Jan(ko) of Czarnków ( pl, Jan(ko) z Czarnkowa) (ca. 1320–1387), of

Nałęcz coat of arms ''Nałęcz'' () is a Polish heraldry, Polish coat of arms. It was used by associated ''szlachta'' families in the Kingdom of Poland (see Kingdom of Poland (1320–1385), and Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealt ...

, was a Polish chronicler,

Deputy Chancellor of the Crown Chancellor of Poland ( pl, Kanclerz - , from la, cancellarius) was one of the highest officials in the historic Poland. This office functioned from the early Polish kingdom of the 12th century until the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...

and

Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

Gniezno Gniezno (; german: Gnesen; la, Gnesna) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, ...

. He started his career as a diplomat in service of one of Polish bishops and later joined the Royal Chancellery. From 1366 to 1371 he was the Deputy Chancellor. After the death of

Casimir III the Great Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He w ...

in 1370, Janko supported

Casimir IV of Pomerania Casimir IV ( pl, Kazimierz IV or Kaźko Słupski, ger, Kasimir IV or Kasimir V ; 1351 – 2 January 1377) was a duke of Pomerania in Pomerania-Stolp since 1374. Life Casimir was the son of Bogislaw V, Duke of Pomerania and Elizabeth of Poland ...

against

Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 ...

. Losing the struggle with

Angevin Angevin or House of Anjou may refer to: *County of Anjou or Duchy of Anjou, a historical county, and later Duchy, in France **Angevin (language), the traditional langue d'oïl spoken in Anjou **Counts and Dukes of Anjou * House of Ingelger, a Frank ...

dynasty supporters, he was exiled in 1371, but returned in 1375. In the years 1377-1386 he wrote a

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

about the years 1370–1384 and events he witnessed. Some historians consider him the author of the

Chronicle of Greater Poland The ''Wielkopolska Chronicle'' (or ''Chronicle of Greater Poland'', pl, Kronika wielkopolska) is an anonymous medieval chronicle describing supposed history of Poland from legendary times up to the year 1273. It was written in Latin at the end ...

. The chronicle, now devoid of beginning and end, covers the period between 1370 and 1384. It has the characteristics of both a diary and an anti-Angevin political pamphlet.J. Szlachtowski Monumenta Poloniae Historica, vol. 2, 1872, (Polish translation: J. Żerbiłło titled The Chronicle of Janek from Czarnków, Warsaw 1905), manuscripts (9 copies) from the 14th and 15th centuries in libraries in: Krakow, Rome, Wrocław, Wilanów and Królewiec.

References

1320 births 1387 deaths Polish chroniclers 14th-century historians Canons of Gniezno 14th-century Polish nobility {{RC-clergy-stub