Poitiers, or Poictiers. A town of France, capital of the department of Vienne, on the Clain, 58 miles south-southwest of Tours. In the vicinity of Poitiers, Alaric II., the Visigoth, was defeated and slain by Clovis in 507. Somewhere between Poitiers and Tours a great battle took place on October 10, 732, between the Franks under Charles Martel and the Saracens under Abder-Rahman. The Saracens were routed with enormous slaughter,—357,000 of them (according to one old chronicler, and supposed to be exaggerated) being left dead on the field. Near here was fought the battle between Edward the Black Prince and John, king of France, September 19, 1356, in which Edward, with some 12,000 or 14,000 Englishmen and Gascons, defeated 60,000 of the troops of King John, and took the monarch himself and one of his sons prisoners. See [Tours].
Poitou. A former province of Western France, now mainly comprised in the departments of Deux Sèvres, Vendée, and Vienne. It became an English possession in 1152. In 1204, Philip Augustus regained it by conquest from England, and in 1295 it was formally ceded to France. It again reverted to England in 1360 by the peace of Bretigny, but was retaken by Charles V., and incorporated with the French crown.
Poitrel (Fr.). Armor for the breast of a horse.
Pokanokets. See [Massachusetts Indians].
Poland. Called by the natives Polska, “a plain,” a former kingdom of Europe,—renowned, in mediæval history, as the sole champion of Christendom against the Turks, and more recently, and at present, an object of general and profound sympathy throughout Western Europe, from its unprecedented misfortunes. The natives belong to the great Slavonic family. The word Pole is not older than the 10th century. Poland first took rank as one of the political powers of Europe, when Micislas I. (962-992) occupied the throne and became a convert to Christianity. Boleslas I. (992-1025) surnamed “the Great,” reunited the separate portions of the kingdom (which had been divided by Micislas among his sons) and extended it beyond the Oder, the Carpathians, and the Dniester, and sustained a successful war with the emperor Henry II. of Germany, conquering Cracovia, Moravia, Lusatia, and Misnia. He also took part in the dissensions among the petty Russian princes. Boleslas was recognized as “king” by the German emperors. After a period of anarchy he was succeeded by his son, Casimir (1040-1058), whose reign, and that of his warlike son, Boleslas II. (1058-1081), though brilliant, were of little real profit to the country. Boleslas III. (1102-1139), an energetic monarch, annexed Pomerania, defeated the pagan Prussians, and defended Silesia against the German emperors. A division of the kingdom among his sons was productive of much internal dissensions, under cover of which Silesia was severed from Poland; ultimately, Casimir II. (1177-1194) reunited the severed portions, with the exception of Silesia. His death was the signal for a contest among the various claimants for the throne, which was speedily followed, as usual, by a division of the country, and during this disturbance Pomerania emancipated itself from Polish rule. About the same time the Teutonic Knights were summoned by the Duke of Masovia to aid him against the pagan Prussians, but they soon became as formidable enemies to Poland as the Prussians; and conquered a great part of Podlachia and Lithuania. The Mongols swept over the country in 1241, reducing it to the verge of ruin, and defeating the Poles in a great battle near Wahlstatt. From this time Poland began to decline; various districts were ceded to the markgrafs of Brandenburg, while many districts began to be colonized by Germans. Ladislaus (1305-1333), surnamed Lokietek, “the Short,” again restored unity to the country. In conjunction with Gedymin, grand duke of Lithuania, a vigorous war was carried on against the Teutonic Knights, on returning from which the aged monarch (he was now seventy years old) experienced a triumphant reception from his subjects, who hailed him as the “father of his country.” His son, Casimir III. the Great (1333-1370), greatly increased the power and prosperity of Poland. In the latter part of his reign he was compelled to defend sundry new acquisitions against the Tartars, Lithuanians, and Wallachians, which he did successfully. With Casimir, the Piast dynasty became extinct. Jagello (Ladislaus IV.), grand duke of Lithuania, the son-in-law of Louis the Great, king of Hungary, founded the dynasty of the Jagellons (1386-1572), and for the first time united Lithuania and Poland. Casimir IV. (1444-1492) recovered West Prussia from the Teutonic Knights. The Wallachian invaders carried off 100,000 Poles, and sold them to the Turks as slaves, 1498. Sigismund I. (1506-1548) surnamed “the Great,” raised the country to the utmost pitch of prosperity; he was forced into a war with Russia, in which he lost Smolensk. Sigismund II., Augustus, was a successor worthy of him; Lithuania was finally joined indissolubly to Poland. Livonia was conquered from the Knights Sword-bearers. (See [Sword-bearers, Knights].) Stephen Battory (1575-1586), voivode of Transylvania, the second elective monarch, a man of energy and talent, carried on war successfully against the Russians, pursued them into the very heart of their own country, and compelled the czar to sue for peace; he also subdued the semi-independent Cossacks of the Ukraine. His successor, Sigismund III. (1586-1632), who was succeeded by his sons, Ladislaus VI. (1632-1648) and John Casimir (1648-1672), was of the Vasa family, and was the crown prince of Sweden. These three monarchs were most unworthy successors of Poland’s ablest king. They were always quarreling with their neighbors, declaring war with Russia, Sweden, or Turkey, in the most imprudent and reckless manner, and often without valid pretext. But the Polish armies, though as little fostered and cared for as the other portion of the nation, were everywhere victorious; the Swedish and Muscovite armies were successively annihilated; Moscow was taken, and the Russians reduced to such an abject condition that they offered to make Sigismund’s son, Ladislaus, their czar. Sweden made a similar offer to another son of the Polish monarch; but the latter’s absurd behavior lost for Poland this rich result of her great victories; and the foolish policy of the whole three not only rendered fruitless all the lavish expenditure of Polish blood and treasure, but lost the country many of her richest provinces, and left her without a single ally. During the reign of this dynasty Wallachia and Moldavia were snatched by the Turks from under the Polish protectorate; Livonia with Riga was conquered (1605-1621), along with a part of Prussia (1629) by Sweden; and Brandenburg established itself in complete independence. The Cossacks rose in rebellion to a man, put themselves under the protection of Russia, and ever afterwards proved themselves the most inveterate enemies of the Poles. In the reign of John Casimir, Poland was attacked simultaneously by Russia, Sweden, Brandenburg, the Transylvanians and the Cossacks; the country was entirely overrun; Warsaw, Wilna, and Lemburg taken; but Czarniecki, after defeating Poland’s enemies in detail, ignominiously expelled them from the country. But in subsequent treaties Ducal or East Prussia was given up to Brandenburg; almost all Livonia to Sweden, and Smolensk, Severia, or Tchernigov, and the Ukraine beyond the Dnieper were given to Russia. During the reign of Michael Wisniowiecki (1668-1674) a war with Turkey, concluded by an ignominious peace, was the chief event. But the senate rejected the shameful treaty, the Polish army was reinforced, the Polish monarch resigned the command to John Sobieski, and the Turks were routed with great slaughter at Choczim (1673). After the reign of Sobieski, Augustus II. of Saxony entered Poland at the head of a Saxon army, and succeeded in obtaining the throne. His war with the Turks restored to Poland part of the Ukraine and the fortress of Kaminiec; but that with Charles XII. brought nothing but misfortune. Augustus returned after the battle of Poltava; his rival retired without a contest; a close alliance was formed with Russia, and the Russian troops which had campaigned in Poland against the Swedes were, along with his Saxon army, retained. The Poles demanded their extradition, but in vain; and the Russian cabinet interfered (1717) between the king and his subjects, compelling both parties to sign a treaty of peace. This was the commencement of Poland’s dependence on Russia and her consequent decline. By the instigation of Peter the Great, the Polish army was reduced from 80,000 to 18,000. For the massacre of Protestants at Thorn see Massacre. Civil war so weakened the kingdom that it fell an easy prey to Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in 1772, when the first partition was effected. Catherine II. of Russia, on various pretexts, advanced her army into Poland (1792), and the fruitless resistance to the united Prussians and Russians, headed by Joseph Antony Poniatowski and Kosciusko, was followed by a second partition (1793) between Russia and Prussia, which the diet were forced to sanction at the point of the bayonet. A general rising took place (1794); the Prussians were compelled to retreat to their own country; the Russians were several times routed; but an Austrian army advanced, compelling the Poles to retreat; and fresh hordes of the Russians arriving, Kosciusko at the head of the last patriot army, was defeated; and the sack of Praga, followed by the capture of Warsaw, finally annihilated the Polish monarchy. The third and last partition (1795) distributed the remainder of the country between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. King Stanislaus resigned the crown, and died broken-hearted at St. Petersburg in 1798. Napoleon I. established the duchy of Warsaw (1807), chiefly out of the Prussian share of Poland, with the elector of Saxony at its head. The division of Poland was re-arranged by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On November 30, 1830, Constantine (brother of the czar and military governor) and his Russians were driven out of Warsaw, and a general insurrection of the people, headed by the aristocracy, took place; and military leaders, as Radzivil, Dembinski, Bem, etc., were soon found. From January, 1831, till September 8 of the same year, a series of bloody conflicts were fought, in which the Prussians and Austrians, with pitiable subservience, aided the czar. At first, the Poles were successful; but the taking of the capital by Paskievitch soon ended the war, which was followed, as a matter of course, by imprisonment, banishment, confiscation, and enforced service in the Russian army. From this time, the independence of Poland was suppressed, and in 1832 it was declared to be an integral part of the Russian empire, and the most severe and arbitrary measures taken to Russianize the people. The outbreaks of 1833 and 1846 were punished by the gallows. Simultaneous disturbances (1846) in the Prussian and Austrian portions of Poland were summarily suppressed; their leaders in Prussia were imprisoned, and only saved from death by the revolution of March, 1848, at Berlin; and those in Austria were butchered by the peasantry, who preferred the Austrian to a national government. On November 6, 1846, the republic of Cracow was incorporated with Austria. In 1861 another insurrection broke out, and Poland was declared (in October) in a state of siege; the country continued in a state of commotion without any very decided outbreak; and on January 13, 1863, Lithuania and Volhynia were also put in a state of siege. In February, 1863, Mieroslavski raised the standard of insurrection in the northwest, on the Posen frontier, and many districts of Augustovo, Radom, Lublin, Volhynia, and Lithuania, were speedily in insurrection. It was a mere guerrilla war, and no great or decisive conflicts took place, but the whole populations of villages were put to the sword by the Russians; while murders and assassinations marked the reign of terror of the National Committee. At last, with the officious assistance of Prussia, and the secret sympathy and support of Austria, the czar’s troops succeeded in trampling out (1864) the last embers of insurrection. In 1868 the government of Poland was absolutely incorporated with that of Russia.
Polans. Knee-pieces in armor.
Pole. See [Ordnance, Carriages for, Nomenclature of Artillery Carriage].
Poleaxe. An axe fixed to a pole or handle; or rather, a sort of hatchet with a handle about 15 inches in length, and often a point or claw bending downward, or projecting from the back of its head. It was formerly used by mounted soldiers.
Polemarch. In Grecian antiquity, was originally the commander-in-chief, but afterwards, a civil magistrate who had under his care all strangers and sojourners in the city.
Pole-pad. A pad placed on the end of the pole in field-gun carriages to prevent injury to the horses.