
762 document 33 (1560)
woods, forests, waters, and many lands, as well as the prots and revenues,
wherever anything ows or comes in, [that] belong to the great king.
Having taken counsel in this matter with our older son, the qalga sultan,
14
with
other sultans [Pol. carowiczami], the ulans, beys, and our mirzas, of the Crimea,
of Perekop, and from among the Nogays, who loyally serve us, we have rmly
sworn our oath in desire to remain for centuries in loyal, true, and good friend-
ship with our brother Sigismund Augustus, the great king and the grand duke
of Lithuania. And our sons should remain in mutual brotherly friendship with
their descendants. And we should be a friend of his friends, and wherever his
enemy appears, we should jointly face and ght this enemy.
And whichever castles, estates, and lands our enemy, the duke of Muscovy
treacherously took under his hand in the times of the ancestors of the great
king, our brother: Casimir and his brother
15
Alexander—the great kings of glo-
rious memory, and King Sigismund, the father of Augustus, [thus taking them
away] from the state of the king, our brother, if we—having invoked God’s
help—take any of these castles from his hands, [then] we, Devlet Giray Khan,
our older son, the qalga sultan, and all of our other sons, the sultans, and
the ulans, beys, and mirzas, should restore these castles, estates, lands, waters,
revenues, and all their prots, taken with God’s assistance from the hands of
the Muscovian [duke], to our brother, the great king Sigismund Augustus. And
when he needs help against his enemy and lets us know it through his envoy or
courier, we personally, and our son, the qalga sultan, and all our sultans [i.e.,
other Giray princes], wish to assist him along with all our troops, from now on,
and also in the future, we will assist [him].
And as some evil people have deviated from our oath, taken by our ancestors
and us, stirring enmity between us and causing damages, now we leave it aside,
as our ancestors used to, and we should not fret about it or hold it in our heart,
and we should entirely release it from our heart, so that our friends may rejoice
and be happy on seeing such a friendship between us.
And we, Devlet Giray Khan, having great authority in our state, have oered
our brother, the great king Sigismund Augustus, to eternally remain in good
and loyal friendship with us and our descendants, and we allow anything
that is customary among friends. [erefore] the merchants from the Polish
Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania may freely buy and sell in our state,
and freely come and depart, without any fear of anybody. Having paid the
ancient toll, they should not be hampered in any matter. And they may travel
to Kačybej to take salt, while paying the toll according to the ancient custom;
and they may come for salt from Kiev, Luc’k, and other castles, guarded by our
14
I.e., Mehmed Giray, the son of Devlet Giray and the future khan (r. 1577–1584);
in 1555 he replaced in the post of qalga his younger brother, Ahmed, killed during a
campaign against Muscovy (cf. Document 32, n. 15).
15
Alexander was Casimir’s son, and not brother; in the earlier yarlıqs, granted to
Sigismund I, this fragment referred to Alexander as the king’s late brother; it was
mechanically copied in the instruments from 1552 (cf. Document 32, n. 16) and
1560, whose scribe tried to “correct” it by referring to Alexander as the brother of
Casimir.