Editing Piła (section)

====City rights====
[[File:Kazimierz IV Jagiellonczyk (275186).jpg|thumb|upright|left|During the reign of King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]] Piła became a royal city of the Kingdom of Poland]]
Until 1480 Piła was a town owned by the nobility, belonging to Maciej Opaliński who later presented his holdings to King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]], at which time Piła became a [[royal city in Poland|royal town]]. Administratively it was located in the Poznań County in the [[Poznań Voivodeship (14th century to 1793)|Poznań Voivodeship]] in the [[Greater Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Greater Poland Province]] of the Kingdom of Poland.<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Atlas historyczny Polski. Wielkopolska w drugiej połowie XVI wieku. Część I. Mapy, plany|year=2017|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=Instytut Historii [[Polish Academy of Sciences|Polskiej Akademii Nauk]]|page=1a}}</ref> It is known that ten years later the burghers of the town were accused and penalized for tax evasion that had been occurring over a period of five years. However, King [[Sigismund I the Old]]—during whose reign immigration of numerous [[Jews]] from the [[Iberian peninsula]], [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]] and German states was encouraged—bestowed municipal rights upon the town of Piła on 4 March 1513, a landmark decision. This was an important achievement for Piła since it gave the burghers not only status, but also the rights to self-administration and its own judiciary. The administration of the town's affairs was now in the hands of three legislative bodies, elected from among the burghers. They were the council with the mayor, jury court and the elders of the guilds. Only the position of the [[Wójt]] remained in the hands of the crown or its deputy, the Starosta. The sovereign, however, remained the ultimate judge, warlord and owner of the land. Being free from the arbitrariness of a [[Castellan]] or of [[Wojewoda]] (governor of the province)—Piła's town folk took advantage of the town's privileges by owning property, carrying on any trade and enjoying the right to hold much needed [[Trade fair|market fairs]].