CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Kozlowski, Wojciech |
|---|---|
| Title | The Thirteenth-Century International System and the Origins of the Angevin-Piast Dynastic Alliance |
| Summary | The central question of this study is what inspired Charles I and Władysław Łokietek to establish a dynastic marriage in 1320 and in what context it happened. This inquiry is strongly interconnected with an additional interest in whether (and how) the “international” environment, in which both figures formed and strove to achieve their goals and objectives, can be characterized. The research objectives are achieved by developing and employing theoretical perspective, drawn from International Relations (IR) theories, to historical material in order to generate well substantiated interpretation of the causes and context of the Angevin-Piast marriage of 1320. My research can be approached from two perspectives. In terms of its content, this is a comparative “international” politics, grappling with complexities of dynastic relations in the kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. In terms of concepts and methods, however, this is a pioneering attempt to utilize and adapt great potential of IR theoretical reflection in order to render a new image of late medieval “international” politics. The interdisciplinary underpinnings of my project are particularly challenging, because bridging IR scholarship (developed and elaborated in the specific contexts of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century international system) and traditional political history of the late Middle Ages (itself meticulously explored and analyzed by generations of historians) is an innovation that only has to find its place in the scholarly environment and prove its validity. In Summer 1320, Elisabeth, a daughter of Władysław Łokietek, freshly made King of Poland, married Charles I of Anjou, King of Hungary. Charles I’s two oldest sons died at young age but Louis, his third son, inherited the Hungarian kingdom and was crowned in 1342. In the meantime, Casimir, Elisabeth’s brother and Louis’s uncle, succeeded to the Polish crown after Łokietek, his father. In the following decades, Casimir and Louis repeatedly discussed the issue of Louis’ prospective succession in Poland in case Kazimierz did not have offspring. The available source material suggests that some prearrangements in this matter had been already made in the 1320s between Charles I and Łokietek or between Charles I and Casimir in the 1330s. As a result, in 1370, shortly after Casimir’s death, Louis was crowned King of Poland. Judging from what happened in the Angevin-Piast relations throughout the fourteenth century, it appears fairly evident that the dynastic marriage of 1320 was a real showdown which laid foundations for the future cooperation of these two houses, and ultimately resulted in a personal union of two Central European kingdoms. At the core of my historical inquiry was to find out what were the circumstances that brought the marriage of 1320 into being. Therefore, on the one hand, my dissertation asks a conventional historical question: what happened in Central Europe between 1300 and 1320 that made the Angevin-Piast dynastic marriage possible? On the other hand, it strives to document and determine principles, values and driving forces that motivated lords in their “international” behaviors. The innovative approach of this study is based on the concept that before individual motivations of Charles I and Władysław Łokietek are elucidated (as elements central for conventional political history), a broad analysis of “international” practices is carried out. In other words, this study advances its argument in two ways. First, by using empirical material, it strives to identify actors, structures, and modes of interactions that were characteristic to the thirteenth-century “international” system in Latin Christendom (with reference to primary neo-realist assumptions). It also seeks to unravel how political interests of individual actors were shaped (by introducing a concept of “lordly identity” along the constructivist strand). Second, having established a broad context for Charles I and Łokietek pursuing their politics, it implements theoretical conceptualizations to solve the puzzle of the Angevin-Piast dynastic marriage of 1320. |
| Supervisor | Nagy, Balazs |
| Department | Medieval Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/kozlowski_wojciech.pdf |
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