Pacta conventa
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Pacta conventa
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For other uses, see Pacta conventa (disambiguation).
Pacta conventa (Latin for "articles of agreement") was a contractual agreement, from 1573 to 1764 entered into between the "Polish nation" (i.e., the szlachta (nobility) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and a newly-elected king upon his "free election" (wolna elekcja) to the throne.[1][2]
The document was drawn up by the convocation sejm.[3] The pacta conventa affirmed the king-elect's pledge to respect the laws of the Commonwealth and specified his undertakings and promises in such realms as foreign affairs, taxes, public debt, the military, and so on.[2] They varied from king to king, depending on whatever particular pledges he might have made.[2] An example of the various concrete undertakings found in a king-elect's pacta conventa is King Władysław IV Vasa's pledge to create a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy for the Baltic Sea.
In addition to his own unique pacta conventa, each king-elect was required to sign the Henrician Articles, a set of privileges named after the first king who signed them, Henry of Valois.[2] Unlike the pacta conventa, the Henrician Articles were constant and unchanging.[2] The distinction between the two documents gradually faded away over successive elections. Together, those two documents spelled out most of the key details of the Commonwealth political system.[2]
See also
Notes
- ^ Corwin, Edward Henry Lewinski (1917) The political History of Poland Polish Book Importing Company, New York, page 195, OCLC 626738
- ^ a b c d e f Juliusz Bardach, Bogusław Leśnodorski and Michał Pietrzak, Historia państwa i prawa polskiego (History of the Polish State and Law), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1987, pp. 216–7.
- ^ Jacek Jędruch (November 1982). Constitutions, elections, and legislatures of Poland, 1493-1977: a guide to their history. University Press of America. p. 74. http://books.google.com/books?id=Jl6OAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
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Pacta conventa
(Poland)
1573
(chronology)
Reformations in Eastern Europe: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox
(history 1450-1789)
Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania
(history 1450-1789)
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