Plan of the elective camp of Polish
Kings in Wola near Warsaw
Free election (Polish:
wolna elekcja) was the election of
individual king, rather than of dynasties, to the Polish
throne
between 1572 and 1791, when "free election" was abolished by the
Constitution of May 3,
1791.
Actually
the first documented election of a Polish king had occurred as
early as 1386, with the selection of Władysław Jagiełło,
Grand Duke of Lithuania
, to be the first king of Poland's second
dynasty. However, while the principle of election continued
in effect throughout the nearly two centuries of the
Jagiellon Dynasty, it actually amounted to
mere confirmation of the incoming dynast.
In 1572 Poland's
Jagiellon dynasty became extinct upon the death, without a
successor, of King
Zygmunt II
August. During the ensuing
interregnum, anxiety for the safety of the
Commonwealth eventually led to agreements among the political
classes that, pending election of a new king, supreme authority
would be exercised by the
Roman
Catholic primate, acting as
interrex (from the
Latin); that
confederations (Polish:
konfederacje)
of
nobility would assume power in the
country's respective regions; and that, by the "
Warsaw Confederation" of 1573, peace
would be maintained among the realm's various
religions. The most important decision, however,
was that the next king would be chosen by election, whose terms
were finally established at a
convocation sejm (
sejm
konwokacyjny) in 1573. On the initiative of southern-Polish
nobles, supported by the future Crown (i.e., Polish)
great chancellor and
hetman Jan Zamoyski, the
election would be by all male
szlachta
(
nobles) who assembled for the purpose.
The nobles voted by province (
voivodship)
in the presence of
deputies, who conveyed
the
votes to the
senate:
the choice of
king was announced by the
senate's
marshal and solemnized by the
primate.
Royal elections were held at Wielka Wola, outside Warsaw (now that
city's western,
Wola district). The stormiest
elections were those of 1575 and 1587, when matters came to blows
among the divided nobles. Following an election, the king-elect was
obliged to sign
pacta
conventa (Latin: "agreed-upon agreements")--laundry lists of
campaign promises, seldom fulfilled—with his noble electors. The
agreements included "
King Henry's
Articles" (
artykuly henrykowskie), first imposed on
Prince
Henri de Valois (in Polish,
Henryk Walezy) at the outset of his brief reign (upon the death of
his brother, French King [[Charles IX of France|Charles and had
seThe last of the
Jagiellon kings, Zygmunt
August, had in 1529 been elected
vivente rege (Latin:
"during the [previous] king's life"); and about 1660 Queen
Ludwika Maria Gonzaga attempted to
engineer a similar election. Such elections were meant to enhance
the continuity of royal
political
power.
Beginning in 1697, Polish royal elections ceased to be truly "free"
and took place under duress from foreign armies.
The largest number of participating nobles (40,000–50,000) attended
the first free election, in 1573. The second such election, in
1575, drew only 12,000.
Free elections weakened the kings' authority, occasioned quarrels
among the voting provinces (voivodships) over the candidates for
the throne, and encouraged foreign dynasties' meddling in Polish
internal politics. Abolition of free elections became one of the
major reforms instituted by Poland's "Great" or "
Four-Year Sejm" (1788-1792) in its
Constitution of May 3, 1791.
Prior to the abolition of "free elections," 13 were held in Poland,
resulting in the elevation of the following kings:
See also
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