The Cardinal Laws ( pl, Prawa kardynalne) were a quasi-

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

enacted in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

, by the Repnin Sejm of 1767–68. Enshrining most of the conservative laws responsible for the inefficient functioning of the Commonwealth, and passed under foreign duress, they have been seen rather negatively by historians.

Origin

The Cardinal Laws were imposed on the Commonwealth by Russia's Empress

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

with Russian forces commanded by Prince

Nicholas Repnin Prince Nikolai Vasilyevich Repnin (russian: Никола́й Васи́льевич Репни́н; – ) was an Imperial Russian statesman and general from the Repnin princely family who played a key role in the dissolution of the Polish–Lit ...

at the Repnin Sejm of 1767–68.

Features and significance

Ostensibly the Cardinal Laws were intended to ensure the "

Golden Liberty Golden Liberty ( la, Aurea Libertas; pl, Złota Wolność, lt, Auksinė laisvė), sometimes referred to as Golden Freedoms, Nobles' Democracy or Nobles' Commonwealth ( pl, Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka or ''Złota wolność szlachecka'') was a pol ...

" of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility, as demanded by nobles united in the

Radom Confederation Radom Confederation ( pl, Konfederacja radomska, lt, Radomo konfederacija) 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' ...

. In fact, the Cardinal Laws made it certain that the

political system In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state (polity), state. It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comp ...

of the

would remain ineffectual and easily controllable by its neighbors. The Cardinal Laws' key features included the '' liberum veto'', the free election of Poland's king, '' Neminem captivabimus'', and the right to form

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical iss ...

s and to raise ''

rokosz A rokosz () originally was a gathering of all the Polish ''szlachta'' (nobility), not merely of deputies, for a ''sejm''. The term was introduced to the Polish language from Hungary, where analogous gatherings took place at a field called Rákos ...

''es—all, privileges of the nobility that had made the Commonwealth's

of "

" ungovernable. They also confirmed the lifelong term of the Commonwealth office holders, a similar confirmation of a lifelong possession of ''

królewszczyzna Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...

'' (crown lands). The laws confirmed superior position of nobility over the peasantry, with the exception of the right of

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

. In a more positive view, the cardinal laws can be seen as a form of

(Bardach uses the term ''ustawa zasadnicza''), attempting to organize elements of the

law of Poland The Polish law or legal system in Poland has been developing since the first centuries of Polish history, over 1,000 years ago. The public and private laws of Poland are codified. The supreme law in Poland is the Constitution of Poland. Pol ...

, and also attempting to guarantee the stability of Commonwealth borders.

Aftermath

In 1768 Russia issued a "guarantee" to the Polish nobility, promising to defend the cardinal laws, and at the

Partition Sejm The Partition Sejm ( pl, Sejm Rozbiorowy) was a Sejm lasting from 1773 to 1775 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, convened by its three neighbours (the Russian Empire, Prussia and Austria) in order to legalize their First Partition of Pol ...

of 1775 this guarantee was joined by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

and the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

. Russian intervention was unsuccessfully challenged by the

Bar Confederation The Bar Confederation ( pl, Konfederacja barska; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles ( szlachta) formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia (now part of Ukraine) in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polis ...

, whose failure led to the First Partition of Poland (1772). The Cardinal Laws were annulled by the

Constitution of 3 May The Constitution of 3 May 1791,; lt, Gegužės trečiosios konstitucija titled the Governance Act, was a constitution adopted by the Great Sejm ("Four-Year Sejm", meeting in 1788–1792) for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dual mo ...

passed by the

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm ( Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in War ...

of 1788–92 but reinstituted by the

Grodno Sejm Grodno Sejm ( pl, Sejm grodzieński; be, Гарадзенскі сойм; lt, Gardino seimas) was the last Sejm (session of parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grodno Sejm, held in autumn 1793 in Grodno, Grand Duchy of Li ...

following Poland's defeat in the 1792

War in Defense of the Constitution War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. In fact it was the abolition of many of the cardinal laws that was used by the

Targowica Confederation The Targowica Confederation ( pl, konfederacja targowicka, , lt, Targovicos konfederacija) was a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates on 27 April 1792, in Saint Petersburg, with the backing of the Russian Empress Cather ...

magnates as a reason to ask the Russians to intervene. The Cardinal Laws remained in effect for the last three years of the Commonwealth's existence, until the final,

Third Partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...

References

{{reflist, refs= Juliusz Bardach, Boguslaw Lesnodorski, and Michal Pietrzak, ''Historia panstwa i prawa polskiego'' (Warsaw: Paristwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1987, p.297-298 {{cite book, author=Jacek Jędruch, authorlink=Jacek Jędruch, title=Constitutions, elections, and legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977: a guide to their history, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rmx8QgAACAAJ, accessdate=13 August 2011, date=1998, publisher=EJJ Books, isbn=978-0-7818-0637-4, pages=159-160 {{cite book, author=Jacek Jędruch, authorlink=Jacek Jędruch, title=Constitutions, elections, and legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977: a guide to their history, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rmx8QgAACAAJ, accessdate=13 August 2011, date=1998, publisher=EJJ Books, isbn=978-0-7818-0637-4, page=159 {{cite book, author=Jacek Jędruch, authorlink=Jacek Jędruch, title=Constitutions, elections, and legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977: a guide to their history, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rmx8QgAACAAJ, accessdate=13 August 2011, date=1998, publisher=EJJ Books, isbn=978-0-7818-0637-4, pages=184-185 {{cite book, author=Robert Howard Lord, title=The second partition of Poland: a study in diplomatic history, url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_zp5pAAAAMAAJ, accessdate=11 March 2012, year=1915, publisher=Harvard University Press, page
482
��483 {{cite book, author=Hugh Seton-Watson, title=The Russian empire, 1801-1917, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=40KbWNve4XkC&pg=PA44, accessdate=4 July 2011, date=1 February 1988, publisher=Clarendon Press, isbn=978-0-19-822152-4, page=44 {{Citation, author=Władysław Smoleński, title=Dzieje narodu polskiego, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUpBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA295, accessdate=5 September 2011, year=1919, publisher=Gebethner i Wolff, pages=295–305

Origin

Features and significance

Aftermath

References

See also