Northern Extent of Settlement on the Wallachian Law in Medieval Poland

Abstract

The aim of this discussion was to study the northern border of the range of the Wallachian law in the Polish territories in the 15^th–16^th century. Single settlements governed by this law were observed in the regions of Sandomierz, Lublin, Chełm and the Old-Polish Voivodeship of Bełż, as well as in Volhynia. In the light of the arguments put forward in this article, the Wallachian settlement was losing its significance during the period in question and, as it was moving away from the mountainous areas, it was often only an addition to agricultural colonization. It played a more important role only in settling agriculturally unattractive and peripherally situated micro-regions. The situation of settling in agricultural villages individual Vlachs or their small groups occurred often. This was a sufficient reason for which these colonists were quickly undergoing processes of assimilation as well as ethnical and cultural integration with the local, most of all Ruthenian, surroundings. As the example of Lubycza situated in the voivodeship of Bełż shows, only few communities from these settlements managed for the longest period, until the 19^th century, to maintain and protect their legal distinction, which gave them a privileged position in comparison to peasants from the neighbouring, Ruthenian, villages.