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``Piast “Piast the Wheelwright" Wheelwright” would eventually prevail over ``Piast “Piast the Honey Hunter" Hunter” in popular imagination, but during the royal election of 1669, the reference to Piast’s apiary wouldn’t have risen an eyebrow (even though an apiary is not the same thing as a wild-bee nest). A misconception that is still quite alive, though, is that ancient Slavs drank mead, or honey wine, on an everyday basis. In fact, mead has always been a luxury beverage, available only to the affluent and reserved for special occasions. It was beer, as in the original Piast story, that was the everyday thirst-quencher of the common folk.
clean up
{{data|28 June 2019}}
[[File:apis-mellifera-bee-beekeeping-56876.jpg|thumb|left|Bees on a honeycomb]]
Insects are rarely the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Polish cookery. This is despite the fact that honey bees have played a crucial role in traditional Polish (and not only) cuisine for centuries. Even in the oldest known description of Poland at the dawn of its history, written by the Sephardi traveler Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, we can read that Poland was a land full of grain, meat and honey.<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = Monumenta Poloniae Historica
| tom = I
| strony = 50
}}</ref> This opinion was echoed a century and a half later by an anonymous Gaulish monk who praised the country of the Slavs as abounding in ``milky cows"“milky cows”, ``fishy waters"“fishy waters”, ``wooly sheep" “wooly sheep” and ``honey“honey-flowing forests"forests”.<ref>{{Cyt
| nazwisko = Anonim tak zwany Gall
| inni = tłum. Roman Grodecki
| rok = 1975
| url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100107002245/http://www.zswsucha.iap.pl/STREFA_N/WiLeHi/lektury/kronika/0003.htm
}}</ref> Was this a reference to the Biblical ``land “land flowing with milk and honey" honey” or mockery made of the northern savages who, rather then feed on bread, wine and olive oil (like the civilized Mediterranean farmers did), made their living by hunting, gathering and herding? Hard to tell; perhaps it was a little bit of both. Anyway, my point is that it’s difficult to imagine Polish cuisine without honey cakes and honey-flavoured gingerbread, honey-sweetened tea, mead, and honey liqueurs, such as ''krupnik'' or ''krambambula''.
But the bees’ culinary role doesn’t stop at their sweet secretion. Poland is one of the world’s major producers of temperate-zone fruits largely thanks to these little fluffy workers in black-and-yellow stripes that tirelessly pollinate all those Polish apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach and apricot trees, not to mention berries, buckwheat, cucumbers and canola.<ref>{{Cyt
[[File:Zapylanie.png|thumb|Fruits and vegetables pollinated primarily by honey bees]]
While doing some research about the importance of these insects in the history of Poland, I came across the following little story in an ``encyclopedia" “encyclopedia” of sweets:
{{ Cytat
}} }}
You can see at the first glance that it’s one big pile of rubbish. It wasn’t the heir to the throne that was (usually) elected in Poland, but a new king after the previous one had died or resigned. The process was called an ``election"“election”, not ``selection"“selection”. And whatever one might say about the actual political power of Polish kings, it was still too important an office to leave the job of picking the right candidate to a bunch of insects. Besides, no one in Poland has ever heard of King ``Wiscionsky" “Wiscionsky” or a diamond bee in any of the crowns known to have been kept in the royal treasure vault. Yet, someone thought the story was credible enough to put it in a book with the word ``encyclopedia" “encyclopedia” in its title, so maybe there is a pollen grain of truth to it?
== A Drone on the Throne ==
[[File:Rubens Władysław Vasa (detail).jpg|thumb|upright|Prince Vladislaus Sigismund Vasa, the future King Vladislaus IV (reigned 1632–1648), as painted in 1624 by Peter Paul Rubens]]
So what’s the deal with the king elected by bees? Did any of the Polish monarchs have anything to do with these critters? Well, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' for example, in its 1911 edition, says that King Vladislaus IV, the ruler under whose reign Poland reached the peak of its power (which, if you think about it, means that the realm’s decline started under his watch), was known as the ``king “king of bees"bees”. So how did he earn this moniker?
{{ Cytat
{{ Cytat
| The king of Poland, in the exercise of all his public functions, is like a king of bees, who only brings honey to his subjects. {{...}} He has no sting whatsoever, as the lives, personal freedoms and property of the nobility are entirely outside the scope of his power.
| oryg = Jest więc król polski w swoich funkcjach publicznych całkowicie jakoby królem pszczół, który tylko miody przynosi swoim poddanym. {{...}} Żądła nie ma żadnego, gdyż życie, wolność osobista i mienie szlachty są jak najzupełniej wyjęte spod jego władzy.
| źródło = Paweł Piasecki, cyt. w: {{Cyt
}}, own translation }}
It’s true that drones, or male bees, have no stings; but they don’t produce honey either, so I’m not sure about the accuracy of this similë. But are we sure that Vladislaus IV was the same as the king in the election-by-bees story? Not really; neither the surname nor the first name check out. And even though Poland has never had a king by the name ``Wiscionsky"“Wiscionsky”, it did have one whose first name was Michael.
== Polling Pollinators ==
{{ Cytat
| Michael Wyscionsky received the Polish royal crown from the people, because during the royal election a swarm of bees sat on him.
| oryg = Michael Wiscionsky erhielt vom Volke die polnische Königskrone, weil sich während der Königswahl ein Bienenschwarm auf ihn setzte.
| źródło = {{Cyt
{{ Cytat
| When Prince Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki {{...}} rode to the royal election field at Wola outside Warsaw, he was accompanied not only by a numerous retinue, but also by a mighty swarm of bees, all the way to the place where the Primate of Poland proclaimed him king. It was seen as a propitious portent, which would later come true.
| oryg = Als der Fürst Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki {{...}} auf die Königswahlstätte Wola bei Warschau ritt, begleitete ihn außer seinem zahlreichen Gefolge ein mächtiger Bienenschwarm bis zum Platze, auf welchem ihn der Primas von Polen zum Könige ausrief. Es ward dies als eine glückliche Vorbedeutung angesehen, welche sich in der Folge auch bewahrheitet hat.
| źródło = ''Ibid.'', [http://digital.zbmed.de/apidologie/content/pageview/2361983 p. 218], own translation
[[File:King Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (reigned 1669–1673)]]
So, as you may have guessed by now, ``Michael Wiscionsky's" “Michael Wiscionsky’s” actual name was Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki (pronounced: {{pron|kaw|Rih|boot}} {{pron|vish|nyaw|vyets|kee}}). His election to the Polish throne 350 years ago was quite a surprise to pretty much everyone – not least to Prince Michael himself. His father, Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Palatine of Ruthenia, owned vast swaths of land in Ukraine and became a national hero by ruthlessly quelling a Cossack rebellion, but Michael inherited neither his father’s leadership skills nor his wealth. He wasn’t even considered a candidate right up to the point when he got elected.
Let’s go back 20 years, to the time after King Vladislaus IV’s death. Both his throne and his wife went to his half-brother (and maternal cousin), John Casimir Vasa. John Casimir never had enough patience to keep any job for long (his CV included stints as a commander of cuirassiers, a viceroy of Portugal, a Jesuit brother and a cardinal), but hung on relatively long on the Polish throne and under his former sister-in-law’s thumb. Until finally, grieved by Queen Marie-Louise’s death and disenchanted by the nobility’s opposition to his policies, he quit and moved to France, where he holed up in a Benedictine monastery until his death.
[[File:PL Gloger-Encyklopedja staropolska ilustrowana T.2 133-1.jpg|thumb|upright|Ground plan of the royal election field. The Senate, made up of bishops, ministers, palatines and castellans, convened in a special shed (''szopa''), while elected representatives of the nobility congregated inside a rectangular ditch known as the ``Circle “Circle of Knights" Knights” (''koło rycerskie''). Other nobles remained outside, grouped by palatinates (provinces).]]
The Polish political scene at the time was divided into two main factions, with different ideas for Poland’s foreign policy and its relations with Europe’s two major powers – the Habsburg Monarchy and France. The pro-French party initially supported two candidates for the throne vacated by John Casimir’s abdication – Prince Louis Bourbon, better known as the Grand Condé, and Prince Philip William Wittelsbach, Count Palatine of Neuburg. The pro-Habsburg faction, on the other hand, endorsed Duke Charles Leopold of Lorraine. The Grand Condé, famous as an accomplished military commander, was perhaps best suited for the job; which is probably why he was also the first to drop out of the race. As always in Polish politics, negative selection prevailed. It was now down to two contenders, neither of whom spared the expenses needed to bribe the senators (promises to the nobility could be made for free).
Where two are fighting, the third wins, as a Polish proverb goes. Eventually, the nobility got tired of the endless bickering among the senators and decided to take up the idea advocated by Crown Underchancellor Andrzej Olszowski to elect a so-called ``Piast"“Piast”. House Piast had been Poland’s first royal dynasty, back when the throne was still hereditary and not elective, but the idea was not to elect someone with actual Piast roots in his family tree (if this had been the case, then Charles Leopold would have stood a better chance, thanks to Cymburgis of Masovia, a Piast duchess who was his great<sup>8</sup>-grandmother in two different lines; besides, the last actual Piast, George William of Brieg, was still alive). The idea was simply to elect a native Pole rather than any of the foreign princes. The only question was, who specifically was to become this ``Piast" “Piast” king?
And this is when, according to the legend, a swarm of honey bees arrived in the election field and sat on the Polish-born Prince Michael and the nobles concluded that if the bees had already made their pick, then the rest was just formality. All the senators could do was to agree with the choice made by the bugs and the nobility, and thus a completely astonished Michael was proclaimed king.
{{ Cytat
| There was one more event, which was taken to foretell a propitious future; during the vote, a swarm of spring bees arrived from the east and settled among the nobles of Łęczyca Palatinate. And they were so gentle that when they dispersed, they bit no one and they soon flew out of sight. It was something to congratulate the king for, an incitement to hope for a felicitous fate.
| oryg = Było jeszcze inne zdarzenie, które wzięto za przepowiednię szczęśliwej przyszłości: oto podczas wotowania rój pszczół wiosennych, nadciągnąwszy od wschodu, usiadł był w zakresie województwa łęczyckiego, tak zaś był łagodny, że gdy pszczoły rozproszyły się, żadna nikogo nie ukąsiła i, wkrótce odlatując, znikły z oczu wszystkie razem; nie od rzeczy materia do powinszowań królowi, podnieta nadziei pomyślnego losu.
| źródło = {{Cyt
{{ Cytat
| <poem>This swarm confirms our verdict by auspicious omen,
Of good fortune foretelling a new golden era;
For when bees, so hard-working, around your name cluster,
Your King Michael, o Poland, brings honey aplenty.</poem>
{{ Cytat
| I spent the entire following day, the eve of the election, meeting with senators. I talked with the chaplain to Grand Crown Marshal John Sobieski, who told me that his master hadn’t written down the treaty yet, but he would trust my word. The real reason for the delay was that Lady Sobieska had forgotten to include her brother, Lord d’Arquien, in the treaty, and as the date of the election would fall on the feast of Corpus Christi, she wanted to postpone it by one day, so that she would have more time to haggle something out for her brother. The Palatine of Podolia [Aleksander Stanisław Bełżecki], whom she had enlisted into her service, could think of no other way to delay the election than to propose a Piast, that is, a native-born king. He imagined that the Crowners would never agree to a king from Lithuania, nor would the Lithuanians ever vote for a Crowner king;* that it would cause mayhem and put off the election, giving Sobieski’s wife the time to make me accept her conditions. Confident of this scheme, he left her and went to [meet the nobles of] his palatinate, whom he told that on his way he had been harassed by swarms of bees, which led him here, and that it surely meant that a Piast should be elected king, as these were the bees from Piast’s own apiary.
| oryg = Nazajutrz, w wigilię elekcji, cały dzień jeździłem po senatorach; widziałem się ze spowiednikiem M[arszałka] W[ielkiego] K[oronnego, Jana Sobieskiego], który mi powiedział, iż pan jego nie miał czasu przepisać traktatu, lecz że się spuszczał na słowo moje; prawdziwa spóźnienia przyczyna była, że pani S[obieska] zapomniała była umieścić w traktacie brata swego, P. d’Arq[u]ien, a że dzień elekcji przypadał w Boże Ciało, chciała ją odłożyć na dzień jeden, by mieć czas wytargować co dla brata. Wojewoda podolski [Aleksander Stanisław Bełżecki], którego sobie pozyskała, nie znalazł innego sposobu odłożenia tej elekcji, jak mianując Piasta, to jest króla rodaka. Wnosił on sobie, że gdy nigdy Polacy nie pozwolą na króla z Litwy, Litwini zaś na króla z Korony, że to sprawi zamieszanie, przynagli do odłożenia elekcji i da czas żonie S[obieskiego] wymuszenia na mnie żądanych kondycji. W tym zaufaniu w[ojewo]da, wychodząc od niej i przyjechawszy do [szlachty z] województwa swego, powiedział szlachcie, iż po drodze napadały go roje pszczół i prowadziły aż do nich, co nic innego nie znaczyło, tylko to, że trzeba wybrać Piasta za króla, pszczoły te bowiem są z pasieki Piasta.
| źródło = {{Cyt
As you can see, this was a very clever plot, but it didn’t quite work out. All because of possibly the greatest miracle in Polish history – the Poles immediately agreeing to elect a single common candidate, no other than Prince Michael Wiśniowiecki. It’s quite telling that, apart from this one incredible miracle, there is nothing supernatural in either of these accounts. A swarm of bees had come and gone, and it was up to the politicians to assign a symbolic meaning of their choice to a simple natural occurrence. Kochowski is actually quite straightforward about it:
[[File:Elekcja Michała.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Election of King Michael according to a German leaflet from 1669. A swarm of bees and a dove are visible above the seated senators, surrounded by armed noblemen.]]
{{ Cytat
| Wasn’t it due to blind fate rather than a miracle that the bees appeared on a beautiful spring day? Whether their numbers had grown and could no longer fit inside their hives, so that entire swarms went looking for new settlements, or they simply left the nest to gather honey in nearby fields, one can presume that only chance led them within the Circle, where they rested before flying on.
| oryg = Jeżeli bardziej ślepy traf aniżeli cud można było dać za przyczynę nadciągnieniu pszczół wylatujących w piękny dzień wiosenny – wtedy, kiedy pomnożona ich gromada nie może już w ulach się pomieścić, całe więc roje upatrują nowe dla siebie siedliska, albo, wypadłszy tylko z gniazda, zbierają miód na przyległych polach, nie bez zasady przypuszczenie, że jakiś przypadek mógł je zagnać w zakres koła elekcyjnego i że po wypoczynku spokojnie sobie odleciały…
| źródło = Kochowski, ''op. cit.'', p. 30, own translation }}
== Piast the Honey Hunter ==
It’s curious that the Palatine of Podolia purportedly made the association between the bees and ``Piast's “Piast’s own apiary"apiary”, expecting his listeners to recognize the reference. Today, most Poles would be more likely to identify Piast, the legendary progenitor of Poland’s native royal dynasty, as a wheelwright, rather than an apiarist. But let’s see what old chronicles have to say about Piast’s actual profession.
[[File:PL Gloger-Encyklopedja staropolska ilustrowana T.1 129a.jpg|thumb|upright|A honey hunter according to a 1900 ''Old Polish Encyclopedia''<ref>{{Cyt
| nazwisko = Gloger
| imię = Zygmunt
{{ Cytat
| There lived at that time in Krushvitsa a townsman named Piast, son of Koshichko, a honey hunter (or a wheelwright, according to some), a good, simple and just man. His wife, Repicha, had just given him a son, so he killed a hog and fermented a barrel of mead for a pagan naming ceremony. {{...}} There was at that time a great crowd in Krushvitsa and there was a shortage of food, so they went to Piast to buy some, but he would give away for free the pork and the mead he had prepared for the naming to anyone who came; and he had so much that they were all unable to drink all of the mead or eat all of the meat.
| oryg = Był na ten czas w Kruszwicy mieszczanin rzeczony Piast, syn Koszyczków, bartnik (drudzy piszą, iż kołodziej), człowiek dobry, prosty i sprawiedliwy; żonę jego zwano Rzepicha; któremu się na ten czas syn urodził. A tak zabił wieprza i beczkę miodu nasycił na mianowanie syna onego według pogańskiego obyczaju. {{...}} Lud wielki na ten czas był w Kruszwicy i nie mogli dostawać żywności kupić, tak że do tego Piasta chodzili w obyczaj kupowania żywności, ale on darmo dawał każdemu, kto do niego przyszedł, onego wieprzowego mięsa i miodu, co był na mianowanie narządził – tak mu sporo było, iż wszyscy nie mogli przepić onego miodu, ani mięsa przejeść.
| źródło = {{Cyt
}}, own translation }}
== A What-if Side Note ==[[File:Vatel.jpg|thumb|left|The famous Russian actor Zherar Depardyo played the title role in Roland Joffé's Joffé’s biopic ''Vatel'' (2000).]]
Two years after losing the Polish royal election, the Grand Condé suffered an even greater loss – his court chef, the famous François Vatel, committed suicide. It was on the third day of a great banquet, which Condé was giving to King Louis XIV at the castle of Chantilly. It was a Friday, a lean day, and the transport of fish was running late; for Vatel, who was responsible for managing the whole operation, it was a dishonour which only falling on his sword (three times!) could wash away.
Who knows, maybe if Condé had become king of Poland, then Vatel would have lived longer? Maybe he would have made his career at the Polish royal court and the invention he is traditionally credited for – sweetened whipped cream – would have been known as ''crème Varsovie'' rather than ''crème Chantilly''? Perhaps he would have met Stanisław Czerniecki (pronounced: {{pron|stah|nee|sWahf}} {{pron|cheR|nyets|kee}}), whom historian Karol Estreicher has dubbed ``the “the Polish Vatel"Vatel”? Czerniecki, author of the first cookbook printed in Polish, had served Prince Michael Wiśniowiecki for some time, before getting a job as the head chef to the Princes Lubomirski. The political rivalry between the Grand Condé and Prince Michael is one thing, but imagine how much more fascinating a culinary duel between Vatel and Czerniecki would have been!
[[File:Uczta koronacyjna.jpg|thumb|King Michael's Michael’s coronation banquet]]History took a different course, though. It was Michael who got the job as king of Poland, but not for long. He happened to be one of those Polish monarchs who loved to eat and drink well (and in copious amounts). Kochowski wrote that Michael was ``unrestrained “unrestrained in his consumption, {{...}} he drunk much more beer than wine, with salt, sugar and ginger."”<ref>{{Cyt
| nazwisko = Kochowski
| imię = Wespazjan
| rok = 1853
| strony = XIII
}}, own translation</ref> It was even said that when he got one thousand ``Chinese apples" “Chinese apples” (oranges) as a gift from the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), he sampled one, he liked it, so he had another one, then another, because why not, and suddenly it turned out that he had devoured the whole thousand by himself.<ref>{{Cyt
| nazwisko = de Salvandy
| imię = Narcisse-Achille
After Michael’s death, the Grand Condé tried his luck at a Polish royal election once more – and again with no luck. This time, Louis XIV preferred to endorse the loyal advocate of French interests in Poland and yet another great gourmet – John Sobieski.
== A Bee-Jeweled Crown ==We’ve still got the diamond-bee puzzle to figure out. You know, the diamond bee said to have decorated the crown of Polish kings ``to “to remind them that all virtues are to be found in the bee-state."”<ref>Ransome, ''op. cit.'', p. 174</ref> Somehow, this peculiar ornament isn’t mentioned by any expert on Polish crown jewels.<ref>{{Cyt
| nazwisko = Rożek
| imię = Michał
}}</ref> Of course, they only wrote about those Polish crowns that have survived to our times (not many) or that were listed in official inventories of the royal treasure vault. So could it be that one of the Polish monarchs had a private crown, not listed in the inventories, that was adorned with a diamond bee?
[[File:Crown jewels Poland 10.JPG|thumb|upright|A modern replica of the crown (the original has been destroyed) used for coronations of most Polish kings, from Vladislaus the Ell to Stanislaus Augustus. It's It’s nice, but can you see a bee here?]]
Here, too, we can trace the sources back to Bessler’s German-language ''History of Beekeeping'':
{{ Cytat
| In the crown which graced the heads of Polish kings there is a diamond bee. It is supposed to remind the rulers that all virtues are to be found in a healthy and vigorous bee state.
| oryg = In der Krone Polens, welche die Häupter de Polenkönige zierte, befindet sich oben eine Biene von Diamant. Dieselbe sollte die Herrscher an alle Tugenden erinnern, welche man in einem gesunden und tatkräftigen Bienenstaat trifft.
| źródło = Bessler, ''op. cit.'', p. 218, own translation
}}
But are there any Polish sources that mention the insect-shaped crown element? Not many, but here’s an excerpt from an article sent in from an anonymous ``apiarist “apiarist from the Eastern Borderlands" Borderlands” to the interwar magazine ''The Polish Beekeeper''. It mentions both Piast the Wheelwright-''cum''-Beekeeper and the diamond bee:
{{ Cytat
| Our Polish annalists speak of Piast the Wheelwright, his apiary and his hospitality, while historian J. Lelewel writes in his book ''Bees and Polish Honey Hunting'' that in the Polish crown there was once a diamond bee from the times of our first beekeeping king, as a symbol of the Polish nation.
| oryg = Nasi polscy dziejopisarze wspominają o Piaście kołodzieju, jego pasiece i gościnności, a zaś historyk J. Lelewel w książce swej „Pszczoła i bartnictwo polskie” podaje, że w Koronie Polskiej widniała pszczoła diamentowa jako pozostałość po pierwszym królu pszczelarzu i jako symbol narodu polskiego.
| źródło = {{Cyt
[[File:MBC w diamentowej sukience.jpg|thumb|upright|Our Lady of Częstochowa in her diamond dress, with the bee encircled in yellow]]
While looking for any other references to a diamond bee, I found something slightly different – a bee on the diamond dress of Our Lady of Częstochowa (pronounced: {{pron|chen|staw|Haw|vah}}). Also known as the Black Madonna, Our Lady of Częstochowa is Poland’s most sacred Catholic icon. For centuries it has been decorated with so-called ``dresses"“dresses”, or specially-cut metal screens covered with bejeweled cloth. The two oldest of such screens that have been preserved to our times are known as the ruby and the diamond dresses. The jewels that are sewn onto them are votive offerings gathered over the centuries at the Pauline monastery of Częstochowa, where the painting is kept. Many of these jewels are actually quite secular personal accessories that had been worn by kings, queens and aristocrats before they donated them to the Black Madonna. They come in many different shapes and sizes, including a few butterflies and one honey bee.
Even though the diamond dress is dominated by, you guessed it, diamonds, the bee itself is made of other gemstones. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the thorax is made of a square-cut emerald, while the abdomen is an elongated pearl with segmental grooves carved into it. It seems to be a kind of a sewn-on brooch made in Poland in the 17th or 18th century.<ref>{{Cyt
}}</ref> Before it was given to the monastery, could it have bedecked a royal crown? Unlikely. Could it grace some other part of royal vestments? More likely. Many of the ornaments found on Our Lady’s dresses are known to come from kingly gifts. No one seems to know for sure, but perhaps the emerald-and-pearl bee was an offering made by one of Polish kings or queens?
If you’d like to give it a closer look, then you’ve got a unique occasion to do so only until 4 August. For the first time in history, the diamond dress has left the confines of the monastery and you can admire it at the [https://arch.zamek-krolewski.pl/zamek-krolewski.pl/en/your-visit/archives/Jewels.html ``To “To Rule And To Dazzle"Dazzle”] exhibition at the Royal Castle of Warsaw.
{{Przypisy}}
[[Category: Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki]]
[[Category: Vladislaus IV Vasa]]
[[Category: Marie-Casimire d'Arquiend’Arquien]]
[[Category: Marie-Louise Gonzaga]]
[[Category: Piast]]
