Estates, Estate Dualism and Estate Monarchy in the Kingdom of Poland (14th Century–1569) and the Rzeczpospolita (1569–1795)

Abstract

The study traces the specifically Polish variant of the estate system from the Kingdom of Poland (14th–16th centuries) to the Rzeczpospolita, 1569–1795. It clearly distinguishes between the two state formations and highlights the persistence of territorial and regional differences (Greater and Lesser Poland, Lithuania). It identifies the following milestones in the formation of the estates: the Privilege of Koszyce (1374), the personal union and union treaties (1385, 1413), the emergence of the sejmik network, and the early model of the bicameral Sejm at Piotrków (1468). The nihil novi act (1505) in the rex–regnum relationship made legislation dependent on the consent of both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies (“nothing about us without us”), thereby establishing estate dualism. The elective monarchy and the Henrician Articles (1573) further curtailed royal power, while legal guarantees (ius resistendi), the institution of confederation, and the liberum veto (from 1652) led to decision-making paralysis. The three-tier structure (sejm walny – sejmik walny – sejmik) drove the state into crisis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a development only exacerbated by external wars. The “royal republic” thus became ungovernable within an overregulated system of estate liberties. The study follows this process step by step.