Foreigners amongst the horse courtiers of Duke Sigismund Jagiellon : a contribution to the problem of ethnicity of the court

In comparison with the courts of other Polish dukes, the entourage of Duke Sigismund Jagiellon has attracted quite a lot of attention on the part of historians. There are several reasons, including the fact that in 1499 Sigismund received the Duchy of Głogów and in 1501 the Duchy of Opava as his fiefs. This would not matter much, if it did not concern Silesia, a special province, important to many countries. The surviving sources indicate that young Sigismund was granted his own courtiers only after the death of his father. The duke’s entourage became consolidated in the early sixteenth century. The date that should be regarded as the final day of the existence of the duke’s court is 20 October 1506. The horse courtiers (curienses), who are the subject of the present study, were the elite of Sigismund Jagiellon’s entourage. In total, 56 individuals served in this group. The duke’s small court and the group in question are, paradoxically, an interesting subject of study, full of contradictions. A simple analysis of the lands of origin of Sigismund’s horse courtiers provides a seemingly well-ordered picture. A vast majority of them, 34, came from the Kingdom of Poland. The provinces of the Kingdom of Bohemia - Silesia, Moravia and Lusatia - were less well represented: 20 courtiers came from there. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was represented by only 2 courtiers. If we assume that ethnic identity is built on a juxtaposition of the familiar and the strange, an analysis of these two notions should in effect reveal foreigners among Sigismund’s horse courtiers. But how to establish - in the light of the available modest information - who was or felt foreign or not in the duke’s entourage? Perhaps Poles and Lithuanians felt at home, because the duke’s father ruled Poland and Lithuania, while Silesians were also regarded as native, because of the duchies Sigismund himself ruled. Neither group could hardly be called foreign at his court