:''This is an article about a historical event in Poland. For a musical band, see

The Black Heart Procession The Black Heart Procession (occasionally spelled The Blackheart Procession) is an American indie rock band from San Diego, California. Biography Early years The band was formed in 1997 by Pall Jenkins (Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects, Palllap ...

.''

Black procession ( pl, Czarna procesja) was a demonstration held by burghers of Polish royal cities in

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

's capital of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

on 2 December 1789, during the

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm ( Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in War ...

. It vastly contributed to the passage of a belated major urban reform. The procession that took place

on 2 December 1789 was inspired by

Hugo Kołłątaj Hugo Stumberg Kołłątaj, also spelled ''Kołłątay'' (pronounced , 1 April 1750 – 28 February 1812), was a prominent Polish constitutional reformer and educationalist, and one of the most prominent figures of the Polish Enlightenment. He se ...

, and led by

Jan Dekert Jan Dekert or Jan Dekiert (1738 – 4 October 1790) was a Polish merchant of German descent and political activist. Starting in the 1760s, he rose to become one of the most prominent merchants in the Polish capital of Warsaw. He was an acti ...

.Czarna procesja

WIEM Encyklopedia WIEM Encyklopedia (full name in pl, Wielka Interaktywna Encyklopedia Multimedialna - "Great Interactive Multimedia Encyclopedia"; in Polish, ''wiem'' also means 'I know') is a Polish Internet encyclopedia. The first printed edition was released i ...

, retrieved on 12 June 2008czarna procesja
, PWN Encyklopedia, retrieved on 12 June 2008 294 representatives of 141 towns under royal charter ('' miasta królewskie''), clad in black, passed peacefully (marching or in carriagesSamuel Fiszman, ''Constitution and reform in eighteenth-century Poland: the constitution of 3 May 1791'', Indiana University Press, 1997,
Google Print, p.455
/ref>) through the streets of Warsaw, from the town hall, reaching the Royal Castle (where members of the

were meeting) and getting an audience with the king

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch ...

. The burghers demanded similar privileges to those held by the nobles (''

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...

''). Their demands included the right to buy and own land estates, the right to be represented in the Polish parliament (

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...

) and reforms to the urban law.The Third of May Constitution
The procession influenced the Great Sejm to create a Commission for the Cities (''Deputacja w sprawie miast''). Medal commemorating Free Royal Cities Act 1791

Medal commemorating Free Royal Cities Act 1791

Only members of the royal towns (with the notable exception of

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Paweł Jasienica, ''Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów'', Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1982, , p.432) took part in the procession; the representatives of the private towns (owned by the

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s) did not. Eventually, the burghers' cause succeeded and the belated urban reform in the Commonwealth took place with the passage of the

Free Royal Cities Act The Free Royal Cities Act (full Polish language, Polish title: ''Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej''; English language, English: "Our Free Royal City (Poland), Royal Cities in the States of the Polish–Lithuanian Comm ...

on 18 April 1791, which became a notable amendment to the

Constitution of May 3 The Constitution of 3 May 1791,; lt, Gegužės trečiosios konstitucija titled the Governance Act, was a constitution adopted by the Great Sejm ("Four-Year Sejm", meeting in 1788–1792) for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dual mo ...

. The Act granted, to the Commonwealth's

townspeople The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. T ...

, personal security, the right to acquire

landed property In real estate, a landed property or landed estate is a property that generates income for the owner (typically a member of the gentry) without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate. In medieval Western Europe, there were two compet ...

, and eligibility for military officers' commissions,

public office Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

s, and gave the right for

ennoblement Ennoblement is the conferring of nobility—the induction of an individual into the noble class. Currently only a few kingdoms still grant nobility to people; among them Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Vatican. Depending on time and regi ...

References

{{reflist 1789 in Poland History of Warsaw Protest marches Protests in Poland Great Sejm