A Brief Outline Of Polish History Class

Excerpt from A Brief Outline of Polish HistoryMeanwhile the emperors of the House of Hohenstaufen were interfering with the affairs of Poland, the Russians with those of Lithuania, and the Ruthenians were making incursions into the neighbouring Polish duchies. Finally, in 1241, the Tartar hordes invaded Little Poland, that is the lands of Cracow, Sandomir and Silesia. Henry the Pious, duke of Silesia, encountered them at the head of his knights and found his death in the victory of Lignica (liegnitz) which saved the West from the invasion of the Barbarians. Their fir-st onset, broken by the Poles and Hungarians, was never repeated with the same impetuosity (1259 However the land was so completely laid waste that it became necessary to call in colonists from the Empire to cultivate it. It is true that Germany, which was then engaged in a struggle with the Papacy and was in an advanced state of lawlessness, was much less formidable than it had been. These colonists brought with them the customary law of Magdeburg, obtained the right to settle, created new towns or germanized the old ones by introducing municipal autonomy with all its or ganization, burgomasters, mayors, town-council, aldermen, courts of justice, guilds and village magistrates. This system was soon accepted by the local population and extended gradually east and west. In this manner, and upon a foreign basis, a middle class of burgesses was created in Poland by the side of the already existing and clearly defined castes of knightood, clergy and peas autry.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.