Peasants and the Mythical Origin of the Nation in Marcin Bielski’s and Marcin Kromer’s Chronicles

Abstract

The article analyses the founding myths contained in Marcin Bielski’s and Marcin Kromer’s chronicles regarding their depiction of peasants. The starting point here is a polemic with the widespread belief that in the Old Polish historiography, a myth of conquest justifying nobility’s power over the plebeians had been developed. Examining the initial parts of the chronicles proved that the myth of conquest did not appear in these two key monuments of Polish early modern historiography. As indicated and discussed in the article, Bielski and Kromer use other strategies to legitimise class divisions based on the foundation myths in their chronicles.