Poland 587of its primacy, regressing into a bureaucratic and jurisdic-
tional position.
In the 13th century, he was chosen annually or semi-
annually from qualified candidates from other cities and
thus theoretically outside local politics and interests. As
the government’s chief executive officer and head judge,
he was hired and paid by the commune and was accom-
panied by a “family” of professional officials, including
judges, notaries, and soldiers who sometimes served as his
police force. He represented the commune, personifying
its prestige and power and protecting rights fundamental
to its autonomy. After swearing to uphold the town’s
statutes or legal system, he convened and presided over
various councils. Besides that he led the army, ensured
public order, administered criminal justice, oversaw the
collection of taxes and public works, and protected the
road system and commerce. At the end of his tenure, he
was audited and held accountable. These duties accumu-
lated from the beginnings of the communes in the late
12th century as they tried to govern themselves.
Over the 13th and 14th centuries, the podestàlost
many of his administrative roles to other magistrates, to
assure fair treatment to other, new elements of the com-
mune, that is, the new social classes that demanded other
officials to protect them and their interests from the old
elite. Podestas were now regarded as the promoters and
agents of the old original communal elites. The office fur-
ther evolved in the Renaissance. It became the office main-
tained by cities over subject towns as part of an evolving
city-state system. The podestas became the officials of an
external, sometimes oppressive, regime either princely or
republican. The office still kept order but now explicitly
represented the interests of a ruler or other town.
See also FREDERICK I BARBAROSSA; CRIME, PUNISH-
MENT, AND THE COURTS; FLORENCE; ITALY; MILAN; POLITI-
CAL THEORY AND TREATISES;SIENA.
Further reading:David Chambers and Trevor Dean,
Clean Hands and Rough Justice: An Investigating Magistrate
in Renaissance Italy(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1997); Laura Ilkins Stern, The Criminal Law System
of Medieval and Renaissance Florence (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1994); Daniel Waley, The Ital-
ian City-Republics,3d ed. (London: Longman, 1988).
Poggio Bracciolini SeeBRACCIOLINI, POGGIO.
Poitiers, Battles of There were two battles of Poitiers.
On October 25, 732, CHARLESMARTELand the FRANKS
defeated an Arab and Muslim raiding party from the
Iberian Peninsula. The defeat has long been regarded as
the turning point in the first Islamic assault on Europe,
and the farthest point of Muslim penetration into north-
ern Europe. Charles has traditionally received credit for
halting the advance of Muslim progress into Europe. The
second Battle of Poitiers took place on September 19,
1356, during the HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR between EN-
GLANDand FRANCE. The Anglo-Gascon forces were led by
EDWARD THEBLACKPRINCE. At least 2,000 nobles on the
French side were killed or captured, including King John
II of France (r. 1350–64) and his son, Philip the Bold
(1342–1404). King John remained a prisoner of the
English until he agreed to major and humiliating conces-
sions of territory and a three-million-gold-crown ransom.
This also forced the 18-year-old dauphin, CHARLESV, to
assume temporary control of the French government.
This loss was a serious blow to the French crown, a disas-
ter not overcome for years.
Further reading:Bernard S. Bachrach, Early Carolin-
gian Warfare: Prelude to Empire(Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2001); Philippe Contamine, War in
the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones (1980; reprint,
Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984); Jonathan Sumption,
The Hundred Years’ War.Vol. 2, Trial by Fire(Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 195–249.Poland Medieval Poland was a Slavic kingdom situated
on the eastern territories of Western Christendom, north
of the Carpathian Mountains and south of the Baltic Sea.
It took definitive form in the reigns of Duke Mieszko I
(r. ca. 960–992) and BOLESLAVI THEBRAVE, both of the
PIASTdynasty. Mieszko was baptized in 966 into the West-
ern Church; in return he received a bishopric directly
dependent on Rome in 968 and finally an archbishopric at
Gniezno in 999/1000. Boleslav’s victorious war against the
emperor Henry II (r. 1002–24) and his conquest of KIEV
in 1018 confirmed the strength of the new state. Boleslav
was crowned king of Poland in 1025. His realm at the
end of his reign consisted of five provinces: Great Poland,
Little Poland, Silesia, Mazovia, and part of Pomerania.
After a crisis of state and church in the 1030s,
Boleslav II the Bold (1058–79) was crowned king in- However, he was forced to leave the country after
his murder of Bishop Saint Stanislas in 1079. From the
middle of the 11th century, the capital of the country
was CRACOW. King Boleslav III Wrymouth (r. 1102–38)
conquered and Christianized Pomerania, on the shores of
the Baltic. The position of the church was strengthened
and Gregorian ideas of reform were put into practice. The
religious orders, both monastic and MENDICANT, then
flooded into the country.
After the death of Boleslav III in 1138 the realm was
divided into smaller states or duchies and this period
was marked by the Tatar invasions, the expansion of
Brandenburg, and the creation of the state of the TEU-
TONICKNIGHTSto the north. There was a widespread
colonization of the countryside by Germans, particularly
in Silesia and on the Baltic. Large villages and towns
appeared, provided with considerable autonomy based
on the Magdeburg Charter of Urban Liberties. Alongside
the Germans, present in strength particularly in the