The Henrician Articles or King Henry's Articles (; ; ) were a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

in the form of a permanent agreement made in 1573 between the "Polish nation" (the

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

, or nobility, of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

) and a newly-elected Polish king and Lithuanian grand duke upon his election to the throne. The Articles were the primary

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. While '' pacta conventa'' (a sort of

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

or government programme) comprised only the personal undertakings of the king-elect, the Henrician Articles were a permanent constitutional law which all King-Grand Dukes were obligated to swear to uphold. The articles functioned essentially are the first constitution for Poland-Lithuania until the

Constitution of 3 May 1791 The Constitution of 3 May 1791, titled the Government Act, was a written constitution for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was adopted by the Great Sejm that met between 1788 and 1792. The Commonwealth was a dual monarchy comprising th ...

Origins

The charter took the form of 18 articles written and adopted by the Polish-Lithuanian nobility in 1573 at the town of Kamień, near

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, during the

interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...

after the extinction of the Jagiellon dynasty. The document took its name from that of Henry of Valois, the first Polish

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and Lithuanian grand duke elected in a free election. He was obliged to sign the Articles to be allowed to ascend the throne. Subsequently, every king-elect was required to swear fidelity to them, like the similar documents, the '' pacta conventa'', but the latter were tailored and different for each king-elect. Acceptance by the king-elect of the articles was a condition for his elevation to the throne, and they formed part of the royal oath at the coronation.

Provisions

* The king was to be chosen by election by the

, and his children had no right of inheritance with regard to the throne. * The king's marriages had to gain the approval of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. * The king had to convene a general sejm (the Commonwealth Parliament) at least once every two years for six weeks. * The king had no right to create new taxes, tariffs or such without the approval of the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

; * Between sejms, 16 resident senators were to be at the king's side as his advisers and overseers. The Royal Council of 16 senators was elected every two years during the Sejm's session. Four of their number (rotating every six months) were obliged to accompany the king and serve as advisers and supervisors to ensure that the king made no decision contrary to the laws of the Commonwealth. All royal decrees had to be counterstamped by the chancellors or the deputy chancellors. * The king had no right to call a '' pospolite ruszenie'' (

levée en masse ''Levée en masse'' ( or, in English, ''mass levy'') is a French term used for a policy of mass national conscription, often in the face of invasion. The concept originated during the French Revolutionary Wars, particularly for the period fo ...

) without the approval of the Sejm. Further, the Articles upheld the informal tradition that the king could not send those troops to serve outside the Commonwealth's borders without compensation. * The standing royal army ('' wojsko kwarciane'') was provided for. * The king had no right to declare war or peace without the approval of the Sejm. * The king had to abide by the Warsaw Confederation's guarantees of religious freedom. * If the king transgressed the law or the nobility's privileges, the

could refuse the king's orders and act against him (in Polish, that became known as the ''

rokosz A rokosz () originally was a Meeting, gathering of all the Polish ''szlachta'' (nobility), not merely of deputies, for a ''sejm''. The term was introduced to the Polish language from Hungary, where analogous gatherings took place at a field calle ...

''). Each king had to swear that "if anything has been done by Us against laws, liberties, privileges or customs, we declare all the inhabitants of the Kingdom are freed from obedience to Us".

References

{{reflist, refs= Juliusz Bardach, Bogusław Leśnodorski and Michał Pietrzak, ''Historia państwa i prawa polskiego'' (History of the Polish State and Law), Warsaw,

Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN (''Polish Scientific Publishers PWN''; until 1991 ''Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe'' - ''National Scientific Publishers PWN'', PWN) is a Polish book publisher, founded in 1951, when it split from the Wydawnictwa Szkolne i ...

, 1987, pp. 216–7. {{cite book, author=Jacek Jędruch, author-link=Jacek Jędruch, title=Constitutions, elections, and legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977: a guide to their history, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rmx8QgAACAAJ, access-date=13 August 2011, date=1998, publisher=EJJ Books, isbn=978-0-7818-0637-4, pages=84–86 {{in lang, pl}
Artykuły henrykowskie
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819051859/http://www.trybunal.gov.pl/wszechnica/akty/art_henr.htm , date=2010-08-19 . Trybynał Konstytucyjny. Wszechnica Konstytucyjna Constitutions of Poland Legal history of Poland 1573 in law Political charters Legal history of Lithuania Henry III of France History of criminal justice 1573 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Defunct constitutions Law of Poland Constitutions of Lithuania

Origins

Provisions

See also

References