THE NEW LAW, which not only Ruthenian subjects but also all the subjects of Władysław II Jagiełło had been waiting for (the agreement between the king and the nobility on the recognition of one of Władysław's sons as a future king), represented a watershed in the life of the Podolian Voivodeship, the new part of the Crown. Established in 1434, it encompassed the territory, which included cities and castles in Kamyanets, Smotrych, Skala, Chervonohrod, and Bakota. It overlapped with Spytek of Melsztyn's possessions at the end of the fourteenth century and part of the Podillya under the king's power from 1402 to 1410 (see Chapters 5 and 7). Not all of these cities remained the centres of castle counties. Bakota, the first capital of Ponyzzya, was destroyed after the combat, and its status as the county capital was rather nominal after the ceasefire of the 1430s (Figure 6).

The dissemination of the Crown law and the establishment of a new voivodeship raised the question of supplying it with officials, those who would govern the territory on behalf of the king and the local nobility. According to the Crown law, only those who had landholdings in a voivodeship were allowed to be appointed to govern there— that is, they had to live in the corresponding voivodeship. Up to this time we have known only about such officials as starostas, the representatives of a ruler, and the castle voivodes. Later, the office of the starosta of Kamyanets, which will be discussed further, would play a central role in the voivodeship, undermining two high-ranking positions in the voivodeship hierarchy: the voivode of Podillya and the castellan of Kamyanets.

The introduction of offices according to Crown law practices required the establishment of at least one District Court, a judicial body with the offices of district judge, deputy district judge, and district scribe. The list of district offices also includes a chamberlain, lord of the army (wojski), standard-bearer, cup-bearer, master of the hunt, sword-bearer, and esquire carver/ steward. This more or less standard list of district offices formed the hierarchy of officials, among whom the chamberlain (one who chaired a Chamberlain Court and had jurisdiction over the disputes concerning the estate borders) was considered the principal one.