Orosze i inni. Niższa służba dworska królewicza Zygmunta Jagiellończyka

ENWhen describing the entourage of rulers and their families, historians usually deal with the most important groups of courtiers who play a significant role in public life, boasting major careers and a perceived influence on events. Much less attention is paid to the lower servants of the rulers, who remained in the shadow of the titled courtiers and made no particular mark on history. The rank-and-file members of the monarch’s entourage escape even the definitions of the court proposed in historiography. Whichever definition we take to be correct, they don’t fit into any of them, mainly due to the difficulty of assigning them a place in society considered appropriate for courtiers. Neither historic parenetic literature nor contemporary texts by historians include them in the presented personal models of the men of the court. Literature overlooked the lower servants and focused on the daily service of the rulers and the fulfilment of mundane duties. They shared the fate of ordinary people living on the sidelines of history. In this article, I intend to provide some insight into the lower servants working at the court of Prince Sigismund the Jagiellonian between 1493 and 1506 (later Sigismund I the Old). Out of a large group of approx. 259 people employed at his court, the following are analysed herein: orosze, skivvy, cooks, drążny, cupboard servants, bath attendants, washerwomen, coachmen, coachman aides, cart keepers, shooter and hunters. I must point out, however, that little is known of them, and the sources treat them enigmatically and instrumentally. They left no significant testimony concerning their activity, although their work was essential and necessary. Information about them is limited to records in the court accounts.