Polish
constitutionalism can be traced to the 13th century, when government by consensus and representation was already well established in the
young Polish state. The emergence of parliamentary bodies, the
sejm and
sejmiki, followed in the first half of the 16th century. By the 17th century, Poland's legal and political tradition was characterized as
parliamentary institutions and a system of checks and balances on state power, which was itself limited by
decentralization. This system, which primarily benefited the Polish-Lithuanian nobility (
szlachta), came to be known as the "
nobles' democracy".
End of Golden Age The 1791 Constitution was a response to the increasingly perilous situation in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, As he was struggling with the
Sejm, in 1661 John Casimir whose reign saw highly destructive wars and obstructionism by the nobility correctly predicted that the Commonwealth was in danger of a partition by
Russia,
Brandenburg and
Austria. As the Sejm failed to implement sufficient reforms, the state machinery became increasingly dysfunctional. A significant cause of the Commonwealth's downfall was the
liberum veto ("free veto"), which, since 1652, had allowed any Sejm deputy to nullify all the legislation enacted by that Sejm. As a result, deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers primarily from the
Russian Empire, the
Kingdom of Prussia and
France, which had an ongoing
revolution or deputies who believed they were living in an unprecedented "Golden Age" paralysed the Commonwealth's government for over a century. The threat of the
liberum veto could only be overridden by the establishment of a "
confederated sejm", which was immune to the
liberum veto. Declaring that a sejm either constituted a "
confederation" or belonged to one was a contrivance prominently used by foreign interests in the 18th century to force a legislative outcome. By the early 18th century, the
magnates of Poland and Lithuania controlled the state, ensuring that no reforms that might weaken their privileged status (the "
Golden Freedoms") would be enacted. The ineffective monarchs who were
elected to the Commonwealth throne in the early 18th century,
Augustus II the Strong and
Augustus III of Poland of the
House of Wettin, did not improve matters. The Wettins, used to the
absolute rule practiced in their native
Saxony, tried to govern through intimidation and the use of force, which led to a series of conflicts between their supporters and opponents including another pretender to the Polish-Lithuanian throne, King
Stanisław Leszczyński. Those conflicts often took the form of confederations legal rebellions against the king permitted under the Golden Freedoms including the
Warsaw Confederation (1704),
Sandomierz Confederation,
Tarnogród Confederation,
Dzików Confederation and the
War of the Polish Succession. Only 8 out of 18 Sejm sessions during the reign of Augustus II (1694–1733) passed legislation. For 30 years during the reign of Augustus III, only one session was able to pass legislation. The government was near collapse, giving rise to the term "Polish anarchy", and the country was managed by provincial assemblies and magnates. Other reform attempts in the Wettin era were led by individuals such as
Stanisław Dunin-Karwicki,
Stanisław A. Szczuka,
Kazimierz Karwowski and
Michał Józef Massalski; these mostly proved to be futile.
Early reforms , principal author of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. A year later, he acquiesced in its demise; this was seen by Constitution defenders as
high treason, per the Constitution's Article VII and section six (
sexto) of Article VIII, and per the Declaration of the Assembled Estates, of 5 May 1791. (on floor,
lower right) tries to prevent ratification of the
First Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by barring other
Sejm deputies from entering the Sejm chamber. Painting
Rejtan, by
Matejko. worked to develop an
executive government council. In 1775, the
Partition Sejm established a
Permanent Council, after
Russia's
Catherine the Great concluded it would serve her purposes. The
Enlightenment greatly affected the thinking of influential Commonwealth circles during the reign (1764–1795) of its last monarch,
Stanisław II August Poniatowski. The King was an "enlightened" Polish magnate who had been a
deputy to several Sejms between 1750 and 1764 and had a deeper understanding of Polish politics than previous monarchs. The
Convocation Sejm of 1764, which elected Poniatowski to the throne, was controlled by the reformist
Czartoryski Familia and was backed by Russian military forces invited by the Czartoryskis. In exchange for passing decrees favorable to them, the Russians and Prussians let the confederated Convocation Sejm enact a number of reforms, including the weakening of the
liberum veto and its no longer applying to
treasury and economic matters. A more comprehensive reform package was presented by
Andrzej Zamoyski, but opposition from Prussia, Russia, and the Polish nobility thwarted this ambitious program, which had proposed deciding all motions by majority vote. In part because his election had been imposed by Empress
Catherine the Great, Poniatowski's political position was weak from the start. He proceeded with cautious reforms, such as the establishment of fiscal and military ministries and the introduction of a national customs tariff, which was soon abandoned due to opposition from Prussia's
Frederick the Great. These measures had already been authorized by the Convocation Sejm; more legislative and executive improvements inspired by the
Familia or the King were implemented during and after the 1764 Sejm. The Commonwealth's magnates viewed reform with suspicion and neighboring powers, content with the deterioration of the Commonwealth, abhorred the thought of a resurgent and democratic power on their borders. With the Commonwealth Army reduced to around 16,000, it was easy for its neighbors to intervene directly the
Imperial Russian Army numbered 300,000 and the
Prussian Army and
Imperial Austrian Army had 200,000 each. Russia's Empress Catherine and Prussia's King Frederick II provoked a conflict between members of the Sejm and the King over civil rights for religious minorities, such as
Protestants and
Greek Orthodox whose positions, which were guaranteed equal with the Catholic majority by the
Warsaw Confederation of 1573, had worsened considerably. Catherine and Frederick declared their support for the
szlachta and their "liberties", and by October 1767 Russian troops had assembled outside Warsaw in support of the conservative
Radom Confederation. The King and his adherents had little choice but to acquiesce to Russian demands. During the
Repnin Sejm (named after the unofficially presiding Russian ambassador
Nicholas Repnin) the King accepted the five "eternal and invariable principles" which Catherine had vowed to "protect for all time to come in the name of Poland's liberties": the election of kings, the right of
liberum veto, the right to renounce allegiance to and raise rebellion against the king (
rokosz), the
szlachta exclusive right to hold office and land, and landowners' power over their peasants. Thus all the privileges ("Golden Freedoms") of the nobility that had made the Commonwealth ungovernable were guaranteed as unalterable in the
Cardinal Laws. The Cardinal Laws and the rights of "religious dissenters" passed by the Repnin Sejm were personally guaranteed by Empress Catherine. By these acts of legislation, for the first time, Russia formally intervened in the Commonwealth's constitutional affairs. During the 1768 Sejm, Repnin showed his disregard for local resistance by arranging the abduction and imprisonment of
Kajetan Sołtyk,
Józef A. Załuski,
Wacław Rzewuski and
Seweryn Rzewuski, all vocal opponents of foreign domination and the recently proclaimed policies. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had legally and practically become a protectorate of the Russian Empire. Nonetheless, several minor beneficial reforms were adopted, political rights of the religious minorities were restored and the need for more reforms was becoming increasingly recognized. King Stanisław August's acquiescence to the Russian intervention encountered some opposition. On 29 February 1768, several magnates including
Józef Pułaski and his young son
Kazimierz Pułaski (Casimir Pulaski) vowing to oppose Russian influence, declared Stanisław August a lackey of Russia and Catherine, and formed a confederation at the town of
Bar. The
Bar Confederation focused on limiting the influence of foreigners in Commonwealth affairs, and being pro-Catholic was generally opposed to
religious tolerance. It began a civil war to overthrow the King, but its irregular forces were overwhelmed by Russian intervention in 1772. The defeat of the Bar Confederation set the scene for the
partition treaty of 5 August 1772, which was signed at
Saint Petersburg by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The treaty divested the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of about a third of its territory and population over and 4 million people. The three powers justified their annexation, citing anarchy in the Commonwealth and its refusal to cooperate with its neighbors' efforts to restore order. King Stanisław August yielded and on 19 April 1773, he called the Sejm into session. Only 102 of about 200 deputies attended what became known as the
Partition Sejm. The rest were aware of the King's decision and refused. Despite protests from the deputy
Tadeusz Rejtan and others, the treaty later known as the First Partition of Poland was ratified. The first of the three successive 18th century
partitions of Commonwealth territory that would eventually remove Poland's sovereignty shocked the Commonwealth's inhabitants and made it clear to progressive minds that the Commonwealth must either reform or perish. In the thirty years before the Constitution, there was a rising interest among progressive thinkers in constitutional reform. Before the First Partition, a Polish noble,
Michał Wielhorski was sent to
France by the Bar Confederation to ask the
philosophes Gabriel Bonnot de Mably and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau for their suggestions on a new constitution for a reformed Poland. Mably submitted his recommendations
Du gouvernement et des lois en Pologne (
The Government and Laws of Poland) in 1770–1771, whereas Rousseau finished his
Considerations on the Government of Poland in 1772 when the First Partition was already underway. Works advocating the need for reform and presenting specific solutions were published in the Commonwealth by Polish–Lithuanian thinkers:
On an Effective Way of Councils or on the Conduct of Ordinary Sejms (1761–1763), by
Stanisław Konarski, founder of the
Collegium Nobilium;
Political Thoughts on Civil Liberties (1775) and
Patriotic Letters (1778–1778), by
Józef Wybicki, author of the lyrics of the
Polish National Anthem; (
Anonymous Letters to Stanisław Małachowski (1788–1789) and
The Political Law of the Polish Nation (1790), by
Hugo Kołłątaj, head of the
Kołłątaj's Forge party; and
Remarks on the Life of Jan Zamoyski (1787), by
Stanisław Staszic.
Ignacy Krasicki's satires of the
Great Sejm era were also seen as crucial to giving the constitution moral and political support. A new wave of reforms supported by progressive magnates such as the Czartoryski family and King Stanisław August were introduced at the Partition Sejm. The most important included the 1773 establishment of the
Commission of National Education (
Komisja Edukacji Narodowej) the first ministry of education in the world. New schools were opened, uniform textbooks were printed, teachers received better education and poor students were provided with scholarships. The Commonwealth's military was to be modernised and funding to create a larger standing army was agreed. Economic and commercial reforms including some intended to cover the increased military budget previously shunned as unimportant by the
szlachta were introduced. A new executive assembly, the 36-strong
Permanent Council comprising five ministries with limited legislative powers, was established, giving the Commonwealth a governing body in constant session between Sejms and therefore immune to their
liberum veto disruptions. In 1776, the Sejm commissioned former chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski to draft a new
legal code. By 1780, he and his collaborators had produced the
Zamoyski Code (
Zbiór praw sądowych). It would have strengthened royal power, made all officials answerable to the Sejm, placed the clergy and their finances under state supervision, and deprived landless
szlachta ("
barefoot szlachta") of many of their legal immunities. The Code would also have improved the situation of non-nobles townspeople and peasants. Zamoyski's progressive legal code, containing elements of constitutional reform, met with opposition from native conservative
szlachta and foreign powers; the 1780 Sejm did not adopt it. == Constitution's adoption ==