Rzeszów, 1498: “until we know clearly whether Augustyn is alive”

The entry, as printed

Gsa. Zophia virgo, germana soror gsi. Augustini heredis de Staromyescze … super gsum. Petrum heredem de Rzeschow, qualiter ipse Petrus violenter intromitteret se in bona gsi. Augustini, qui remansit in terra Moldaviae in conflictu ibidem infelici … Que autem superflua essent videlicet census et alii proventus cum pecuniis … debet reservari et reponi in loco pacifico et congruo sub testimonio bonorum hominum tamdiu, donec de vita aut morte predicti Augustini clare resciemus.

In English

The noble maiden Zofia, own sister of the noble Augustyn, heir of Staromieście … [complained] against the noble Piotr, heir of Rzeszów, that the said Piotr was entering by force into the estates of the noble Augustyn, who remained in the land of Moldavia, in the unhappy battle there … And whatever is surplus, namely rents and other income together with money … is to be set aside and kept in a quiet and fitting place, with good men as witnesses, until we know clearly of the life or death of the said Augustyn.

The expedition he did not return from

In the autumn of 1497 King John Albert led a great expedition into Moldavia. It ended in defeat: the retreating army was broken up in the forests of Bukovina, and many noblemen never came home. The Przemyśl castle-court books of the following months are full of traces of that campaign. In March 1498 one man even sues over his horse, “a chestnut with a blaze”, taken from him “in the Moldavian war”.

One of those who did not return was Augustyn, heir of Staromieście. Staromieście is the site of the old stronghold from which Rzeszów grew; according to Wikipedia, the lords of Rzeszów lived there in the 15th century, in a fortified manor. Augustyn also held part of the town itself.

A sister, a wife and a small boy

On 15 January 1498 Zofia, “a maiden, own sister of Augustyn, as the lawful heiress”, came before the office of Mikołaj Kresa, starost of Przemyśl. She complained that Piotr, heir of Rzeszów, had entered her brother's estates by force — the brother “who remained in the land of Moldavia, in the unhappy battle there”.

Piotr answered that he had taken nothing and accepted no guardianship: “only this did lord Augustyn ask of me, entrusting to me his boy together with his wife for their keep and care.” But no such guardianship had ever been set up before the office. So the starost gave the estates to Zofia, and she, with the consent of her kin, chose Mikołaj Radochoński as guardian. The same day the starost set a bond of a thousand marks between Radochoński and “Piotr Rzeszowski and his brothers”, so that they would keep the peace.

The ruling ends with a sentence that captures those months. Barbara, Augustyn's wife, was to stay on the estate with the boy and be given everything they needed. The surplus — rents, other income and money — was to be set aside in a quiet place, with witnesses, “until we know clearly of the life or death of Augustyn”. Three months after the battle, nobody in Przemyśl knew whether the heir of Staromieście was alive.

Councillors who would not obey

There was no peace. In March Radochoński complained that Piotr had driven him off by force when he was to be put in possession of Staromieście “and of part of the town of Rzeszów”. Piotr's attorney replied that his lord had done violence to no one.

On 6 July 1498 the castle court heard a case against “the provident toll-collector and councillors of the town of Rzeszów”, who had refused to obey their guardian and lord, put in possession “by royal authority” of the estates of “the late lord Augustyn”. They were fined fourteen marks, the royal penalty, as disobedient. The deputy wójt and the peasants of Staromieście were treated the same way. In January the court was still waiting for news; by July it speaks of Augustyn as dead.

On 20 August the starost, “by the special command of His Royal Majesty”, sent his deputy burgrave with servants and a court usher to put Radochoński in possession of Augustyn's estates “with the last arm of royal power” — in Rzeszów, in Staromieście and in the estates around. They were not let in. The fine fell on Jarzyna and Hieronim Jagiełka, whose summonses were delivered to the manor at Staromieście.

According to Wikipedia, the town council of Rzeszów was appointed every year by the lord of the town. Whom the councillors took for their lord in 1498, the records do not say.

The son and the mill, 1502

Augustyn never came back. On 11 July 1502 his son Jan Rzeszowski, “an orphan not yet of age”, was before the court in Przemyśl. The case was about a mill in Rzeszów, his father's share. Augustyn had once pledged it to Jan Sopichowski and then, “before the unhappy Moldavian battle”, redeemed it for 140 Hungarian gold florins. When Augustyn “remained there”, Sopichowski took the mill again.

The matter ended at the cross. Sopichowski agreed to give up the mill if the orphan's guardian swore that the money had been paid. When everyone had already gone “to the cross to hear the oath”, he released Radochoński from the oath, admitted that he had received the whole sum, and handed the mill over to him as the boy's guardian. Most likely this was the same boy whom Augustyn had entrusted to Piotr before the campaign.

What is known and what is not

Wikipedia's articles “Rzeszów”, “Historia Rzeszowa” and “Staromieście” do not mention Augustyn or what happened in the town in 1498. We have not checked Adam Kamiński's study of the first two centuries of Rzeszów (1958) or the first volume of “Dzieje Rzeszowa” (1994); the town's historians may know these records.

We do not know exactly how Piotr was related to Augustyn: the records call him “heir of Rzeszów” and mention his brothers, and the town itself was then divided between several branches of the Rzeszowski family. Nor do we know how the dispute over the share of the town ended.

Sources

• Akta grodzkie i ziemskie, vol. XVII (Lwów, 1901), p. 348, nos. 2980–2981 (15 January 1498); p. 350, nos. 2990 and 2995 (March 1498).
• Ibid., p. 355, nos. 3031–3033 (6 July 1498); p. 356, no. 3046 (August 1498); p. 357, no. 3048 (20 August 1498).
• Ibid., pp. 400–401, no. 3401 (11 July 1502).
• Polish Wikipedia, articles “Rzeszów”, “Historia Rzeszowa”, “Staromieście (Rzeszów)”, as of 30 October 2026.

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