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Ostatnia z Rodu
Pisana w latach 1963-1964 książka przedstawia postać Anny Jagiellonki (1523–1596) na tle dziejów XVI-wiecznej Rzeczypospolitej za panowania dwóch ostatnich Jagiellonów. Anna, córka Zygmunta I Starego i Bony, wychowana na renesansowym dworze, zdominowana przez silną osobowość matki, ponad dwie trzecie swego długiego żywota spędziła na uboczu historii, będąc świadkiem intryg, walk o reformę państwa i Kościoła, sporów o władzę. Dopiero po bezpotomnej śmierci brata, Zygmunta Augusta (1572), spadkobierczyni potężnego rodu, obdarzona tytułem Infantki, wyszła z cienia. Wkroczyła na scenę polityczną jako symbol tradycji Jagiellonów, snuła plany polityczne i matrymonialne, odegrała istotną rolę w czasie trzech pierwszych bezkrólewi. Po krótkim epizodzie Henryka Walezego szlachta okrzyknęła niemłodą już Annę królową (1575), przeznaczając jej na męża Stefana Batorego. „Pół wieku przeszło przeżyła na królewskim ustroniu, zanim osiągnęła cel marzeń — poczuła na ręce węzeł stuły, a ciężar korony na skroniach”.
Po śmierci Batorego (1586) królowa pokrzyżowała plany wielkich europejskich rodów, doprowadzając do osadzenia na polskim tronie swojego siostrzeńca, Zygmunta III Wazy. A jednak „o rządzeniu marzyła nadaremnie. Siostrzeniec ani myślał dzielić się władzą z ciotką... Pozostawały Annie hafty, dzieła miłosierdzia, troska o własny dwór wdowi tudzież o należyty porządek nabożeństw”.
„Dawniejsi historycy – pisze Paweł Jasienica – wprost prześcigali się w ckliwości. Dobra, rozmodlona, nieziemska, urazy wybaczająca, niepomna krzywd... Infantka prawdziwa była ambitna, bardzo uzdolniona i nie mniej bezwzględna... Odrodziły się w królewnie nie tylko rysy twarzy pradziada, Jagiełły. Odziedziczyła również po nim chytrość, siłę woli, żądzę osobistego wyniesienia... Kiedy [w 1573 r.] panowie zjeżdżali do Warszawy na konwokację, przemierzała już Anna pięćdziesiąty rok żywota. Dopiero teraz wybiła jej godzina. Królewna mogła się nareszcie odegrać za wszystkie poprzednie rozgoryczenia i zawody, za gnuśne bytowanie w cieniu”.
Po śmierci Batorego (1586) królowa pokrzyżowała plany wielkich europejskich rodów, doprowadzając do osadzenia na polskim tronie swojego siostrzeńca, Zygmunta III Wazy. A jednak „o rządzeniu marzyła nadaremnie. Siostrzeniec ani myślał dzielić się władzą z ciotką... Pozostawały Annie hafty, dzieła miłosierdzia, troska o własny dwór wdowi tudzież o należyty porządek nabożeństw”.
„Dawniejsi historycy – pisze Paweł Jasienica – wprost prześcigali się w ckliwości. Dobra, rozmodlona, nieziemska, urazy wybaczająca, niepomna krzywd... Infantka prawdziwa była ambitna, bardzo uzdolniona i nie mniej bezwzględna... Odrodziły się w królewnie nie tylko rysy twarzy pradziada, Jagiełły. Odziedziczyła również po nim chytrość, siłę woli, żądzę osobistego wyniesienia... Kiedy [w 1573 r.] panowie zjeżdżali do Warszawy na konwokację, przemierzała już Anna pięćdziesiąty rok żywota. Dopiero teraz wybiła jej godzina. Królewna mogła się nareszcie odegrać za wszystkie poprzednie rozgoryczenia i zawody, za gnuśne bytowanie w cieniu”.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 30, 2023
Patrząc całościowo o Annie Jagiellonce mało było mowy, prócz końca ponieważ praktycznie z rodu została sama więc skupiono na niej całą uwagę, do końca jej życia. Ale przynajmniej można zauważyć jak bardzo żyła w cieniu - tak jak to autor książki opisywał i podkreślał od samego początku.
January 7, 2023
This book is so well-written and so remarkably interesting, I stayed up long into the night to finish it. I have never seen a historian write with such engagement, wit, and, at times, sarcasm.
Can you end up with two epileptic wives? Yes, apparently, if you marry one epileptic Habsburg sister after the other. Mild family disagreements over Christmas dinner pale in comparison, when you consider Eric XIV of Sweden imprisoned his brother John, along with his wife and child; considered handing over said wife, a Polish Princess, to the Russian Tsar, who had plans, and when John requested an audience with his brother, Eric XIV agreed, but had the roads decorated with dead bodies of John’s supporters, for John’s viewing pleasure. In turn, when John became the Swedish king, he had Eric’s son banished to Poland, with the intention that the boy should never learn his true identity.
Who knew, Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland, exchanged gifts with his Italian mother, Bona Sforza, wearing gloves, or passed them through handkerchiefs, because – suspecting mommy-dearest poisoned his second wife – he feared, he’d be next.
Now this is the kind of Greek-tragedy-meets-Shakespeare history, I want to read about.
And let me clarify, this is not the kind of history they taught us at school. No, at school we recited dates of major land acquisitions from memory. Anything remotely interesting was carefully omitted.
In fact, as I read Jasienica, I realized, I must have heavily misjudged my high school history teacher. I believed her history lessons turned the classroom comatose, because she was an unimaginative middle-aged spinster without passion, without conviction, and without a life.
I see now, her teaching methods can’t have been simply a by-product of a dull personality. To take a subject as interesting as Polish history, and reduce it to the mindless, monotone dictation of dates and names, for the class to put down in their notebooks – now that takes talent, and, perhaps, a little bit of evil.
Can you end up with two epileptic wives? Yes, apparently, if you marry one epileptic Habsburg sister after the other. Mild family disagreements over Christmas dinner pale in comparison, when you consider Eric XIV of Sweden imprisoned his brother John, along with his wife and child; considered handing over said wife, a Polish Princess, to the Russian Tsar, who had plans, and when John requested an audience with his brother, Eric XIV agreed, but had the roads decorated with dead bodies of John’s supporters, for John’s viewing pleasure. In turn, when John became the Swedish king, he had Eric’s son banished to Poland, with the intention that the boy should never learn his true identity.
Who knew, Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland, exchanged gifts with his Italian mother, Bona Sforza, wearing gloves, or passed them through handkerchiefs, because – suspecting mommy-dearest poisoned his second wife – he feared, he’d be next.
Now this is the kind of Greek-tragedy-meets-Shakespeare history, I want to read about.
And let me clarify, this is not the kind of history they taught us at school. No, at school we recited dates of major land acquisitions from memory. Anything remotely interesting was carefully omitted.
In fact, as I read Jasienica, I realized, I must have heavily misjudged my high school history teacher. I believed her history lessons turned the classroom comatose, because she was an unimaginative middle-aged spinster without passion, without conviction, and without a life.
I see now, her teaching methods can’t have been simply a by-product of a dull personality. To take a subject as interesting as Polish history, and reduce it to the mindless, monotone dictation of dates and names, for the class to put down in their notebooks – now that takes talent, and, perhaps, a little bit of evil.
March 8, 2023
The book might in theory be about Anna Jagiellonka, however in truth her life serves as a pretext to present a big chunk of Polish history, starting with the reign of her father, going with her brother, the interregnum following his death and finishing with the elections of the next three kings.
I have long claimed (ok, for a bit over a year, so not THAT long) that instead of teaching children Polish history at school, they should be given Jasienica to read. I'm even more convinced that is the case now.
History teachers: Polish szlachta elected Henryk Walezy/Stefan Batory/Sigmund III Waza.
Reality/Jasienica: Let me tell you about these fascinating elections, full of backstabbing, feuding, leveraging, bribery, treason, blackmail, murder attempts, attempted coup and civil war, Turks, Habsburgs, Swedes, basically everyone including your grandmother influencing the elections... All this puts Game of Thrones to shame though if I put half of these events in a fantasy book, readers would say that I went over board and that it broke their suspension of disbelief.
And what about Gustav Ericson? A fascinating character that I have never heard about before!
Maybe the only downside of the book was that the first 15% of it was a long description of how Poland, its economy and society looked during the reign of the Jagiellonian king, which of course was necessary to provide the context for the book, however if someone was, like me for example, straight after reading "Jagiellonowie", some/most information here felt a bit repetitive.
Apart from that a truly great book with a wonderful cast of characters.
I have long claimed (ok, for a bit over a year, so not THAT long) that instead of teaching children Polish history at school, they should be given Jasienica to read. I'm even more convinced that is the case now.
History teachers: Polish szlachta elected Henryk Walezy/Stefan Batory/Sigmund III Waza.
Reality/Jasienica: Let me tell you about these fascinating elections, full of backstabbing, feuding, leveraging, bribery, treason, blackmail, murder attempts, attempted coup and civil war, Turks, Habsburgs, Swedes, basically everyone including your grandmother influencing the elections... All this puts Game of Thrones to shame though if I put half of these events in a fantasy book, readers would say that I went over board and that it broke their suspension of disbelief.
And what about Gustav Ericson? A fascinating character that I have never heard about before!
Maybe the only downside of the book was that the first 15% of it was a long description of how Poland, its economy and society looked during the reign of the Jagiellonian king, which of course was necessary to provide the context for the book, however if someone was, like me for example, straight after reading "Jagiellonowie", some/most information here felt a bit repetitive.
Apart from that a truly great book with a wonderful cast of characters.
August 21, 2024
Polecam!!! Narazie najlepsza książka jaką miałam okazję czytać od Jasienicy. Nawet, jeśli dotyczy historii Polski były momenty, w których się zaśmiałam na pomysły niektórych osób. Styl pisania autora również jak najbardziej na plus.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2021
About royal ladies and wives around historical background of Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.
Touching matter of kings and state, showing historical background of 16th century like on slides of paintings, like in books I do like to read.
Touching matter of kings and state, showing historical background of 16th century like on slides of paintings, like in books I do like to read.
April 26, 2025
Надзвычай цікавая і добрай мовай напісаная кніга пра асобу, якая ў нашай гісторыі ўвесь час у ценю і роля якой не ўсведамляецца. Адначасова складаецца ўражанне, што ніякіх шанцаў у Рэчы Паспалітай не было і ўсе наступныя праблемы былі прадвырашаны. Але, магчыма, гэта проста ўплыў стылю аўтара. Варта чытаць беларусам, бо ў нас распаўсюджаны надзвычай прымітыўныя ўяўленні пра ўласную гісторыю, і яны ўвесь час толькі пашыраюцца дзякуючы розным папулярызатарам, якія самі ў гэтай гісторыі разабрацца і не спрабавалі.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews