''Pacta conventa'' (Latin for "articles of agreement") was a contractual agreement entered into between the "Polish nation" (i.e., the szlachta (nobility) of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

) and a newly elected

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

upon his "free election" (''wolna elekcja'') to the throne from 1573 to 1764. It declared policies the King would enact once on the throne. The document was drawn up by the convocation sejm, which elected the King. The ''pacta conventa'' affirmed the king-elect's pledge to respect the laws of the Commonwealth and specified policies to be enacted in

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

, state finances, the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

and other areas. 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 The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. Each King's ''pacta conventa'' was different based on the specific policies he had promised in order to be elected, making it somewhat similar to a modern political platform or manifesto. 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 Poland. Unlike the ''pacta conventa'', the Henrician Articles were constant and unchanging. The distinction between the two documents gradually faded away over successive elections. Together, those two documents spelled out most of the critical details of the Commonwealth political system.

Notes

{{reflist, refs= 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. Corwin, Edward Henry Lewinski (1917) ''The political History of Poland'' Polish Book Importing Company, New York
page 195
{{OCLC, 626738 {{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=74

External links

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Legal history of Poland Legal history of Lithuania Political charters

See also

Notes

External links