11SERENISSIMA:
Diplomacy in Poland-Lithuania
It may be debatable whether Jan Dantiscus (1485—1548) or 'Dantyszek', was the
first Polish diplomat; but he was certainly one of the most entertaining. His eight
years and four months as ambassador to the Emperor Charles V between 1524
and 1532, are often cited as the first permanent embassy of the Polish service. In
some ways, Dantyszek belonged to the medieval tradition of cosmopolitan cler-
ics who ran international relations as a sideline of ecclesiastical affairs. At the
same time, he belonged to a new generation of humanists, for whom artistic
patronage, philosophical exploration, and secular curiosity on a wide scale
opened up entirely new vistas for their considerable talents. Born in Danzig as
Johann von Hoefen, the son of a prosperous brewer, he assumed his Latin nom
de plume when publishing neo-latin poetry, and his Polish cognomen by serving
from the age of fifteen in the royal court at Cracow. He received his church
benefices as an adjunct to his diplomatic career, enjoying the Bishopric of
Chelmno, and from 1537 the Bishopric of Warmia. In Cracow, he studied under
the Hellenist, Paul of Krosno, whilst employing himself as a page in the court
retinue, and participating in the disastrous Moldavian expedition of 1502. In
1503 he appears in the secretariat of Archbishop Jan Laski, and the next year,
as a specialist in Prussian affairs, in the royal chancery. In 1505-6, he travelled
to Venice and thence to Cyprus, Palestine, and Arabia. In 1512, his action in the
royal courts over a disputed family inheritance in Danzig was the immediate
cause of the crisis between Poland and the Teutonic Order. He first caught the
eye of the Emperor Maximilian at the Vienna Congress in 1515, and when he
returned to the imperial court in the following year as the envoy of Sigismund I,
he was raised to the rank of comes palatinus, and crowned as 'poet-laureate'. In
the subsequent period he journeyed incessantly, pressing the causes of his Polish
master, and acting as occasion demanded on behalf of the Emperor, or of the
cities of Prussia. In 1522—3 he was in England, looking for support against the
activities of the Teutonic Order. As he reported back to Sigismund, he was
received by Cardinal Wolsey, at Hampton Court, in a darkened room:
When I was brought to him, I found him lying in bed and suffering, so he said, from the
colic. But I saw that he had the French pox ... I greeted him in the name of your Most
Serene Majesty, and delivered a short speech on the Turkish and Tartar problems ... To
all this he gave a long answer, for he is quite a learned and a well-spoken man. He said