The Sejm, officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The national flag of Poland consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red. The two colours are defined in the Polish constitution as the national colours. A variant of the flag with the national coat of arms in the middle of the white fess is legally reserved for official use abroad and at sea. A similar flag with the addition of a white eagle is used as the naval ensign of Poland.
Pospolite ruszenie was the wartime mobilisation of all or a specific part of able-bodied male population of the state into armed forces during the period of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The tradition of wartime mobilisation of part of the population existed from before the 13th century to the 19th century. In the later era, pospolite ruszenie units were formed from the szlachta. The pospolite ruszenie was eventually outclassed by professional forces.
Under the French Ancien Régime, a parlement was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the original and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. Though both the modern French term parlement and the English word "parliament" derive from this French term, the Ancien Régime parlements were not legislative bodies and the modern and ancient terminology are not interchangeable.
Jan Amor Tarnowski was a Polish nobleman, knight, military commander, military theoretician, and statesman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. He was Grand Crown Hetman from 1527, and was the founder of the city of Tarnopol, where he built the Ternopil Castle and the Ternopil Pond. The first Count of the Holy Roman Empire in the Tarnowski family (1547).
This article discusses the organizational and administrative structure of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
A sejmik was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of Poland, though they gained significantly more influence in the later era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sejmiks arose around the late 14th and early 15th centuries and existed until the end of the Commonwealth in 1795, following the partitions of the Commonwealth. In a limited form, some sejmiks existed in partitioned Poland (1795–1918), and later in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). In modern Poland, since 1999, the term has revived with the voivodeship sejmiks, referring to the elected councils of each of the 16 voivodeships.
Hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were the highest-ranking military officers, second only to the King, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The first Polish title of Grand Crown Hetman was created in 1505. The title of hetman was given to the leader of the Polish Army and until 1581 it was awarded only for a specific campaign or war. Later it became a permanent title, as did all the titles in the Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It could not be revoked unless treachery had been proven. Hetmans were not paid for their services by the Royal Treasury.
Marszałek was the title of one of the highest officials in the Polish royal court since the 13th century, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the 15th century. It was the highest-ranking of all court officials and was considered the most important advisor to the King of Poland.
Silent Sejm, also known as the Mute Sejm, is the name given to the session of the Sejm parliament of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of 1 February 1717 held in Warsaw. A civil war in the Commonwealth was used by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great as an opportunity to intervene as a mediator. It marked the end of Augustus II of Poland's attempts to create an absolute monarchy in Poland, and the beginning of the Russian Empire's increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.
The General Sejm was the bicameral legislature of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was established by the Union of Lublin in 1569 following the merger of the legislatures of the two states, the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was one of the primary elements of the democratic governance in the Commonwealth. The sejm was a powerful political institution. The king could not pass laws without its approval.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the Republic of Poland. It is located in the Krasiński Square, Warsaw.
The Constitutional Tribunal is the constitutional court of the Republic of Poland, a judicial body established to resolve disputes on the constitutionality of the activities of state institutions; its main task is to supervise the compliance of statutory law with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
The Pavlyuk uprising of 1637 was a Cossack uprising in Left-bank Ukraine and Zaporizhia headed by Pavlo Pavliuk against the abuses of the nobility and magnates of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The uprising was sparked by several Cossacks expelled from the Cossack Registry. Pavliuk ordered the captured commanders of the Registered Cossacks to be executed and issued a declaration, in which he proclaimed a fight against the masters. Defeated by the forces of Mikołaj Potocki in the Battle of Kumeyki in 1637, he was brought to Warsaw, tried and executed. The uprising was bloodily quelled, only to restart the following year in the form of the Ostrzanin Uprising, also defeated by the Commonwealth.
Osadniks were veterans of the Polish Army and civilians who were given or sold state land in the Kresy territory ceded to Poland by Polish-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty of 1921. The Polish word was also a loanword that was used in the Soviet Union.
The Constitution of the Polish People's Republic was a supreme law passed in communist-ruled Poland on 22 July 1952. It superseded the post-World War II provisional Small Constitution of 1947, which in turn replaced the pre-war April Constitution of 1935.
The Lithuanian Civil War of 1697–1702 refers to the conflict between the powerful Sapieha family, which dominated the internal affairs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the anti-Sapieha coalition, so-called Republicans or Confederates. The latter were composed of opposing noble families that disliked Sapieha family's hegemony in the country. The szlachta was mostly on the side of the Republicans as they were angry at Sapieha's abuse and the taxes imposed on them to finance the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, which was mostly loyal to the Sapiehas.
The judiciary of Poland are the authorities exercising the judicial power of the Polish state on the basis of Chapter 8 of the Constitution of Poland. As in almost all countries of continental Europe, the Polish judiciary operates within the framework of civil law.
The military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth consisted of two separate armies of the Kingdom of Poland's Crown Army and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army following the 1569 Union of Lublin, which joined to form the bi-conderate elective monarchy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The army of each country was commanded by their respective Hetmans. The most unique formation of both armies were the Winged hussars. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy never played a major role and ceased to exist in the mid-17th century.
Sylvester Simeon Hulevych-Woyutinsky, also known as Semen Hulevych-Woyutinsky, Symeon Hulevych of Woyutin or Simon Hulevych, of the Nowina coat of arms was the first Orthodox bishop of Przemyśl after the restitution of the Orthodox Church in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a writer in Lutsk from 1628 to 1636.
