Issuing army articles as an element of political struggle and magnate propaganda - the ехаmplе of Jan Zamoyski

At the turn of the 16th and 17th century in Europe commanders-in-chief often issued army articles, often superseding monarchs, less often parliaments. The situation in Poland was no different. The example of hetman’s articles is particularly complicated, because issuing them was not directly linked to holding the grand or field office. Frequently people who held neither of these functions issued their own laws, not, it has to be added, for private troops, but for the benefit of the state army. This was the case with Stanisław Cikowski in 1565, Jan Chodkiewicz in 1568, Jan Zborowski in 1570, or finally Jan Zamoyski in 1580. In all these cases the legitimization of these laws was included in the preamble. In obvious situations it was based only on listing the authors offices and titles. However, it was often necessary to explain the circumstances in which the authors took control of the army, information was also included on the agreement of military circles to the regulations included in the article, it was also stressed that there was risk or necessity to pacify soldiers plundering lands belonging to the nobility. The powers of the commanders-in-chief were used not only to keep the discipline within the army. These acts frequently became powerful tools in political struggle and an important element of magnate propaganda. This is perfectly visible in the life of Jan Zamoyski. It should be stressed that he used army articles in the struggle for the hetman’s office in which he was engaged since 1580. Another spectacular political action was the issuing of articles in 1593 which forced the king to return from Sweden at the promised time. Additionally in 1583 and 1589 army laws were used by the het man as important propaganda tools. Based on the analysis of the material, one can draw the conclusion that research into normative acts must be done on two levels: legal (based on laws and regulations) and political, mentioned in the introduction, preamble or non-normative fragments of the legal regulations.k.lopatecki@uwb.edu.plUniwersytet w Białymstoku61163