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england_n	great_a	king_n	philip_n	3,390	5	9.0449	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69789	The history of Poland. vol. 2 in several letters to persons of quality, giving an account of the antient and present state of that kingdom, historical, geographical, physical, political and ecclesiastical ... : with sculptures, and a new map after the best geographers : with several letters relating to physick / by Bern. Connor ... who, in his travels in that country, collected these memoirs from the best authors and his own observations ; publish'd by the care and assistance of Mr. Savage.	Connor, Bernard, 1666?-1698.; Savage, John, 1673-1747.	1698 (1698)	Wing C5889; ESTC R8630	198,540	426

City has always above 2000 Soldiers in Service and they can easily maintain 12000 but in Cases of Necessity they have been known to have rais'd 60000. For Ships they have no Men of War but abundance of Merchant-men of 3 or 400 Tuns each and 30 or 40 Guns apiece They never Trade so far as the East or West-Indies but into the Streights and all over Europe they do Here it may not be improper to give Your Excellency some short Account of their present Coin in Dantzick But first by way of Digression I may observe that the Coin which the Teutonic Order brought into Prussia not proving sufficient to furnish that Country with Money those Knights soon began to set up Mints and to coin Money of their own there which they perform'd with so much accuracy that most Nations have allow'd that where-ever invented the Art of Coining was there first brought to Perfection This has been confirm'd by the great Antiquary Spelman who was of Opinion that our English Word Sterling came from the Easterlings a People of Prussia and who coming from thence into England first taught us the Art of Refining and Coining purer Silver than we had before made use of The Species of Money now Current in Prussia or rather in Dantzic are these Gold Ducats Ourts Choustacks and Chelons A Ducat is worth two Rix-Dollars or 9 Shillings English An Ourt is a Silver Coin equal to the French Piece of 15 Sous and worth 18 Grosses of Dantzic and 30 of Poland A Choustack is of the value of 6 Dantzic-Grosses or 10 Polish And as for their Chelons three of them make one of their Grosses The farther Difference between the Polish Money and theirs stands thus The Tinfe that is worth 30 Grosses of Polish Chelons is worth but 18 of those of Dantzic The Ducat which is of the value of 12 Franks of Polish Chelons is worth but 7 of the Current Money here Five Choustacks or an Ourt and two Choustacks make a Livre of Dantzic-Money because 5 Choustacks make 30 Grosses and 30 Grosses make 20 Pence This City of Dantzic was taken from the Danes by Sabislaus Grandson to Swentorohus about the Year 1186 and was seiz'd by the Poles some short time after The Knights of the Teutonic Order made themselves Masters of it in 1305 and Wall'd it round in 1314. Casimir III. King of Poland surnam'd The Great regain'd it in 1454 and granted very great Privileges to the Citizens who afterwards declaring for the Auspurg-Confession sided with Maximilian of Austria against Stephen Batori insomuch that the latter proscrib'd and even besieg'd them in 1577. but however by the Mediation of other Princes they were restor'd to their Religion and Liberties in 1597. In 1656. they vigorously repuls'd the Suedes and adher'd to the Interest of John Casimir King of Poland And at present they make one of the Members of this State having been admitted to a Suffrage in the Election of the Polish Monarchs in the Year 1632. This my Lord is what I have been able to gather from Dr. Connor's Memoirs and the best Authors that have writ any thing of the Trade of Poland and of the famous City of Dantzic and wherein if I may not be so happy as to correspond every where with your Excellency's greater Knowledge of those matters I hope at least I may be excus'd upon account of my good will to entertain you and the publick as far as my assistance went which if granted will abundantly recompence the Endeavours of My LORD Your Excellency's Most Humble Servant J. S. LETTER VIII To the Right Honourable CHARLES Earl of Burlington Of the Origin of the Teutonic Order and the Succession of all its Great Masters in the Holy-Land Prussia and Germany together with its present State in the Empire MY LORD DR Connor having design'd this Letter for your Lordship's Entertainment and not having had leisure to accomplish it himself by reason of the urgency of his Profession desired of me to Address it for him but upon a just Reflection on the meanness of my Abilities and an awful Regard to your Lordship's Grandeur I found I had more than ordinary reason to decline it Yet however upon balancing your goodness with your great Quality and considering my well meaning at the same time with my attempt I hop'd I might not be so unfortunate as to Offend if I undertook it and the rather because of the great conformity which the subject I were to write of had with the hopes which the Nation has in you My LORD Your Lordship will here find that this Order was first founded to reward and encourage Great Actions and that particularly in the German Nation whence it came to have the Title of Teutonic for when the Emperour Frederic Barberossa had engaged in the Crusade for recovery of the Holy-Land a great number of German Nobility and Gentry joyn'd his Army as Volunteers Of this Crusade were several other great Princes of Europe such as Philip King of France Richard I. King of England Frederic Duke of Suabia the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria Philip Earl of Flanders Plorant Earl of Holland c. After this Emperor's Death the Germans being before Acon or Ptolemais which they then besieged chose for their Leaders Frederick Duke of Suabia second Son to the aforesaid Emperour and Henry Duke of Brabant Under these Generals they behav'd themselves so well both at the taking of Acon Jerusalem and other places of the Holy-Land that Henry King of Jerusalem the Patriarch and several other Princes thought themselves oblig'd to do something extraordinary in honour of the German Nation Hereupon they immediately resolv'd to erect an Order of Knights of that Nation under the protection of St. George but afterwards they chang'd that Saint for the Virgin Mary by reason that she had an Hospital already founded on Mount Sion at Jerusalem for the relief of German Pilgrims of the manner of building which Ashmole in his Order of the Garter gives this following account He says that in the time of the Holy-War a wealthy Gentleman of Germany who dwelt at Jerusalem commiserating the condition of his Countrymen coming thither on Devotion and neither understanding the language of that place nor knowing where to lodge receiv'd them hospitably into his House and gave them all manner of suitable Entertainment Afterwards obtaining leave of the Patriarch he erected a Chappel for them and Dedicated it to the Virgin Mary whence the Knights that were established there afterwards came to have the Title of Equites Mariani Other German Gentlemen contributed largely to the maintaining and encreasing this Charitable Work insomuch that in a short time these Knights became very numerous and wealthy and gave themselves to Military Employments and to acts of Piety and Charity In the Year 1190 they elected their first Great Master Henry Walpot and in the Year following had their Order confirm'd upon the request of

any Conditions to become Master of so considerable a Kingdom to which he had no Right either by Birth or other Claim and more especially since these Conditions are neither Rigorous nor Dishonourable but such as are decently consistent with the Regal Character he is to be Invested with Thus the Polish Gentry of a kind of Monarchical Government have in time made a perfect Republic consisting of three Orders The King Senate and Gentry which they call the Nobility Here My Lord I must take notice to Your GRACE that the Polish Nation is divided into two sorts of People the Gentry or Freeborn Subjects who are hardly a Tenth Part of the Kingdom and the Vassals who are no better than Slaves to the Gentry for they have no Benefit of the Laws can Buy no Estates nor Enjoy any Property no more than our Negroes in the West-Indies can and this because some Ages since the Common People Revolting against their Lords and having driven them out of the Nation the Gentry came with a Foreign Power and reduced them to a greater Subjection than before in which they have been kept ever since So that the Government of Poland at present comprehends only the King and Gentry By a Gentleman or Nobleman of Poland is understood a Person who either himself or his Family has a Possession in Land For they never Intermarry with the Common People All the Gentry from the King's Sons to those that are but only Masters of an Acre of Land are equally Noble both by their Birth and the Constitution of the Kingdom for no Body is Born either a Palatine Senator or Lord but those Titles are always annexed to certain Employments which the King only gives to Persons advanced in Age and recommended by their Merits The Diet of Poland in some respects resembles our Parliament being made up of two Houses the House of Senators answerable to our House of Lords and the House of Nuncio's not unlike our House of Commons The Senators are the Bishops Palatines Castellans and the Ten Great Officers of the Crown in all about 142. In the Upper-House the Senators sit not by any Writ of Summons or Letters Patents as in England but only by Virtue of the Great Preferments in the King's Gift which they Enjoy for Life So that the King wholly Constitutes the Upper House but the Lower are the Representatives of the Gentry Elected by them alone in their respective Provinces without the Concurrence of the Common People who have no Priviledge to Vote in their Election Insomuch that at least Nine Parts in Ten of the People of Poland are excluded from having any Share in the Government The Grand Diet of Poland is nothing else but the King Senators and Deputies assembled together in any Part of the Kingdom that his Majesty Commands Without this great Assembly of the States the King can neither Make nor Repeal Laws Declare War nor Conclude a Peace make no Alliance with any Foreign Princes raise neither Troops nor Taxes Coin no Money and in a word can Determine no Matter of State of any Importance without the Universal Consent and Concurrence of this Parliament which they term the Free States of Poland Several powerful Motives have enclin'd the Poles to Establish this kind of mixt Government which they take to be a just Temperament of whatever is to be found most Excellent in the several Monarchies Aristocracies and Democracies that have been in the World The most considerable of which Motives as I have met with them in their Histories or learn'd them from the most knowing among their Natives are as follows First They think by this Judicious Choice of a Government to preserve their Kingdom from those Disorders which most commonly attend Absolute Monarchies Agreeing herein with that Prince of Philosophers Aristotle who though he preferr'd this kind of Government to all Others yet was he nevertheless obliged to own that when ever it degenerated it was the most pernicious of all Thus the Poles have temper'd the Exorbitant Power of their Kings with the mixture of two other Governments whereby they thought to secure their Liberty a Thing always most Dear to them from the Arbitrary Will of a Prince who by Imagining himself above the Laws might Fancy whatever his Passions prompted him to allowable and his truest Interest to be the Entire Subjection of his People The miserable Examples of their Neighbours the Turks and Moscovites have sufficiently convinced them of this Truth wherefore the Polish Nation thought it but convenient to limit the excessive Power of their Kings and confine them to Rule with more Moderation and Justice Secondly The Poles have observ'd as well from their own Government as from that of their Neighbours that no small disadvantage has flow'd from an Aristocracy They could not be perswaded but that the Authority of one Person was infinitely more easie to be Tolerated than that of many for that either the Ambition or Jealousy of such would often disturb the Repose and Tranquility of the Public Poland also began to Reflect upon its former Miseries under its Woievods when it was deplorably rent and torn by the Factions among those Palatines Insomuch that even while it became a Conqueror from without it was vanquish'd within and that by its own Force This gave the Poles no small dislike to an Aristocracy which they have resolved never more to admit among them The Third Reason of State which has obliged the Poles to reject a Democracy is that they look upon that sort of Government to be the most dangerous of all being the easiest enflam'd and the greatest Enemy to true Nobility Its first Maxim is To procure a Vniversal Levelling or making all alike whereby under the Notion of a common Liberty they weaken and enervate those great Genius's which were design'd to Govern and Protect them How then could it be expected that the Descendents of those mighty Warriers who Founded the Polish Nation and have so long maintain'd the Honour of it by their Valour should submit to have their Blood debased by mixing it with the Ignoble Vulgar The Tyranny of Laws which the Nobles are subjected to in an Absolute Common-wealth would be too rude a Check to this Ambition which the Poles have always had to Command over their Vassals and therefore they have always entertain'd a secret Odium for those Grecian Republics that Banish'd their greatest Statesmen meerly because they would not have them gain too fast upon the Affections of the People If any should perhaps doubt of the pernicious Consequences of a popular Government where Reason does not so much reign as an Unruly violence of a People who know no other Laws than those of their Passions let them cast their Eyes on the Heats of the Roman Empire who were often ready to Overturn the State had not the Senate speedily applied a prudent Remedy But there are other Examples more Modern as the Revolt

the Little and Poorer Sort think it no Disgrace to serve them that can maintain them 'T is true the Gentleman they serve is commonly very civil to them for the eldest of them generally eats with him at Table with his Cap off and every one of them has a Peasant-Boy to wait on him which the Master maintains yet if any one of these Gentlemen-Servants neglects his Duty his Master punishes him severely tho' he has no Power to take away his Life because he is a Gentleman but he may get him whipt naked with a certain Formality which I have mention'd before It may not be here amiss to observe to your Lordship some few Maxims whereby the Republick of Poland might always subsist and the Gentry retain their ancient Privileges First By reducing all the Gentry of the Kingdom to an equal Authority in the Election of a King and other publick Deliberations by which the King or Senate would be depriv'd of a Power of raising any considerable Factions and the Grandees be discourag'd from affecting and hunting after Foreign Titles which commonly ensnare them to the Prejudice of their Country Secondly By keeping up the free Choice of their Nuncios which would disable the Court and Senate from getting their Creatures elected to the utter abrogating of the Privileges of the Gentry wherein the Poles now follows the prudent Example of the Roman Common-wealth Thirdly By preserving the Custom of the Gentries appearing in great Numbers at the Diet which animates both the Senate and Deputies in the Prosecution of Affairs for the Good of the Kingdom and deters them from being biass'd by any sinister Means Fourthly By obliging both Senators and Deputies to give an Account of their Proceedings which must needs encline them to act with a great deal of Precaution Fifthly By prohibiting the Army to come near the great Assembly of the States for Rome never enjoy'd so great Happiness as when the Gown had Preference of the Sword Sixthly To maintain the Law of Equality in Matters of Descent whereby the Gentry would be kept at an even Lay and hinder'd from disturbing the Government by too great a Power Seventhly Never to prefer any Native to the Crown because of the great Disorders it might in all Likelyhood occasion Eighthly To maintaim the Authority of their Democracy establish'd for so many Ages by the Prudence of their Ancestors and all along continu'd with no small Hazards and Trouble And Ninthly Never to permit any Foreign Princes to intermeddle with their Affairs There is no Country where Embassadors are oblig'd to make so great a Figure as in Poland especially if they have any Interest of the Prince their Master to maintain or carry on in the Diet or among the Gentry for the Great Men there generally despise all such as either do not or cannot make the same Figure with themselves which is so excessive that an Embassador must have three remarkable Qualities to keep up with it For first he must have a great Train of Coaches and Servants proportionable next keep a plentiful and open House continually to Treat and Fuddle the Gentry and where he must be very humble and familiar with them they being generally very civil and easie in their Conversation And lastly which is the surest way to gain their Affection and Suffrages he must give 'em ever now and then a little Money and he still promising them more for Reasons I have mention'd before When the Great Men of Poland have any Suit at Law or other Difference to be determin'd the Justice of the Kingdom is commonly too weak for them for tho' the Diet or other Tribunals had decided the Matter in Favour of one of the two Parties yet the Execution of their Judgment must be left to the Power of the strongest Sword for these Grandees generally think it beneath them to submit to the Sentence of a Company of Judges without a Field-Battle Sometimes they will raise five or six Thousand of a Side plunder and burn one anothers Towns and Cities and besiege each others Castles and Forts and after a great deal of Blood-shed Fatigue and Expence the unjuster Cause shall commonly get the upper Hand Dr. Connor says When he was in Poland there was a Quarrel between Duke Raazivil and Prince Sapieha about whether of the two should be Guardian to the young Princess of Newbourg Neece to the present Empress for her Mother was Dutchess Radzivil of Lithuania and Heiress of the greatest Estate in the Kingdom Both Parties had their Troops in the Field and had some Skirmishes but it was thought that Prince Sapieha being Great General of the Forces of Lithuania would get the better tho' it seems Duke Radzivil as being her Mother's Relation had more Right to the Guardianship of her All this while the King never concern'd himself in the Quarrel nor declar'd for either Party As to Matters of Descent The Father's Estate is always equally divided among his Children in like manner as in Italy Germany and most Foreign Countries but when the Father is dead the Mother can enjoy all his Estate for Life and it is absolutely in her Breast to allot every one of the Children their Quota or to keep all the Estate to her own Use during her Life Some Mothers Marry after the Husbands Deaths and so spend their first Childrens Fortunes with their second Husbands This makes the Children more than ordinary obedient to their Mothers especially during their Widdowhood Altho Estates in Poland are equally divided among the Children which one would think should absolutely weaken or ruin their Families yet do they generally find Means to support and keep them up for most commonly some of the Brothers turn Monks and so get to be made Abbots or Bishops whose Revenues are here sufficient to enrich any Family and the rest look after State-Employments which are likewise considerable Some of the Daughters also many times become Nuns so that being in the Church Service they are oblig'd to live in Celibacy and consequently leaving no Heirs all their Goods or Estates fall to their Marry'd Brothers or Sisters or to their Children In this Country the Daughters always walk before their Mothers as in Italy and the unmarry'd Sisters before the marry'd I cannot but admire at the honest and good Temper of the Polish Gentry for tho' their Liberty is extraordinary tho' they have Power of Life and Death over their Subjects tho' they are in a manner above their own Laws and tho' Justice is administer'd in Poland more slightly than in any other Country yet Dr. Connor says that all the while that he was in that Kingdom he neither saw nor heard of any Murther or Slaughter or of any Barbarity or Cruelty committed by the Gentry on their Subjects nor what is a greater Wonder of any High-way Robbers but always observ'd the Poles in general to be good humour'd harmless and generous When it is certain had

we in England but the third Part of their Liberty we could not live together without cutting one anothers Throats since Experience dayly shews that notwithstanding the great Vigilancy of our Officers the Severity of our Laws the just Rigour of our Judges and Magistrates and the punctual Execution of their Sentences and Judgments the Gallows and Gibbets are more frequently visited here than even the Prisons are in Poland I fancy the Reason that the Poles are so quiet and good natur'd is because being born free and living in an excessive Liberty under no Laws nor Arbitrary Power there is nothing before them that can constrain their Minds bridle their Passions or curb their Thoughts but as there is nothing that can entice them to do ill so nothing likewise can hinder them from doing it Dr. Connor says He has ask'd some Polish Noblemen why they so inhumanely treated and undervalu'd their Boors They answer'd That formerly all the Boors of the Kingdom revolted from their Landlords rebell'd against them as the Swissers did against their Gentry and conspir'd together to extirpate and destroy them all that they Murther'd and kill'd a vast number of Gentlemen and that the rest were oblig'd either to hide themselves or to leave the Kingdom But that at length the Gentry getting together from all Parts and being moreover Assisted by their Neighbours they so frighted and defeated the poor Peasants who had made a general Insurrection against them to set up a Commonwealth of their own that they brought them to such Extremities that ever since they have been contented to be kept Slaves Yet the Poles say that though they have an Absolute Power over them they seldom make use of it any more than other Christians do over their Dogs or Horses Strange Comparison As if they spar'd the poor Peoples Lives rather out of Self-interest than Charity and by reason that they thought they would be more serviceable to them Living than Dead not unlike some Kings who give Malefactors their Lives only to prefer them to their Gallys Notwithstanding the Peasants in Poland being born Slaves and having no manner of Notion of Liberty live very well satisfy'd and contented In Curland they are as subject to their Landlords as in Poland and in both Countries Masters are almost paid Adoration Their Slaves love them and Fight willingly for them and all they have is absolutely at their Devotion Nay though they Debauch their Wives and Daughters yet they only care to obtain their Liberty by it and this is so common a thing among these poor Wretches that they never value their Women the less for it nor think themselves a whit either injur'd or dishonour'd by it The Condition of the Kmetons as the Poles call them or Boors or Rusticks at this Day in Poland is such that they lead miserable and wretched Lives haviug no Laws no Judges and scarce any Religion among them but like Brutes they are forc'd to Work on Sundays and dare not so much as Appeal to the King or Diet for Redress However in Royal Prussia their Condition is something better for there they enjoy almost the same Laws and Liberties with the Gentry Formerly Casimir the Great made several Laws in their behalf but which at this day are seldom or never practis'd All Bishops Abbots Palatins Castellans c. are oblig'd to be of the Nobless except a certain Number assign'd by King John Albert out of the Plebeians to be capable of being inferiour Divines Lawyers or Physicians only An Exception from this Law may be seen in the Person of Peter Gamratus who from a Plebeian was prefer'd by Sigismund to several both Ecclesiastical and Temporal Dignities But in Prussia as I have remark'd before the Customs are much more indulgent to the Common People As I have hinted before to your Lordship a Gentleman's Revenue in Poland partly consists in his Slaves for he cannot well be esteem'd Rich unless he has a great Number of these poor Creatures under his Power whereof there is scarce any but earn their Lords a 100 Franks a year It may not be improper therefore to observe here the Manners and Customs of these poor Wretches And it may first be remark'd That these Slaves can enjoy nothing of their own nor ever become Free unless they can get into some Convent or get to be Ordain'd Priests or else incline their Masters to Debauch their Wives or Daughters whereby the Law sets them Free But most commonly their Lords have a watchful Eye over them and obviate all their Policies These Lords never Let their Lands to Farm but to establish a Peasant on them they forthwith order the other Peasants of the Village at their own Charges to Build him a House Furnish him with a Cow Hens Geese and a quantity of Rye sufficient to keep him a Year so that a Lord of a Village is at no other Charge to set up a Slave on his Lands than he first Cost him These poor Slaves or Subjects as they call them most commonly work three Days in a Week for their Lords to one for themselves and sometimes four Dr. Connor says in his time a Country-man had a mind to forward his Son in Learning and would have sent him to the University but which the Signior would by no means condescend to and put the Son in Prison for refusing to be his Secretary till at last the Father was forc'd to purchase his Liberty at the Expence of 400 Crowns which he had Borrow'd When a Lord sells his Land the Slaves commonly go along with it though he can dispose of either separately if he pleases At the time of Harvest all the Peasants of the Village meet together to Reap their Lords Corn who are supervis'd and forc'd to Work by very rigid Taskmasters Their Punishments are sometimes several Blows of a Cudgel and sometimes a kind of Pillory wherein those Wretches shall be sometimes set for a whole Day together I should think now these poor Wretches the most miserable Creatures Breathing but they on the contrary never having known any better Condition and having seen their Fathers Slaves before them are well satisfied and contented with their Servitude But however they have this Happiness that they seldom want for Victuals and Drink for their Wives chiefest Employment is to provide them with that They have generally three or four sorts at a Meal viz. One of Pease with a little Bacon slic'd among it Another of Course Wheat Barley or Millet whereof they make their Cachat and two others of several sorts of strengthening Roots whereof they have great Plenty and very good The Movables of these Peasants Cottages are only a few Earthen or Wooden Dishes and a hard Bed which they make themselves with a very wretched Coverlet Their Children are not suffer'd to have a Bed till they are Marry'd but are forc'd to lye upon Boards by the Hearth side These sort of