Confirmation of a grant

Translated letter:

Since it is a pious lesson and from divine authority for those justly and reverently pondering the resurrection of the dead, to provide subsidies of alms for the sake of the relief and full absolution of souls, I, Bolesław Duke of Sandomierz, the son of Leszek the Duke of Kraków and Sandomierz, with the approval and assent of my mother Gremislava and of my barons, grant to the abbey of Jędrzejów and to the brothers serving God there for the soul of my father of pious memory, for my and my mother’s salvation, a village which is called Chańcza, and another which is called Boruchna, above [p. 9] the Czarna [river] adjoining Chańcza, and a third [village] above the Nidzica [river], which is called Beleuiz [Belewice [?]]. [I make this grant] to be possessed by perpetual right for perpetual alms with all the appurtenances of the same villages, namely with woods, with cultivated and uncultivated lands, meadows, waters, and with all their profits in hunting, in fishing, in beavers, in honey making, in birds and all the rest, just as [they] are delineated by boundary-marks and boundaries both by my order and through my baron Strzeżek with the approval and assent of [his] heirs and neighbours, indicating to those present and future that I have granted prescribed limits so freely that no one at all may touch them later, nor be permitted to sell or also to claim anything in that place.  
Moreover, since it please to set these my alms wholly free from every plaint, I confer liberty of every kind to the said villages, so plainly, that their inhabitants— whether they be freemen or serfs — should be totally exempt from every court of castles, nor be summoned before the palatine nor before any castellan, or before their judges, but only before the duke and this by his letter and seal. Nor should they pay poradlne, nor stróza, or cow,* which is called ‘the duke’s.’ Nor should they lead pouoz, nor pay the toll in my land. Nor should they go to castles, either for building as for fortifying or even plastering. We also render them totally free and immune from campaigns and from all exactions and payments. So that, however, this my donation should remain firm forever, I have strengthened this present charter by my seal and my mother’s.  These things were done in Skała, in the presence of the noble lord Duke Henryk of Silesia, and such barons: Adam son of Leonard, Strzeżek, pedagogus Przybysław, chaplain Mikuł, magister Bogusław son of Stefan, in the year of the Lord 1235.

Original letter:

Cum sit pium et divinae authoritatis exemplum, iuste et religiose de resurrectione cogitatibus defunctorum elemozynarum subsidia ob remedium et plenam absolutionem impendere animarum, ego Boleslaus dux Sandomiriae, filius Lestconis ducis Cracouiae et Sandomiriae, laude et assensu dominae Grimislauae matris meae et baronum meorum contuli coenobio Andreoviensi et fratribus ibidem Deo servientibus pro anima patris mei piae memoriae, pro salute mea et matris meae villam, quae vocatur Chencza, et aliam, quae vocatur Boruchna, super Czarnam, Chenczae contiguam et tertiam super Nidziczam, quae vocatur Beleuiz, cum omnibus pertinentiis earundem villarum, videlicet silvis, terris cultis et incultis, pratis, aquis et omnibus utilitatibus earum in venationibus, piscationibus, castoribus, mellificiis, avibus et caeteris, ad  perpetuam eleemozynam iure perpetuo possidendas, sicut et de mandato meo per baronem meum Strzesiconem laude et assensu haeredum et vicinarum signis et graniciis sunt terminatae, significans presentibus et futuris me tam libere contulisse, ut nulli omnino hominum in posterum illic contingat, nec liceat quidquid vindicare, aut etiam reclamare.  
Porro, quoniam placuit hanc eleemozynam meam ab omni quaerela penitus expedire, omnimodam dictis villis imperpetuum confer libertatem, ita plane, quod incolae earum ab omni iure castrorum totaliter sunt exempti, sive sint liberi, sive servi, nec citentur coram pallatino, nec coram castellano aliquo, nec coram eorum iudicibus, sed tantum coram duce et hoc eius litteris et sigillo. Nec solvent poradlne, nec strosam, nec uaccam,* quae ducis dicitur. Nec ducant pouoz, nec solvat theloneum in terra mea. Nec eant ad castra, tam aedificanda,  quam munienda, vel etiam linienda. De expeditionibus etiam et omnibus exactionibus et solutionibus eos totaliter reddimus liberos et immunes. Ut autem haec mea donation firma maneat in aeternum, praesentem cartam sigilli mei matrisque communivi. Acta sunt haec in Scala, praesente nobili principe domino Henrico duce Zlesiae et talibus baronibus: Adam filio Leonardi, Strezessicone,  Pribislao paedagogo meo, Miculone capellano, magistro Boguslao filio Stephani, anno Domini M.CC. XXXV. 

Historical context:

Gremislava confirms with her son Bolesław V the villages of Chańcza, Borucha and Bielewice to the Cistercian monastery of Jędrzejów along with immunities from ducal judgement.  The original charter is lost and the text is known only from the early seventeenth-century cartulary of Jędrzejów.
The text and translation was provided by Talia Zajac, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library.

Scholarly notes:

*  Piotr Górecki noted in a private communication to Talia Zajac that cattle could be used as a payment in kind in thirteenth-century Poland.

Printed source:

Stanisław Kuraś and Irena Sułkowska-Kuraś, eds., Zbiór dokumentów małopolskich, Część 4: Dokumenty z lat 1211-1400 (Wrocław/Warszawa/Kraków: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich/Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1969), no. 874, 8 –9.

Date: