![Medal commemorating Free Royal Cities Act 1791](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Medal_commemorating_Free_Royal_Cities_Act_1791.PNG)
The Free Royal Cities Act (full
Polish
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* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
title: ''Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej'';
English
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* English language
* English people
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: "Our Free
Royal Cities
The term royal city denotes a privilege that some cities in Bohemia and Moravia enjoyed during the Middle Ages. It meant the city was an inalienable part of the royal estate; the king could not sell or pledge the city. At the beginning of the 16th ...
in the States of the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
", or the Law on the Cities, ''Prawo o miastach'') was an act adopted by the
Four-Year 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 Wars ...
(1788–92) of the
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 ...
on April 18, 1791, in the run-up to the adoption of the
Constitution of May 3, 1791
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 was subsequently incorporated ''
in extenso
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'' into the Constitution by reference in its Article III.
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 ...
of the
royal cities
The term royal city denotes a privilege that some cities in Bohemia and Moravia enjoyed during the Middle Ages. It meant the city was an inalienable part of the royal estate; the king could not sell or pledge the city. At the beginning of the 16th ...
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; it did not gave them the rights of ''
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 ...
'' (nobles), but 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 ...
; it provided townspeople right for representation in ''
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 ...
'' as advisers in the cities' affairs.
[The Third of May Constitution]
See also
*
Black Procession :''This is an article about a historical event in Poland. For a musical band, see The Black Heart Procession.''
Black procession ( pl, Czarna procesja) was a demonstration held by burghers of Polish royal cities in Polish–Lithuanian Commonweal ...
*
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 ...
Notes
References
*
Joseph Kasparek, ''The Constitutions of Poland and of the United States: Kinships and Genealogy'', Miami, American Institute of Polish Culture, 1980, pp. 31–33.
1791 in law
Legal history of Poland
Great Sejm
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