Ksiezna Kazimiera of Krolestwo Zachodnie (Polish)

A Concept Drawing of Polish Woman Warrior in the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited, which is roughly based on the Middle ages covering 800 AD to 1400 AD. Her faction, roughly translated as Kingdom of West (I wanted to use Bigos but...since Poland lies on the western frontier of Slavic World, I decided to name that), represents the historical Medieval Kingdom of Poland under both the Piast Dynasty as well as agiellon dynasty, before its integration into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Inspired by the Music: Lacrimosa & Preliator

Disclaimer: I am by no means expert in History, just a humble man with passion for learning history. Also, English is not my first language so if you do find any errors or would like to make a correction/feedback, please feel free let me know



There's something bout Poland that just caught my attention when I started the Historically Wrong Sketch Series. It could be because of their Polish Winged Hussars, tasty Kielbasas or perhaps, that leftover taste from eating Bigos the other day. Either way, historically speaking, Poland has always been seen a land rampaged with troubles for many centuries, which is rather true especially during the era of the great Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But for every large nation, there's always a humble beginning, and for the Polish people, it was a story of some insignificant West Slavic tribes, who converted themselves into humble Christian Kingdom and finally, one of the largest nation in Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.



I find there's little record of Polish Women that took part in warfare during the middle ages except for King Jadwiga , but perhaps there could be one or two material worth to read. Afterall, the region was, in times, pretty volatile to warrant anyone taking up arms to fight raiders and invaders.

In this drawing, Kazimiera Jerzyowska, Duchess of Mazovia, is depicted in..well, a form of segmented plate armor inspired by the drawings by Jan Matejko. Regardless of the artistic license and inacuracy, perhaps the most notable part of this drawing would be the shield, which I've seen to be depicted quite often in drawings depicting Polish/Mazovian knights during the middle ages. Also, I've heard somewhere that the Poles also used falchions, or something similar to over-sized butcher knives, so I've included it in the depiction as well (I forgot to draw the scabbard -_-)....and yes...I've included some Polish kielbasas in the shield design and heraldic just because I was pretty hungry when I was drawing this.

Most people know Poland through their famous Winged Hussars, whose artistic depiction can be pretty much found as easily as finding recipes for Golabki (hehe…). But I have to admit, when it comes to the Polish Knights in the medieval period, I found it challenging to find a very distinct attires that gives the Polish flavor, as most depictions show them wearing same/similar armor to their German and eastern Slavic neighbors....or maybe I haven't done my research properly. Nevertheless, thanks to the inspiring Jan Matejko’s artworks, I can finally make this sketch to happen.

The drawing depicts Kazimiera in a battle scene, with the units behind here drawn in mix attires. The infantry on the far left is drawn with typical western European armor and kettle helmet, while Kazimiera's retainer right behind her is portrayed with a tall conical helmet and eastern lamellar armor. On the background, I have included the two tower (one is destroyed) based on Malbork Castle, one of the most important base of Teutonic Knights in Royal Prussia.

A thousand thanks for ugiel for the correction and historical commentaries as well as Myrth1 for his historical feedback!




The history of Poland is an interesting topic to study in my opinion. We all know that in the late 16th - 17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the most powerful nation in Europe. But before the Commonwealth was born, Poland had humble beginning in the medieval period. Pre-middle ages history was a bit obscure, but in late 10th century the region was referred to as Civitas Schinesghe in the document called Dagome Iudex, which historians pointed out as the region inhabited by the western Slavic tribe called Polans.

When Duke Mieszko I of Piast Dynasty converted into Christianity, the Polish people and their sovereignty joined the family of Christian Powers in Europe under the leadership of Pope. The early Christian Polish state was ruled by dukes, but when Bolesław I The Bravewas crowned the first king of Poland, Europe would soon discover that the new kingdom of Poland was born, the one which would eventually shake the balance of powers in the history of Eastern Europe.

Under the Piast dynasty, Kingdom of Poland was relatively "peaceful" but was often becoming a target of raids of the neighboring Baltic tribes. The internal situation of the kingdom of Poland itself was pretty fragile, especially between 1138-1295 AD, since the Kingdom had no single ruler and many of its powerful dukes from the Piast dynasty were often in conflict with each other to gain power in this Kingdom. Then, in this troubled time, one of Poland's powerful duke, Konrad of Mazovia, decided independently to invite the Teutonic Order into the region, since he had pretty serious problem with the other dukes as well as the pagan Prussians who threatened his northern border.

The Teutonic order did their job properly in "pacifying the pagans" as intended to be, although the whole affair would later turned into a wholesale genocide of the Baltic tribes. When the Polish people realized that the Knights of Teutonic Order were actually carving their own power base, it was already too late. After devastating most of the Baltic region, the order turned their eye on Poland, which, by this time, was struggling due to succession crisis and the weakening power of the Piast rule. The takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) marked the beginning of Polish-Teutonic conflicts for the next few centuries.

But, everything changed a lot when king Kazimierz III The Great died leaving no heir and Jadwiga was installed as Poland's King in 1384-1385 AD. By this time, the Baltic tribe had united under the single banner, in the form of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Lithuanian nobles and its duke, Jogaila (later known as Władysław II Jagiełło) knew that eventually they would have to convert to Christianity to avoid further crusades or worst, launched against their people in the future. Jogaila accepted the Poland's proposal to marry him with Jadwiga, and in the 1385, the two nation was brought together into a personal union. The two union would later continue to combat the threat of the Teutonic order and reduced it to negligible power in the region.

However, by this time, the Russians under the Grand Principality of Moscow (Muscovite) had became independent from the Mongol Rule. The newly created state and its ruler were quite ambitious, and with their military might, they succeeded in annexing most of their neighbors, including Novgorod. The Muscovite expansion did not go unnoticed however, and the threat was strongly felt by the Lithuanians. A movement for co-operation and stronger bond to preserve the union amidst external threat, as well as internal threat, was therefore needed, and in 1569, the two union decided to merge under the union of Lublin, transforming the two state into Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the birth of one of Europe's most dynamic, powerful and influential state in our history.