Important historical events included: • 1385 –
Union of Krewo, a
personal union that brought the
Grand Duke of Lithuania,
Jogaila, to the
Polish throne as a result of his marriage to
Jadwiga of Poland in February 1386 • 1401 –
Union of Vilnius and Radom, which strengthened the Polish–Lithuanian union • 1413 –
Union of Horodło, a
treaty requiring Polish and Lithuanian
noblemen to organize
congresses to resolve issues of common interest. Essentially a
heraldic union, the treaty granted many
szlachta rights to
Lithuanian nobility. • 1432 (1432–34) –
Union of Grodno, a declarative attempt to renew a closer union • 1499 –
Union of Kraków and Vilnius in which the personal union became a
dynastic union and recognised the sovereignty of Lithuania and described relations between the two states • 1501 –
Union of Mielnik, a renewal of the personal union • July 1, 1569 –
Union of Lublin, a
real union that resulted in creation of the semi-
federal, semi-
confederal Republic of the Two Nations (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) • May 3, 1791 –
Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791: abolished the
elective monarchy and turned it into a
hereditary monarchy and established a common state, the
Rzeczpospolita Polska (Polish Commonwealth), in its place. The
Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations modified the changes by stressing the continuity of binational status of the state. The changes were reversed completely in 1792 under pressure from the
Russian Empire. In any case, the two
Partitions carried out by Berlin and Saint Petersburg (in 1793, and 1795) led to the final collapse of the Commonwealth. ==See also==