The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic, was a federative real union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, existing from 1569 to 1795. This state was among the largest and most populated countries of 16th- to 17th-century Europe. At its peak in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth spanned nearly 1,000,000 km2 (390,000 sq mi) and supported a multi-ethnic population of approximately 12 million as of 1618. The official languages of the Commonwealth were Polish and Latin, with Catholicism as the state religion.
The Polish Golden Age was the Renaissance period in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, roughly corresponding to the period of the Jagiellonian dynasty (1386-1572). Some historians argue that the Polish Golden Age continued into the mid-17th century, when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was ravaged by the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–57) and by the Swedish and Russian invasion. During its Golden Age, the Commonwealth became one of the largest kingdoms of Europe and at its peak stretched from modern-day Estonia in the north to Moldavia in the south and from Moscow in the east to Brandenburg in the west.
Golden Liberty, sometimes referred to as Golden Freedoms, Nobles' Democracy or Nobles' Commonwealth was a political system in the Kingdom of Poland and, after the Union of Lublin (1569), in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Under that system, all nobles (szlachta), regardless of rank, economic status or their ethnic background were considered to have equal legal status and enjoyed extensive legal rights and privileges. The nobility controlled the legislature and the Commonwealth's elected king.
The Henrician Articles or King Henry's Articles were a constitution in the form of a permanent agreement made in 1573 between the "Polish nation" and a newly-elected Polish king and Lithuanian grand duke upon his election to the throne. The Articles were the primary constitutional law of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
A konfederacja was an ad hoc association formed by Polish–Lithuanian szlachta (nobility), clergy, cities, or military forces in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for the attainment of stated aims. A konfederacja often took the form of an armed union aimed at redressing perceived abuses or trespasses of some authority. Such "confederations" acted in lieu of state authority or to force their demands upon that authority. They could be seen as a primary expression of direct democracy and right of revolution in the Commonwealth, and as a way for the nobles to act on their grievances and against the state's central authority.
Royal elections in Poland 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.
The Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite Commonwealth was a proposed state that would have been based on a personal union between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. A number of serious attempts by various means to create such a union took place between 1574 and 1658 and in the late 18th century, but it never materialized because of the incompatible demands from both sides.
The Repnin Sejm was a Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1767 and 1768 in Warsaw. This session followed the Sejms of 1764 to 1766, where the newly elected King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, attempted with some successes to push through reforms to strengthen the government of the Commonwealth. These reforms were viewed as dangerous by Poland's neighbors, who preferred a weak Commonwealth and did not want to see it threaten their own political and military aspirations. The Russian Empire sent ambassador Nikolai Repnin, who became the driving force behind the Sejm proceedings. The Repnin Sejm marked one of the important milestones in increasing Polish dependence on the Russian Empire, and turning it into a Russian protectorate. This dependent position was bluntly spelled out in Nikita Ivanovich Panin's letter to King Poniatowski, in which he made it clear that Poland was now in the Russian sphere of influence.
Jakub Uchański (1502–81), of Radwan coat of arms, was a Polish clergyman and statesman, archbishop of Gniezno and primate of Poland from 1562 to 1581, interrex from 1572 to 1573 and from 1574 to 1575.
Mikołaj Sienicki of Bończa was a member of the nobility of the Kingdom of Poland. He held the office of chamberlain of the land of Chełm and was a notable politician of his period. Considered a skilled Polish political orator, he also held the title of marshal of the Sejm nine times. A Protestant, near the end of his life he became a member of the Polish Brethren and one of the major initiators of, and contributors to the Warsaw Confederation, which introduced new laws of religious tolerance in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, on a scale unimaginable in contemporary Europe.
Radom Confederation was a konfederacja of nobility (szlachta) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth formed in Radom on 23 June 1767 to prevent reforms and defend the Golden Liberties. It was formed by Russian envoy to Poland Nicholas Repnin and backed by the Russian Imperial Army as a response of Catholic nobility to the earlier Protestant confederations of Slutzk and Toruń, approximately 74,000 nobles declared their support for Radom Confederation.
The 1632 free election in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth commenced between September 27 and November 8, 1632. It then extended to November 13, 1632. The election sejm elevated Władysław IV to the Polish throne. Władysław had won the support of most of the political factions; and in the absence of any other serious contenders, he was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
The early modern era of Polish history follows the Late Middle Ages. Historians use the term early modern to refer to the period beginning in approximately 1500 AD and lasting until around the Napoleonic Wars in 1800 AD.
The free election of 1573 was the first ever royal election to be held in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It gathered approximately 40,000 szlachta voters who elected Henry of Valois king.
The rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Poland between 1386 and 1572 spans the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in European history. The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila founded the dynasty; his marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland in 1386 strengthened an ongoing Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast territories controlled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for both the Polish and Lithuanian people, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.
The history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648) covers a period in the history of Poland and Lithuania, before their joint state was subjected to devastating wars in the mid-17th century. The Union of Lublin of 1569 established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state, replacing the previously existing personal union of the two countries. The Union was largely run by the Polish and increasingly Polonized Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobility, through the system of the central parliament and local assemblies, but from 1573 led by elected kings. The formal rule of the nobility, which was a much greater proportion of the population than in other European countries, constituted a sophisticated early democratic system, in contrast to the absolute monarchies prevalent at that time in the rest of Europe.[a]
Protestantism in Poland is the third largest faith in Poland, after the Roman Catholic Church (32,440,722) and the Polish Orthodox Church (503,996). As of 2018 there were 103 registered Protestant denominations in Poland, and in 2023 there were 130,000 Protestants in the country.
Hieronim Ossoliński,, coat of arms Topór, was a Polish statesman, kasztelan of Sandomierz and Wojnicz, a delegate to the Sejm of 1569 and one of the signatories of the Union of Lublin, which formally united Poland and Lithuania into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ossoliński was a Calvinist, and a leader of Protestants in the province of Małopolska during the reign of king Zygmunt August. Ossoliński was also one of the leaders of the Executionist movement, which sought to reform 16th century Polish politics.
The free election of 1587 was the third royal election to be held in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which took place after the death of King Stefan Batory. It began on June 30, 1587, when Election Sejm was summoned in the village of Wola near Warsaw, and ended on December 27 of the same year, when King Sigismund III was crowned in Kraków’s Wawel Cathedral.
The Counter-Reformation in Poland was the response (Counter-Reformation) of Catholic Church in Poland to the spread of Protestantism in Poland. Counter-Reformation in Poland lasted from the mid-16th century until the mid-18th century and ended with the victory of the Catholic Church, which succeeded in significantly reducing the influence of Protestantism in Poland.
