Golden Liberty

Golden Liberty (Latin: Aurea Libertas; Polish: Z?ota Wolno??, sometimes used in the plural: this phenomenon can also be referred to as "Golden Freedoms," "Nobles' Democracy" or "Nobles' Commonwealth" ? Polish: Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka) refers to a unique democratic political system in the Kingdom of Poland and later, after the Union of Lublin (1569), in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Under that system, all nobles (szlachta) were equal and enjoyed extensive rights and privileges. The szlachta controled the legislature (Sejm ? the Polish parliament) and the Commonwealth's elected king.

Related Topics:
Latin - Polish - Phenomenon - Rzeczpospolita - Szlachecka - Democratic - Political system - Kingdom of Poland - Union of Lublin - 1569 - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - Legislature - Sejm - Parliament - Elected king

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• Nihil novi (1505).
• Pacta conventa and King Henry's Articles (1573).
• Szlachta history and political privileges.
• Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• Organization and politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

"Golden Liberty" distinguished Poland and was a unique exception in an age when absolutism was developing in the principal countries of Europe to the east and west. Freedom and liberty, even if enjoyed only by a single social class ? the szlachta ? were assets almost unheard-of elsewhere in Europe, where monarchs held power of life and death over all their citizens. Yet the excesses of Golden Liberty resulted in weakness in the central government ? a weakness that eventually allowed the Commonwealth's neighbors to paralyze the polity, bring it to the brink of anarchy, and annex the powerless country in the late-18th-century partitions of Poland.

Related Topics:
Absolutism - Freedom - Liberty - Szlachta - Anarchy - 18th-century - Partitions of Poland

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Golden Liberty: See also ►