title: Szlachta

text: The szlachta ( endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the state, exercising extensive political rights and power. Szlachta as a class differed significantly from the feudal nobility of Western Europe. The estate was officially abolished in 1921 by the March Constitution.


title: Szlachta

text: The origins of the "szlachta" are obscure and the subject of several theories. Traditionally, its members owned land (allods), often "folwarks". The "szlachta" secured substantial and increasing political power and rights throughout its history, beginning with the reign of King Casimir III the Great between 1333 and 1370 in the Kingdom of Poland until the decline and end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century. Apart from providing officers for the army, its chief civic obligations included electing the monarch and filling honorary and advisory roles at court that would later evolve into the upper legislative chamber, the Senate. The "szlachta" electorate also took part in the government of the Commonwealth via the lower legislative chamber of the Sejm (bicameral national parliament), composed of representatives elected at local "sejmiks" (local "szlachta" assemblies). Sejmiks performed various governmental functions at local levels, such as appointing officials and overseeing judicial and financial governance, including tax-raising. The "szlachta" assumed various governing positions, including "voivode", "marshal of voivodeship", castellan, and "starosta".


title: Szlachta

text: In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, the existing Lithuanian-Ruthenian nobility formally joined the "szlachta". As the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) evolved and expanded territorially after the Union of Lublin, its membership grew to include the leaders of Ducal Prussia and Livonia. Over time, membership in the "szlachta" grew to encompass close to 10% of Polish-Lithuanian society, which made it as an electorate several times larger than most noble classes in other countries.


title: Szlachta

text: Despite often enormous differences in wealth and political influence, few distinctions in law existed between the great magnates and lesser "szlachta". The juridic principle of "szlachta" equality existed because "szlachta" land titles were allodial, not feudal, involving no requirement of feudal service to a liege Lord. Unlike absolute monarchs who eventually took reign in most other European countries, the Polish king was not an autocrat and not the szlachta's overlord. The relatively few hereditary noble titles in the Kingdom of Poland were bestowed by foreign monarchs, while in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, princely titles were mostly inherited by descendants of old dynasties. During the three successive Partitions of Poland between 1772 and 1795, most of the "szlachta" began to lose legal privileges and social status, while "szlachta" elites became part of the nobilities of the three partitioning powers.


title: Szlachta

text: The Polish term "szlachta" derived from the Old High German word "slahta". In modern German "Geschlecht" – which originally came from the Proto-Germanic *"slagiz", "blow", "strike", and shares the Anglo-Saxon root for "slaughter", or the verb "to slug" – means "breeding" or "gender". Like many other Polish words pertaining to nobility, it derives from Germanic words: the Polish word for "knight" is "rycerz", from the German "Ritter", meaning "rider". The Polish word for "coat of arms" is "herb" from the German "Erbe" ("heritage").


title: Szlachta

text: 17th-century Poles assumed "szlachta" came from the German "schlachten", "to slaughter" or "to butcher", and was therefore related to the German word for battle, "Schlacht". Some early Polish historians thought the term might have derived from the name of the legendary proto-Polish chief, Lech, mentioned in Polish and Czech writings. The szlachta traced their descent from Lech/Lekh, who allegedly founded the Polish kingdom in about the fifth century.


title: Szlachta

text: The Polish term "szlachta" designated the formalized, hereditary aristocracy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which constituted the nation itself, and ruled without competition. In official Latin documents of the old Commonwealth, the hereditary szlachta were referred to as ""nobilitas"" from the Latin term, and could be compared in legal status to English or British peers of the realm, or to the ancient Roman idea of "cives", "citizen". Until the second half of the 19th century, the Polish term "" (which now means "citizen") could be used as a synonym for szlachta landlords.


title: Szlachta

text: Today the word "szlachta" simply translates as "nobility". In its broadest sense, it can also denote some non-hereditary honorary knighthoods and baronial titles granted by other European monarchs, including the Holy See. Occasionally, 19th-century landowners of commoner descent were referred to as "szlachta" by courtesy or error, when they owned manorial estates, but were not in fact noble by birth. "Szlachta" also denotes the Ruthenian and Lithuanian nobility from before the old-Commonwealth.


title: Szlachta

text: In the past, a misconception sometimes led to the mistranslation of ""szlachta"" as "gentry" rather than "nobility". This mistaken practice began due to the inferior economic status of many "szlachta" members compared to that of the nobility in other European countries (see also Estates of the Realm "regarding wealth and nobility"). The "szlachta" included those rich and powerful enough to be great magnates down to the impoverished with an aristocratic lineage, but with no land, no castle, no money, no village, and no subject peasants. Historian M.Ross wrote in 1835: "At least 60,000 families belong to this class, of which, however, only about 100 are wealthy; all the rest are poor."


title: Szlachta

text: A few exceptionally wealthy and powerful szlachta members constituted the "magnateria" and were known as magnates (magnates of Poland and Lithuania).


title: Szlachta

text: Adam Zamoyski argues that the szlachta were not exactly the same as the European nobility nor a gentry, as the szlachta fundamentally differed in law, rights, political power, origin, and composition from the feudal nobility of Western Europe. Feudalism never took root in Poland. The szlachta did not rank below the king, as the szlachta's relationship to the Polish king was not feudal. The szlachta stood as equals before the king. The king was not an autocrat, nor the szlachta's overlord, as szlachta land was in allodium, not feudal tenure. Feudal dependence upon a Polish king did not exist for the szlachta and earlier in history some high-ranking szlachta (magnates) descending from past tribal dynasties regarded themselves as co-proprietors of Piast realms and constantly sought to undermine Piast authority.


title: Szlachta

text: In 1459 Ostroróg presented a memorandum to the Sejm (parliament), submitting palatines, or Voivodes of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, receive the title of prince. Sons of a prince were to receive titles of counts and barons. Castellans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were to receive the title of count. This attempt to introduce the hierarchy of noble titles common for European feudal systems for szlachta was rejected.


title: Szlachta

text: The fact the szlachta were equal before the king and deliberately opposed becoming a feudal nobility became a matter of law embedded as a constitutional principle of equality. The republicanism of ancient Rome was the szlachta's ideal. Poland was known as the Most Serene Republic of Poland, Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae. The szlachta, not as a feudal nobility or gentry, but as an electorate, and an aristocracy and warrior caste, with no feudal dependence on a king, exercised supreme political power over that republic and elected kings as servants of a republic the szlachta regarded as the embodiment of their rights.


title: Szlachta

text: Over time, numerically most "lesser" szlachta became poorer, or were poorer than, their few rich peers with the same political status and status in law, and many "lesser" szlachta were worse off than commoners with land. They were called "szlachta zagrodowa", that is, "farm nobility", from "zagroda", a farm, often little different from a peasant's dwelling, sometimes referred to as "drobna szlachta", "petty nobles" or yet, "szlachta okoliczna", meaning "local". Particularly impoverished szlachta families were often forced to become tenants of their wealthier peers. They were described as "szlachta czynszowa", or "tenant nobles" who paid rent. See "Szlachta categories" for more.


title: Szlachta

text: The origins of the szlachta, while ancient, have always been considered obscure. As a result, its members often referred to it as "odwieczna" (perennial). Two popular historical theories about its origins have been put forward by its members and early historians and chroniclers. The first theory involved a presumed descent from the ancient Iranian tribe known as Sarmatians, who in the 2nd century AD, occupied lands in Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. The second theory involved a presumed szlachta descent from Japheth, one of Noah's sons. By contrast, the peasantry were said to be the offspring of another son of Noah, Ham — and hence subject to bondage under the Curse of Ham. The Jews were considered the offspring of Shem. Other fanciful theories included its foundation by Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, or regional leaders who had not mixed their bloodlines with those of 'slaves, prisoners, or aliens'.


title: Szlachta

text: Another theory describes its derivation from a non-Slavic warrior class, forming a distinct element known as the Lechici/Lekhi ("Lechitów") within the ancient Polonic tribal groupings (Indo-European caste systems). Similar to Nazi racial ideology, which dictated the Polish elite were largely Nordic (the szlachta Boreyko coat of arms heralds a swastika), this hypothesis states this upper class was not of Slavonic extraction and was of a different origin than the Slavonic peasants () over which they ruled.


title: Szlachta

text: In old Poland, there were two nations – szlachta and peasants. The szlachta were differentiated from the rural population. In harshly stratified and elitist Polish society, the szlachta's sense of distinction led to practices that in later periods would be characterized as racism. Wacław Potocki, herbu Śreniawa (1621–1696), proclaimed "by nature" are "chained to the land and plow," that even an educated peasant would always remain a peasant, because "it is impossible to transform a dog into a lynx." The szlachta were noble in the Aryan (see "Alans") sense -- "noble" in contrast to the people over whom they ruled after coming into contact with them.


title: Szlachta

text: The szlachta traced their descent from Lech/Lekh, who allegedly founded the Polish kingdom in about the fifth century. Lechia was the name of Poland in antiquity, and the szlachta's own name for themselves was Lechici/Lekhi. Richard Holt Hutton argued an exact counterpart of szlachta society was the system of tenure of southern India—an aristocracy of equality—settled as conquerors among a separate race. Some elements of the Polish state paralleled the Roman Empire in that full rights of citizenship were limited to the szlachta. According to British historian , the 16th-century szlachta ideal was a Greek polis—a body of citizens, a small merchant class, and a multitude of laborers. The laborers consisted of peasants in serfdom. The szlachta had the exclusive right to enter the clergy until the time of the three partitions of Poland, and the szlachta and clergy believed they were genetically superior to peasants. The szlachta regarded peasants as a lower species. Quoting Bishop of Poznań, Wawrzyniec Goślicki, herbu Grzymała (between 1530 and 1540–1607):


title: Szlachta

text: "The kingdome of Polonia doth also consist of the said three sortes, that is, the king, nobility and people. But it is to be noted, that this word people includeth only knights and gentlemen. ... The gentlemen of Polonia doe represent the popular state, for in them consisteth a great part of the government, and they are as a Seminarie from whence Councellors and Kinges are taken."


title: Szlachta

text: The szlachta were a caste, a military caste, as in Hindu society. In the year 1244, Bolesław, Duke of Masovia, identified members of the knights' clan as members of a "genealogia:"


title: Szlachta

text: "I received my good servitors [Raciborz and Albert] from the land of [Great] Poland, and from the clan ["genealogia"] called Jelito, with my well-disposed knowledge [i.e., consent and encouragement] and the cry ["vocitatio"], [that is], the "godło," [by the name of] "Nagody," and I established them in the said land of mine, Masovia, [on the military tenure described elsewhere in the charter]."


title: Szlachta

text: The documentation regarding Raciborz and Albert's tenure is the earliest surviving of the use of the clan name and cry defining the honorable status of Polish knights. The names of knightly "genealogiae" only came to be associated with heraldic devices later in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period. The Polish clan name and cry ritualized the "ius militare," i.e., the power to command an army; and they had been used sometime before 1244 to define knightly status. .


title: Szlachta

text: "In Poland, the Radwanice were noted relatively early (1274) as the descendants of Radwan, a knight [more properly a "rycerz" from the German "ritter"] active a few decades earlier. ..."


title: Szlachta

text: Escutcheons and hereditary coats of arms with eminent privileges attached is an honor derived from the ancient Germans. Where Germans did not inhabit, and where German customs were unknown, no such thing existed. The usage of coats of arms in Poland was brought in by knights arriving from Silesia, Lusatia, Meissen, and Bohemia. Migrations from here were the most frequent, and the time period was the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. However, unlike other European chivalry, coats of arms were associated with Polish knights' clans' ("genealogiae") names and war cries ("godło"), where heraldic devices came to be held in common by entire clans, fighting in regiments. .


title: Szlachta

text: Around the 14th century, there was little difference between knights and the "szlachta" in Poland. Members of the szlachta had the personal obligation to defend the country ("pospolite ruszenie"), thereby becoming within the kingdom a military caste and aristocracy with political power and extensive rights secured. Inclusion in the warrior caste was almost exclusively based on inheritance.


title: Szlachta

text: Concerning the early Polish tribes, geography contributed to long-standing traditions. The Polish tribes were internalized and organized around a unifying religious cult, governed by the "wiec", an assembly of free tribesmen. Later, when safety required power to be consolidated, an elected prince was chosen to govern. The election privilege was usually limited to elites.


title: Szlachta

text: The tribes were ruled by clans () consisting of people related by blood or marriage and theoretically descending from a common ancestor, giving the ród/clan a highly developed sense of solidarity. (See "gens".) The "starosta" (or "starszyna") had judicial and military power over the ród/clan, although this power was often exercised with an assembly of elders. Strongholds called "grόd" were built where the religious cult was powerful, where trials were conducted, and where clans gathered in the face of danger. The "opole" was the territory occupied by a single tribe. The family unit of a tribe is called the "rodzina", while a collection of tribes is a .


title: Szlachta

text: Mieszko I of Poland (c. 935 – 25 May 992) established an elite knightly retinue from within his army, which he depended upon for success in uniting the Lekhitic tribes and preserving the unity of his state. Documented proof exists of Mieszko I's successors utilizing such a retinue, as well.


title: Szlachta

text: Another group of knights were granted land in allodium, not feudal tenure, by the prince, allowing them the economic ability to serve the prince militarily. A Polish warrior belonging to the military caste living at the time prior to the 15th century was referred to as a "rycerz", very roughly equivalent to the English "knight," the critical difference being the status of "rycerz" was almost strictly hereditary; the group of all such warriors was known as the "rycerstwo". Representing the wealthier families of Poland and itinerant knights from abroad seeking their fortunes, this other group of rycerstwo, which became the szlachta ("szlachta" becomes the proper term for Polish aristocracy beginning about the 15th century), gradually formed apart from Mieszko I's and his successors' elite retinues. This rycerstwo/aristocracy secured more rights granting them favored status. They were absolved from particular burdens and obligations under ducal law, resulting in the belief only rycerstwo (those combining military prowess with high/aristocratic birth) could serve as officials in state administration.


title: Szlachta

text: Select rycerstwo were distinguished above the other rycerstwo, because they descended from past tribal dynasties, or because early Piasts' endowments made them select beneficiaries. These rycerstwo of great wealth were called możni (Magnates). They had the same political status and status in law as the rycerstwo from which they all originated and to which they would return were their wealth lost.


title: Szlachta

text: The Period of Division from, A.D., 1138 – A.D., 1314, which included nearly 200 years of fragmentation and which stemmed from Bolesław III's division of Poland among his sons, was the genesis of the political structure where the great landowning szlachta (możni/Magnates, both ecclesiastical and lay), whose land was in allodium, not feudal tenure, were economically elevated above the rycerstwo they originated from. The prior political structure was one of Polish tribes united into the historic Polish nation under a state ruled by the Piast dynasty, this dynasty appearing circa 850 A.D.


title: Szlachta

text: Some możni (Magnates) descending from past tribal dynasties regarded themselves as co-proprietors of Piast realms, even though the Piasts attempted to deprive them of their independence. These możni (Magnates) constantly sought to undermine princely authority. In Gall Anonym's chronicle, there is noted the nobility's alarm when the Palatine Sieciech "elevated those of a lower class over those who were noble born" entrusting them with state offices.


title: Szlachta

text: In Lithuania Propria and in Samogitia, prior to the creation of the Kingdom of Lithuania by Mindaugas, nobles were called "die beste leuten" in German sources. In Lithuanian, nobles were named "ponai". The higher nobility were named "kunigai" or "kunigaikščiai" (dukes) — a loanword from Scandinavian "konung". They were the established local leaders and warlords. During the development of the state, they gradually became subordinated to higher dukes, and later to the King of Lithuania. Because of Lithuanian expansion into the lands of Ruthenia in the middle of the 14th century, a new term for nobility appeared — "bajorai", from Ruthenian "бояре". This word is used to this day in Lithuania to refer to nobility in general, including those from abroad.


title: Szlachta

text: After the Union of Horodło, the Lithuanian nobility acquired equal status with its Polish counterparts. Over time they became increasingly Polonized, although they did preserve their national consciousness, and in most cases recognition of their Lithuanian family roots. In the 16th century, some of the Lithuanian nobility claimed that they were descended from the Romans, and that the Lithuanian language was derived from Latin. This led to a conundrum: Polish nobility claimed its own ancestry from Sarmatian tribes, but Sarmatians were considered enemies of the Romans. Thus, a new Roman-Sarmatian theory was created. Strong cultural ties with Polish nobility led to a new term for Lithuanian nobility appearing in the 16th century — "šlėkta", a direct loanword from Polish "szlachta". Recently, Lithuanian linguists advocated dropping the usage of this Polish loanword.


title: Szlachta

text: The process of Polonization took place over a lengthy period. At first only the leading members of the nobility were involved. Gradually the wider population became affected. Major effects on the lesser Lithuanian nobility occurred after various sanctions were imposed by the Russian Empire, such as removing "Lithuania" from the names of the "Gubernyas" shortly after the November Uprising. After the January Uprising the sanctions went further, and Russian officials announced that "Lithuanians were actually Russians seduced by Poles and Catholicism" and began to intensify Russification, and to ban the printing of books in Lithuanian.


title: Szlachta

text: After the principalities of Halych and Volhynia became integrated with the Grand Duchy, Ruthenia's nobility gradually rendered loyalty to the multilingual and cultural melting pot that was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Many noble Ruthenian families intermarried with Lithuanians.


title: Szlachta

text: The rights of Orthodox nobles were nominally equal to those enjoyed by the Polish and Lithuanian nobility, but they were put under cultural pressure to convert to Catholicism. It was a policy that was greatly eased in 1596 by the Union of Brest. See, for example, the careers of Senator Adam Kisiel and Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki.


title: Szlachta

text: In Polish "dąb" means "oak." "Dąbrowa" means "oak forest," and "Dąbrówka" means "little oak forest" (or grove). In antiquity, the szlachta used topographic surnames to identify themselves. The expression "z" (meaning "from" sometimes "at") plus the name of one's patrimony or estate (dominion) carried the same prestige as "de" in French names such as "de Châtellerault", and "von" or "zu" in German names such as "von Weizsäcker" or "zu Rhein". In Polish "z Dąbrówki" and "Dąbrowski" mean the same thing: "of, from Dąbrówka." More precisely, "z Dąbrówki" means owning the patrimony or estate Dąbrówka, not necessarily originating from. Almost all the surnames of genuine Polish szlachta can be traced back to a patrimony or locality, despite time scattering most families far from their original home. John of Zamość called himself John Zamoyski, Stephen of Potok called himself Potocki.


title: Szlachta

text: At least since the 17th century the surnames/cognomens of szlachta families became fixed and were inherited by following generations, remaining in that form until today. Prior to that time, a member of the family would simply use his Christian name (e.g., Jakub, Jan, Mikołaj, etc.), and the name of the coat of arms common to all members of his clan. A member of the family would be identified as, for example, "Jakub z Dąbrówki", herbu Radwan, (Jacob to/at Dąbrówki of the knights' clan Radwan coat of arms), or "Jakub z Dąbrówki, Żądło (cognomen) (later a przydomek/nickname/agnomen), herbu Radwan" (Jacob to/at [owning] Dąbrówki with the distinguishing name Żądło of the knights' clan Radwan coat of arms), or "Jakub Żądło, herbu Radwan".


title: Szlachta

text: The Polish state paralleled the Roman Empire in that full rights of citizenship were limited to the szlachta. The szlachta in Poland, where Latin was written and spoken far and wide, used the Roman naming convention of the tria nomina (praenomen, nomen, and cognomen) to distinguish Polish citizens/szlachta from the peasantry and foreigners, hence why multiple surnames are associated with many Polish coat of arms.


title: Szlachta

text: Bartosz Paprocki gives an example of the Rościszewski family taking different surnames from the names of various patrimonies or estates they owned. The branch of the Rościszewski family that settled in Chrapunia became the Chrapunski family, the branch of the Rościszewski family that settled in Strykwina became the Strykwinski family, and the branch of the Rościszewski family that settled in Borkow became known as the Borkowski family. Each family shared a common ancestor and belonged to the same knights' clan, so they bore the same coat of arms as the Rościszewski family.


title: Szlachta

text: Each knights' clan/gens/ród had its coat of arms, and there were only a limited number. Almost without exception, there were no family coat of arms. Each coat of arms bore a name, the clan's call word. In most instances, the coat of arms belonged to many families within the clan. The Polish state paralleled the Roman Empire, and the szlachta had a different origin and structure in law than Western Europe's feudal nobility. The clan/gens/ród system survived the whole of Polish history.


title: Szlachta

text: Coats of arms were very important to the szlachta. Its heraldic system evolved together with neighbouring states in Central Europe, while differing in many ways from the heraldry of other European countries. Polish Knighthood had its counterparts, links and roots in Moravia, e.g. Poraj coat of arms and in Germany, e.g. Junosza coat of arms.


title: Szlachta

text: Families who had a common origin would also share a coat of arms. They would also share their crest with families adopted into the clan. Sometimes unrelated families would be falsely attributed to a clan on the basis of similarity of crests. Some noble families inaccurately claimed clan membership. The number of coats of arms in this system was comparatively low and did not exceed 200 in the late Middle Ages. There were 40,000 in the late 18th century.


title: Szlachta

text: At the Union of Horodło, forty-seven families of Catholic Lithuanian lords and boyars were adopted by Polish szlachta families and allowed to use Polish coats of arms.


title: Szlachta

text: The tradition of differentiating between a coat of arms and a lozenge granted to women, did not develop in Poland. By the 17th century, invariably, men and women inherited a coat of arms from their father. When mixed marriages developed after the partitions, that is between commoners and members of the nobility, as a courtesy, children could claim a coat of arms from their distaff side, but this was only tolerated and could not be passed on to the next generation. The brisure was rarely used. All children would inherit the coat of arms and title of their father. This partly accounts for the relatively large proportion of Polish families who had claim to a coat of arms by the 18th century. Another factor was the arrival of titled foreign settlers, especially from the German lands and the Habsburg Empire.


title: Szlachta

text: Illegitimate children could adopt the mother's surname and title by the consent of the mother's father, but would sometimes be adopted and raised by the natural father's family, thereby acquiring the father's surname, though not the title or arms.


title: Szlachta

text: In the Kingdom of Poland and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ennoblement ("nobilitacja") may be equated with an individual given legal status as a "szlachcic" member of the Polish nobility. Initially, this privilege could be granted by the monarch, but from 1641 onward, this right was reserved for the sejm. Most often the individual being ennobled would join an existing noble szlachta clan and assume the undifferentiated coat of arms of that clan.


title: Szlachta

text: According to heraldic sources, the total number of lawful ennoblements issued between the 14th century and the mid-18th century is estimated at 800. This is an average of only about two ennoblements per year, or only 0.000,000,14 – 0.000,001 of the historical population. Compare: historical demography of Poland. Charles-Joseph, 7th Prince of Ligne, when trying to obtain Polish noble status, supposedly said in 1784, ""It is easier to become a duke in Germany, than to be counted among Polish nobles.""


title: Szlachta

text: The close of the late 18th century (see below) was a period in which a definite increase in the number of ennoblements can be noted. This can most readily be explained in terms of the ongoing decline and eventual collapse of the Commonwealth and the resulting need for soldiers and other military leaders (see: Partitions of Poland, King Stanisław August Poniatowski).


title: Szlachta

text: According to heraldic sources 1,600 is the total estimated number of all lawful ennoblements throughout the history of Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 14th century onward (half of which were performed in the final years of the late 18th century).


title: Szlachta

text: In the late 14th century, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vytautas the Great reformed the Grand Duchy's army: instead of calling all men to arms, he created forces comprising professional warriors—"bajorai" ("nobles"; see the cognate ""boyar""). As there were not enough nobles, Vytautas trained suitable men, relieving them of labor on the land and of other duties; for their military service to the Grand Duke, they were granted land that was worked by hired men (veldams). The newly formed noble families generally took up, as their family names, the Lithuanian pagan given names of their ennobled ancestors; this was the case with the Goštautai, Radvilos, Astikai, Kęsgailos and others. These families were granted their coats of arms under the Union of Horodlo (1413).


title: Szlachta

text: In 1506, King Sigismund I the Old confirmed the position of the Lithuanian Council of Lords in state politics and limited entry into the nobility.


title: Szlachta

text: Significant legislative changes in the status of the szlachta, as defined by Robert Bideleux and Ian Jeffries, consist of its 1374 exemption from the land tax, a 1425 guarantee against the 'arbitrary arrests and/or seizure of property' of its members, a 1454 requirement that military forces and new taxes be approved by provincial Sejms, and statutes issued between 1496 and 1611 that prescribed the rights of commoners.


title: Szlachta

text: Nobles were born into a noble family, or adopted into a noble clan by an act of the King (this was abolished in 1633). The rarest way of achieving szlachta status was through ennoblement (naturalization) by a king or Sejm for reasons such as bravery in combat, service to the state, etc. There were claims some nobles were, in fact, usurpers who were commoners that moved to another part of the country and falsely claimed noble status. In the first half of the 16th century, hundreds of such "false nobles" were denounced by (1550–1630) in his ""Liber generationis plebeanorum (Liber chamorum)"", or ""Book of Plebeian Genealogy (Ham's Book)"". Peasants were considered descendants of Ham, the son of Noah subject to bondage under the Curse of Ham. The law forbade commoners holding landed estates and promised such estates as a reward to denouncers. Trepka was himself an impoverished nobleman who lived a town dweller's life and documented hundreds of such false claims hoping to take over one of the usurped estates. He does not seem to have succeeded in his quest despite his employment as the king's secretary. Many sejms issued decrees over the centuries in an attempt to resolve this issue, but with little success. It is unknown what percentage of the Polish nobility came from the 'lower orders' of society, but there are historians who claim nobles of such base origins formed a 'significant' element of the szlachta.


title: Szlachta

text: Self-promotion and aggrandizement were not confined to commoners. Often, members of the lower szlachta sought further ennoblement from foreign, therefore less verifiable, sources. That is, they might acquire by legitimate means or otherwise, such as by purchase, one of a selection of foreign titles ranging from Baron, Marchese, Freiherr to Comte, all readily translatable into the Polish "Hrabia". Alternatively, they would simply appropriate a title by conferring it upon themselves. An example of this is cited in the case of the last descendant of the Ciechanowiecki family, who managed to restore a genuinely old Comital title, but whose actual origins are shrouded in 18th-century mystery.


title: Szlachta

text: The szlachta secured many rights not secured to the nobility of other countries. Over time, each new monarch ceded to them further privileges. Those privileges became the basis of the "Golden Liberty" in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Despite having a king, Poland was considered the 'nobility's Commonwealth' because Royal elections in Poland were in the hands of members of a hereditary class. Poland was therefore the domain of this class, and not that of the king or the ruling dynasty. This arose in part because of the extinction of male heirs in the original royal dynasties: first, the Piasts, then the Jagiellons. As a result, the nobility took it upon itself to choose "the Polish king" from among the dynasties' matrilinial descendants.


title: Szlachta

text: Poland's successive kings granted privileges to the nobility upon their election to the throne – the privileges having been specified in the king-elect's Pacta conventa – and at other times, in exchange for "ad hoc" leave to raise an extraordinary tax or a "pospolite ruszenie", a military call up. Poland's nobility thus accumulated a growing array of privileges and immunities.


title: Szlachta

text: In 1355 in Buda King Casimir III the Great issued the first country-wide privilege for the nobility, in exchange for their agreeing that if Casimir had no male heirs, the throne would pass to his nephew, Louis I of Hungary. Casimir further decreed that the nobility would no longer be subject to 'extraordinary' taxes or have to use their own funds for foreign military expeditions. Casimir also promised that when the royal court toured, the king and the court would cover all expenses, instead of requiring facilities to be provided by the local nobility.


title: Szlachta

text: In 1374 King Louis of Hungary approved the Privilege of Koszyce ("przywilej koszycki") to guarantee the Polish throne for his daughter, Jadwiga. He broadened the definition of membership of the nobility and exempted the entire class from all but one tax ("łanowy") a limit of 2 groszes per "łan" of land, Old Polish units of measurement. In addition, the King's right to raise taxes was effectively abolished: no new taxes would be levied without the agreement of the nobility. Henceforth, district offices were also reserved exclusively for local nobility, as the Privilege of Koszyce forbade the king to grant official posts and major Polish castles to foreign knights. Finally, the privilege obliged the king to pay indemnities to nobles injured or taken captive during a war outside Polish borders.


title: Szlachta

text: In 1422 King Władysław II Jagiełło was constrained by the Privilege of Czerwińsk ("przywilej czerwiński"), which established the inviolability of nobles' property. Their estates could not be confiscated except upon the verdict of a court. It also made him cede some jurisdiction over fiscal policy to the Royal Council, later, the Senate of Poland, including the right to mint coinage.


title: Szlachta

text: In 1430, with the Privileges of Jedlnia, confirmed at Kraków in 1433, Polish: "przywileje jedlneńsko-krakowskie", based partially on his earlier Brześć Kujawski privilege (April 25, 1425), King Władysław II Jagiełło granted the nobility a guarantee against arbitrary arrest, similar to the English Magna Carta's habeas corpus, known from its own Latin name as "neminem captivabimus nisi jure victum". Henceforth, no member of the nobility could be imprisoned without a warrant from a court of justice. The king could neither punish nor imprison any noble on a whim. King Władysław's "quid pro quo" for the easement was the nobles' guarantee that the throne would be inherited by one of his sons, who would be bound to honour the privileges granted earlier to the nobility. On May 2, 1447, the same king issued the "Wilno Pact, or Wilno Privilege", which gave the Lithuanian boyars the same rights as those already secured by the Polish "szlachta".


title: Szlachta

text: In 1454, King Casimir IV granted the Nieszawa Statutes – Polish: "statuty cerkwicko-nieszawskie", clarifying the legal basis of voivodship sejmiks – local parliaments. The king could promulgate new laws, raise taxes, or call for a mass military call up "pospolite ruszenie", only with the consent of the sejmiks, and the nobility were protected from judicial abuses. The Nieszawa Statutes also curbed the power of the magnates, as the Sejm, the national parliament, had the right to elect many officials, including judges, voivods and castellans. These privileges were demanded by the "szlachta" in exchange for their participation in the Thirteen Years' War.


title: Szlachta

text: The first "free election" (Polish: "wolna elekcja") of a king took place in 1492. In fact, some earlier Polish kings had been elected with help from assemblies such as those that put Casimir II on the throne, thereby setting a precedent for free elections. Only senators voted in the 1492 free election, which was won by John I Albert. For the duration of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, only members of that royal family were considered for election. Later, there would be no restrictions on the choice of candidates.


title: Szlachta

text: On April 26, 1496, King John I Albert granted the Privilege of Piotrków. The Statutes of Piotrków increased the nobility's feudal power over serfs. It bound the peasant to the land, and only one son though not the eldest, was permitted to leave the village. Townsfolk "mieszczaństwo" were prohibited from owning land. Positions in the Church hierarchy were restricted to nobles.


title: Szlachta

text: On 23 October 1501, the Polish–Lithuanian union was reformed by the Union of Mielnik. It was there that the tradition of a coronation Sejm was founded. Here again, the lesser nobility, lesser in wealth only – not in rank – attempted to reduce the power of the Magnates with a law that made them impeachable before the Senate for malfeasance. However, the Act of Mielnik of 25 October did more to strengthen the Magnate-dominated Senate of Poland than the lesser nobility. Nobles as a whole were given the right to disobey the King or his representatives — "non praestanda oboedientia", and to form confederations, armed opposition against the king or state officials if the nobles found that the law or their legitimate privileges were being infringed.


title: Szlachta

text: On 3 May 1505 King Alexander I Jagiellon granted the Act of "Nihil novi nisi commune consensu" – "I accept nothing new except by common consent". This forbade the king to pass new laws without the consent of the representatives of the nobility in the assembled Sejm, thus greatly strengthening the nobility's powers. Essentially, this act marked the transfer of legislative power from the king to the Sejm. It also marks the beginning of the First Rzeczpospolita, the period of a "szlachta"-run "Commonwealth".


title: Szlachta

text: In 1520 the Act of Bydgoszcz granted the Sejm the right to convene every four years, with or without the king's permission. At about that time the "Executionist Movement", seeking to oversee law enforcement, began to take shape. Its members sought to curb the power of the Magnates at the Sejm and to strengthen the power of the monarch. In 1562 at the Sejm in Piotrków they forced the Magnates to return many leased crown lands to the king, and the king to create a standing army wojsko kwarciane. One of the most famous members of this movement was Jan Zamoyski.


title: Szlachta

text: Until the death of Sigismund II Augustus, the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, all monarchs had to be elected from within the royal family. However, from 1573, practically any Polish noble or foreigner of royal blood could potentially become a Polish–Lithuanian monarch. Every newly elected king was supposed to sign two documents: the "Pacta conventa", the king's "pre-election pact", and the "Henrican articles", named after the first freely elected king, Henry of Valois. The latter document was a virtual "Polish constitution" and contained the basic laws of the Commonwealth:


title: Szlachta

text: In 1578 king, Stefan Batory, created the Crown Tribunal to reduce the enormous pressure on the Royal Court. This placed much of the monarch's juridical power in the hands of the elected szlachta deputies, further strengthening the nobility as a class. In 1581 the Crown Tribunal was joined by a counterpart in Lithuania, the Lithuanian Tribunal.


title: Szlachta

text: For many centuries, wealthy and powerful members of the szlachta sought to gain legal privileges over their peers. In 1459 Ostroróg presented a memorandum to the Sejm (parliament), submitting palatines, or Voivodes of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, receive the title of prince. Sons of the prince were to receive titles of counts and barons. Castellans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were to receive the title of count. All these submissions were rejected.


title: Szlachta

text: Few szlachta were wealthy enough to be known as Magnates, "karmazyni", the "Crimsons" – from the crimson colour of their boots. A true Magnate had to be able to trace his ancestry for many generations and own at least 20 villages or estates. He also had to hold high office in the Commonwealth.. Thus, out of about one million szlachta, only 200–300 persons could be classed as Magnates with country-wide possessions and influence. Of these some 30–40 were considered as having significant impact on Poland's politics. Magnates often received gifts from monarchs, which greatly increased their wealth. Although such gifts were only temporary leases, often the Magnates never returned them. This gave rise in the 16th century, to a self-policing trend by the szlachta, known as the "ruch egzekucji praw" — movement for the enforcement of the law – against usurping Magnates to force them to return leased lands back to their rightful owner, the monarch.


title: Szlachta

text: One of the most important victories of the Magnates was the late 16th century right to create "Ordynacjas", similar to Fee tails under English law, which ensured that a family which gained landed wealth could more easily preserve it. The "Ordynacjas" that belonged to families such as the Radziwiłł, Zamoyski, Potocki or Lubomirskis often rivalled the estates of the king and were important power bases for them.


title: Szlachta

text: The difference between the "magnateria" and the rest of the szlachta was primarily one of wealth and life-style, as both belonged to the same legally defined class being members of the same clans. Consequently, any power wrested from the king by the magnates was consequently trickled down to the entirety of the szlachta. This often meant the rest of the szlachta tended to cooperate with the magnates rather than struggle against them.


title: Szlachta

text: The notion of the szlachta's accrued sovereignty ended in 1795 with the final Partitions of Poland, and until 1918 their legal status was dependent on the policies of the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia or the Habsburg monarchy.


title: Szlachta

text: In the 1840s Nicholas I reduced 64,000 of lesser szlachta to a particular commoner status known as "odnodvortsy" (literally "single-householders"). Despite this, 62.8% of all Russia's nobles were Polish szlachta in 1858 and still 46.1% in 1897.


title: Szlachta

text: Serfdom was abolished in Russian Poland on February 19, 1864. It was deliberately enacted with the aim of ruining the szlachta. Only in the Russian Partition did peasants pay the market price for land redemption, the average for the rest of the Russian Empire was 34% above the market rates. All land taken from Polish peasants since 1846 was to be returned to them without redemption payments. The ex-serfs could only sell land to other peasants, not szlachta. 90% of the ex-serfs in the empire who actually gained land after 1861 lived in the 8 western provinces. Along with Romania, Polish landless or domestic serfs were the only ones to be given land after serfdom was abolished. All this was to punish the szlachta's role in the uprisings of 1830 and 1863.


title: Szlachta

text: By 1864 80% of szlachta were "déclassé" – downward social mobility. One quarter of petty nobles were worse off than the average serf. While 48.9% of the land in Russian Poland was in peasant hands, nobles still held onto 46%.


title: Szlachta

text: In the Second Polish Republic the privileges of the nobility were legally abolished by the March Constitution in 1921 and as such not reinstated by any succeeding Polish law.


title: Szlachta

text: Despite preoccupations with warring, politics and status, the szlachta in Poland, as did people from all social classes, played its part in contributing in fields ranging from literature, art and architecture, philosophy, education, agriculture and the many branches of science, to technology and industry. Perhaps foremost among the cultural determinants of the nobility in Poland were its continuing international connections with the Rome-based Catholic Church. It was from the ranks of the szlachta that were drawn the church's leading Prelates until the 20th century. Other international influences came through the more or less secretive and powerful Christian and lay organisations such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, focused on hospital and other charitable activity. The most notable Polish Maltese Knight was the Pozńan commander, Bartłomiej Nowodworski, founder in 1588 of the oldest school in Poland. One alumnus was John III Sobieski.


title: Szlachta

text: In the 18th century, after several false starts, international Freemasonry, "wolnomularstwo", from western lodges, became established among the higher échelons of the szlachta, and in spite of membership of some clergy, it was intermittently but strongly opposed by the Catholic Church. After the partitions it became a cover for opposition to the occupying powers. Also in the 18th century there was a marked development in Patronage of the arts during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, himself a freemason, and with the growth of social awareness, in Philanthropy.


title: Szlachta

text: High-born women in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth exerted political and cultural influence throughout history in their own country and abroad, as queens, princesses and the wives or widows of magnates. Their cultural activities came into sharper relief in the 18th century with their hosting of salons in the French manner. They went on to publish as translators and writers and as facilitators of educational and social projects.


title: Szlachta

text: The szlachta, no less than the rest of the population, placed a particular accent on food. It was at the centre of courtly and estate entertaining and in good times, at the heart of village life. During the Age of Enlightenment, King Stanislaw August Poniatowski emulated the French Salons by holding his famed Thursday Lunches for intellectuals and artists, drawn chiefly from the szlachta. His "Wednesday Lunches" were gatherings for policy makers in science, education and politics.


title: Szlachta

text: There was a tradition, particularly in Mazovia, kept until the 20th century, of estate owners laying on a festive banquet at the completion of harvest for their staff, known as "Dożynki", as a way of expressing an acknowledgment of their work. It was equivalent to a harvest festival. Polish food varied according to region, as elsewhere in Europe, and was influenced by settlers, especially Jewish cuisine, and occupying armies.


title: Szlachta

text: One of the favourite szlachta pastimes was hunting ("łowiectwo"). Before the formation of Poland as a state, hunting was accessible to everyone. With the introduction of rulers and rules, big game, generically "zwierzyna": Aurochs, bison, deer and boar became the preserve of kings and princes on penalty of poachers' death. From the 13th century on the king would appoint a high-ranking courtier to the role of Master of the Hunt, "Łowczy". In time, the penalties for poaching were commuted to fines and from around the 14th century, landowners acquired the right to hunt on their land. Small game, foxes, hare, badger and stoat etc. were 'fair game' to all comers. Hunting became one of the most popular social activities of the szlachta until the partitions, when different sets of restrictions in the three territories were introduced. This was with a view to curbing social interaction among the subject Poles. Over the centuries, at least two breeds of specialist hounds were bred in Poland. One was the Polish Hunting Dog, the "brach". The other was the Ogar Polski. Count Xavier Branicki was so nostalgic about Polish hunting, that when he settled in France in the mid 19th century, and restored his estate at the Chateau de Montresor, he ordered a brace of Ogar Polski hounds from the Polish breeder and "szlachcic", Piotr Orda.


title: Szlachta

text: The szlachta differed in many respects from the nobility in other countries. The most important difference was that, while in most European countries the nobility lost power as the ruler strove for absolute monarchy, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth a reverse process occurred: the nobility actually gained power at the expense of the king, and enabled the political system to evolve into an oligarchy.


title: Szlachta

text: Szlachta members were also proportionately more numerous than their equivalents in all other European countries, constituting 6–12% of the entire population. By contrast, nobles in other European countries, except for Spain, amounted to a mere 1–3%. Most of the szlachta were "minor nobles" or smallholders. In Lithuania the minor nobility made up to 3/4 of the total szlachta population. By the mid-16th century the szlachta class consisted of at least 500,000 persons (some 25,000 families). Polish historian Tadeusz Korzon carried out an estimation of the social structure of Poland based on the documents of 1770–1780s, such as tax registers, partial censuses, etc. His estimate for the number of "szlachta" was 725,000 of total population 8.8 million. For comparison with other social classes, Christian clergy counted 50,000, Christian "mieszczaństwo" (burghers) counted 500,000, peasants of various categories (""): 6.4 million, Jews (the fast growing group), e.g., 750,000 in 1764 and 900,000 in 1790. Korzon counted Armenians, Tatars, Greeks, and Russian "raskolniks" as separate social groups, totaling 250,000-300,000.


title: Szlachta

text: The proportion of nobles in the population varied across regions. In the 16th century, the highest proportion of nobles lived in the Płock Voivodeship (24,6%) and in Podlachia (26,7%), while Galicia had numerically the largest szlachta population. In districts, such as Wizna and Łomża, the szlachta constituted nearly half of the population. Regions with the lowest percentage of nobles were the Kraków Voivodeship with (1,7%), Royal Prussia with (3%) and the Sieradz Voivodeship with 4,6%. Before the Union of Lublin, inequality among nobles in terms of wealth and power was far greater in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania than in the Polish Kingdom. The further south and east one went, the more the territory was dominated by magnate families and other nobles. In the Lithuanian and Ruthenian palatinates, poor nobles were more likely to rent smallholdings from magnates than to own land themselves.


title: Szlachta

text: It has been said that the ruling elites were the only socio-political milieu to whom a sense of national consciousness could be attributed. All szlachta members, irrespective of their cultural/ethnic background, were regarded as belonging to a single "political nation" within the Commonwealth. Arguably, a common culture, the Catholic religion and the Polish language were seen as the main unifying factors in the dual state. Prior to the Partitions there was said to have been no Polish national identity as such. Only szlachta members, irrespective of their ethnicity or culture of origin, were considered as "Poles".


title: Szlachta

text: Despite Polonisation in Lithuania and Ruthenia in the 17th-18th centuries, a large part of the lower szlachta managed to retain their cultural identity in various ways. Due to poverty most of the local szlachta had never had access to formal education nor to Polish language teaching and hence could not be expected to self-identify as "Poles". It was common even for wealthy and in practice Polonised szlachta members still to refer to themselves as Lithuanian, "Litwin" or Ruthenian, "Rusyn".


title: Szlachta

text: According to Polish estimates from the 1930s, 300,000 members of the common nobles "s" "zlachta zagrodowa" – inhabited the subcarpathian region of the Second Polish Republic out of 800,000 in the whole country. 90% of them were Ukrainian-speaking and 80% were Ukrainian Greek Catholics. In other parts of the Ukraine with a significant szlachta population, such as the Bar or the Ovruch regions, the situation was similar despite Russification and earlier Polonization. As an example:


title: Szlachta

text: However the era of sovereign rule by the szlachta ended earlier than in other countries, excluding France, in 1795 (see Partitions of Poland). Since then their legitimacy and fate depended on the legislation and policies of the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg monarchy. Their privileges became increasingly limited, and were ultimately dissolved by the March Constitution of Poland in 1921.


title: Szlachta

text: There were a number of avenues to upward social mobility and the attainment of nobility. The szlachta was not rigidly exclusive or closed as a class, but according to heraldic sources, the total number of legal ennoblements issued between the 14th and mid-18th century, is estimated at 800. This is an average of about two ennoblements per year.


title: Szlachta

text: According to two English journalists Richard Holt Hutton and Walter Bagehot writing on the subject in 1864,


title: Szlachta

text: Others assert the szlachta were not a social class, but a caste, among them, historian Adam Zamoyski,


title: Szlachta

text: Low-born individuals, including townsfolk "mieszczanie", peasants "chłopi", but not Jews "Żydzi", could and did rise to official ennoblement in Commonwealth society, although Charles-Joseph, 7th Prince of Ligne, while trying to obtain Polish noble status, is supposed to have said in 1784,


title: Szlachta

text: According to heraldic sources 1,600 is the total estimated number of all legal ennoblements throughout the history of Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 14th century onward, half of which were enacted in the final years of the late 18th century. Hutton and Bagehot,


title: Szlachta

text: Each "szlachcic" was said to hold enormous potential influence over the country's politics, far greater than that enjoyed by the citizens of modern democratic countries. Between 1652 and 1791, any nobleman could potentially nullify all the proceedings of a given "sejm" or "sejmik" by exercising his individual right of "liberum veto" – Latin for "I do not allow" – except in the case of a confederated sejm or confederated sejmik.


title: Szlachta

text: In old Poland, a nobleman could only marry a noblewoman, as intermarriage between "castes" was fraught with difficulties (); but, children of a legitimate marriage followed the condition of the father, never the mother, therefore, only the father transmitted his nobility to his children. See "patrilineality". A noble woman married to a commoner could not transmit her nobility to her husband and their children. Any individual could attain ennoblement ("") for special services to the state. A foreign noble might be naturalized as a Polish noble through the mechanism called the "Indygenat", certified by the king. Later, from 1641, it could only be done by a general sejm. By the eighteenth century all these trends contributed to the great increase in the proportion of szlachta in the total population.


title: Szlachta

text: In theory all szlachta members were social equals and were formally legal peers. Those who held civic appointments were more privileged but their roles were not hereditary. Those who held honorary appointments were superior in the hierarchy but these positions were only granted for a lifetime. Some tenancies became hereditary and went with both privilege and title. Nobles who were not direct Lessees of the Crown but held land from other lords were only peers "de iure". The poorest enjoyed the same rights as the wealthiest magnate. The exceptions were a few symbolically privileged families such as the Radziwiłł, Lubomirski and Czartoryski, who held honorary aristocratic titles bestowed by foreign courts and recognised in Poland which granted them use of titles such as "Prince" or "Count". See also The Princely Houses of Poland. All other szlachta simply addressed each other by their given name or as "Brother, Sir" "Panie bracie" or the feminine equivalent. The other forms of address would be "Illustrious and Magnificent Lord", "Magnificent Lord", "Generous Lord" or "Noble Lord" in descending order, or simply "His/Her Grace Lord/Lady".


title: Szlachta

text: The notion that all Polish nobles were social equals, regardless of their financial status or offices held, is enshrined in a traditional Polish adage:


title: Szlachta

text: Polish landed gentry – "ziemianie", or "ziemiaństwo" – was a social class of landowners with manorial estates. The vast majority were "szlachta", including lesser nobility, and owned at least part of a village. Since titular manorial lordships were also open to burgers of certain privileged cities with royal charters, not all landed gentry had hereditary noble status. The term "ziemiaństwo" was also applied to wealthier landed peasants. Magnates, as owners of vast lands, generally were considered a separate social class.


title: Szlachta

text: Landless "szlachta" were sometimes excluded from taking part in "sejmiks". Its political rights were removed altogether by the Constitution of 3 May 1791. The purpose of the move was to eliminate the purchases of "szlachta-gołota" voices in sejmiks by magnates to use them, e.g., in voting or in executing "liberum veto".


title: Szlachta

text: "Półpanek" ("half-lord"); also podpanek/pidpanek ("sub-lord") in Podolia and Ukrainian accent – a derogatory term for a petty "szlachcic" pretending to be wealthy.


title: Szlachta

text: In the Russian Partition of Poland, Tsar Nicholas I signed a ukase on 19 October 1831, titled "On the Division and Disposition of Nobility in the Western Governorates", which required those claiming noble status to provide evidence to the Russian Office of Heraldry. The result was a drastic decrease in the number of petty "szlachta", who were demoted into estates of the realm required to pay taxes.


title: Szlachta

text: The "szlachta"s prevalent ideology, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, was manifested in its adoption of "Sarmatism", a word derived from the legend that its origins reached back to the ancient tribe of an Iranic people, the Sarmatians. This nostalgic belief system embracing chivalry and courtliness became an important part of "szlachta" culture and affected all aspects of their lives. It was popularized by poets who exalted traditional village life, peace and pacifism. It was also manifested in oriental-style apparel, the "żupan", "kontusz", "sukmana", "pas kontuszowy", "delia" and made the scimitar-like "szabla" a near-obligatory item of everyday "szlachta" apparel. Sarmatism served to integrate a nobility of disparate provenance, as it sought to create a sense of national unity and pride in the szlachta's "Golden Liberty" "złota wolność". It was marked furthermore by a linguistic affectation among the "szlachta" of mixing Polish and Latin vocabulary, producing a form of Polish Dog Latin peppered with "macaronisms" in everyday conversation.


title: Szlachta

text: "a." Estimates of the proportion of szlachta vary widely: 10–12% of the total population of historic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, around 8% of the total population in 1791 (up from 6.6% in the 16th century) or 6–8%.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The Raspberries were an American pop rock band formed in 1970 from Cleveland, Ohio. They had a run of success in the early 1970s music scene with their pop rock sound, which AllMusic later described as featuring "exquisitely crafted melodies and achingly gorgeous harmonies." The members were known for their clean-cut public image, with short-hair and matching suits, which brought them teenybopper attention as well as scorn from some mainstream media outlets as "uncool". The group drew influence from the British Invasion era—especially The Beatles, The Who, The Hollies, and Small Faces—and its mod sensibility. In both the US and the UK, the Raspberries helped pioneer the power pop music style that took off after the group disbanded. They also have had a following among professional musicians such as Jack Bruce, Ringo Starr, and Courtney Love.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The group's "classic" lineup consisted of Eric Carmen (vocalist/guitarist/bassist/pianist), Wally Bryson (guitarist), Jim Bonfanti (drummer), and Dave Smalley (guitarist/bassist). Their best known songs include "Go All the Way", "Let's Pretend", "I Wanna Be with You", "Tonight", and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)". Producer Jimmy Ienner was responsible for all four of the Raspberries' albums in the 1970s. The group disbanded in 1975 after a five-year run, and Eric Carmen proceeded to a successful career as a solo artist. Bryson and Smalley resurrected the group's name in 1999 for an album, which included singer/songwriter Scott McCarl as vocalist. In 2004, the original quartet reunited and undertook a well-received reunion tour in 2005.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The group had its roots in two of Cleveland's most successful local bands in the late 1960s, The Choir and Cyrus Erie. The Choir, originally called The Mods and consisting of Dann Klawon, Wally Bryson, Dave Burke, Dave Smalley, and Jim Bonfanti, had a more extensive repertoire of original songs. Most notable was "It's Cold Outside" which parlayed its massive local success (#1 in Cleveland) into a nationally charting single (peaking at No. 68 for Roulette Records). The Choir then went through a series of lineup changes, with Smalley and Bonfanti remaining in the various versions, until 1968, when Dave Smalley was drafted and sent to Vietnam. As a result, The Choir disbanded, although it later reformed behind Bonfanti and ultimately survived until 1970.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: Although The Choir had the hit and a string of singles, Cyrus Erie, founded by brothers Michael and Bob McBride, became the better-drawing local act shortly after Eric Carmen joined in 1967. Carmen persuaded Bryson, who had recently left The Choir, to join. In live shows, Cyrus Erie mainly covered other artists' songs. When the group signed to Epic Records they recorded two Carmen/Bryson originals ("Get the Message" b/w "Sparrow") as a single. Following this, Bryson quit to return to The Choir, which led to Cyrus Erie disbanding. Carmen and Dann Klawon then formed a new act called The Quick. The Quick recorded a single of two Carmen/Klawon originals for Epic which did not find much success.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The group's style arose from a variety of rock and roll groups that the members loved, especially The Who. Carmen later said:


title: Raspberries (band)

text: After discussions between Carmen and Bonfanti about forming a new group, the first lineup for the Raspberries was Eric Carmen (rhythm guitar, vocals, piano), Jim Bonfanti (drums), Wally Bryson (lead guitar, vocals) and John Aleksic (bass). Aleksic left the group at the end of 1970. In 1971, Dave Smalley (rhythm guitar, vocals), just back from Vietnam, became the fourth member of the original recording lineup with Carmen moving to bass. The Raspberries' demo tape went to the desk of producer Jimmy Ienner, for whom Carmen had previously done session work. After a major-label bidding war the band signed to Capitol Records. This 1st album featured a strong scratch and sniff raspberry scented sticker on the front cover.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The Raspberries wore matching ensembles on stage. The group was criticized for making its stage entrance in tuxedos and large bouffant hairdos which, according to Carmen, "complemented the style of our music".


title: Raspberries (band)

text: "Go All the Way" peaked at #5 in the U.S. in October 1972, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Afterwards, Carmen and Smalley switched instruments, with Carmen moving to rhythm guitar so that he would be upfront on stage, while Smalley took over bass. After two albums, "Raspberries" and "Fresh", both released in 1972, creative tension came to a head sparked largely by Carmen's creative dominance (and commercial success) over the contributions of Bryson and Smalley. Accordingly, "Side 3" turned out to be a more raw, aggressive effort than its predecessors, typified by the opening track "Tonight". After its release, Smalley was ejected from the band, and Bonfanti departed soon afterwards. They subsequently formed their own band, Dynamite. They were replaced by bassist Scott McCarl and ex-Cyrus Erie drummer Michael McBride for what was to be the fourth and final Raspberries album, "Starting Over".


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The band broke up in April 1975, but their style continued to influence other musicians. Bruce Springsteen praised the Raspberries at several stops during his Summer 2005 tour. Springsteen's drummer Max Weinberg said that he based his drum style in that period off of Raspberries drummer Michael McBride (particularly on the Springsteen album "Darkness on the Edge of Town"). Paul Stanley of Kiss, Tom Petty, and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses, have all also cited the Raspberries as an influence in their songwriting.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: In 1978, Bryson joined another notable power pop band, Fotomaker, led by ex-Rascals Dino Danelli and Gene Cornish. He left shortly after the second of the band's three albums was released.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: A biography of the Raspberries titled "Overnight Sensation – The Story of the Raspberries" by Ken Sharp was released in 1993. In 1996, a tribute album to Raspberries called "Raspberries Preserved" was released by Pravda Records, a Chicago-based indie record label. The album featured 21 cover versions by such acts as The Rubinoos, Bill Lloyd, Brad Jones, Tiny Lights, Rank Strangers, the Gladhands, and The Shambles.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: Singer-guitarist and primary songwriter Eric Carmen went on to have a successful solo career as a singer and writer of romantic pop ballads. His first solo hit "All by Myself" (which rearranged a motif from the melody of "Let's Pretend") hit No. 2 nationally, and was successfully covered by Celine Dion in 1996. His second single "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" was also a hit, as was a spiritual sequel to both, "She Did It," which revived the Raspberries' power pop sound. Carmen later had additional Top Ten singles success with "Hungry Eyes" (from "Dirty Dancing", 1987) and "Make Me Lose Control". He also wrote "Almost Paradise" (performed by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson for "Footloose", 1984), as well as songs that were made major hits by Shaun Cassidy ("That's Rock & Roll" and "Hey Deanie").


title: Raspberries (band)

text: In 1999, Bryson got the band back together without Carmen, but with Smalley and McCarl. The trio released a six-song EP entitled "Raspberries Refreshed" in 2000. The album's tracks, written by the three remaining members, re-created the group's original sound.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: In November 2004, the House of Blues nightclub chain opened its Cleveland branch with a Raspberries reunion concert featuring all four original members. This led to a well-received 2005 mini-tour starting at the Chicago House of Blues, a VH1 Classic special, and a concert broadcast on XM Satellite Radio. A date from the 2005 tour in Los Angeles was recorded, and released in 2007 as "Live on Sunset Strip." The double CD and one DVD contained a foreword from Bruce Springsteen, and a 1970s photo of John Lennon wearing a Raspberries' "Starting Over" sweatshirt. Capitalizing on the release, Raspberries played further shows in New York, California, and their hometown of Cleveland.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: The band's iconic rock tune "Go All the Way" attracted renewed attention in 2014 when it was notably included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Guardians of the Galaxy". "The Albany Democrat-Herald" ran a positive review of the film remarking that "while it's freaky to hear the Raspberries' ... in space, one recognizes the malleability of its majesty and craft and appreciate the range of vocalist Eric Carmen". The song was included on the film's "" soundtrack released on July 29, 2014.


title: Raspberries (band)

text: In 2017, Omnivore Records released "Pop Art Live", a recording of the band's first Cleveland reunion show on November 26, 2004. It was their first show together in nearly 30 years. Featuring twenty-eight songs, including material by major influences The Beatles and The Who, the album received positive reviews from publications such as "Allmusic", "Paste", and "Stereophile". Critic Mark Deming of Allmusic remarked that "the Raspberries merge the superb craftsmanship of their classic recordings with the sweat and muscle of a crack band having a great time."


title: Little Mix discography

text: British girl group Little Mix have released six studio albums, one compilation album, 33 singles (including one charity single) and 40 music videos. As of 2021, the group have amassed 44 chart entries on the UK Singles Chart, with five number ones and 19 top-ten singles. According to the Official Charts Company, Little Mix have sold over 28 million singles and 3.6 million albums in the UK. They have collated over 12 billion streams across all streaming platforms, and have sold over 50 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling girl groups. In 2021, they became the first girl group to spend a total of 100 weeks within the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.


title: Little Mix discography

text: Little Mix released their "X Factor" winner's single, a cover of Damien Rice's "Cannonball", as their debut single in December 2011. The single became the group's first number-one single when it topped the UK Singles Chart. The lead single from their debut album "Wings" became their second number-one single in the UK. It also reached number three in Australia and number seven in Japan. In November 2012, Little Mix released their debut album "DNA". The album peaked inside the top 10 in ten countries, including the UK where it debuted number three. The album has been certified platinum in the UK where it had sold 473,000 copies there as of May 2022. In May 2013, the group released their debut album in the United States, where it debuted at number four, becoming the highest debut from a British girl group in the US, beating a record previously held by the Spice Girls, who debuted at number six with their debut album "Spice" in 1996. "DNA" spawned three more singles; the UK top three hit and title track "DNA" and the UK top 20 singles "Change Your Life" and "How Ya Doin'?".


title: Little Mix discography

text: Their second album, "Salute", was released in November 2013 and became their second album to debut inside the top 10 in both the UK, Australia and the US. The album's lead single "Move" reached number three in the UK. "Salute" has been certified platinum in the UK, and had sold 429,000 copies there as of May 2022. The album produced two more singles; "Little Me" and the top 10 hit and title track "Salute". The group released a cover version of the Cameo song "Word Up!" as the official single for Sport Relief 2014 which reached the top 10 in the UK. In May 2015, Little Mix released "Black Magic" as the lead single from their third album. The song debuted at number one in the UK and remained at the top of the chart for three weeks, becoming the first single by a girl group to do so since Sugababes's "About You Now" in October 2007. The song also reached number eight in Australia becoming their third top 10 hit there. The group's third album "Get Weird" was released in November 2015 and debuted at number two in both the UK and Australia while reaching number one in Ireland. In the US the album peaked at number 13, making Little Mix the only girl group from the UK to have their first three albums debut in the top fifteen of the "Billboard" 200. "Get Weird" has been certified double platinum in the UK and has sold 950,000 copies there as of November 2021. The album's second and fourth single "Love Me Like You" and "Hair" both peaked at number 11 in the UK, while the third single "Secret Love Song" reached number six in the UK. "Hair" became the group's fourth top 10 single in Australia.


title: Little Mix discography

text: In October 2016 Little Mix released the lead single "Shout Out to My Ex" from their fourth studio album "Glory Days". The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart becoming their fourth chart topping single there. It sold 95,000 copies in combined sales in its debut week with 67,000 being downloads, making it the biggest opening week download sales for a song in 2016. "Glory Days" was released on 18 November 2016 and debuted at number one on the UK album chart, becoming the groups first UK number one album. "Glory Days" sold 96,000 copies in combined sales in the first week which was the highest first week sales for a UK girl group number-one album since the Spice Girls in 1997 and spent five weeks at number one, making the album the longest-reigning number-one by a girl group since the Spice Girls. The album's second single, "Touch", was released in December 2016 and peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart, later being certified double platinum in the UK for 1,200,000 equivalent-units moved in the country. In March 2017, "No More Sad Songs" featuring Machine Gun Kelly was released as the album's third official single. It peaked at number fifteen on the UK Singles Chart and has been certified platinum in the UK for moving 600,000 units in the country. The group released the fourth single, "Power" featuring Stormzy, on 26 May 2017, which has peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart, making it their third top ten single from "Glory Days", and has been certified platinum in the country. The band's fifth album, "LM5", was released on 16 November 2018. Preceded by lead single "Woman Like Me", featuring Nicki Minaj, it became their fifth UK top-five album.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awards are presented at a dinner in New York City; the chef and restaurant awards were also presented in New York until 2015, when the foundation's annual gala moved to Chicago. Chicago will continue to host the Awards until 2027.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The awards were established in 1990, when the foundation expanded its chef awards and combined them with "Cook's" Magazine's Who's Who of American Cooking and French's Food and Beverage Book Awards. In addition to the chef, restaurant, and book awards, journalism awards were added in 1993, which expanded to broadcast media in 1994, and restaurant design awards were first given in 1995.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: In 2018, the James Beard Foundation changed the award's rules to be more inclusive, to fight race and gender imbalances in the industry. Changes include: judges reflecting the demographics of the U.S.; retiring the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America awards which were judged by previous winners; adding leadership awards which focus on social justice issues; and waiving some media entry fees.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The awards are voted on by more than 600 culinary professionals, including previous award winners. Recipients receive a medallion etched with the image of James Beard and a certificate from the foundation.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: Although the awards tend to focus on upscale dining in large cities, since 1998 there has been an "America's Classics" category which honors legendary family-owned restaurants across the country. The "America's Classics" winners routinely draw the biggest applause of the night at the awards ceremony. To be considered for the award, restaurants must have been in business for a decade, be locally owned, show "timeless appeal," and serve "quality food that reflects the character of the community." Past winners are:


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The "Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America" was an award presented to members of the food and beverage industry who have been "identified by his or her peers as having displayed remarkable talent and achievement." The Who's Who awards were voted on by past honorees, with a ballot of 20 candidates distributed to the entire Who's Who group each year.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The honors were initially awarded by "Cook's Magazine" (the predecessor to "Cook's Illustrated"), which inaugurated the award in 1984 but ceased publication in 1990. The award was administered by the James Beard Foundation from 1990 to 2018 and presented at the annual gala. The foundation decided to retire the awards after 2018, citing a new commitment to inclusion. Including the inductees from the 1980s, the final Who's Who list included nearly 300 individuals.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1991 inductees were chef David Bouley; Ken Hom, journalist, teacher and expert on Chinese cooking; Bryan Miller, the restaurant critic of the New York Times; Michel Richard, chef-owner of Los Angeles' Citrus restaurant; and Nancy Silverton, owner of Campanile, Los Angeles.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1992 inductees were pastry chef Albert Kumin; authors, caterers and retailers Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins; Drew Nieporent, owner of Montrachet and the Tribeca Grill in Manhattan; authors and columnists Jane and Michael Stern; and restaurant critic, journalist and author Patricia Wells.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1993 inductees were Ariane and Michael Batterberry (who founded Food & Wine and Food Arts magazines), Gael Greene (New York Magazine's restaurant critic), Robert M. Parker, Jr. (publisher of the Wine Advocate), Carl Sontheimer (creator of the food processor and Cuisinarts), Chuck Williams (founder of Williams-Sonoma), and Gregory Usher (director of l'Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise Ritz-Escoffier in Paris).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1994 inductees were Jean Anderson, Cecily Brownstone, Narcisse Chamberlain, Ariane Daguin and George Faison, Joel Dean and Giorgio DeLuca, Zack Hanle, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Elizabeth Schneider, Jeff Smith, and Tim and Nina Zagat.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1995 inductees were Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill and Topolombampo, Joachim Splichal of Patina, Harold McGee, author of "On Food and Cooking," Daniel Boulud, Milton Glaser, Madhur Jaffrey, and Martha Stewart.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1996 inductees were Lidia Bastianich, Christopher Kimball, Zelma Long, Nick Malgieri, Danny Meyer, Jean-Jacques Rachou, and Charlie Trotter.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1997 inductees were cookbook author Flo Braker, culinary historian Barbara Haber, television personality Graham Kerr, winemakers Michael and Timothy Mondavi (sons of Robert Mondavi), restaurateurs Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder (new owners of New York's the Four Seasons) and restaurant designer Adam Tihany.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1998 inductees were Paula Lambert, founder and president, the Mozzarella Co., Dallas; Carolyn O'Neil, executive producer and correspondent, CNN's "On the Menu," Atlanta; Charles Palmer, chef and restaurateur, New York City; Alan Richman, writer, GQ magazine, New York City; and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, chef and restaurateur, New York City.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 1999 inductees were R. W. Apple Jr. of the New York Times, winemaker Ernest Gallo, author and columnist Molly O'Neill, Bill Shore of Share Our Strength, and Gail Zweigenthal of Gourmet (magazine).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2000 inductees were Barbara Fairchild, editor, Bon Appetit magazine; Thomas Keller, chef, French Laundry (Oakville, Calif.); Michael Romano, chef, Union Square Cafe (New York City); Jeffrey Steingarten, columnist, Vogue magazine; Larry Stone, wine director, Rubicon (San Francisco).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2001 inductees were Mario Batali, chef/co-owner, Babbo and Esca, New York; Michael Ginor and Izzy Yanay, founders, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Great Neck, N.Y.; Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of "The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper," St. Paul, Minn.; Joan Nathan, cookbook author, Washington, D.C.; and Martin Yan, cooking show host, Foster City, Calif.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2002 inductees were Tom Colicchio, Alain Ducasse, Nobu Matsuhisa, Sara Moulton and Frank J. Prial.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2003 inductees were Hubert Keller, Marion Nestle, Alain Sailhac, Jacques Torres and Norman Van Aken.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2004 inductees were Michael Bauer, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Todd English, Andrea Immer and Eric Ripert.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2005 inductees were Joseph Bastianich (co-owner of Italian Wine Merchants and Babbo, Becco, Lupa, Esca, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria and Bistro du Vent restaurants, New York City); Greg Drescher (Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives, The Culinary Institute of America, Greystone, St. Helena, CA); Carol Field (book author and food writer, San Francisco, CA); Corby Kummer (Senior Editor, The Atlantic Monthly, Boston, MA); and, Deborah Madison (chef, cookbook author and journalist, Galisteo, NM).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2006 inductees were Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, Co-Founders of Cowgirl Creamery (Point Reyes Station, CA); Jean Joho, Chef and Proprietor of Everest, Chicago; Gray Kunz, Founding Chef of Café Gray, NYC; Kermit Lynch, Founder and Owner of Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant (Berkeley, CA); and Ari Weinzweig, Co-Founder of Zingerman's Deli (Ann Arbor, MI).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2008 inductees were Dan Barber, Anthony Bourdain, Nancy Oakes, Russ Parsons, Zanne Early Stewart, and Steve Sullivan.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2009 inductees were David Burke, John T. Edge, Betty Fussell, Dorothy Cann Hamilton, and Clark Wolf.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2010 inductees were Leah Chase, Chef/Owner, Dooky Chase Restaurant, New Orleans, Louisiana; Jessica B. Harris, Author and Historian, New York, New York; Paul C. P. McIlhenny, President and CEO, McIlhenny Company, Avery Island, Louisiana; David Rockwell, Founder and CEO, Rockwell Group, New York, New York; L. Timothy Ryan, President, Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York; and Susan Spicer, Chef/Owner, Bayona, New Orleans, Louisiana.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2011 inductees were Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly, Lee Jones of Chef's Garden (Huron, OH), Charles Phan of the Slanted Door (San Francisco, CA), Frank Stitt of Highlands Bar and Grill, and Nick Valenti of the Patina Restaurant Group (New York, NY).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2012 inductees were Grant Achatz, Chef and Author; Mark Bittman, Journalist and Author; Dana Cowin, Editor-in-Chief, Food & Wine; Emily Luchetti, Pastry Chef and Author; and Marvin Shanken, Publisher, Food Arts and Wine Spectator.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2013 inductees were Eric Asimov, Author and Journalist; Dorothy Kalins, Editor; Barbara Lynch, Chef and Restaurateur; Zarela Martinez, Chef and Restaurateur; Michael Mina, Chef and Restaurateur; and Bill Yosses, Author and Pastry Chef.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2014 inductees were Edward Behr, Food Writer; John Besh, Chef and Restaurateur; David Chang, Chef and Restaurateur; Barry Estabrook, Writer; Paul Kahan, Chef and Restaurateur; Sherry Yard, Pastry Chef and Author.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2015 inductees were Allan Benton, Pork Producer and Purveyor;Dale DeGroff, Mixologist; Wylie Dufresne, Chef and Restaurateur;Nathalie Dupree, Cookbook Author and Television Personality; and Maricel Presilla, Chef, Restaurateur, and Cookbook Author.


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2016 inductees were Gina Gallo, Winemaker (Sonoma, CA); Jim Lahey, Baker and Proprietor NYC; Ed Levine, Author and Founder of Serious Eats (NYC); Temple Grandin, Author and Animal Rights Activist (Fort Collins, CO); and Marcus Samuelsson, Chef and Restaurateur (NYC).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: Evan Kleiman, Culinarian (Los Angeles, CA); Roger Berkowitz, President and CEO Legal Seafoods (Boston, MA); Michel Nischan, Chef, Founder, President, and CEO of Wholesome Wave (Bridgeport, CT); and Rajat Parr, Winemaker and Sommelier, Domaine de la Cote (Lompoc, CA).


title: James Beard Foundation Award

text: The 2018 inductees were Jody Adams, Chef/Owner, TRADE, Porto, and Saloniki (Boston, MA); Lally Brennan and Ti Adelaide Martin, Co-Proprietors, Commander's Palace (New Orleans, LA); Allison Hooper, Co-Founder, Vermont Creamery (Websterville, VT); and Daniel Johnnes, Wine Director, The Dinex Group (New York City, NY).


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: In mathematics, Knuth's up-arrow notation is a method of notation for very large integers, introduced by Donald Knuth in 1976.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: In his 1947 paper, R. L. Goodstein introduced the specific sequence of operations that are now called "hyperoperations". Goodstein also suggested the Greek names tetration, pentation, etc., for the extended operations beyond exponentiation. The sequence starts with a unary operation (the successor function with "n" = 0), and continues with the binary operations of addition ("n" = 1), multiplication ("n" = 2), exponentiation ("n" = 3), tetration ("n" = 4), pentation ("n" = 5), etc.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Knuth's up-arrow notation formula_2 is an alternative notation. It is obtained by replacing formula_3 in the square bracket notation by formula_4 arrows.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: The hyperoperations naturally extend the arithmetical operations of addition and multiplication as follows.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Exponentiation for a natural power formula_18 is defined as iterated multiplication, which Knuth denoted by a single up-arrow:


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: and so on. The general rule is that an formula_29-arrow operator expands into a right-associative series of (formula_30)-arrow operators. Symbolically,


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: In expressions such as formula_34, the notation for exponentiation is usually to write the exponent formula_18 as a superscript to the base number formula_36. But many environments — such as programming languages and plain-text e-mail — do not support superscript typesetting. People have adopted the linear notation formula_37 for such environments; the up-arrow suggests 'raising to the power of'. If the character set does not contain an up arrow, the caret (^) is used instead.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: The superscript notation formula_34 doesn't lend itself well to generalization, which explains why Knuth chose to work from the inline notation formula_37 instead.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: If "b" is a variable (or is too large), the power tower might be written using dots and a note indicating the height of the tower.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Continuing with this notation, formula_45 could be written with a stack of such power towers, each describing the size of the one above it.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Again, if "b" is a variable or is too large, the stack might be written using dots and a note indicating its height.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Furthermore, formula_48 might be written using several columns of such stacks of power towers, each column describing the number of power towers in the stack to its left:


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: This might be carried out indefinitely to represent formula_40 as iterated exponentiation of iterated exponentiation for any "a", "n" and "b" (although it clearly becomes rather cumbersome).


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: The Rudy Rucker notation formula_52 for tetration allows us to make these diagrams slightly simpler while still employing a geometric representation (we could call these "tetration towers").


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Some numbers are so large that multiple arrows of Knuth's up-arrow notation become too cumbersome; then an "n"-arrow operator formula_13 is useful (and also for descriptions with a variable number of arrows), or equivalently, hyper operators.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Some numbers are so large that even that notation is not sufficient. The Conway chained arrow notation can then be used: a chain of three elements is equivalent with the other notations, but a chain of four or more is even more powerful.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: formula_60 = formula_61, Since formula_60 = formula_63 = formula_64, Thus the result comes out with formula_61


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Even faster-growing functions can be categorized using an ordinal analysis called the fast-growing hierarchy. The fast-growing hierarchy uses successive function iteration and diagonalization to systematically create faster-growing functions from some base function formula_69. For the standard fast-growing hierarchy using formula_70, formula_71 already exhibits exponential growth, formula_72 is comparable to tetrational growth and is upper-bounded by a function involving the first four hyperoperators;. Then, formula_73 is comparable to the Ackermann function, formula_74 is already beyond the reach of indexed arrows but can be used to approximate Graham's number, and formula_75 is comparable to arbitrarily-long Conway chained arrow notation.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: These functions are all computable. Even faster computable functions, such as the Goodstein sequence and the TREE sequence require the usage of large ordinals, may occur in certain combinatorical and proof-theoretic contexts. There exists functions which grow uncomputably fast, such as the Busy Beaver, whose very nature will be completely out of reach from any up-arrow, or even any ordinal-based analysis.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: This definition uses exponentiation formula_79 as the base case, and tetration formula_80 as repeated exponentiation. This is equivalent to the hyperoperation sequence except it omits the three more basic operations of succession, addition and multiplication.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: One can alternatively choose multiplication formula_81 as the base case and iterate from there. Then exponentiation becomes repeated multiplication. The formal definition would be


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Note, however, that Knuth did not define the "nil-arrow" (formula_85). One could extend the notation to negative indices (n ≥ -2) in such a way as to agree with the entire hyperoperation sequence, except for the lag in the indexing:


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: The up-arrow operation is a right-associative operation, that is, formula_87 is understood to be formula_88, instead of formula_89. If ambiguity is not an issue parentheses are sometimes dropped.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: Computing formula_91 can be restated in terms of an infinite table. We place the numbers formula_92 in the top row, and fill the left column with values 2. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left, then look up the required number in the previous row, at the position given by the number just taken.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: The table is the same as that of the Ackermann function, except for a shift in formula_29 and formula_18, and an addition of 3 to all values.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: We place the numbers formula_95 in the top row, and fill the left column with values 3. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left, then look up the required number in the previous row, at the position given by the number just taken.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: We place the numbers formula_96 in the top row, and fill the left column with values 4. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left, then look up the required number in the previous row, at the position given by the number just taken.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: We place the numbers formula_97 in the top row, and fill the left column with values 10. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left, then look up the required number in the previous row, at the position given by the number just taken.


title: Knuth's up-arrow notation

text: For 2 ≤ "b" ≤ 9 the numerical order of the numbers formula_98 is the lexicographical order with "n" as the most significant number, so for the numbers of these 8 columns the numerical order is simply line-by-line. The same applies for the numbers in the 97 columns with 3 ≤ "b" ≤ 99, and if we start from "n" = 1 even for 3 ≤ "b" ≤ 9,999,999,999.


title: Force Motors

text: Force Motors Ltd, is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company, based in Pune, India and the flagship company of the Dr. Abhay Firodia Group. From 1958 until 2005, the company was known as Bajaj Tempo Motors because it originated as a joint venture between Bachraj Trading Ltd. and Germany's Tempo. The company is known for brands like the Tempo, Matador, Minidor and Traveller. Over the last five decades, it has partnered with global manufacturers such as Daimler, ZF, Bosch, VW, Traton and MAN.


title: Force Motors

text: Force Motors is India’s largest van maker. The company is completely vertically integrated, making its own components for the entire product range.


title: Force Motors

text: Aside from manufacturing light transport vehicles, Force Motors also makes engines and axles, as well as a large variety of die-cast aluminium parts. The foundation of Bajaj Tempo originates with the Bachraj Trading company, which was established in 1945. Bachraj started assembling three-wheeled auto rickshaws and small trucks in 1951, under license from Tempo of Germany. In 1958 the companies announced the creation of a joint venture, called the Bajaj Tempo Motors, with 26 percent of the shares belonging to Tempo. In 1968 the Firodia Group took a majority stake in Bajaj Tempo.


title: Force Motors

text: In 1971 Tempo (Germany) passed into the hands of Daimler-Benz, who retained a 16.8 percent share in Bajaj Tempo until 2001. Daimler sold its stake in April 2001 after 43 years citing little synergy between the two companies.


title: Force Motors

text: The Tempo Matador was the first diesel light commercial vehicle in India. The company started production of the Hanseat 3-Wheelers in collaboration with Vidal & Sohn Tempo Werke Germany in 1958. The word "Tempo" (a registered trade mark of Daimler) is now generic for any small goods carrier in India.


title: Force Motors

text: In 1987, Force Motors set up a new plant at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh, for the production of Tempo Traveller. This plant was designed and built to the specification of Daimler-Benz.


title: Force Motors

text: In 1997, Daimler asked it to set up a dedicated facility for assembling and testing engines for Mercedes passenger cars to be made in India.


title: Force Motors

text: Force Motors signed technology sourcing agreements in 2003 with MAN SE for which payments were made up front. On completion of the localization of the licensed technology and with the request from MAN, a joint venture was created forming MAN Force Trucks Pvt. Ltd to manufacture the full range of HCVs from 16t GVW to 49t GCW. MAN proceeded to buy out Force and MAN Trucks India was established as a separate concern in 2012.


title: Force Motors

text: In 2012, Force Motors launched "Traveller 26", a monocoque panel van that can seat 26 persons, designed entirely in-house. It had disk brakes on all four wheels and also came with safety features like ABS and EBD.


title: Force Motors

text: In 2015, the company was awarded a contract by BMW, resulting in a new facility in Chennai which produces and test engines and transmissions exclusively for all BMW cars and SUVs made in India. This plant can produce up to 20,000 engines per year.


title: Force Motors

text: A new plant was inaugurated at Chakan, Pune in June 2016. This facility assembles and tests engines for all Mercedes Cars and SUVs made in India. The new plant has a current annual capacity of 20,000 engines and 20,000 front and rear axles.


title: Force Motors

text: In March 2018, Force Motors entered into a joint-venture agreement with Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG to manufacture in India and supply worldwide, the 10 and 12cylinder, Series 1600 engines (545 hp to 1050 hp) for power generation and under floor rail applications.


title: Force Motors

text: Force Motors has a nationwide dealer presence. The company also exports to various countries in Africa, Latin America, SAARC and ASEAN countries, Gulf and Germany.


title: Force Motors

text: Force Motors manufactures a range of vehicles including Small Commercial Vehicles (SCV), Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV), Multi Utility Vehicles (MUV), Special Cross Country Vehicles and Agricultural Tractors.