292 SERENISSIMA
crowned heads, who in turn preceded the representatives of electors, princes,
dukes, and republics. The Republic, as successor to the Kingdom of Poland,
retained its monarchical status, but had to be content with the thirteenth, penulti-
mate, place in order of seniority, between Bohemia and Denmark. In 1574 at
Henry Valois's coronation banquet in Cracow, the Nuncio sat at the King's right
hand in the company of the monarchical ambassadors, whilst a lower table was
occupied by the envoys of the Venetian Republic, the Elector of Brandenburg, the
Dukes of Ferrara and Brunswick, the Prince of Transylvania, the Duke of Prussia,
and the Duke of Pomerania.
Disputes over precedence were legion. In the seventeenth century, French
ambassadors at Warsaw customarily withdrew rather than cede to their imper-
ial colleagues. On 21 November 1648, when news of the Treaty of Westphalia
inspired the Vicomte d'Arpagon to raise his hat to the Marquis de Grana in pub-
lic, it was the first time such a gesture of Franco-Imperial politeness had been
made within living memory.
For sheer wrangling in matters of protocol, however, no one could match the
Prussians or the Muscovites. Both these powers were immediate neighbours of
the Republic. Both in their different ways made good in the world at Poland's
expense, the one by renouncing its ties of dependency, the other by annexing
vast expanses of the Republic's territory. Both in the early days were denied full
diplomatic rights, the Prussians as vassals, the Muscovites as 'schismatics and
barbarians'. Both harboured colossal resentments, and both in time found fer-
tile ground in the Polish Court for cultivating their ever-mounting claims. The
persistence with which they clawed their way up the ladder of diplomatic
respectability nicely illustrates their rise to power and influence in Europe as a
whole. Both set off in the sixteenth century with elaborate displays of servility.
Both ended up two centuries later by behaving with insolence.
The rise of the Hohenzollerns was perhaps the more astonishing. As Electors
of Brandenburg and Dukes of Prussia, they were simultaneously subjects of the
Empire and vassals of the Republic. To exploit their unique predicament, they
perfected the art of tergiversation, always contriving to protect an act of blatant
treachery in one direction by a specious gesture of loyalty in the other. In Poland,
when it suited their purpose, they were model citizens, urging their rights as
'native princes' and noblemen to play an active role in Polish affairs. At other
times, they acted the part of foreign princelings, demanding to be treated as sov-
ereign and equal rulers. It was exactly the reverse of the game that they played
with the Emperor. In 1525, Albrecht von Hohenzollern, the last Grand Master of
the Teutonic Order rode into the Market Square in Cracow to kneel before the
King of Poland and receive the Duchy of Prussia in fief. On 5 October 1641, the
same ceremony of investiture was enacted in Warsaw by the 'Great Elector'
Frederick-William. On both occasions, as the King placed the Prussian standard
into the hands of the new duke, a second prince of the House of Hohenzollern
stepped forward to touch it, signifying the family's claim to the right of reversion.
At the same moment, two Polish senators stepped forward to shout a ritual