Duchy of Pless

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The Duchy of Pless (alternatively the Duchy of Pszczyna in limited sources[1], German: Herzogtum Pleß, Polish: Księstwo Pszczyńskie) was a duchy of Silesia, with its capital at Pless (present-day Pszczyna, Poland).

At first the lands of Pszczyna were a part of Little Poland (Polish: Małopolska), but in 1178 King of Poland Casimir II the Just gave them to one of the Dukes of Silesia, Mieszko I Tanglefoot, who attached it to his two other duchies, Duchy of Opole and of Racibórz. Leszek Pszczyński was forced to accept vassalization by John I of Bohemia in 1327, putting the Duchy in the Bohemian sphere of influence up until his death in 1336. For a time, the Duchy was ruled by the Czech Přemyslid dynasty. From 1412 until 1452, Countess Helena, sister of Jogaila, ruled the Duchy. Her stepdaughter governed it from 1452 until 1462. Later, the House of Podebrady took over, and the Duchy became a part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. The Thurzó family acquired the Duchy and sold it (with the approval of Emperor Ferdinand I, King of Bohemia) in 1548 to the Promnitz family, who ruled the Duchy until 1765.

In the War of the Austrian Succession most of Silesia was conquered by Prussia; but the Dukes, and later Princes, of Pless would remain the rulers of the territory. The Dukes of Anhalt-Cöthen-Pless inherited it in 1765 (being descended from the earlier dukes in the female line), the last of them died in 1847, and was succeeded by his nephew, Hans Heinrich X, Count of Hochberg. The Hochbergs, from Fürstenstein near Wałbrzych, were father, son and grandson: Hans Heinrich X, XI, and XV;[2] they were among the wealthiest families of Germany, in part because of the mines of Pless.[3]

The Prince's power over his land and its tenants was very great; for example, when the Duke of Ratibor,[4] who had represented the district of Pless-Rybnik in the parliament of the North German Confederation, ran in the first election to the Imperial German Reichstag in 1871, Hans Heinrich XI, Prince of Pless, endorsed him, and was able to enlist even the constabulary, servants of the Prussian state, as election workers; he also threatened the economic well-being of those who opposed his candidate. But the Prince's power was not absolute; the opposition candidate, the "already half-saintly" Father Eduard Müller, an unknown priest from Berlin, won anyway. This electoral surprise was one of the first great successes of the German Catholic Centre Party; they retained the seat until 1903, when much of the Centre Party's delegation from Silesia was replaced, although by very thin majorities, by the Polish National Democrats. [5]

The Princes of Pless regarded themselves as benevolent lords. Hans Heinrich XI introduced a pension scheme in 1879, before Bismarck's social legislation; also company housing and other social measures. But worker discontent under his son reached the point of a public petition to the Imperial Reichstag.[6]

Alexander II of Russia gave the Hochbergs a herd of wisent in 1864 or 1865, the herd was broken up and reduced to three survivors by poaching at the time of the German Revolution in the aftermath of the First World War.[7]

The Hochbergs were Princes of Pless in the Prussian peerage; however, in 1905, Hans Heinrich XI was created Duke of Pless, for his lifetime only - in part because he had been a Prince for fifty years;[8] in Germany, dukes outranked princes.

Hans Heinrich XV succeeded in 1907; he had married Mary Theresa Cornwallis-West, better known as Daisy, Princess of Pless. He was one of the Kaiser's adjutants during the First World War; several important planning conferences were held at Pless itself during the war; and when the Central powers decided to create a Kingdom of Poland as a German-Austrian protectorate, Hans Heinrich (and, according to his wife, his two elder sons) were among the many to be considered for (and decline) the vacant throne, in part because of their Polish descent.[9]

The Prussian Government attempted to Germanize the Poles on its conquered territories, culminating in the Polish Expropriation Act of 1908, which Hans Heinrich XV opposed.[10] The greatest efforts in defence against Germanisation were made by regional newspaper called "Tygodnik Polski Poświęcony Włościanom" ("Polish Weekly for Estate Owners"), which was the first newspaper printed in Polish language in Upper Silesia. [11]the town of Pless was 94.3% Polish in 1829; the whole district remained 86% Polish as late as 1867. [12] More than 75% of the voters in the Duchy voted to join Poland in the plebiscite of March 20, 1921 in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles;[13] and the principality was therefor awarded to Poland after the Third Silesian Uprising. It therefore no longer exists, although the Hochbergs continued to call themselves Princes of Pless.[14]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Julian Janczak, "Duchy of Pszczyna" (in) Zarys dziejów kartografii śląskiej do końca XVIII wieku (An outline for the History of Cartography till the End of the 18th century), Opole: 1976, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw: Institute of History of Science, Education and Technology, 1993, ISBN 83-86062-00-2. This contains sections in several European languages, including (English); Accessed 2008-13-01.
    ^ Tadeusz Walichnowski, Territorial Provenance of Archival Documents in International Relations (Przynaleznosc terytorialna archiwaliow Panstwa Polskiego w stosunkach miedzynarodowych), Polish Scientific Publishers, Warsaw, 1977. Polish State Archives.
    ^Nagel's Encyclopedia Guide, Poland by Nagel Publishers, 1989, 399 pages, ISBN 2826308181. Accessed 2008-13-01.
  2. ^ The dynastic numbering was, as in other princely families, given to all males of the House.
  3. ^ Editor's introduction to Daisy, Princess of Pless; for the wealth of the Hochbergs and the mines, see also Anderson,loc. cit..
  4. ^ Victor Moritz Karl, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, also Prince of Corvey; younger brother of Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, later Chancellor, who had given up the family estates. Half of the district belonged to the Prince of Pless; the Hohenlohes owned much of the rest.
  5. ^ Anderson, p.1464-68; which contains contemporary accounts of Müller, his charisma, and his charity; "half-saintly" is a quotation from the minutes of of the Reichstag, Anderson, p.165. Her analysis is that the landowners of 1871 could indeed suppress any secular opposition; opposition candidates had to hand out ballots to voters, and this could be prevented - but the pulpit was relatively free.
  6. ^ Koch, pp. 99, 105,109
  7. ^ Ahrens, p.61.
  8. ^ Daisy, Princess of Pless, Better Left Unsaid, p.177
  9. ^ The submarine warfare conferences of August 1916 and January 1917; also the conference of October 1917, which both issued a general invitation to discuss peace terms and invited a Polish delegation to discuss the settlement of Poland. Daisy, Princess of Pless, 420-2; Koch, p. 240; (German) Heinz Lemke, Allianz und Rivaltät, die Mittelmächte und Polen im ersten Weltkrieg (Bis zur Februarrevolution) Vienna (1977), pp. 142, 357; Brunauer, op. cit., pp. 55l, 553f., 568. Princess Daisy wrote that Prince Hans declined for his sons, who were not then of age; the other Hochbergs have not confirmed those offers, but Koch considers them plausible: Alexander, the second son, became a Polish citizen after the war, and was fairly popular in Poland.
  10. '^ Princess Daisy of Pless. pp. 147-151, and note to p. 151; Koch, p. 154; because of the Parliamentary opposition to it, it remained largely unenforced. Imanuel Geiss Die Polnische Grenzstreifen, 1914-18, Lubeck, 1960, p.20,which also notes four expulsions in 1911. The policy of moving Poles out was delayed until the war.
  11. ^ About Polish-Silesian "Tygodnik Polski Poświęcony Włościanom" (Polish Weekly for Estate Owners), University of Bielsko-Biała. Accessed 2008-01-18.
  12. ^ (Polish) Historia Krajów Słowiańskich; for the district see Anderson, op. cit..
  13. ^ Koch, p.279
  14. ^ For example, see Berry; Hans Heinrich XVII, son of Hans Heinrich XV, applied to become a denizen of England in 1933; Berry cites the Times of London referring to him as Prince of Pless, for December 18, 1943. For the more recent history of the house, see Hansel Pless: Prisoner of History : a Life of H.S.H. Hans Heinrich XVII, 4th Prince of Pless by Michael Luke and Patrick Scrivenor. (2002)

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