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Royal elections in Poland

Royal elections in Poland (Polish: wolna elekcja, lit. free election) were the elections of individual kings, rather than dynasties, to the Polish throne. Based on traditions dating to the very beginning of the Polish statehood, strengthened during the Piast and Jagiellon dynasties, they reached their final form in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth period between 1572 and 1791. The "free election" was abolished by the Constitution of 3 May 1791, which established a constitutional-parliamentary monarchy.

Convocation sejm (Sejm konwokacyjny), called upon a death or abdication of a king by the Primate of Poland. Deputies would focus on establishing the dates and any special rules for the election (in particular, preparation of pacta conventa, bills of privileges to be sworn by the king) and on screening the candidates.[14] It was to last two weeks.[15]

[14]

Election sejm (Sejm elekcyjny), when the nobility voted for the candidate to the throne. It was open to all members of the nobility and so it often had many more attendees than a regular sejm.[16][17] The exact numbers of attendees were never recorded and are estimated to vary from 10,000 to over 100,000;[18] the usual numbers tended to be towards the lower end of the scale, around 10,000-15,000.[10] Subsequently, the voting could last days (in 1573, it was recorded that it took four days).[18] The entire sejm was to last six weeks.[15] To handle the increased numbers, it would be held in Wola, then a village near Warsaw.[14] Royal candidates themselves would be barred from attending the sejm but were allowed to send representatives.[18] Attending nobles would have discussed their preferences before attending the election sejm, during local sejmiks sessions, but often, matters came to a heated debate that would last days and could lead to fights and battles.[10] Norman Davies notes that "in 1764, when only thirteen electors were killed, it was said that the Election was unusually quiet."[10]

[14]

Coronation sejm (Sejm koronacyjny), held in , where the coronation ceremony was traditionally held by the Primate, who relinquished his powers to the chosen king.[19] It was to last two weeks.[15] The king-elect undertook various ceremonies and formalities, such as swearing an oath to uphold the pacta conventa and the Henrician Articles.[19] The coronation itself would take place in the Wawel Cathedral. The two exceptions were the Warsaw coronations of Stanisław I Leszczyński and Stanisław August Poniatowski (reigned as Stanisław II Augustus), both of which took place in Warsaw.[19]

Kraków

Three special sejms handled the process of the royal election in the interregnum period:[14]

Influence[edit]

The elections played a major role in curtailing the power of the monarch and so were a significant factor in preventing the rise of an absolute monarchy, with a strong executive, in the Commonwealth.[10] Most tellingly, one of the provisions of the pacta conventa included the right of revolution (rokosz) for the nobility if it considered the king not to be adhering to the laws of the state.[10]


While seemingly introducing a very democratic procedure, free elections, in practice, contributed to the inefficiency of the Commonwealth's government.[9] The elections, open to all nobility, meant that magnates, who could exert significant control on the masses of poorer nobility, could exert much influence over the elections.[9]


The elections also encouraged foreign dynasties' meddling in Polish internal politics.[9] On several occasions, if the magnates could not come to an agreement, two candidates would proclaim themselves the king and civil wars erupted (most notably, the War of the Polish Succession of 1733–1738, and the War of the Polish Succession of 1587–1588, with smaller scale conflicts in 1576 and 1697).[9][10] By the last years of the Commonwealth, royal elections grew to be seen as a source of conflicts and instability; Lerski describes them as having "become a symbol of anarchy".[6]

Golden Liberty

Elections in Poland

1573 Polish–Lithuanian royal election

in Warsaw

Electio Viritim Monument

(in Polish) Sebastian Adamkiewicz

Skąd się wzięła elekcja viritim?

(in Polish)

Wolne elekcje