Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,[b] formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,[c] or simply Poland–Lithuania, was a bi-confederal[11] state, sometimes called a federation,[12] of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was one of the largest[13][14] and most populous countries of 16th- to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 km2 (400,000 sq mi)[15][16] and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million.[17][18] Polish and Latin were the two co-official languages, and Roman Catholicism served as the state religion.[3][19]
"Poland-Lithuania" redirects here. For other uses, see Poland-Lithuania (disambiguation).
Kingdom of Poland and
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Official:
Catholicism[3]
- Hereditary[4][5]
(1569–1572) - Elective[4][5][6]
(1573–1791)
(1792–1795) - Constitutional[7]
(1791–1792)
1 July 1569
5 August 1772
3 May 1791
23 January 1793[1]
24 October 1795[1]
815,000 km2 (315,000 sq mi)
1,000,000 km2 (390,000 sq mi)
8,000,000
The Commonwealth was established as a single entity by the Union of Lublin on 1 July 1569. The two nations had previously been in a personal union since the Krewo Agreement of 1385 and the subsequent marriage of Queen Jadwiga of Poland to Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania, who was crowned jure uxoris King of Poland.[20][21] Their descendant, Sigismund II Augustus, enforced the merger to strengthen frontiers of his dominion and maintain unity as he remained childless. His death in 1572 marked the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty and introduced an elective monarchy, whereupon members of domestic noble families or external dynasties were elected to the throne for life.
The state possessed an idiosyncratic system of governance and its Golden Liberty placed controls upon monarchical authority, a precursor to modern concepts of democracy.[22] Legislation was enacted by the General Sejm, a bicameral legislature (parliament) administered by the szlachta nobility, and the king was bound to comply with the constitutional principles dictated by the Henrician Articles. The country also maintained unprecedented levels of ethnic diversity and relative religious tolerance, guaranteed by the Warsaw Confederation Act of 1573,[23][24][d] though the degree of religious freedom was not always uniform and varied over time.[25] Poland acted as the dominant partner in the union.[26] Polonization of nobles was generally voluntary,[27][26] but Catholicism imposed across the large realm was met with resistance from some minorities.[28]
After several decades of prosperity,[29][30][31] the Commonwealth entered a period of protracted political,[19][32] military, and economic decline.[33] Its growing weakness led to its partitioning among its neighbours, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, during the late 18th century. Shortly before its demise, the Commonwealth adopted a major reform effort and enacted the 3 May Constitution, which was the first codified constitution in modern European history and the second in modern world history after the United States Constitution.[34][35][36][37]
Name
The official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Polish: Królestwo Polskie i Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie, Lithuanian: Lenkijos Karalystė ir Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė, Latin: Regnum Poloniae Magnusque Ducatus Lithuaniae). The Latin term was usually employed in international treaties and diplomacy.[38]
In the 17th century and later it was also known as the 'Most Serene Commonwealth of Poland' (Polish: Najjaśniejsza Rzeczpospolita Polska, Latin: Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae),[39] the Commonwealth of the Polish Kingdom,[40] or the Commonwealth of Poland.[41]
Western Europeans often simplified the name to 'Poland' and in most past and modern sources it is referred to as the Kingdom of Poland, or just Poland.[38][42][43] The terms 'Commonwealth of Poland' and 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów, Latin: Res Publica Utriusque Nationis) were used in the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations.[44] The English term Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and German Polen-Litauen are seen as renderings of the 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' variant.[38]
Other informal names include the 'Republic of Nobles' (Polish: Rzeczpospolita szlachecka) and the 'First Commonwealth' (Polish: I Rzeczpospolita) or 'First Polish Republic' (Polish: Pierwsza Rzeczpospolita), the latter relatively common in historiography to distinguish it from the Second Polish Republic.
While the term "Poland" was also commonly used to denote this whole polity, Poland was in fact only part of a greater whole – the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which comprised primarily two parts:
The Commonwealth was further divided into smaller administrative units known as voivodeships (województwa). Each voivodeship was governed by a Voivode (wojewoda, governor). Voivodeships were further divided into starostwa, each starostwo being governed by a starosta. Cities were governed by castellans. There were frequent exceptions to these rules, often involving the ziemia subunit of administration.
The lands that once belonged to the Commonwealth are now largely distributed among several Central and East European countries: Poland, Ukraine, Moldova (Transnistria), Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.[269][270] Also some small towns in Upper Hungary (today mostly Slovakia), became a part of Poland in the Treaty of Lubowla (Spiš towns).
Other notable parts of the Commonwealth, without respect to region or voivodeship divisions, include:
Commonwealth borders shifted with wars and treaties, sometimes several times in a decade, especially in the eastern and southern parts. After the Peace of Jam Zapolski (1582), the Commonwealth had approximately 815,000 km2 area and a population of 7.5 million.[237] After the Truce of Deulino (1618), the Commonwealth had an area of some 1 million km2 (990,000 km2) and a population of about 11 million.[238]
Statuta Regni Poloniae in ordinem alphabeti digesta (Statutes of the Polish Kingdom, Arranged in Alphabetical Order), 1563
Grand Marshal of the Crown Łukasz Opaliński portraited with the insignium of his power in the parliament – the Marshal's cane, 1640
Rococo iconostasis in the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, designed by Johann Christoph Glaubitz, 1753–1756
![18th century amber casket. Gdańsk patronised by the Polish court flourished as the center for amber working in the 17th century.[274]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Malbork_%28DerHexer%29_2010-07-14_067.jpg/150px-Malbork_%28DerHexer%29_2010-07-14_067.jpg)
Stanisław Poniatowski, Commander of the Royal Guards and Grand Treasurer. Painted by Angelika Kauffmann in 1786.
a. ^ Name in native and official languages:
b. ^ Some historians date the change of the Polish capital from Kraków to Warsaw between 1595 and 1611, although Warsaw was not officially designated capital until 1793.[280] The Commonwealth Sejm began meeting in Warsaw soon after the Union of Lublin and its rulers generally maintained their courts there, although coronations continued to take place in Kraków.[280] The modern concept of a single capital city was to some extent inapplicable in the feudal and decentralised Commonwealth.[280] Warsaw is described by some historians as the capital of the entire Commonwealth.[281][282] Wilno, the capital of the Grand Duchy,[283][284][285] is sometimes called the second capital of the entity.[286][287]
