Istorijos šaltinių tyrimai / Studies in Historical Sources

This article reviews the attitude firmly entrenched in historiography that Polish noblemen who came to live in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania both prior and after the Union of Lublin were considered aliens. The investigation revealed that in the 15th century and in the first half of the 16th century Poles, and later other incoming nobility, were viewed as “aliens” and perceived as a new and powerful rival to the GDL nobility. Therefore attempts were made to eliminate the former by means of introducing a number of prohibitive protective articles to the First Statute of Lithuania (prohibiting to confer incumbencies and award land, restricting the possibility to become procurator, paying the dowry of a noble woman about to be married in cash, and obligating to prove their noble descent when necessary). On the other hand, when it was necessary, the abovementioned articles were driven through, thus opening new spaces for the formation of future legal standards. In the second stage (second half of the 16th century), following substantial modification of former articles and introduction of new ones in the Second and Third Statutes of Lithuania, modes of settlement of Polish noblemen in the GDL were started to be regulated. The nature of articles was also modified – prohibitions were substituted with permissions, thus facilitating gradual integration of Polish noblemen into the local society. In the second half of the 16th century when the relations with Poland were increasingly becoming closer and at the same time due to internal and external changes in the GDL, new terms denoting incomers, including Poles, were coined, for the most part conveying the ideas of alienage or movement. Changes in the perception of Poles are evidenced by three theoretically tinted legal categories which crystalized out at that time and all of which could also be used to refer to a nobleman relocated from Poland: “alien” (чужоземец, cudzozięmec), “foreigner” (заграничник, zagranicznik), “neighbour” (сусед, sąsiad), and the divergent informal “brother” (brat). In addition, the abundance and variety of terms points at the immigration processes observable in the GDL. Hence, the evolution of the content of articles of the Statutes of Lithuania pertaining to aliens and changes in attitudes simultaneously reflect changes within the noble society of the GDL, as the “medieval” defensive attitudes hiding behind the term “alien” were substituted with factors facilitating the integration of the state.