The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Golden Liberty

 

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and known after 1791 as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a dualistic state, a bi-confederation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch, who was both the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania. 

It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th- and 17th-century Europe. The map illustration shown above sets out the territories of this state across the modern European borders of Poland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, the Ukraine and Moldova. At its peak in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth spanned almost 400,000 square miles (1,000,000 km2) and sustained a multi-ethnic population of 11 million.

The Commonwealth was established by the Union of Lublin in July 1569, but the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been in a de facto personal union since 1386 with the marriage of the Polish queen Hedwig and Lithuania's Grand Duke Jogaila, who was crowned King jure uxoris Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland. 

The First Partition of Poland in 1772 and the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 greatly reduced the nation's size and the Commonwealth disappeared as an independent state following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.

The Union possessed many features unique among contemporary states. Its political system was characterized by strict checks upon monarchical power. These checks were enacted by a legislature, known as the sejm, that was controlled by the nobility, known as the szlachta.

The general sejm was the bicameral (two chambers) parliament of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth established by the Union of Lublin in 1569 from the merger of the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Seimas of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. It was one of the primary elements of the democratic governance in the Commonwealth. The sejm was a powerful political institution and the king could not pass laws without the approval of that body.

The Union of Lublin

Another significant aspect of this form of governance was the the szlachta, a legally privileged noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Samogitia and the Zaporozhian Host. 

It originated and gained considerable institutional privileges between 1333 and 1370 in the Kingdom of Poland during the reign of King Casimir III the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown Kingdom of Poland, the existing Lithuanian-Ruthenian nobility formally joined this class. As the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) evolved and expanded in territory, its membership grew to include the leaders of Ducal Prussia and Livonia.

The origins of the szlachta are shrouded in obscurity and mystery and have been the subject of a variety of theories. Traditionally, its members were owners of landed property, often in the form of "manor farms" or so-called folwarks. The nobility negotiated substantial and increasing political and legal privileges for itself throughout its entire history until the decline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century.

During the Partitions of Poland from 1772 to 1795, its members began to lose these legal privileges and social status. From that point until 1918, the legal status of the nobility was essentially dependent upon the policies of the three partitioning powers: the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Monarchy. The legal privileges of the szlachta were legally abolished in the Second Polish Republic by the March Constitution of 1921.

The notion that all Polish nobles were social equals, regardless of their financial status or offices held, is enshrined in a traditional Polish saying:

Szlachcic na zagrodzie
równy wojewodzie. 

The noble on the croft
Is the commander's equal.

This idiosyncratic system was a precursor to modern concepts of democracy, constitutional monarchy, and federation. Although the two component states of the Commonwealth were formally equal, Poland was the dominant partner in the union.

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was marked by high levels of ethnic diversity and by relative religious tolerance, guaranteed by the Warsaw Confederation Act 1573: however, the degree of religious freedom varied over time. 

Nevertheless, there were in the west and north, many cities that had sizable German minorities, often belonging to Lutheran or Reformed churches, and the Commonwealth had one of the largest Jewish diasporas in the world – by the mid-16th century 80% of the world's Jews lived in Poland.

 

However, by the time of the Constitution of 1791 it was acknowledged that Catholicism was the "dominant religion", unlike the previous settlement in the Warsaw Confederation, and although, freedom of religion was still granted with it, this represented a growing hegemony in politics, religion and national identity.

 Original act of the Warsaw Confederation 1573. First act of religious freedom in Europe.

Historian Norman Davies has written that:

“Certainly, the wording and substance of the declaration of the Confederation of Warsaw of 28 January 1573 were extraordinary with regards to prevailing conditions elsewhere in Europe; and they governed the principles of religious life in the Republic for over two hundred years."

This extraordinary political, cultural and socially progressive historical period is not part of a contemporary trans-European narrative. Such a narrative, if it were allowed to emerge, goes against the modern grain of a view of Europe where the western European powers project an image of their own supposedly superior values and the origins in these values in the "Enlightenment".

The right to worship freely was a basic right given to all inhabitants of the Commonwealth throughout the 15th and early 16th century. Complete freedom of religion was officially recognized in Poland in 1573 during the Warsaw Confederation.

That Poland has a long tradition of religious freedom is important to understand in the complex dynamics of recent developments among the various cultural environments emerging in the eastern countries of Europe.

Poland kept religious freedom laws during an era when religious persecution was an everyday occurrence in the rest of Europe. The Commonwealth was a place where the most radical religious sects, trying to escape persecution in other countries of the Christian world, sought refuge. In 1561 Bonifacio d’Oria, a religious exile living in Poland, wrote of his adopted country's virtues to a colleague back in Italy:

“You could live here in accordance with your ideas and preferences, in great, even the greatest freedoms, including writing and publishing. No one is a censor here."

Cardinal Hosius, the papal legate to Poland, with a different point of view, said of this situation in Poland: "This country has became a place of shelter for heretics”.

The social position of the landed noble class, the szlachta, was, however, associated with Catholicism. To be Polish, in the non-Polish lands of the Commonwealth, during this golden era was much less about ethnicity than of religion and rank. The szlachta, which included Poles, but also many members of non-Polish origin, converted to Catholicism in increasing numbers with each following generation, for such conversion meant a final step of Polonization that followed the adoption of the Polish language and culture.

Poland, as the culturally most advanced part of the Commonwealth, with the royal court, the capital, the largest cities, the second-oldest university in Central Europe (after Prague), and the more liberal and democratic social institutions had proven an irresistible magnet for the non-Polish nobility in the Commonwealth. From the 16th century many referred to themselves as "gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus" (Ruthenian by blood, Polish by nationality). 

Ruthenians and Ruthenes are English-language exonyms which were used in the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the ancestors of modern East Slavic peoples, Rus' people with Ruthenian Greek Catholic religious background.

Along with Lithuanians and Samogitians, Ruthenians constituted the main population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which at its fullest extent was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia.

From the 9th century, the "land of the Rus'", known later as Kievan Rus', was known in Western Europe by a variety of names derived from Rus'. From the 12th century, Rus' was usually known in Western Europe by the name Ruthenia, particularly to indicate the Kyivan Ruthenian lands that were distinct from that of Russia. In its broadest usage, "Ruthenians" or "Ruthenes" referred to peoples which were ancestors of modern Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns and Ukrainians.

As a result, in the eastern territories of the Commonwealth a Polish (or Polonized) aristocracy dominated a peasantry whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. Decades of peaceful rule brought huge colonization efforts to the lands we now know as Ukraine, but heightening the tensions among nobles, Jews, Cossacks (traditionally Orthodox), Polish and Ruthenian peasants. The peasant classes, deprived of their native protectors among the Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to Cossacks, and, in turn, that facilitated the outbreaks of violence that in the end broke the Commonwealth. 

These tensions were aggravated by conflicts between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Greek Catholic Church following the Union of Brest, overall discrimination of Orthodox religions by dominant Catholicism, and several Cossack uprisings. 

Until the Reformation, the szlachta were mostly Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. However, many families quickly adopted the Reformed religion. After the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church regained power in Poland, the szlachta became almost exclusively Catholic, despite the fact that Catholicism was not a majority religion (the Catholic and Orthodox churches counted approximately 40% of the population each, while the remaining 20% were Jews and members of various Protestant churches).

The Republic at the Zenith of Its Power. Golden Liberty. The Royal Election of 1573.

The Commonwealth reached its Golden Age in the early 17th century. Its powerful parliament was dominated by nobles who were reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years' War; this neutrality spared the country from the ravages of a political-religious conflict that devastated most of contemporary Europe. The Commonwealth was able to hold its own against Sweden, the Tsardom of Russia, and vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and even launched successful expansionist offensives against its neighbors.

This was the time known as "Golden Liberty".

The political doctrine of the Commonwealth was: our state is a republic under the presidency of the King. Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that Rex regnat et non-gubernat ("The King reigns but does not govern"). 

As discussed before, the Commonwealth had a parliament, the Sejm, as well as a Senat and an elected king. The king was obliged to respect citizens' rights specified in King Henry's Articles as well as in Pacta conventa, negotiated at the time of his election.

The monarch's power was limited, in favour of a sizable noble class. Each new king had to pledge to uphold the Henrician Articles, which were the basis of Poland's political system (and included near-unprecedented guarantees of religious tolerance). Over time, the Henrician Articles were merged with the Pacta Conventa, specific pledges agreed to by the king-elect. From that point onwards, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and was constantly supervised by a group of senators. The Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones).

The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the "Golden Liberty" (Polish: Złota Wolność, a term used from 1573 on), included:

• election of the king by all nobles wishing to participate, known as wolna elekcja (free election);
• Sejm, the Commonwealth parliament which the king was required to hold every two years;
• Pacta conventa (Latin), "agreed-to agreements" negotiated with the king-elect, including a bill of rights, binding on the king, derived from the earlier Henrician Articles.
• religious freedom guaranteed by Warsaw Confederation Act 1573,
• rokosz (insurrection), the right of szlachta to form a legal rebellion against a king who violated their guaranteed freedoms;
• liberum veto (Latin), the right of an individual Sejm deputy to oppose a decision by the majority in a Sejm session; the voicing of such a "free veto" nullified all the legislation that had been passed at that session; during the crisis of the second half of the 17th century, Polish nobles could also use the liberum veto in provincial sejmiks;
• konfederacja (from the Latin confederatio), the right to form an organization to force through a common political aim.

A contemporary political narrative in our modern Europe could, if allowed, reference this Golden Liberty, a political system for a new deal, a new Commonwealth, and perhaps use this precedence as a touchstone for political progress in our own age!

If ever there was an example in modern history to suggest that Giambattista Vico's concept of Cyclical history (Corsi e ricorsi) is indeed something we can apply in our understanding of the development of civilization, this could be it!

Vico believed in a cyclical philosophy of history where human history is created by man. His term for the cyclical nature of history was "corsi e ricorsi". Most importantly, man and society move in parallel from barbarism to civilization.

As societies become more developed socially, human nature also develops, and both manifest their development in changes in language, myth, folklore, economy, etc.; in short, social change produces cultural change.

Vico is therefore using an original organic idea that culture is a system of socially produced and structured elements. Hence, knowledge of any society comes from the social structure of that society, explicable, therefore, only in terms of its own language. As such, one may find a dialectical relationship between language, knowledge and social structure.

Relying on a complex etymology, Vico argues in the Scienza Nuova that civilization develops in a recurring cycle (ricorso) of three ages where each age exhibits distinct political and social features and can be characterized by master tropes or figures of language:

The divine: In the poetic era the giganti of the divine age rely on metaphor to compare, and thus comprehend, human and natural phenomena.

The heroic: In the heroic age, metonymy and synecdoche support the development of feudal or monarchic institutions embodied by idealized figures.

The human: The final age is characterized by popular democracy and reflection via irony; in this epoch, the rise of rationality leads to "barbarie della reflessione" (the barbarism of reflection), and civilization descends once more into the poetic era.

Taken together, the recurring cycle of three ages – common to every nation – constitutes for Vico a storia ideale eterna or ideal eternal history. Therefore, it can be said that all history is the history of the rise and fall of civilizations, for which Vico provides evidence going back to historical origins and then up until, and including the Graeco-Roman historians.

Of course, this is not a sustainable theory, but Vico's methods analyzing language and myth as a way to probe the cultural, the social and the political as a system that is socially produced are remarkable for his time.

Polonization

In the period of Polish hegemony during the period of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth we can see that the process of "Polonization" (or Polonisation; Polish: polonizacja) was the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular the Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by the non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially under the influence of Poland. 

Polonization came before Germanization and Russification, but the same principles apply. The dominant hegemonic culture seeks to incorporate different identities, nationalities and cultures, through obliteration of the "other"!

As with other examples of cultural assimilation, it could either be voluntary or forced and is most visible in the case of territories where the Polish language or culture were dominant or where their adoption could result in increased prestige or social status, as was the case of the nobility of Ruthenia and Lithuania. To a certain extent Polonization was also administratively promoted by the authorities, particularly in the period following World War II.