Rawa Voivodeship

Rawa Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo Rawskie) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland since 15th century until the partitions of Poland in 1795. It was part of the Province of Greater Poland. Together with the Plock and Masovian Voivodeships it formed the former Duchy of Masovia.

Rawa Voivodeship Palatinatus Ravensis Województwo rawskie
Voivodeship of Poland¹
1462–1793
Coat of arms
The Rawa Voivodeship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1635.
Capital	Rawa Mazowiecka
Area
• 1578	6,200 km2 (2,400 sq mi)
Population
• 1578	138700
History
• Established	1462
• Second partition	25 September 1793
Political subdivisions	Three lands divided into 6 counties
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Masovia South Prussia
¹ Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland. The kingdom was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569.

The voivodeship had its capital in the town of Rawa Mazowiecka, and its origins date back to the second half of the 15th century. In 1462, after the deaths of local Piast dynasty dukes, Mazovian lands of Rawa and Gostynin were incorporated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1476, the Land of Sochaczew returned to Poland as well. Borders of Rawa Voivodeship remained unchanged for more than 300 years, until the second partition of Poland in 1793, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. Rawa Voivodeship had four senators in the Senate of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. These were the Voivode of Rawa, the Castellan of Rawa, and the castellans of Sochaczew and Gostynin. Local starostas resided in Rawa, Sochaczew and Gostynin.

Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland provides this description of Rawa Voivodeship:

“In the 15th century, the Duchy of Mazovia, ruled by local branch of the Piast dynasty, was divided into three parts, one of which was the Duchy of Rawa (...) On January 1, 1462, Siemowit VI died at the age of eighteen. A few weeks later, his teenage brother Wladyslaw II also died. Siemowit VI was the Duke of Plock and Rawa, and after his death, King Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk decided to incorporate the Duchy of Rawa, making it the first part of Mazovia that returned to Poland (...)

Rawa Voivodeship had the area of 92 sq. miles. It was divided into three lands: those of Rawa, Sochaczew and Gostynin. Each land was divided into two counties. The lands were of roughly the same size, and in the mid-16th century, whole voivodeship had 100 Roman Catholic parishes and 15 towns (...) Sejmiks took place at Rawa, Sochaczew and Gąbin, during which two deputies to the Sejm, and two deputies to the Greater Poland Tribunal were elected (...) Rawa Voivodeship shared its coat of arms with Plock Voivodeship”.