Zaangażowanie polityczne królewicza kardynała Fryderyka Jagiellończyka za rządów Jana Olbrachta (1492-1501)

Abstract

Prince Frederick, Cardinal Jagiellonian (1468-1503), is one of the most outstanding, though still unrecognizable representatives of the Polish Episcopate at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As the youngest son of King Casimir IV Jagiellonian and Elizabeth of the Habsburg family, he was destined to become a clergyman, in order to support the dynasty on behalf of the Church. Frederick fulfilled this task perfectly. Climbing quickly the levels of church dignity as bishop of Cracow (from 1488), then while maintaining the Wawel Cathedral, also the archbishop of Gniezno and the primate (from 1493) and the cardinal (1493), he showed an effort in pastoral matters of the dioceses entrusted to him, as well as undertaking significant activities in the political arena. He devoted special merits to his older brother King John I Olbracht (1459-1501). He skillfully elected him to the throne of Cracow in 1492 and then managed the state during the Black Sea expedition of Olbracht in 1497 and repeatedly supplied the royal treasury with significant amounts of money from the church fund. As a politicain, Cardinal Frederick displayed an excellent sense and orientation both in the internal state and on the international arena. The aim of the article is to outline the political biography of Frederick Jagiellonian by recalling his actions in the era of John I Olbracht.