce the social memory of histor- ic facts; and, in what ways do we stereotypise or mythologise historic events and/or persons for e.g. didactic or propagandist-political purposes? Importantly, a ‘site of memory’ can occur in a historical awareness on three levels. First, there is a stereotypic level where the event or historical figure gets super- ficially yet emotionally associated with the currently valid, e.g. political, issues. To this end, caricature can serve as an excellent historical memory medium, another one being emotionally imbued epithets – just to quote the association of ‘(a) Teuton- ic knight’ = ‘(a) Hitlerist’ = ‘(a) German’, as an example. The other level is the one of historical myth, i.e. a more extensive narration which, as a rule, contributes to a deepening of a society’s collective identity. At this level, ‘sites of memory’ tend to be communicated by school textbooks, pieces of journalism, historical novels, sculp- tures and paintings, as complemented by learned works by professional historians. The third level, serving a similar purpose, is “ceremony – i.e. celebration of consec- utive anniversaries of a historic event, for instance. This situation of a propagandist theatrum ‘stages’ a historic myth in a worthy setting to the gathering audiences that consist, on the one hand, of a street mob and on the other, of the learned producers, that is, dignified representatives of the scholarly and artistic milieu, those who ren- der their services to honourable government officers whose knowledge in history is not the deepest possible.”3 This present paper aims at outlining the place that was occupied in the Old-Pol- ish memory culture by an event which resides deep down in the historical awareness of present-day Poles, as an ‘icon’ – owing primarily to the monumental painting by Jan Matejko, completed in 1882. It is namely the homage paid by Albrecht Hohen- zollern, the first secular Duke ‘in Prussia’, to King Sigismund I the Old at the Main Market in Krakow on April 10, 1525.4 I intend to remark on this occasion that I ap- proach the site-of-memory termed ‘Prussian Homage, 1525’, along with the Grun- 3 Cf. Kąkolewski, I., Krzyżacy w pamięci Polaków i Niemców [‘The Teutonic Order and Knights as reflected in the memory of Poles and Germans’], in: Polsko-niemieckie miejs- ca pamięci. Polnisch-deutsche Erinnerungsorte (forthcoming). 4 For a discussion of Polish historiography’s present-day research in this respect, see, of the recent publications: Kąkolewski, I., Relacje polityczne między Rzeczpospolitą a Prusami Książęcymi od 1525 do 1701 r. [‘The political relations between the Commonwealth and the Ducal Prussia, 1525 to 1701], in: ‘Komunikaty Mazursko-Warmińskie’ 2009, No. 2, pp. 267-286. wald Battle of 1410 and incorporation of Prussia in 1454, as a ‘narrower’ memory site, to be considered in the context of a ‘broader’ site of memory constituted in the historical awareness of the Poles by the Teutonic Order and its knights (not much loved by this nation, as a rule, whether in the early and our contemporary period).5 Being an event whose political and historical importance was mould-breaking, of which fact its contemporaries were apparently aware, the so-called Prussian Hom- age of 1525 was endowed – in statu nascendi, as though – with a worthy ceremo- nious and propagandist setting; this, years after, could promote the event to be one amongst the primary in the pantheon of Polish memory culture. The very ceremo- nial of liege homage, based upon the norms of the Sachsenspiegel and the homage patterns followed by the Reich dukes with respect to the reigning emperor6, made the event an extraordinary show, of whose ceremonial/symbolic contents and nuanc- es not all of those eye-witnessing could be completely aware. This is testified by an otherwise extensive account by Andrzej Krzycki, the then-Bishop of Przemyśl, who attended the ceremony; the key passage reads as follows: “[…] Hence, the holding of a ceremony that usually accompanies such acts of homage had to be fixed at the Monday of the Holy Week. […] As the king is put- ting his coronation attire on, and that is: the sandals, the tunica, the alb, the dalmat- ic, the coat – that is, cope, and the crown, the two dukes [i.e. George Hohenzollern of Ansbach and Frederick of Legnica/Liegnitz] go to the Master’s inn. There were such who, in conformance to the time’s habits, held it against the ruler that he had apparelled himself in such attire, preposterously conceived, as it were, by the priests. They did not take notice that the king of all the kings, Jesus Christ, was dressed ex- actly like that for derision, and the apparel was passed on, as a commemoration, to Christian kings. They did not understand, either, that a king’s power is condition- al upon the support of religion […] Hence, kings, similarly to priests, have till our day been now and then anointed, in line with the ancient custom and law, and called they are the Sacrae Maiestates […] These same critics would prefer having an il- lustrious ruler show off armoured like a Thraso of sorts amidst theatrical audienc- es. Yet, the innumerable most notable Christian kings and emperors would always at such and similar occasions use the attire established in the most sacred manner, and they after all have bestowed to posterity the glorious deeds of their arms. Pres- ently, however, those who are rattling their arms and showing themselves in weap- onry when not needed, usually deal with the arms to a lesser extent when really 5 I have discussed this particular issue at some length in the above-quoted essay Krzyżacy w pamięci…, op. cit.; or, in a more popular-scientific manner, in the article: Kąkolewski, I., Jak zapamiętaliśmy Krzyżaków [‘How do we remember the Teutonic Knights?’], in ‘Wiadomości Historyczne’ (forthcoming). 6 Grodziski, S., O Hołdzie i hołdowaniu, in: Blak, H.; Grodziski, S., Hołd pruski. Obraz Jana Matejki, p. 59. needed.”7 This last sentence could, after all, serve as a jibe against the armoured Al- brecht. Let us just mention that this particular fragment played the key part for the painter Jan Matejko in his artistic interpretation of the Homage.8 Apart from the ceremonial-and-religious dimension of a tributary act, clearly appearing out of the above-quoted fragment, which was meant to multiply the hom- age’s political importance and socio-technical impact, the 1525 Prussian homage was also embedded in a worthful propaganda-related setting. This was meant to cir- cle broadly both countrywide and in the Christian Europe as a whole, in order to win support for the controversial idea of an orthodixical king making a ‘heathen’ a vas- sal, for one thing.

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