Crown of the Polish Kingdom
| Crown of the Kingdom of Poland | ||||||||||||||||
| Korona Królestwa Polskiego (Polish) Corona Regni Poloniae (Latin) |
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| Personal union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1399–1569) | ||||||||||||||||
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Anthem "Bogurodzica" "Gaude Mater Polonia" |
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| Capital |
Kraków (before 1596) Warsaw (after 1596) |
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| Religion | Roman Catholicism | |||||||||||||||
| Government |
Monarchy Elective monarchy Constitutional monarchy |
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| King | ||||||||||||||||
| • | 1385–1399 | Jadwiga of Poland (first) | ||||||||||||||
| • | 1764–1793 | Stanisław II August (last) | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era |
Middle Ages Early modern Europe |
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| • | Union of Krewo | 14 August 1385 | ||||||||||||||
| • | Constitution of 1791 | 3 May 1791 | ||||||||||||||
| Currency | Polish złoty | |||||||||||||||
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The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Korona Królestwa Polskiego, Latin: Corona Regni Poloniae), or simply the Crown, is the common name for the historic (but unconsolidated) Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, including Poland proper.
The kingdom has been traditionally dated back to c. 966, when Mieszko I and his pagan Slavic realm joined Christian Europe (Baptism of Poland), thus culminating the process of creation of the state of Poland started by his Polan Piast dynasty ancestors. His oldest son and successor, Prince Bolesław I Chrobry, Duke of Poland, became the first crowned King of Poland in 1025.
The creation of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was a milestone in the evolution of Polish statehood and the European identity. It represented the concept of the Polish kingdom (nation) as distinctly separate from the person of the monarch. The introduction of that concept marked the transformation of the Polish government from a patrimonial monarchy (a hereditary monarchy) to a "quasi-constitutional monarchy" (monarchia stanowa,) in which power resides in the nobility, clergy, and (to some extent) working class, also referred to as an "elective monarchy".
A related concept that evolved soon afterward was that of Rzeczpospolita ("Commonwealth"), which was an alternate to the Crown as a name for the Polish state after the Treaty of Lublin in 1569. The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was also related to other symbols of Poland, such as the capital (Kraków), the Polish coat of arms and the flag of Poland.
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