Zaręczenie wzajemne 20 october 1791 Warsaw

The Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations ( pl, Zaręczenie Wzajemne Obojga Narodów;Michał Rozbicki, ''European and American Constitutionalism in the Eighteenth Century'', Uniwersytet Warszawski Ośrodek Studiów Amerykańskich, 1990, p.109-110Kenneth W. Thompson, Rett R. Ludwikowski, White Burkett Miller, ''Constitutionalism and Human Rights: America, Poland, and France'', University of Virginia, 1991 also Reciprocal Warranty of Two Nations,Harry E. Dembkowski, ''The Union of Lublin, Polish Federalism in the Golden Age'', 1982, Columbia University Press, , p.199 Mutual Pledge of the Two Nations, and Mutual Assurance of the Two Nations was an addendum, adopted on 20 October 1791 by 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 ...

, to the Polish-Lithuanian

Constitution of 3 May 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 Mutual Assurance of the Two Nations stated implementing principles that had not been spelled out in the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

. The document specified the nature of the

Polish–Lithuanian union Polish–Lithuanian can refer to: * Polish–Lithuanian union (1385–1569) * Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) * Polish-Lithuanian identity as used to describe groups, families, or individuals with histories in the Polish–Lithuanian ...

and affirmed "the unity and indivisibility", within a single state, of the

Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includ ...

and the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

Terms

Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations which distinguishes Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, and others (20 October 1791)

The document was to be an integral part of the ''

pacta conventa ''Pacta conventa'' (Latin for "articles of agreement") was a contractual agreement, from 1573 to 1764 entered into between the "Polish nation" (i.e., the szlachta (nobility) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) and a newly elected king upon ...

'' and thus binding on 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 ...

and all subsequent monarchs of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The document defined the

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

character of the state and asserted the equal representation within the bodies of state governance of its two constituents (the

and the

). The document declared that 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 ...

(now to be known as ''

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

Polska'', the Polish Republic, or Polish Commonwealth) remained a union of the

and the

. It specified that they shared a common government, military and treasury, but Lithuanian tax revenues were to be spent only within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The military and treasury commissions were to have equal numbers of Polish and Lithuanian members and were to be presided over by Polish and Lithuanian officials on an alternating basis. The membership of the Police Commission was to be two-thirds Polish-Crown and one-third Lithuanian. Poland and Lithuania were to have the same numbers of principal officials. In the view of historians Stanisław Kutrzeba,

Oskar Halecki Oskar Halecki (26 May 1891, Vienna, Cisleithania, Austria-Hungary – 17 September 1973, White Plains, New York, United States of America) was a Polish historian, social and Catholic activist. Life and career Halecki, whose first name is sometim ...

and Bogusław Leśnodorski, the legislation 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 ...

, including the Mutual Pledge of the Two Nations, replaced the erstwhile union of the

and the

, which had existed since the

Union of Lublin The Union of Lublin ( pl, Unia lubelska; lt, Liublino unija) was signed on 1 July 1569 in Lublin, Poland, and created a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the pe ...

(1569), with a unitary Polish Commonwealth, or Polish Republic.Another view of historians

Juliusz Bardach Juliusz Bardach (3 November 1914, in Odessa – 26 January 2010, in Warsaw) was a Polish legal historian. Professor of the University of Warsaw, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He specialized in the history of governance and law of Li ...

or Jerzy Malec
''Zaręczenie Wzajemne Obojga Narodów – w 220 rocznicę uchwalenia''
.

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{{Polish-Lithuanian Union 1791 in law Krev Great Sejm Documents

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