Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

The official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ({{langx|pl|Królestwo Polskie i Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie}}, {{langx|la|Regnum Poloniae Magnusque Ducatus Lithuaniae}}). The Latin term was usually employed in international treaties and diplomacy.{{Cite web |url=http://sjp.pwn.pl/slowniki/Regnum%20Poloniae%20Magnusque%20Ducatus%20Lithuaniae.html |title=Regnum Poloniae Magnusque Ducatus Lithuaniae – definicja, synonimy, przykłady użycia |website=sjp.pwn.pl|access-date=27 October 2016}} By concluding the 1569 Union of Lublin the Grand Duchy of Lithuania remained a separate state from the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland with its own name, laws, and territory.{{cite web |last1=Jasas |first1=Rimantas |title=Liublino unija |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/liublino-unija/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=18 November 2024 |language=lt |quote=LDK liko atskira valstybė, turinti pavadinimą, herbą, teritoriją, valdymo aparatą, iždą, įstatymus, teismus, kariuomenę, antspaudą.}}{{cite web |last1=Petrauskas |first1=Rimvydas |author-link=Rimvydas Petrauskas |title=Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuvos-didzioji-kunigaikstyste/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=18 November 2024 |language=lt |quote=Po unijos LDK išsaugojo savo teritoriją, įstatymus}} The name 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' ({{langx|pl|Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów}}) came into force during the reign of Stephen Báthory (since 1582, and was officially used until 1795).{{cite web |title=Abiejų Tautų Respublika |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/abieju-tautu-respublika/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=18 November 2024 |language=lt}} On 28 January 1588, Sigismund III Vasa confirmed the Third Statute of Lithuania in which it was stated that the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is a federation of two countries – Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland where both countries have equal rights within it.{{cite web |last1=Andriulis |first1=Vytautas |title=Trečiasis Lietuvos Statutas |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/treciasis-lietuvos-statutas/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=21 October 2024 |language=lt |quote=Trečiajame Lietuvos Statute buvo įrašyta lietuviškoji Liublino unijos samprata: kaip 2 lygiateisių valstybių – Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės ir Lenkijos – federacija.}}

In the 17th century and later it was also known as the 'Most Serene Commonwealth of Poland' ({{langx|pl|Najjaśniejsza Rzeczpospolita Polska}}, {{langx|la|Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae}}), the Commonwealth of the Polish Kingdom,the name given by Marcin Kromer in his work Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus et re publica regni Polonici libri duo, 1577. or the Commonwealth of Poland.the therm used for instance in Zbior Deklaracyi, Not I Czynnosci Głownieyszych, Ktore Poprzedziły I Zaszły Pod Czas Seymu Pod Węzłem Konfederacyi Odprawuiącego Się Od Dnia 18. Wrzesnia 1772. Do 14 Maia 1773

Western Europeans often simplified the name to 'Poland' and in most past and modern sources it is referred to as the Kingdom of Poland, or just Poland.Name used for the common state, Henryk Rutkowski, Terytorium, w: Encyklopedia historii gospodarczej Polski do 1945 roku, t. II, Warszawa 1981, s. 398.Richard Buterwick. The Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1788–1792: A Political History. Oxford University Press. 2012. pp. 5, xvii. The terms 'Commonwealth of Poland' and 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' ({{langx|pl|Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów}}, {{langx|la|Res Publica Utriusque Nationis}}) were used in the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations (1791).1791 document signed by the King Stanislaw August "Zareczenie wzaiemne Oboyga Narodow" pp. 1, 5 [https://web.archive.org/web/20151223050234/http://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=18498] In the preamble of the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations (1791) the dualistic nature of the state was confirmed and separate monarchial titles of Stanisław August Poniatowski were included: King of Poland ({{langx|pl|Krol Polski}}) and Grand Duke of Lithuania ({{langx|pl|Wielki xiązę litewski}}), also the land envoys of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ({{langx|pl|posłów ziemskich Korony Polskiey, y Wielkiego Xięstwa Litewskiego}}) were mentioned.{{cite web |last1=Tumelis |first1=Juozas |title=Abiejų Tautų tarpusavio įžadas |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/abieju-tautu-tarpusavio-izadas/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=18 November 2024 |language=lt |quote=Preambulėje patvirtintas dualistinis valstybės pobūdis}} The English term Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and German Polen–Litauen are seen as renderings of the 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' variant.

Other informal names include the 'Republic of Nobles' ({{langx|pl|Rzeczpospolita szlachecka}}) and the 'First Polish Republic' ({{langx|pl|I Rzeczpospolita}}), the latter relatively common in historiography to distinguish it from the Second Polish Republic. In Lithuania, the state is referred to as 'Republic of Both Nations' (Lithuanian: Abiejų Tautų Respublika).

{{Main|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648)|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)|l2=(1648–1764)|History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–1795)|l3=(1764–1795)}}

File:Poland and Lithuania in 1526.PNG and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1526.]]

The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania underwent an alternating series of wars and alliances across the 13th and 14th centuries.{{cite book |last=Jasienica |first=Paweł |date=1997 |title=Polska Jagiellonów |location=Polska |publisher=Prószyński i Spółka |pages=30–32 |isbn=978-83-8123-881-6}} The relations between the two states differed at times as each strived and competed for political, economic or military dominance of the region.{{Harvnb|Jasienica|1997|pp=30–32}} In turn, Poland had remained a staunch ally of its southern neighbour, Hungary. The last Polish monarch from the native Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great, died on 5 November 1370 without fathering a legitimate male heir.{{Harvnb|Halecki|1991|p=52}} Consequently, the crown passed onto his Hungarian nephew, Louis of Anjou, who ruled the Kingdom of Hungary in a personal union with Poland. A fundamental step in developing extensive ties with Lithuania was a succession crisis arising in the 1380s.{{Harvnb|Halecki|1991|p=71}} Louis died on 10 September 1382 and, like his uncle, did not produce a son to succeed him. His two daughters, Mary and Jadwiga (Hedwig), held claims to the vast dual realm.

The Polish lords rejected Mary in favour of her younger sister Jadwiga, partly due to Mary's association with Sigismund of Luxembourg.{{cite book |last=Engel |first=Pál |year=2001 |title=The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=1-86064-061-3 |page=170}} The future queen regnant was betrothed to young William Habsburg, Duke of Austria, but certain factions of the nobility remained apprehensive believing that William would not secure domestic interests.{{cite book |last=Halecki |first=Oscar |author-link=Oscar Halecki |year=1991 |title=Jadwiga of Anjou and the Rise of East Central Europe |publisher=Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America |isbn=0-88033-206-9 |pages=116–117}} Instead, they turned to Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Jogaila was a lifelong pagan and vowed to adopt Catholicism upon marriage by signing the Union of Krewo on 14 August 1385.{{Harvnb|Jasienica|1997|p=63}} The Act imposed Christianity in Lithuania and transformed Poland into a diarchy, a kingdom ruled over by two sovereigns; their descendants and successive monarchs held the titles of king and grand duke respectively.{{Harvnb|Halecki|1991|p=155}} The ultimate clause dictated that Lithuania was to be merged in perpetuity (perpetuo applicare) with the Polish Kingdom; however, this did not take effect until 1569.{{cite book |last=Manikowska |first=Halina |date=2005 |title=Historia dla Maturzysty |location=Warszawa |publisher=Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN |page=141 |isbn=83-7195-853-6}} Jogaila was crowned as Władysław II Jagiełło at Wawel Cathedral on 4 March 1386.{{Citation |last=Bojtár |first=Endre |year=1999 |others=translated by Walter J. Renfroe |title=Foreword to the Past: A Cultural History of the Baltic People |location=Budapest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Er1_CwAAQBAJ |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-9116-42-9 |page=182}}

{{main|Union of Lublin}}

File:Unia Lubelska 1569 r..jpg joined the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569.]]

Several minor agreements were struck before unification, notably the Union of Kraków and Vilnius, the Union of Vilnius and Radom and the Union of Grodno. Lithuania's vulnerable position and rising tensions on its eastern flank persuaded the nobles to seek a closer bond with Poland.{{Harvnb|Butterwick|2021|pp=12–14}} The idea of a federation presented better economic opportunities, whilst securing Lithuania's borders from hostile states to the north, south and east.{{Harvnb|Butterwick|2021}} Lesser Lithuanian nobility were eager to share the personal privileges and political liberties enjoyed by the Polish szlachta, but did not accept Polish demands for the incorporation of the Grand Duchy into Poland as a mere province, with no sense of autonomy.{{cite book |last=Butterwick |first=Richard |date=2021 |title=The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733–1795 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2cOEAAAQBAJ |publisher=Yale University Press |page=14 |isbn=978-0-300-25220-0}} Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł (Radvila Rudasis) and his cousin Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł, two prominent nobles and military commanders in Lithuania, vocally opposed the union.{{cite book |last=Borucki |first=Marek |date=2009 |title=Historia Polski do 2009 roku |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9EsAQAAIAAJ&q=mikolaj%20radziwi%C5%82%C5%82%20rudy%20przeciwnik%20unii |location=Polska |publisher=Mada |page=57 |isbn=978-83-89624-59-8}}

A fierce proponent of a single unified Commonwealth was Sigismund II Augustus, who was childless and ailing. According to historians, it was his active involvement which hastened the process and made the union possible.{{Cite book |last=Gierowski |first=Józef |author-link=Józef Andrzej Gierowski |year=1986a |title=Historia Polski 1505–1764 |location=Warsaw |publisher=PWN |isbn=83-01-03732-6 |pages=92–109}} A parliament (sejm) convened on 10 January 1569 in the city of Lublin, attended by envoys from both nations. It was agreed that the merger will take place the same year and both parliaments will be fused into a joint assembly.{{Harvnb|Butterwick|2021|p=21}} No independent parliamentary convocation or diet was henceforth permitted. Subjects of the Polish Crown were no longer restricted in purchasing land on Lithuanian territory and a single currency was established.{{cite book |last=Pernal |first=Andrew Boleslaw |date=2010 |title=Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów a Ukraina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dG1PAQAAIAAJ&q=unia%20lubelska%20waluta%201569 |location=Polska |publisher=Księgarnia Akademicka |page=10 |isbn=978-83-7188-973-8}} Whilst the military remained separate, a unified foreign policy meant that Lithuanian troops were obliged to contribute during a conflict not to their advantage.{{Harvnb|Pernal|2010|p=10}} As a result, several Lithuanian magnates deplored the accords and left the assembly in protest.{{Harvnb|Maniecky|Szajnocha|1869|p=504}} Sigismund II used his authority as grand duke and enforced the Act of Union in contumaciam. In fear, the absent nobles promptly returned to the negotiations.{{cite book |last1=Maniecky |first1=Wojciech |last2=Szajnocha |first2=Karol |year=1869 |title=Dziennik Literacki |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZX8WU5PDyQC |publisher=Ossoliński |page=504 |language=Polish}} The Union of Lublin was passed by the gathered deputies and signed by attendees on 1 July, thus creating the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Sigismund's death in 1572 was followed by an interregnum during which adjustments were made to the constitutional system; these adjustments significantly increased the power of the Polish nobility and established a truly elective monarchy.

{{main|Polish Golden Age}}

File:Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619.PNG

On 11 May 1573, Henry de Valois, son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, was proclaimed King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in the first royal election outside Warsaw. Approximately 40,000 nobles cast a vote in what was to become a centuries-long tradition of a nobles' democracy (Golden Liberty). Henry already posed as a candidate before Sigismund's death and received widespread support from the pro-French factions. The choice was a political move aimed at curtailing Habsburg hegemony, ending skirmishes with the French-allied Ottomans, and profiting from the lucrative trade with France. It was also believed that an Austrian Archduke could be too powerful and attempt to limit noble privileges. French envoys had also offered large amounts of bribes, amounting to several hundred thousand ecus.{{Cite book |last=Roşu |first=Felicia |title=Elective Monarchy in Transylvania and Poland–Lithuania, 1569–1587 |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-878937-6 |edition= |location=Oxford (GB)}} Upon ascending the throne, Henry signed the contractual agreement known as the Pacta conventa and approbated the Henrician Articles.{{cite book |last=Bardach |first=Juliusz |date=1987 |title=Historia państwa i prawa polskiego |location=Warszawa |publisher=PWN |pages=216–217 |language=Polish}} The Act stated the fundamental principles of governance and constitutional law in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.{{Harvnb|Bardach|1987|pp=216–217}} In June 1574, Henry abandoned Poland and headed back to claim the French crown following the death of his brother and predecessor, Charles IX.{{cite book |author=Stone, Daniel |title=The Polish–Lithuanian state, 1386–1795 [A History of East Central Europe, Volume IV.] |year=2001 |page=118 |publisher=University of Washington Press |location=Seattle |isbn=0-295-98093-1}} The throne was subsequently declared vacant.

The interregnum concluded on 12 December 1575 when primate Jakub Uchański declared Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, as the next king.{{cite book |last1=Besala |first1=Jerzy |last2=Biedrzycka |first2=Agnieszka |title=Stefan Batory: Polski Słownik Biograficzny |volume=XLIII |year=2005 |language=pl |page=116}} The decision was condemned by the anti-Habsburg coalition, which demanded a "native" candidate, known as "Piasts".{{Harvnb|Besala|Biedrzycka|2005|p=116}} As a compromise, on 13 December 1575 Anna Jagiellon – sister of Sigismund Augustus and a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty – became the new monarch.{{Harvnb|Besala|Biedrzycka|2005|p=117}} The nobles simultaneously elected Stephen Báthory as co-regent, who ruled jure uxoris. Báthory's election proved controversial – Lithuania and Ducal Prussia initially refused to recognise the Transylvanian as their ruler.{{Harvnb|Besala|Biedrzycka|2005|pp=116–117}} Piotr Zborowski supported Bathory as he wanted to promote a princely or ducal candidate. He also endorsed the Duke of Ferrara. The wealthy port city of Gdańsk (Danzig) staged a revolt, and, with the help of Denmark, blockaded maritime trade to neutral Elbląg (Elbing).{{Harvnb|Besala|Biedrzycka|2005|pp=118–119}} Báthory, unable to penetrate the city's extensive fortifications, succumbed to the demands for greater privileges and freedoms. However, his successful Livonian campaign ended in the annexation of Livonia and the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (modern-day Estonia and Latvia, respectively), thus expanding the Commonwealth's influence into the Baltics.{{Harvnb|Besala|Biedrzycka|2005|p=121}} Most importantly, Poland gained the Hanseatic city of Riga on the Baltic Sea.

File:Sigismund of Poland.JPG, who reigned between 1587 and 1632, presided over an era of prosperity and territorial expansion of the Commonwealth.]]

In 1587, Sigismund Vasa – the son of John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellon – won the election, but his claim was overtly contested by Maximilian III of Austria, who launched a military expedition to challenge the new king.{{cite book |last=Szujski |first=Józef |date=1894 |title=Dzieła Józefa Szujskiego. Dzieje Polski |volume=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlAFSS-12xwC |location=Kraków |publisher=Szujski-Kluczycki |language=Polish |access-date=9 January 2021 |page=139}} His defeat in 1588 at the hands of Jan Zamoyski sealed Sigismund's right to the throne of Poland and Sweden.{{cite web |url=http://historia.org.pl/2013/07/03/bitwa-pod-byczyna-zamoyski-upokarza-habsburgow-i-gwarantuje-tron-zygmuntowi-iii/ |title=Bitwa pod Byczyną. Zamoyski upokarza Habsburgów i gwarantuje tron Zygmuntowi III – HISTORIA.org.pl – historia, kultura, muzea, matura, rekonstrukcje i recenzje historyczne |first=Przemek |last=pisze |date=3 July 2013|access-date=16 November 2016}} Sigismund's long reign marked an end to the Polish Golden Age and the beginning of the Silver Age.{{cite book |last=Kizwalter |first=Tomasz |date=1987 |title=Kryzys Oświecenia a początki konserwatyzmu polskiego |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7JFAAAAIAAJ&q=srebrn%20wiek%20%20z%C5%82oty%20waz%C3%B3w |location=Warszawa (Warsaw) |publisher=Uniwersytet Warszawski |language=Polish |access-date=3 May 2021 |page=21}} A devout Catholic, he hoped to restore absolutism and imposed Roman Catholicism during the height of the Counter-Reformation.{{Harvnb|Szujski|1894|p=161}} His intolerance towards the Protestants in Sweden sparked a war of independence, which ended the Polish–Swedish union.{{cite book |last=Peterson |first=Gary Dean |date=2014 |title=Warrior Kings of Sweden. The Rise of an Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FtFDthqmB2wC |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |language=English |isbn=978-1-4766-0411-4 |access-date=14 January 2021}} As a consequence, he was deposed in Sweden by his uncle Charles IX Vasa.{{Harvnb|Peterson|2014|p=107}} In Poland, the Zebrzydowski rebellion was brutally suppressed.{{cite book |last=Jędruch |first=Jacek |date=1982 |title=Constitutions, Elections, and Legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jl6OAAAAMAAJ&q=guz%C3%B3w%20200%20rokosz |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-8191-2509-5 |access-date=1 February 2021 |page=89}}

Sigismund III then initiated a policy of expansionism, and invaded Russia in 1609 when that country was plagued by a civil war known as the Time of Troubles. In July 1610, the outnumbered Polish force comprising winged hussars defeated the Russians at the Battle of Klushino, which enabled the Poles to take and occupy Moscow for the next two years.{{cite book |last=Dabrowski |first=Patrice M. |date=2014 |title=Poland. The First Thousand Years |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X__-DwAAQBAJ |location=US |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5740-2 |access-date=18 February 2021 |page=168}} The disgraced Vasili IV of Russia was transported in a cage to Warsaw where he paid a tribute to Sigismund; Vasili was later murdered in captivity.{{cite book |last=Shubin |first=Daniel H. |date=2009 |title=Tsars and Imposters. Russia's Time of Troubles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wq1NBAAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Algora |isbn=978-0-87586-687-1 |access-date=1 February 2021 |page=201}} The Commonwealth forces were eventually driven out on 4 November 1612 (celebrated as Unity Day in Russia). The war concluded with a truce that granted Poland–Lithuania extensive territories in the east and marked its largest territorial expansion.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbU8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA595 |title=The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 4, The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War, 1609–48/49 |first=J. P. |last=Cooper |date=1979 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-29713-4 |access-date=11 April 2019}} At least five million Russians died between 1598 and 1613, the result of continuous conflict, famine and Sigismund's invasion.{{cite book |last=Gillespie |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Gillespie |date=2017 |title=The Causes of War |volume=III: 1400 CE to 1650 CE |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i3UpDwAAQBAJ |location=Portland |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-5099-1766-2 |access-date=18 February 2021 |page=194}}

File:Polish Sejm under the reign of Sigismund III Vasa.JPG (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century]]

The Polish–Ottoman War (1620–21) forced Poland to withdraw from Moldavia in southeastern Europe, but Sigismund's victory over the Turks at Khotyn diminished the supremacy of the Sultanate and eventually led to the murder of Osman II.{{cite book |last=Dyer |first=Thomas Henry |date=1861 |title=The History of Modern Europe |volume=From the Fall of Constantinople, in 1453, to the War in the Crimea, in 1857. Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQZOAAAAcAAJ |location=London |publisher=J. Murray |access-date=20 February 2021 |page=504}} This secured the Turkish frontier for the duration of Sigismund's rule. In spite of the victories in the Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629), the exhausted Commonwealth army signed the Treaty of Altmark which ceded much of Livonia to Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus.{{cite book |first=Leszek |last=Podhorodecki |title=Rapier i koncerz: z dziejów wojen polsko-szwedzkich |location=Warsaw |publisher=Książka i Wiedza |year=1985 |isbn=83-05-11452-X |pages=191–200}} At the same time, the country's powerful parliament was dominated by nobles (Pic. 2) who were reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years' War; this neutrality spared the country from the ravages of a political-religious conflict that devastated most of contemporary Europe.{{Harvnb|Gillespie|2017|p=141}}

During this period, Poland was experiencing a cultural awakening and extensive developments in arts and architecture; the first Vasa king openly sponsored foreign painters, craftsmen, musicians and engineers, who settled in the Commonwealth at his request.{{cite book |last=Miłobędzki |first=Adam |date=1980 |title=Dzieje sztuki polskiej: Architektura polska XVII wieku |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zh8qAQAAIAAJ&q=zygmunt%20III%20architekutra |location=Polska |publisher=Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe |language=Polish |access-date=8 January 2021 |page=115 |isbn=978-83-01-01363-9}}

Sigismund's eldest son, Ladislaus succeeded him as Władysław IV in 1632 with no major opposition.{{cite book |first=Władysław |last=Czapliński |author-link=Władysław Czapliński |title=Władysław IV i jego czasy |trans-title=Władysław IV and His Times |publisher=PW "Wiedza Poweszechna" |location=Warsaw |year=1976 |language=pl |pages=102–118}} A skilled tactician, he invested in artillery, modernised the army and fiercely defended the Commonwealth's eastern borders.{{Harvnb|Czapliński|1976|p=170}} Under the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf, he reclaimed regions of Livonia and the Baltics which were lost during the Polish-Swedish wars.{{Harvnb|Czapliński|1976|p=202}} Unlike his father who worshipped the Habsburgs, Władysław sought closer ties with France and married Marie Louise Gonzaga, daughter of Charles I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in 1646.{{Harvnb|Czapliński|1976|pp=353–356}}

{{main|Swedish Deluge|Battle of Vienna (1683)}}

File:Siemiginowski Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna.jpg, victor over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.]]

The Commonwealth's power and stability began waning after a series of blows during the following decades. Władysław's brother, John II Casimir, proved to be weak and impotent. The multicultural and mega-diverse federation already suffered domestic problems. As persecution of religious and ethnic minorities strengthened, several groups started to rebel.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

A major rebellion of self-governed Ukrainian Cossacks inhabiting south-eastern borderlands of the Commonwealth rioted against Polish and Catholic oppression of Orthodox Ukraine in 1648, in what came to be known as the Khmelnytsky Uprising. It resulted in a Ukrainian request, under the terms of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, for protection by the Russian Tsar. In 1651, in the face of a growing threat from Poland, and forsaken by his Tatar allies, Khmelnytsky asked the Tsar to incorporate Ukraine as an autonomous duchy under Russian protection. Russian annexation of Zaporizhian Ukraine gradually supplanted Polish influence in that part of Europe. In the years following, Polish settlers, nobles, Catholics and Jews became the victims of retaliation massacres instigated by the Cossacks in their dominions.

The other blow to the Commonwealth was a Swedish invasion in 1655, known as the Deluge, which was supported by troops of Transylvanian Duke George II Rákóczi and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Under the Treaty of Bromberg in 1657, Catholic Poland was forced to renounce its suzerainty over Protestant Prussia; in 1701 the once-insignificant duchy was transformed into the Kingdom of Prussia, which became a major European power in the 18th century and proved to be Poland's most enduring foe.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

In the late 17th century, the king of the weakened Commonwealth, John III Sobieski, allied with Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to deal crushing defeats to the Ottoman Empire. In 1683, the Battle of Vienna marked the final turning point in the 250-year struggle between the forces of Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottomans. For its centuries-long opposition to Muslim advances, the Commonwealth would gain the name of Antemurale Christianitatis (bulwark of Christianity).Aleksander Gella, Development of Class Structure in Eastern Europe: Poland and Her Southern Neighbors, SUNY Press, 1998, {{ISBN|0-88706-833-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8keIXDyF_EoC&dq=Polish-Lithuanian+Commonwealth+%22federation%22+Gella&pg=PA13 Google Print, p. 13][https://archive.org/stream/polandknightamon00vannuoft/polandknightamon00vannuoft_djvu.txt Poland, the knight among nations], Louis Edwin Van Norman, New York: 1907, p. 18. During the next 16 years, the Great Turkish War would drive the Turks permanently south of the Danube River, never again to threaten central Europe.

{{main|Enlightenment in Poland|Personal union of Poland and Saxony}}

File:Silvestre Augustus II the Strong.jpg, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, wearing the Order of the White Eagle which he established in 1705.]]

John Sobieski's death in 1696 arguably ended the period of national sovereignty, and Poland's relative authority over the region dwindled swiftly. By the 18th century, destabilization of its political system brought the Commonwealth to the brink of civil war and the state became increasingly susceptible to foreign influence.{{cite book |last=Gintel |first=Jan |date=1971 |title=Wiek XVIII–XIX |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DTUAAAAMAAJ&q=XVIII%20wiek%20obce%20mocarstw%20wp%C5%82ywy%20szlachta%20elekcja |location=Polska |publisher=Wydawnictwo Literackie |page=143}} The remaining European powers perpetually meddled in the country's affairs.{{Harvnb|Gintel|1971|p=143}} Upon the death of a king, several royal houses actively intruded in the hope of securing votes for their desired candidates.{{cite book |author=Instytut Badań Literackich |date=1969 |volume=24, 25 |title=Studia staropolskie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3niAAAAMAAJ&q=obce%20mocarstwa%20wyb%C3%B3r%20kr%C3%B3la%20elekcja%20kandydat |location=Polska |publisher=Zakład Ossolińskich |page=172}} The practice was common and apparent, and the selection was often the result of hefty bribes directed at corrupt nobles.{{Harvnb|Instytut Badań Literackich|1969|p=172}} Louis XIV of France heavily invested in François Louis, Prince of Conti, in opposition to James Louis Sobieski, Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria and Frederick Augustus of Saxony.{{cite book |last=Borucki |first=Marek |date=1976 |title=Jak w dawnej Polsce królów obierano |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMMmAAAAMAAJ&q=conti+august+kr%C3%B3l |location=Polska |publisher=Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza |pages=138–143}} The latter's conversion from Lutheranism to Catholicism awed the conservative magnates and Pope Innocent XII, who in turn voiced their endorsement.{{cite book |author=Spórna |date=2003 |title=Słownik władców Polski i pretendentów do tronu polskiego |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P70jAQAAIAAJ&q=august%20conti%20papie%C5%BC%20innocenty%20xii |location=Polska |publisher=Zielona Sowa |page=30 |isbn=978-83-7220-560-5}} Imperial Russia and Habsburg Austria also contributed by financing Frederick, whose election took place in June 1697. Many questioned the legality of his elevation to the throne; it was speculated that the Prince of Conti had received more votes and was the rightful heir. Frederick hurried with his armies to Poland to quell any opposition. He was crowned as Augustus II in September and Conti's brief military engagement near Gdańsk in November of the same year proved fruitless.{{Harvnb|Borucki|1976|pp=138–143}}

The House of Wettin ruled Poland–Lithuania and Saxony simultaneously, dividing power between the two states. In spite of his controversial means of attaining power, Augustus II lavishly spent on the arts and left an extensive cultural and architectural (Baroque) legacy in both countries. In Poland, he expanded Wilanów and facilitated the refurbishment of the Warsaw Royal Castle into a modern palatial residence.{{cite book |author=Dobrowolski |date=1962 |title=Historia sztuki polskiej w zarysie: Sztuka nowożytna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKUjAAAAMAAJ&q=August%20wilanow%20pa%C5%82ac%20saski |location=Polska |publisher=Wydawnictwo Literackie}} Countless landmarks and monuments in the city bear a name referencing the Saxon kings, notably Saxon Garden, Saxon Axis and the former Saxon Palace.{{cite book |last=Davies |first=Norman |date=1992 |title=Boże igrzysko. Historia Polski. Od początków do roku 1795 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pgAWAQAAMAAJ&q=August%20wilanow%20pa%C5%82ac%20saski |location=Polska |publisher=Znak |page=412 |isbn=978-83-7006-384-9}} The period saw the development of urban planning, street allocation, hospitals, schools (Collegium Nobilium), public parks and libraries (Załuski Library). First manufactories producing on a mass scale were opened to satisfy the demands of the nobility as consumers.{{cite book |last=Brückner |first=Aleksander |date=1931 |title=Dzieje kultury polskiej. Czasy nowsze do roku 1831 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0ZFAAAAIAAJ&q=sas%C3%B3w%20fabryki |location=Polska |publisher=Wiedza Powszechna |page=27 |isbn=978-83-214-0861-3}}

{{multiple image

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At the height of the Great Northern War a coalition (Warsaw Confederation) against Augustus II was formed by Stanisław Leszczyński and other magnates sponsored by Sweden. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formally neutral at this point, as Augustus entered the war as Elector of Saxony. Disregarding Polish negotiation proposals supported by the Swedish parliament, Charles crossed into the Commonwealth and vanquished the Saxe-Polish forces at the Battle of Kliszów in 1702 and at the Battle of Pułtusk in 1703.{{cite book |title=The Northern Wars. War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558–1721 |first=Robert I |last=Frost |location=Harlow |publisher=Longman |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-582-06429-4}} Charles then succeeded in dethroning Augustus and coercing the Sejm (parliament) to replace him with Stanisław in 1704.{{Cite book |title=A Global Chronology of Conflict, Vol. Two |first=S.C. |last=Tucker |year=2010 |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC-CLIO, LLC |isbn=978-1-85109-667-1 |page=694}} Augustus regained the throne in 1709,{{Harvnb|Tucker|2010|p=710}} but his own death in 1733 sparked the War of the Polish Succession in which Stanisław once more attempted to seize the crown, this time with the support of France.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Polish Succession War |volume=21 |pages=981–982}} The Pacification Sejm culminated in Augustus III succeeding his father Frederick Augustus of Saxony.Lindsey, J. O. (ed). The Cambridge New Modern History, Volume 7.

The relative peace and inactivity that followed only weakened Poland's reputation on the world stage.{{Harvnb|Brückner|1931|p=157}} Aleksander Brückner noted that Polish customs and traditions were abandoned in favour of everything foreign, and neighbouring states continued to exploit Poland to their advantage. Moreover, Western Europe's increasing exploitation of resources in the Americas rendered the Commonwealth's supplies less crucial which resulted in financial losses. Augustus III spent little time in the Commonwealth, instead preferring the Saxon city of Dresden. He appointed Heinrich von Brühl as viceroy and minister of Polish affairs who in turn left the politics to Polish magnate families, such as the Czartoryskis and the Radziwiłłs.{{Harvnb|Spórna|2003}} It was also during this period that the Polish Enlightenment began to sprout.

{{main|Partitions of Poland}}

File:Rzeczpospolita Rozbiory 3.png in 1772, 1793 and 1795.]]

In 1764, aristocrat Stanisław August Poniatowski was elected monarch with the connivance and support of his former lover Catherine the Great, a German noblewoman who became Empress of Russia.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KpBxHzAB1gC&pg=PA64 |title=Racławice 1794 |publisher=Bellona Publishing |year=2009 |access-date=26 September 2014 |author=Bartłomiej Szyndler |pages=64–65 |isbn=978-83-11-11606-1}}

Poniatowski's attempts at reform were met with staunch resistance both internally and externally. Any goal of stabilizing the Commonwealth was dangerous for its ambitious and aggressive neighbours. Like his predecessors, he sponsored artists and architects. In 1765 he founded the Warsaw Corps of Cadets, the first state school in Poland for all classes of society.{{cite book |author=Bartłomiej Kaczorowski |date=2004 |title=Nowa encyklopedia powszechna PWN: Sud-żyz |location=Polska |publisher=PWN |page=75 |isbn=978-83-01-14187-5}} In 1773 the king and parliament formed the Commission of National Education, the first Ministry of Education in European history.{{cite book |author=Norman Davies |title=God's Playground: 1795 to the present |url=https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0|url-access=registration |date=2005 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-12819-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0/page/167 167]}}{{cite book |author1=Ted Tapper |author2=David Palfreyman |title=Understanding Mass Higher Education: Comparative Perspectives On Access |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riv0UCM90AMC&pg=RA2-PA140 |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge Falmer |isbn=978-0-415-35491-2 |page=140}} In 1792, the king ordered the creation of Virtuti Militari, the oldest military decoration still in use.{{cite book |last=Kitowicz |first=Jędrzej |date=2019 |title=Customs and Culture in Poland Under the Last Saxon King |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M_2ZDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Central European University Press |page=262 |isbn=978-963-386-276-6}} Stanisław August also admired the culture of ancient kingdoms, particularly Rome and Greece; Neoclassicism became the dominant form of architectural and cultural expression.

Politically, however, the vast Commonwealth was in steady decline and by 1768, it started to be considered by Russians as a protectorate of the Russian Empire despite the fact that it was still an independent state.{{sfn|Sužiedėlis|2011|page=xxv}}Andrzej Jezierski, Cecylia Leszczyńska, Historia gospodarcza Polski, 2003, s. 68. A majority of control over Poland was central to Catherine's diplomatic and military strategies.[http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=13698&amid=13698 Russia's Rise as a European Power, 1650–1750] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200405080426/http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=13698&amid=13698 |date=5 April 2020 }}, Jeremy Black, History Today, Vol. 36 Issue: 8, August 1986. Attempts at reform, such as the Four-Year Sejm's May Constitution, came too late. The country was partitioned in three stages by the Russian Empire, the German Kingdom of Prussia, and the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. By 1795, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been completely erased from the map of Europe. Poland and Lithuania were not re-established as independent countries until 1918.{{cite book |last=Roman |first=Wanda Krystyna |date=2003 |title=Działalność niepodległościowa żołnierzy polskich na Litwie i Wileńszczyźnie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9cWAQAAIAAJ&q=polska%20litwa%20niepodleg%C5%82o%C5%9B%C4%87%201918 |location=Polska |publisher=Naukowe Wydawn. Piotrkowskie |page=23 |isbn=978-83-88865-08-4 |access-date=13 February 2021}}

{{See also|Offices in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

{{Main|Golden Liberty}}

File:Poland-00808 - Castle Square (31215382745).jpg was the formal residence of Polish kings after the capital was transferred from Kraków in 1596]]

File:Lublin. Stary ratusz (1).jpg in Lublin was the highest court of appeal in the Kingdom of Poland]]

File:LDK vyriausiasis tribunolas Pilies vartai.jpg in Vilnius, which exclusively was the highest appeal court for the Lithuanian nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]

The political doctrine of the Commonwealth was our state is a republic under the presidency of the King. Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that Rex regnat et non-gubernat ("The King reigns but [lit. 'and'] does not govern"). The Commonwealth had a parliament, the Sejm, as well as a Senat and an elected king (Pic. 1). The king was obliged to respect citizens' rights specified in King Henry's Articles as well as in pacta conventa, negotiated at the time of his election.

The monarch's power was limited in favour of a sizable noble class. Each new king had to pledge to uphold the Henrician Articles, which were the basis of Poland's political system (and included near-unprecedented guarantees of religious tolerance). Over time, the Henrician Articles were merged with the pacta conventa, specific pledges agreed to by the king-elect. From that point onwards, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and was constantly supervised by a group of senators. The Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones).

The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the "Golden Liberty" ({{langx|la|Aurea Libertas}} or {{langx|pl|Złota Wolność}}, a term used from 1573 on), included:

• election of the king by all nobles wishing to participate, known as wolna elekcja (free election);
• Sejm, the Commonwealth parliament which the king was required to hold every two years;
• pacta conventa (Latin), "agreed-to agreements" negotiated with the king-elect, including a bill of rights, binding on the king, derived from the earlier Henrician Articles.
• religious freedom guaranteed by Warsaw Confederation Act 1573,{{page needed|date=October 2020}}
• rokosz (insurrection), the right of szlachta to form a legal rebellion against a king who violated their guaranteed freedoms;
• liberum veto (Latin), the right of an individual Sejm deputy to oppose a decision by the majority in a Sejm session; the voicing of such a "free veto" nullified all the legislation that had been passed at that session; during the crisis of the second half of the 17th century, Polish nobles could also use the liberum veto in provincial sejmiks;
• konfederacja (from the Latin confederatio), the right to form an organization to force through a common political aim.

The three regions (see below) of the Commonwealth enjoyed a degree of autonomy.{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Each voivodship had its own parliament (sejmik), which exercised serious political power, including choice of poseł (deputy) to the national Sejm and charging of the deputy with specific voting instructions. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania had its own separate army, treasury and most other official institutions.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxFiAAAAMAAJ&q=They+continued+a+separate+treasury+and+army+.+Lithuania+%27+s+legal+code+%2C+the+Statut+Litovski+%2C+remained+in+force+.+Only+the+Constitution+of+1791+established+a+unitary+state |page=154 |title=Ecclesiastical Unification |author=Josef Macha |publisher=Pont. Institutum Orientalium Studiorum |year=1974}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W00qAQAAMAAJ&q=Union+the+Grand+Duchy+had+kept+its+own+%2C+separate+legal+system+%2C+as+well+as+other+institutions+such+as+its+own+army+%2C+treasury+%2C+tax+collection |pages=37, 87 |title=In the Shadows of Poland and Russia: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden in the European Crisis of the Mid-17th Century |author=Andrej Kotljarchuk |publisher=Stockholm University |year=2006 |isbn=978-91-89-31563-1}}

Golden Liberty created a state that was unusual for its time, although somewhat similar political systems existed in the contemporary city-states like the Republic of Venice.Joanna Olkiewicz, Najaśniejsza Republika Wenecka (Most Serene Republic of Venice), Książka i Wiedza, 1972, Warszawa{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Both states were styled "Serenissima Respublica" or the "Most Serene Republic".Joseph Conrad, Notes on Life and Letters: Notes on Life and Letters, Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-56163-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=x8oAq189BcwC&dq=autonomy+Polish-Lithuanian+Commonwealth&pg=PA422 Google Print, p. 422 (notes)]{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} At a time when most European countries were headed toward centralization, absolute monarchy and religious and dynastic warfare, the Commonwealth experimented with decentralization, confederation and federation, democracy and religious tolerance.{{cite book |title=The Northern Wars: War, State and Society in northeastern Europe, 1558–1721 |first=Robert I. |last=Frost |publisher=Longman's |location=Harlow, England; New York}} 2000. Especially pp. 9–11, 114, 181, 323.

This political system unusual for its time stemmed from the ascendance of the szlachta noble class over other social classes and over the political system of monarchy. In time, the szlachta accumulated enough privileges (such as those established by the Nihil novi Act of 1505) that no monarch could hope to break the szlachta's grip on power. The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but it can be tentatively described as a mixture of:

• confederation and federation, with regard to the broad autonomy of its regions. It is, however, difficult to decisively call the Commonwealth either confederation or federation, as it had some qualities of both;
• oligarchy, as only the szlachta (nobility){{snd}}around 15% of the population{{snd}}had political rights;
• democracy, since all the szlachta were equal in rights and privileges, and the Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones). Also, the 15% of Commonwealth population who enjoyed those political rights (the szlachta) was a substantially larger percentage than in majority European countries even in the nineteenth century; note that in 1820 in France only about 1.5% of the male adult population had the right to vote, and in 1840 in Belgium, only about 5%.
• elective monarchy, since the monarch, elected by the szlachta, was Head of State;
• constitutional monarchy, since the monarch was bound by pacta conventa and other laws, and the szlachta could disobey any king's decrees they deemed illegal.

File:Potega Rzeczypospolitej u zenitu Zlota wolnosc Elekcja 1573.JPG of 1573]]

The end of the Jagiellonian dynasty in 1572{{snd}}after nearly two centuries{{snd}}disrupted the fragile equilibrium of the Commonwealth's government. Power increasingly slipped away from the central government to the nobility.

When presented with periodic opportunities to fill the throne, the szlachta exhibited a preference for foreign candidates who would not establish a strong and long-lasting dynasty. This policy often produced monarchs who were either totally ineffective or in constant debilitating conflict with the nobility.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} Furthermore, aside from notable exceptions such as the able Stefan Batory from Transylvania (1576–86), the kings of foreign origin were inclined to subordinate the interests of the Commonwealth to those of their own country and ruling house. This was especially visible in the policies and actions of the first two elected kings from the Swedish House of Vasa, whose politics brought the Commonwealth into conflict with Sweden, culminating in the war known as the Deluge (1655), one of the events that mark the end of the Commonwealth's Golden Age and the beginning of the Commonwealth's decline.{{cite book |last=Frost |first=Robert I. |author-link=Robert I. Frost |date=2004 |title=After the Deluge; Poland–Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655–1660 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfIbP8sfC0wC |location=Cambridge |publisher=University Press |isbn=978-0-521-54402-3}}

The Zebrzydowski Rebellion (1606–1607) marked a substantial increase in the power of the Polish magnates, and the transformation of szlachta democracy into magnate oligarchy. The Commonwealth's political system was vulnerable to outside interference, as Sejm deputies bribedWilliam Christian Bullitt, Jr., The Great Globe Itself: A Preface to World Affairs, Transaction Publishers, 2005, {{ISBN|1-4128-0490-6}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=guYU3I5f2ZgC&dq=bribe+Polish+parliament&pg=PA42 Google Print, pp. 42–43]John Adams, The Political Writings of John Adams, Regnery Gateway, 2001, {{ISBN|0-89526-292-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zwKs6Wf2NUEC&dq=May+Constitution+reason+for+partitions+of+Poland&pg=PA242 Google Print, p. 242] by foreign powers might use their liberum veto to block attempted reforms. This sapped the Commonwealth and plunged it into political paralysis and anarchy for over a century, from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th, while its neighbours stabilised their internal affairs and increased their military might.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

File:Manuscript of the Constitution of the 3rd May 1791.PNG adopted in 1791 was the first modern constitution in Europe.]]

The Commonwealth did eventually make a serious effort to reform its political system, adopting in 1791 the Constitution of 3 May 1791, which historian Norman Davies calls the first of its kind in Europe. The revolutionary Constitution recast the erstwhile Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Polish–Lithuanian federal state with a hereditary monarchy and abolished many of the deleterious features of the old system.

The new constitution:

• abolished the liberum veto and banned the szlachta's confederations;
• provided for a separation of powers among legislative, executive and judicial branches of government;
• established "popular sovereignty" and extended political rights to include not only the nobility but the bourgeoisie;
• increased the rights of the peasantry;
• preserved religious tolerance (but with a condemnation of apostasy from the Catholic faith).

These reforms came too late, however, as the Commonwealth was immediately invaded from all sides by its neighbors, which had been content to leave the Commonwealth alone as a weak buffer state, but reacted strongly to attempts by king Stanisław August Poniatowski and other reformers to strengthen the country.{{page needed|date=October 2020}} Russia feared the revolutionary implications of the 3 May Constitution's political reforms and the prospect of the Commonwealth regaining its position as a European power. Catherine the Great regarded the May constitution as fatal to her influenceHenry Eldridge Bourne, The Revolutionary Period in Europe 1763 to 1815, Kessinger Publishing, 2005, {{ISBN|1-4179-3418-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dgYqPfGuNy8C&dq=feared+the+Polish+May+Constitution&pg=PA161 Google Print p. 161]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and declared the Polish constitution Jacobinical.Wolfgang Menzel, Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, {{ISBN|1-4191-2171-5}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=E6YFqBUYecoC&dq=feared+the+Polish+May+Constitution&pg=PA33 Google Print, p. 33]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin drafted the act for the Targowica Confederation, referring to the constitution as the "contagion of democratic ideas".Isabel de Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2002, {{ISBN|1-84212-511-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OA0yDoVBW0QC&q=%223+May%22&pg=PA431 Google Print p. 431]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Meanwhile, Prussia and Austria used it as a pretext for further territorial expansion. Prussian minister Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg called the constitution "a blow to the Prussian monarchy",Carl L. Bucki, [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/constitution.html The Constitution of May 3, 1791] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205130036/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/constitution.html |date=5 December 2008 }}, Text of a presentation made at the Polish Arts Club of Buffalo on the occasion of the celebrations of Poland's Constitution Day on 3 May 1996. Retrieved 20 March 2006. fearing that a strengthened Poland would once again dominate Prussia.Piotr Stefan Wandycz. The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present, Routledge (UK), 2001, {{ISBN|0-415-25491-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vdS_WBHGBcYC&dq=feared+the+Polish+May+Constitution&pg=PA130 Google Print p. 131]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. In the end, the 3 May Constitution was never fully implemented, and the Commonwealth entirely ceased to exist only four years after its adoption.{{cite book |date=1991 |title=Niepodległość |volume=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HhBpAAAAMAAJ&q=konstytucja%203%20maja%20nie%20zosta%C5%82a%20w%20pe%C5%82ni%20wprowadzona |location=Polska |publisher=Fundacja "Polonia Restituta," |access-date=13 February 2021}}

{{Further|Transportation and travel during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

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File:Cereals export through Gdańsk 1619-1799.png

The economy of the Commonwealth was predominantly based on agricultural output and trade, though there was an abundance of artisan workshops and manufactories – notably paper mills, leather tanneries, ironworks, glassworks and brickyards.{{cite web |url=http://www.exgeo.pl/blog/jak-powstawala-i-co-zawiera-mapa-rzeczpospolitej-obojga-narodow-ron |title=Jak powstawała i co zawiera mapa Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów |last=Sobiech |first=Marcin |date=2018 |website=Exgeo |publisher=Marcin Sobiech |access-date=16 February 2021 |language=Polish}} Some major cities were home to craftsmen, jewellers and clockmakers. The majority of industries and trades were concentrated in the Kingdom of Poland; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was more rural and its economy was driven by farming and clothmaking. Mining developed in the south-west region of Poland which was rich in natural resources such as lead, coal, copper and salt.{{Harvnb|Kucharczuk|2011|p=64}} The currency used in Poland–Lithuania was the złoty (meaning "the golden") and its subunit, the grosz. Foreign coins in the form of ducats, thalers and shillings were widely accepted and exchanged.{{cite web |url=http://www.linguee.com/english-polish/translation/shillings.html |title=shillings – Polish translation – Linguee |website=Linguee.com|access-date=27 April 2018}} The city of Gdańsk had the privilege of minting its own coinage.{{cite book |last=Flisowski |first=Zbigniew |date=1985 |title=Bastion u wrót Gdańska |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7pBAAAAYAAJ&q=gda%C5%84sk%20prawo%20do%20bicia%20monet |location=Polska |publisher=Nasza Księgarnia |page=11 |isbn=978-83-10-08779-9}} In 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko began issuing the first Polish banknotes.{{cite web |url=https://www.skarbnicanarodowa.pl/kroniki-numizmatyczne/292-pierwsze-polskie-banknoty#:~:text=Zupe%C5%82n%C4%85%20nowo%C5%9Bci%C4%85%20w%20polskim%20systemie,kt%C3%B3re%20r%C3%B3%C5%BCni%C5%82y%20si%C4%99%20odcieniem%20papieru. |title=Pierwsze polskie banknoty |website=Skarbnica Narodowa |access-date=16 February 2021 |language=Polish}}

The country played a significant role in the supply of Western Europe by the export of grain (rye), cattle (oxen), furs, timber, linen, cannabis, ash, tar, carminic acid and amber.{{cite book |author=Gdańskie Towarzystwo Naukowe |date=1991 |title=Seria popularno-naukowa "Pomorze Gdańskie" |volume=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TloAAAAMAAJ&q=Seria%20popularno-naukowa%20%22Pomorze%20Gda%C5%84skie%22 |location=Gdańsk |publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe |page=149 |language=Polish |access-date=16 February 2021}}{{cite book |last=Kucharczuk |first=Katarzyna |date=2011 |title=Polska samorządna; ilustrowane dzieje administracji i samorządu terytorialnego na tle historii Polski |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZelNAQAAIAAJ&q=konopii%20rzeczpospolita%20obojga%20narodow |publisher=Carta Blanca |page=66 |isbn=978-83-7705-120-7 |access-date=16 February 2021}}{{cite book |author=Zsigmond Pál Pach, Zs. P. Pach |title=The role of East-Central Europe in international trade, 16th and 17th centuries |year=1970 |page=220 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFZ9AAAAMAAJ}} Cereals, cattle and fur amounted to nearly 90% of the country's exports to European markets by overland and maritime trade in the 16th century. From Gdańsk, ships carried cargo to the major ports of the Low Countries, such as Antwerp and Amsterdam. The land routes, mostly to the German provinces of the Holy Roman Empire such as the cities of Leipzig and Nuremberg, were used for the export of live cattle (herds of around 50,000 head) hides, salt, tobacco, hemp and cotton from the Greater Poland region.{{cite book |author=Sven-Olof Lindquist, Birgitta Radhe |title=Economy and culture in the Baltic, 1650–1700: papers of the VIIIth Visby Symposium held at Gotland's Historical Museum, Visby, August 18th–22th [sic], 1986 |year=1989 |page=367 |publisher=Gotlands Fornsal |isbn=91-971048-8-4}} In turn, the Commonwealth imported wine, beer, fruit, exotic spices, luxury goods (e.g. tapestries, Pic. 5), furniture, fabrics as well as industrial products like steel and tools.{{cite book |last=Sowa |first=Jan |date=2015 |title=Inna Rzeczpospolita jest możliwa! Widma przeszłości, wizje przyszłości |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRtGCQAAQBAJ |location=Polska |publisher=WAB |language=Polish |isbn=978-83-280-2203-4 |access-date=16 February 2021}}

The agricultural sector was dominated by feudalism based on the plantation system (serfs)."[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001447.html The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215054739/http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001447.html |date=15 December 2007 }} (discussion and full online text) of Evsey Domar (1970). Economic History Review 30:1 (March), pp. 18–32. Slavery was forbidden in Poland in the 15th century, and formally abolished in Lithuania in 1588, replaced by the second enserfment. Typically a nobleman's landholding comprised a folwark, a large farmstead worked by serfs to produce surpluses for internal and external trade. This economic arrangement worked well for the ruling classes and nobles in the early years of the Commonwealth, which was one of the most prosperous eras of the grain trade. The economic strength of Commonwealth grain trade waned from the late 17th century on. Trade relationships were disrupted by the wars, and the Commonwealth proved unable to improve its transport infrastructure or its agricultural practices. Serfs in the region were increasingly tempted to flee. The Commonwealth's major attempts at countering this problem and improving productivity consisted of increasing serfs' workload and further restricting their freedoms in a process known as export-led serfdom.

The owner of a folwark usually signed a contract with merchants of Gdańsk, who controlled 80% of this inland trade, to ship the grain north to that seaport on the Baltic Sea. Countless rivers and waterways in the Commonwealth were used for shipping purposes, including the Vistula, Pilica, Bug, San, Nida, Wieprz, and Neman. The rivers had relatively developed infrastructure, with river ports and granaries. Most of the river shipping moved north, southward transport being less profitable, and barges and rafts were often sold off in Gdańsk for lumber. Grodno become an important site after formation of a customs post at Augustów in 1569, which became a checkpoint for merchants travelling to the Crown lands from the Grand Duchy.

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Urban population of the Commonwealth was low compared to Western Europe. Exact numbers depend on calculation methods. According to one source, the urban population of the Commonwealth was about 20% of the total in the 17th century, compared to approximately 50% in the Netherlands and Italy (Pic. 7). Another source suggests much lower figures: 4–8% urban population in Poland, 34–39% in the Netherlands and 22–23% in Italy.{{cite web |url=http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/allen/ecstrucagprod.pdf |title=Economic Structure and agricultural productivity in Europe, 1300–1800 |first=Robert |last=Allen|access-date=5 May 2015}} The Commonwealth's preoccupation with agriculture, coupled with the nobles' privileged position when compared to the bourgeoisie, resulted in a fairly slow process of urbanization and thus a rather slow development of industries. The nobility could also regulate the price of grain for their advantage, thus acquiring much wealth. Some of the largest trade fairs in the Commonwealth were held at Lublin.{{cite web |url=https://www.wilanow-palac.pl/jarmarki_w_wojewodztwie_lubelskim_w_xvi_w.html |title=Jarmarki w województwie lubelskim w XVI w. |last=kurkowski |first=Jan |date=2010 |website=Pasaż Wiedzy |publisher=Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie |access-date=16 February 2021}}

Several ancient trading routes such as the Amber Road (Pic. 4){{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/follow-ancient-amber-road-180970609/ |title=Follow the Ancient Amber Road |last=Billock |first=Jennifer |date=2019 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian |access-date=16 February 2021}} extended across Poland–Lithuania, which was situated in the heart of Europe and attracted foreign merchants or settlers.{{cite web |url=https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/drogi-handlowe-w-dawnej-Polsce;3894324.html#:~:text=drogi%20handlowe%20w%20dawnej%20Polsce%2C,%2C%20przeprawy%20i%20brody%2C%20groble. |title=Drogi handlowe w dawnej Polsce |website=PWN |publisher=Encyklopedia PWN |access-date=16 February 2021}} Countless goods and cultural artefacts continued to pass from one region to another via the Commonwealth, particularly that the country was a link between the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe.{{cite book |author=Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne |date=1989 |title=Kwartalnik historyczny |volume=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cN5BAAAAYAAJ&q=szlaki%20handlowe%20imperium%20osma%C5%84skie%20polska |publisher=Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne |page=214 |access-date=16 February 2021}} For instance, Isfahan rugs imported from Persia to the Commonwealth were incorrectly known as "Polish rugs" ({{langx|fr|link=no|Polonaise}}) in Western Europe.{{cite web |url=http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/obra.asp?num=t71&nuc=a4&lang=en |title="Polonaise" carpet |work=museu.gulbenkian.pt|access-date=18 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030228150012/http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/obra.asp?num=t71&nuc=a4&lang=en|archive-date=28 February 2003 |df=mdy-all}}

{{Main|Military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

{{See also|List of wars involving the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

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| caption2 = Kraków Militia, a local guard formation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the 16th and 17th centuries

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The military in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth evolved from the merger of the armies from the Polish Kingdom and from the Grand Lithuanian Duchy, though each state maintained its own division.{{Harvnb|Stachowicz|1894|p=279}} The united armed forces comprised the Crown Army (armia koronna), recruited in Poland, and the Lithuanian Army (armia litewska) in the Grand Duchy. The military was headed by the Hetman, a rank equivalent to that of a general or supreme commander in other countries. Monarchs could not declare war or summon an army without the consent of the Sejm parliament or the Senate.{{cite web |url=http://www.tomaszewska.com.pl/elekcja.pdf |title=Wolna elekcja i zasady jej funkcjonowania |last=Tomaszewska |first=A. |publisher=Tomaszewska |access-date=16 February 2021}} The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy never played a major role in the military structure from the mid-17th century onwards.{{cite book |author=Juliusz Bardach |author2=Zdzisław Kaczmarczyk |author3=Bogusław Leśnodorski |date=1957 |title=Historia państwa i prawa Polski do roku 1795 |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aj2uk1wJJD4C&q=polska%20flota%20w%2017%20wieku%20przesta%C5%82a%20istnie%C4%87%20ju%C5%BC%20w%20r%2016 |location=Polska |publisher=Państwowe Wydawn. Naukowe |pages=306–308 |language=Polish |access-date=16 February 2021}}

The most prestigious formation of the two respective armes were their 16th- and 17th-century heavy cavalry in the form of Winged Hussars (husaria), whereas the Polish Royal Guards and {{Interlanguage link|Royal Guards (Lithuania)|lt=Lithuanian Guards|pl|Regiment Gwardii Pieszej Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego}} were the elite of the infantry; the regiments were supervised by the king and his family.{{cite book |author=Richard Brzezinski |title=Polish Armies 1569–1696 (2) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6KrUDhbGDVcC&pg=PA11 |year=1988 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-0-85045-744-5 |page=11 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} In 1788, the Great Sejm approved landslide reforms and defined future structures of the military; the Crown Army was to be split into four divisions, with seventeen field infantry regiments and eight cavalry brigades excluding special units; the Lithuanian Army was to be subdivided into two divisions, eight field regiments and two cavalry brigades excluding special units.{{cite book |last1=Stachowicz |first1=Michał |date=1894 |title=Wojsko polskie Kościuszki w roku 1794 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42QPIMh8s8wC |location=Poznań |publisher=Księgarnia Katolicka |pages=23–25 |language=Polish |access-date=14 February 2021}} If implemented, the reform predicted an army of almost 100,000 men.{{Harvnb|Stachowicz|1894|pp=23–25}}

The armies of those states differed from the organization common in other parts of Europe; according to Bardach, the mercenary formations (wojsko najemne), common in Western Europe, never gained widespread popularity in Poland.Juliusz Bardach, Boguslaw Lesnodorski, and Michal Pietrzak, Historia panstwa i prawa polskiego (Warsaw: Paristwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe), 1987, p. 229. Brzezinski, however, notes that foreign mercenaries did form a significant portion of the more elite infantry units, at least until the early 17th century.Brzezinski (1988), p. 6. In 16th-century Poland, several other formations formed the core of the military.Bardach et al. (1987), pp. 229–230. There was a small standing army, obrona potoczna ("continuous defense") about 1,500–3,000 strong, paid for by the king, and primarily stationed at the troubled southern and eastern borders.Brzezinski (1987), p. 10. It was supplemented by two formations mobilised in case of war – the pospolite ruszenie (Polish for levée en masse – feudal levy of mostly noble knights-landholders), and the wojsko zaciężne, recruited by the Polish commanders for the conflict. It differed from other European mercenary formations in that it was commanded by Polish officers, and dissolved after the conflict has ended.

Several years before the Union of Lublin, the Polish obrona potoczna was reformed, as the Sejm (national parliament of Poland) legislated in 1562–1563 the creation of wojsko kwarciane, named after kwarta tax levied on the royal lands for the purpose of maintaining this formation. This formation was also paid for by the king, and in the peacetime, numbered about 3,500–4,000 men according to Bardach; Brzezinski gives the range of 3,000–5,000. It was composed mostly of the light cavalry units manned by nobility (szlachta) and commanded by hetmans.Bardach et al. (1987), pp. 227–228. Often, in wartime, the Sejm would legislate a temporary increase in the size of the wojsko kwarciane.

Following the end of the Commonwealth, the Polish–Lithuanian military tradition would be continued by the Napoleonic Polish Legions and the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw.{{cite book |last=Zwoliński |first=Stefan |date=1995 |title=Naczelni wodzowie i wyżsi dowódcy Polskich Sił Zbrojnych na Zachodzie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1oC1AAAAIAAJ&q=kontynuowali%20tradycje%20rzeczypospolitej%20armia%20ksi%C4%99stwa%20warszawskiego |location=Polska |publisher=Wojskowy Instytut Historyczny |language=Polish |page=12 |isbn=978-83-86268-27-6 |access-date=13 February 2021}}

{{Further|Renaissance in Poland|Baroque in Poland|Polish Enlightenment}}

File:Siemenowicz rocket.png]]

The Commonwealth was an important European center for the development of modern social and political ideas. It was famous for its rare quasi-democratic political system, praised by philosophers, and during the Counter-Reformation was known for near-unparalleled religious tolerance, with peacefully coexisting Roman Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox Christian, Protestant and Muslim (Sufi) communities. In the 18th century, the French Catholic Rulhiere wrote of 16th century Poland: "This country, which in our day we have seen divided on the pretext of religion, is the first state in Europe that exemplified tolerance. In this state, mosques arose between churches and synagogues."{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} The Commonwealth gave rise to the famous Christian sect of the Polish Brethren, antecedents of British and American Unitarianism.{{cite book |author1=J. K. Fedorowicz |author2=Maria Bogucka |author3=Henryk Samsonowicz |title=A Republic of nobles: studies in Polish history to 1864 |year=1982 |page=209 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=0-521-24093-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7U8AAAAIAAJ}}

With its political system, the Commonwealth gave birth to political philosophers such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503–1572) (Pic. 9), Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki (1530–1607) and Piotr Skarga (1536–1612). Later, works by Stanisław Staszic (1755–1826) and Hugo Kołłątaj (1750–1812) helped pave the way for the Constitution of 3 May 1791, which Norman Davies calls the first of its kind in Europe.

Kraków's Jagiellonian University is one of the oldest universities in the world (established in 1364), together with the Jesuit Academy of Wilno (established in 1579) they were the major scholarly and scientific centers in the Commonwealth. The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej, Polish for Commission for National Education, formed in 1773, was the world's first national Ministry of Education.{{cite book |author=Norman Davies |title=God's Playground: A History of Poland |year=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0/page/167 167] |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-12819-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0 |url-access=registration}} Commonwealth scientists included: Martin Kromer (1512–1589), historian and cartographer; Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636), alchemist and chemist; Jan Brożek (Ioannes Broscius in Latin) (1585–1652), polymath: a mathematician, physician and astronomer; Krzysztof Arciszewski (Crestofle d'Artischau Arciszewski in Portuguese) (1592–1656), engineer, ethnographer, general and admiral of the Dutch West Indies Company army in the war with the Spanish Empire for control of Brazil; Kazimierz Siemienowicz (1600–1651), military engineer, artillery specialist and a founder of rocketry; Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687), astronomer, founder of lunar topography; Michał Boym (1612–1659), orientalist, cartographer, naturalist and diplomat in Ming Dynasty's service (Pic. 11); Adam Adamandy Kochański (1631–1700), mathematician and engineer; Baal Shem Tov (הבעל שם טוב in Hebrew) (1698–1760), considered to be the founder of Hasidic Judaism; Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt (1728–1810), astronomer and mathematician (Pic. 12); Jan Krzysztof Kluk (1739–1796), naturalist, agronomist and entomologist, John Jonston (1603–1675) scholar and physician, descended from Scottish nobility. In 1628 the Czech teacher, scientist, educator, and writer John Amos Comenius took refuge in the Commonwealth, when the Protestants were persecuted under the Counter Reformation.{{cite web |author=Paul Peucker |url=http://www.moravian.org/news/2007/550_resources/Jan_Amos_Comenius_Bulletin_Insert.pdf |title=Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670) |work=www.moravian.org |access-date=18 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902190417/http://www.moravian.org/news/2007/550_resources/Jan_Amos_Comenius_Bulletin_Insert.pdf |archive-date=2 September 2009 |df=mdy-all}}

The works of many Commonwealth authors are considered classics, including those of Jan Kochanowski (Pic. 10), Wacław Potocki, Ignacy Krasicki, and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. Many szlachta members wrote memoirs and diaries. Perhaps the most famous are the Memoirs of Polish History by Albrycht Stanisław Radziwiłł (1595–1656) and the Memoirs of Jan Chryzostom Pasek (ca. 1636–ca. 1701). Jakub Sobieski (1590–1646) (father of John III Sobieski) wrote notable diaries. During the Khotyn expedition in 1621 he wrote a diary called Commentariorum chotinensis belli libri tres (Diary of the Chocim War), which was published in 1646 in Gdańsk. It was used by Wacław Potocki as a basis for his epic poem, Transakcja wojny chocimskiej (The Progress of the War of Chocim). He also authored instructions for the journey of his sons to Kraków (1640) and France (1645), a good example of liberal education of the era.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jl6OAAAAMAAJ&q=and+instructions+written+for+the+journey+of+his+sons+to+Cracow+%28+1640+%29+and+France+%28+1645 |page=125 |title=Constitutions, Elections, and Legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977: A Guide to Their History |author=Jacek Jędruch |publisher=University Press of America |year=1982 |isbn=978-08-19-12509-5}}

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The art and music of the Commonwealth was largely shaped by prevailing European trends, though the country's minorities, foreigners as well as native folk cultures also contributed to its versatile nature. A common art form of the Sarmatian period were coffin portraits (portrety trumienne) used in funerals and other important ceremonies.{{cite web |url=http://www.muzeum.leszno.pl/new/_index.php?wer=en&op=zbiory |title=Portraits collection |work=muzeum.leszno.pl |access-date=18 May 2009}} As a rule, such portraits were nailed to sheet metal, six- or eight- sided in shape, fixed to the front of a coffin placed on a high, ornate catafalque. These were a unique and distinguishable feature of the Commonwealth's high culture, not found elsewhere in Europe.{{Cite journal |title=The Coffin Portrait and Celebration of Death in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Modern Period |first=Bartłomiej |last=Łyczak |date=1 January 2011 |journal=IKON |volume=4 |pages=233–242 |doi=10.1484/J.IKON.5.100699}} A similar tradition was only practiced in Roman Egypt. Polish monarchs and nobles frequently invited and sponsored foreign painters and artisans, notably from the Low Countries (the Netherlands, Flanders and Belgium), Germany or Italy.{{cite book |last=Szablowski |first=Jerzy |date=1975 |title=Arrasy flamandzkie w zamku królewskim na Wawelu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDswAQAAIAAJ&q=sztuka%20flamandzka%20w%20polsce |location=Polska |publisher=Arkady |page=15 |language=Polish |access-date=13 February 2021}} The interiors of upper-class residences, palaces and manors were adorned by wall tapestries (arrasy or tapiseria) imported from Western Europe; the most renowned collection are the Jagiellonian tapestries exhibited at Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków.{{cite book |last=Szablowski |first=Jerzy |date=1975 |title=Arrasy flamandzkie w zamku królewskim na Wawelu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDswAQAAIAAJ&q=sztuka%20flamandzka%20w%20polsce |location=Polska |publisher=Arkady |language=Polish |access-date=13 February 2021}}

The economic, cultural and political ties between France and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth gave rise to the term à la polonaise, French for "Polish-styled".{{cite book |last=Orlińska-Mianowska |first=Ewa |date=2008 |title=Fashion world of the 18th and early 19th century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bMkSAQAAIAAJ&q=a%20la%20polonaise%20styl%20francja |location=Polska |publisher=Bosz |isbn=978-83-87730-72-7 |access-date=13 February 2021}} With the marriage of Marie Leszczyńska to Louis XV of France in 1725, Polish culture began to flourish at the Palace of Versailles.{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SDEDwAAQBAJ&q=lit+a+la+polonaise+marie+leszczynska&pg=PT117 |title=French and English furniture distinctive styles and periods described and illustrated |first=Esther |last=Singleton |date=December 12, 2019 |publisher=Good Press |via=Google Books}} Polish beds (lit à la polonaise) draped with baldachins became a centrepiece of Louis XV furniture in French chateaus.{{cite book |date=1966 |title=Dialog. Miesiȩcznik poświȩcony dramaturgii współczesnej, teatralnej, filmowej, radiowej, telewizyjnej. |volume=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dl43AAAAMAAJ&q=lit%20a%20la%20polonaise%20%C5%82o%C5%BCe |location=Polska |publisher=RSW "Prasa" |page=6 |access-date=13 February 2021}} Folk flower motifs as well as Polish fashion were popularised in the form of a back-draped polonaise dress (robe à la polonaise) worn by aristocrats at Versailles.{{cite book |last=Waugh |first=Norah |title=The Cut of Women's Clothes |year=1968 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-87830-026-0 |pages=72–73}}

The religious cultures of Poland–Lithuania coexisted and penetrated each other for the entirety of the Commonwealth's history – the Jews adopted elements of the national dress,{{cite book |last=Lubliner |first=Ludwig |date=1858 |title=Obrona Żydów zamieszkałych w krajach polskich od niesłusznych zarzutów i fałszywych oskarzeń |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qeoMxoe84RYC |location=Brussels |publisher=C. Vanderauwer |page=7 |access-date=13 February 2021}} loanwords and calques became commonplace and Roman Catholic churches in regions with significant Protestant populations were much simpler in décor than those in other parts of Poland–Lithuania.{{cite book |last=Muthesius |first=Stefan |date=1994 |title=Polska; art, architecture, design 966–1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G4D4swu4Z7wC&q=koscioly%20protestanckie%20polskie%20bia%C5%82e%20wystr%C3%B3j |publisher=Langewiesche Köster |page=34 |isbn=978-3-7845-7612-1 |access-date=13 February 2021}} Mutual influence was further reflected in the great popularity of Byzantine icons (Pic. 13) and the icons resembling effigies of Mary in the predominantly Latin territories of today's Poland (Black Madonna) and Lithuania (Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn). Conversely, Latin infiltration into Ruthenian Orthodox and Protestant art was also conventional (Pic. 3).

Music was a common feature of religious and secular events. To that end many noblemen founded church and school choirs, and employed their own ensembles of musicians. Some, like Stanisław Lubomirski built their own opera houses (in Nowy Wiśnicz). Others, like Janusz Skumin Tyszkiewicz and Krzysztof Radziwiłł were known for their sponsorship of arts which manifested itself in their permanently retained orchestras, at their courts in Wilno (Vilnius).{{cite web |author=Michael J. Mikoś |url=http://www.staropolska.pl/ang/baroque/Mikos_baroque/Cultural_b.html |title=Baroque |work=www.staropolska.pl |access-date=13 May 2009}} Musical life further flourished under the House of Vasa. Both foreign and domestic composers were active in the Commonwealth. Sigismund III brought in Italian composers and conductors, such as Luca Marenzio, Annibale Stabile, Asprilio Pacelli, Marco Scacchi and Diomedes Cato for the royal orchestra. Notable home grown musicians, who also composed and played for the King's court, included Bartłomiej Pękiel, Jacek Różycki, Adam Jarzębski, Marcin Mielczewski, Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński, Damian Stachowicz, Mikołaj Zieleński and Grzegorz Gorczycki.

{{main|Baroque in Poland{{!}}Baroque in Poland–Lithuania}}

File:Krasiczyn od fosy.jpg was built between 1580 and 1631 in the mannerist style.]]

The architecture of the cities in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth reflected a combination of Polish, German and Italian trends. Italian Mannerism or the Late Renaissance had a profound impact on traditional burgher architecture which can be observed to this day – castles and tenements were fitted with central Italianate courtyards composed of arched loggias, colonnades, bay windows, balconies, portals and ornamental balustrades.{{cite book |last=Rolska-Boruch |first=Irena |date=2003 |title="Domy pańskie" na Lubelszczyźnie od późnego gotyku do wczesnego baroku |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhEWAQAAIAAJ&q=architektura%20polska%20w%C5%82oskie%20loggie |location=Polska |publisher=Wydawnictwo KUL |isbn=978-83-7363-029-1 |access-date=13 February 2021}} Ceiling frescos, sgraffito, plafonds and coffering (patterned ceilings; Polish kaseton; from Italian cassettone) were widespread.{{cite book |last=Kowalczyk |first=Jerzy |date=1973 |title=Sebastiano Serlio a sztuka polska |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aefAAAAMAAJ&q=kasetony%20w%C5%82oska%20polska |location=Polska |publisher=Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich |page=119 |access-date=13 February 2021}} Rooftops were generally covered with terracotta rooftiles. The most distinguishable feature of Polish Mannerism are decorative "attics" above the cornice on the façade.{{cite book |last=Miłobędzki |first=Adam |date=1994 |title=The architecture of Poland: a chapter of the European heritage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAMtAQAAIAAJ&q=architektura%20polska%20attyki |location=Kraków |publisher=International Cultural Centre |page=110 |isbn=978-83-85739-14-2}} Cities in northern Poland–Lithuania and in Livonia adopted the Hanseatic (or "Dutch") style as their primary form of architectural expression, comparable to that of the Netherlands, Belgium, northern Germany and Scandinavia.{{cite book |author=Zdzisław Klimczuk |author2=Józef Garliński |date=1996 |title=Most Holandia – Polska |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdmAAAAAIAAJ&q=architektura%20gda%C5%84ska%20holandia |location=Polska |publisher=Bis Press |page=32 |isbn=978-83-901494-2-4 |language=Polish |access-date=13 February 2021}}

File:Wilanow palace - panoramio (2).jpg, completed in 1696, exemplifies the opulence of royal and noble residences in the Commonwealth.]]

The introduction of Baroque architecture was marked by construction of several Jesuit and Roman Catholic churches across Poland and Lithuania, notably the Peter and Paul Church in Kraków, the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, Lublin Cathedral and UNESCO-enlisted sanctuary at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. Fine examples of decorative Baroque and Rococo include Saint Anne's in Kraków and the Fara Church in Poznań. Another characteristic is the common usage of black marble.{{cite book |last=Karpowicz |first=Mariusz |date=1994 |title=Sztuki polskiej drogi dziwne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQgvAQAAIAAJ&q=czarny+marmur+rzeczpospolita+obojga+narodow |language=Polish |publisher=Excalibur |page=47 |isbn=978-83-900152-8-6 |access-date=13 February 2021}} Altars, fonts, portals, balustrades, columns, monuments, tombstones, headstones and whole rooms (e.g. Marble Room at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, St. Casimir Chapel of the Vilnius Cathedral and Vasa Chapel at Wawel Cathedral) were extensively decorated with black marble, which became popular after the mid-17th century.{{cite book |author=Feliks Gryglewicz |author2=Romuald Łukaszyk |author3=Wincenty Granat |author4=Zygmunt Sułowski |date=1973 |title=Encyklopedia katolicka: Kinszasa-Krzymuska |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ssPAQAAIAAJ&q=czarny%20marmur%20kaplica%20waz%C3%B3w%20zamek%20warszawa |location=Lublin |publisher=Tow. Nauk. Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego |page=1189 |isbn=978-83-7306-068-5 |access-date=13 February 2021}}

Magnates often undertook construction projects as monuments to themselves: churches, cathedrals, monasteries (Pic. 14), and palaces like the present-day Presidential Palace in Warsaw and Pidhirtsi Castle built by Grand Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. The largest projects involved entire towns, although in time many of them would lapse into obscurity or were abandoned. These towns were generally named after the sponsoring magnate. Among the most prominent is Zamość, founded by Jan Zamoyski and designed by the Italian architect Bernardo Morando as an ideal city. The magnates throughout Poland competed with the kings. The monumental castle Krzyżtopór, built in the style palazzo in fortezza between 1627 and 1644, had several courtyards surrounded by fortifications. Similar fortified complexes include castles in Łańcut and Krasiczyn.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

File:Polska Nieborów 022.jpg designed by Dutch architect Tylman van Gameren and built in 1697]]

The fascination with the culture and art of the Orient in the late Baroque period is reflected by Queen Marie's Chinese Palace in Zolochiv (Złoczów). 18th-century magnate palaces represents the characteristic type of Baroque suburban residence built entre cour et jardin (between the entrance court and the garden). Its architecture – a merger of European art with old Commonwealth building traditions are visible in Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (Pic. 15), Branicki Palace in Białystok, Potocki Palace in Radzyń Podlaski, Raczyński Palace in Rogalin, Nieborów Palace and Kozłówka Palace near Lubartów. Lesser nobility resided in country manor houses known as dworek. Neoclassicism replaced Baroque by the second half of the 18th century – the last ruler of the Poland–Lithuania, Stanisław August Poniatowski, greatly admired the classical architecture of Ancient Rome and promoted it as a symbol of the Polish Enlightenment.{{cite book |last=Snopek |first=Jerzy |date=1999 |title=Oświecenie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxMAAAAMAAJ&q=klasycyzm%20poniatowski |location=Polska |publisher=Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN |page=134 |isbn=978-83-01-12917-0 |access-date=13 February 2021}} The Palace on the Isle and the exterior of St. Anne's Church in Warsaw are part of the neoclassical legacy of the former Commonwealth.

{{Main|Szlachta|Sarmatism}}

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| image1 = Anonymous Elżbieta Sieniawska as Minerva.png

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| caption1 = The First Lady of the Republic{{cite book |author=Kazimierz Maliszewski |title=Obraz świata i Rzeczypospolitej w polskich gazetach rękopiśmiennych z okresu późnego baroku: studium z dziejów kształtowania się i rozpowszechniania sarmackich stereotypów wiedzy i informacji o "theatrum mundi" |year=1990 |page=79 |publisher=Schr |isbn=83-231-0239-2 |language=pl}} W każdym razie "królowa bez korony i pierwsza dama Rzeczypospolitej", jak współcześni określali Sieniawską, zasługuje na biografię naukową. – Elżbieta Sieniawska portrayed in Sarmata pose and in a male coat called delia

| image2 = Marcello Bacciarelli - Portret Franciszka Salezego Potockiego.jpg

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| caption2 = Sarmatian style for men; moustache, red kontusz coat, gold-silk pas with blue sash of the Order of the White Eagle

}}

The prevalent ideology of the szlachta became "Sarmatism", named after the Sarmatians, alleged ancestors of the Poles. This belief system was an important part of szlachta culture, penetrating all aspects of its life. Sarmatism enshrined equality among szlachta, horseback riding, tradition, provincial quaint life in manor houses, peace and pacifism; championed oriental-inspired souvenirs or attire for men (żupan, kontusz, sukmana, pas kontuszowy, delia, szabla); favoured European Baroque architecture; endorsed Latin as a language of thought or expression; and served to integrate the multi-ethnic nobility by creating an almost nationalistic sense of unity and of pride in Golden Liberty.

In its early, idealistic form, Sarmatism represented a positive cultural movement: it supported religious belief, honesty, national pride, courage, equality and freedom. In time, however, it became distorted. Late extreme Sarmatism turned belief into bigotry, honesty into political naïveté, pride into arrogance, courage into stubbornness and freedom into anarchy.Andrzej Wasko, Sarmatism or the Enlightenment: The Dilemma of Polish Culture, Sarmatian Review XVII:2, [http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/497/wasko.html online] The faults of Sarmatism were blamed for the demise of the country from the late 18th century onwards. Criticism, often one-sided and exaggerated, was used by the Polish reformists to push for radical changes. This self-deprecation was accompanied by works of German, Russian and Austrian historians, who tried to prove that it was Poland itself that was to blame for its fall.[http://www.polityka.pl/archive/do/registry/secure/showArticle?id=3353925 Dziejochciejstwo, dziejokrętactwo], Janusz Tazbir, Polityka 6 (2591) 10 February 2007 (in Polish)

{{Further|Demographic history of Poland#Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795)}}

File:Lamentation over the dead credit.jpg, painter, butcher, musician, tailor, barmaid, pharmacist, shoemaker, goldsmith, merchant and Armenian]]

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was immensely multicultural throughout its existence – it comprised countless religious identities and ethnic minorities inhabiting the country's vast territory.{{cite book |last=Paradowski |first=Ryszard |date=2005 |title=Unia Europejska a społeczeństwo obywatelskie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G6MVAQAAIAAJ&q=rzeczypospolitej%20obojga%20narod%C3%B3w%20wielokulturowa |location=Poznań |publisher=Wydawn. Nauk. Instytutu Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza |page=168 |isbn=978-83-87704-94-0 |language=Polish}} The precise number of minority groups and their populations can only be hypothesised.{{cite book |last1=Kopczyński |first1=Michał |last2=Tygielski |first2=Wojciech |date=2010 |title=Pod wspólnym niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej |location=Warszawa |publisher=Bellona |language=Polish |isbn=978-83-11-11724-2}} Statistically, the most prominent groups were the Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Ruthenians and Jews.{{Harvnb|Kopczyński|Tygielski|2010}} There were also considerable numbers of Czechs, Hungarians, Livonians, Romanis, Vlachs, Armenians, Italians, Scots, and the Dutch (Olędrzy), who were either categorised as merchants, settlers or refugees fleeing religious persecution.

Prior to the union with Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland was much more homogenous; approximately 70% of the population was Polish and Roman Catholic.{{Harvnb|Kopczyński|Tygielski|2010|p=236}} With the creation of the Commonwealth, the number of Poles in comparison to the total population decreased to 50%.{{Harvnb|Kopczyński|Tygielski|2010|p=237}} In 1569, the population stood at 7 million, with roughly 4.5 million Poles, 750,000 Lithuanians, 700,000 Jews and 2 million Ruthenians. Historians Michał Kopczyński and Wojciech Tygielski suggest that with the territorial expansion after the Truce of Deulino in 1618, the Commonwealth's population reached 12 million people, of which Poles constituted only 40%. At that time the nobility made up 10% of the entire population and the burghers around 15%. The average population density per square kilometer was: 24 in Mazovia, 23 in Lesser Poland, 19 in Greater Poland, 12 in Lublin palatinate, 10 in the Lwów area, 7 in Podolia and Volhynia, and 3 in the Kiev Voivodeship. There was a tendency for the people from the more densely inhabited western territories to migrate eastwards.R. B. Wernham, The new Cambridge modern history: The Counter-Reformation and price revolution, 1559–1610, 1968, Cambridge University Press, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-48AAAAIAAJ&dq=Cambridge+Mazovia+density&pg=PA377 Google print p. 377]

File:The density of the urban network per voivodeship of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ca. 1650 (Eng).png in 1650]]

A sudden change in the country's demographics occurred in the mid-17th century. The Second Northern War and the Deluge followed by famine in the period from 1648 to 1657 were accountable for at least 4 million deaths. Coupled with further territorial losses, by 1717 the population had fallen to 9 million.Based on [http://homepage.interaccess.com/%7Enetpol/POLISH/historia/MAPY/1618.jpg 1618 population map] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217222629/http://homepage.interaccess.com/~netpol/POLISH/historia/MAPY/1618.jpg |date=17 February 2013 }} (p. 115), 1618 languages map (p. 119), 1657–67 losses map (p. 128) and [http://homepage.interaccess.com/%7Enetpol/POLISH/historia/MAPY/1717.jpg 1717 map] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217222634/http://homepage.interaccess.com/~netpol/POLISH/historia/MAPY/1717.jpg |date=17 February 2013 }} (p. 141) from Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, Poland a Historical Atlas, Hippocrene Books, 1987, {{ISBN|0880293942}} The population slowly recovered throughout the 18th century; just before the first partition of Poland in 1772, the Commonwealth's population was 14 million, including around 1 million nobles.Matthew P. Romaniello, Charles Lipp. Contested Spaces of Nobility in Early Modern Europe. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 2011. p. 233. In 1792, the population of Poland was around 11 million and included 750,000 nobles.

The most multicultural and robust city in the country was Gdańsk, a major Hanseatic seaport on the Baltic and Poland's wealthiest region. Gdańsk at the time was inhabited by a German-speaking majority{{cite book |date=2007 |title=Polish Sociological Review |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJYhAQAAIAAJ&q=german%20speaking%20majority%20gdansk%2017th%20century |publisher=Polish Sociological Association |language=Polish |page=96}} and further hosted large numbers of foreign merchants, particularly of Scottish, Dutch or Scandinavian extraction.{{Harvnb|Kopczyński|Tygielski|2010|p=201}} Historically, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was more diverse than the Kingdom of Poland, and was deemed a melting pot of many cultures and religions.{{Harvnb|Kopczyński|Tygielski|2010|pp=25–83}} Hence, the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy were collectively known as Litvins regardless of their nationality, with the exception of Jews residing in Lithuania who were called Litvaks.

Despite guaranteed religious tolerance, gradual Polonization and Counter-Reformation sought to minimise the Commonwealth's diversity; the aim was to root out some minorities by imposing the Polish language, Latin, Polish culture and the Roman Catholic religion where possible.{{Harvnb|Kopczyński|Tygielski|2010|pp=29–38}} By the late 18th century, the Lithuanian language, culture and identity became vulnerable; the country's name was changed to "Commonwealth of Poland" in 1791.

{{Main|Warsaw Confederation}}

File:20200512 Kościół Świętych Apostołów Piotra i Pawła w Krakowie 1731 9916 DxO.jpg in Kraków was built between 1597 and 1619 by the Jesuit order]]

The Warsaw Confederation signed on 28 January 1573 secured the rights of minorities and religions;Stone, Daniel, The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386–1795, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2001. it allowed all persons to practice any faith freely, though religious tolerance varied at times. As outlined by Norman Davies, "the wording and substance of the declaration of the Confederation of Warsaw of were extraordinary with regards to prevailing conditions elsewhere in Europe; and they governed the principles of religious life in the Republic for over two hundred years."Norman Davies, God's Playground. A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 126. {{ISBN|0199253390|0199253404}} Subsequently, the Catholic church initiated a Counter-Reformation in Poland, relying heavily on methods of persuasion and legal means. As a result, compared to many other European countries, the conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants in Poland was relatively peaceful.{{cite book|author=Paul R. Magocsi|title=A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TA1zVKTTsXUC&pg=PA169|year=2010|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4426-1021-7|page=169}}{{cite book|author=Jeannie Labno|title=Commemorating the Polish Renaissance Child: Funeral Monuments and Their European Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rW7QEmWtFSsC&pg=PA36|year=2011|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6825-1|page=36}}

Poland retained religious freedom laws during an era when religious persecution was an everyday occurrence in the rest of Europe.{{cite book |last=Piekarski |first=Adam |date=1979 |title=Freedom of Conscience and Religion in Poland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp1JAAAAIAAJ&q=persecution%20religious%20in%20Europe%20poland%20freedom |publisher=Interpress Publishers |page=31}} The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a place where the most radical religious sects, trying to escape persecution in other countries of the Christian world, sought refuge. In 1561 Giovanni Bernardino Bonifacio d'Oria, a religious exile living in Poland, wrote of his adopted country's virtues to a colleague back in Italy: "You could live here in accordance with your ideas and preferences, in great, even the greatest freedoms, including writing and publishing. No one is a censor here."{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} Others, particularly the leaders of the Roman Catholic church, the Jesuits and papal legates, were less optimistic about Poland's religious frivolity.

"This country became a place of shelter for heretics" – Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius, papal legate to Poland.

File:Konfederacja Warszawska.jpg in 1573, the first act of religious freedom in Europe]]

To be Polish, in remote and multi-ethnic parts of the Commonwealth, was then much less an index of ethnicity than of religion and rank; it was a designation largely reserved for the landed noble class (szlachta), which included Poles, but also many members of non-Polish origin who converted to Catholicism in increasing numbers with each following generation. For the non-Polish noble such conversion meant a final step of Polonization that followed the adoption of the Polish language and culture.Linda Gordon, Cossack Rebellions: Social Turmoil in the Sixteenth Century Ukraine, SUNY Press, 1983, {{ISBN|0-87395-654-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qq0c9viLrB4C&dq=Polish-Lithuanian+Commonwealth+religious+tolerance&pg=PA51 Google Print, p. 51] Poland, as the culturally most advanced part of the Commonwealth, with the royal court, the capital, the largest cities, the second-oldest university in Central Europe (after Prague), and the more liberal and democratic social institutions had proven an irresistible magnet for the non-Polish nobility in the Commonwealth. Many referred to themselves as "gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus" (Ruthenian by blood, Polish by nationality) since the 16th century onwards.

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| caption1 = The Greek-Catholic St. George's Cathedral in Lwów was constructed between 1746 and 1762 following the Act of Unification of the Lwów archeparchy with the Holy See.

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| caption2 = The church in Kamieniec Podolski was converted into a mosque during the Turkish occupation between 1672 and 1699, with the 33-meter minaret being added at that time.

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As a result, in the eastern territories a Polish (or Polonised) aristocracy dominated a peasantry whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. Moreover, the decades of peace brought huge colonization efforts to the eastern territories (nowadays roughly western and central Ukraine),{{cite book |last1=Magocsi |first1=Paul R. |title=A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples |date=2010 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-1021-7 |page=190 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TA1zVKTTsXUC&pg=PA190}} heightening the tensions among nobles, Jews, Cossacks (traditionally Orthodox), Polish and Ruthenian peasants. When the latter, deprived of their native protectors among the Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to cossacks that facilitated violence which in the end broke the Commonwealth. The tensions were aggravated by conflicts between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Greek Catholic Church following the Union of Brest, overall discrimination of Orthodox religions by dominant Catholicism,"Poland, history of", Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9108559]. Retrieved 10 February 2006 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041101184823/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9108559|date=1 November 2004}} and "Ukraine", Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=30063]. Retrieved 14 February 2006. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050124042641/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=30063|date=24 January 2005}} and several Cossack uprisings. In the west and north, many cities had sizable German minorities, often belonging to Lutheran or Reformed churches. The Commonwealth had also one of the largest Jewish diasporas in the world – by the mid-16th century 80% of the world's Jews lived in Poland (Pic. 16).

Until the Reformation, the szlachta were mostly Catholics (Pic. 13). However, many noble families quickly adopted the Reformed religion. After the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church regained power in Poland, the szlachta became almost exclusively Catholic.

The Crown had about double the population of Lithuania and five times the income of the latter's treasury. As with other countries, the borders, area and population of the Commonwealth varied over time. After the Peace of Jam Zapolski (1582), the Commonwealth had approximately 815,000 km² area and a population of 7.5 million. After the Truce of Deulino (1618), the Commonwealth had an area of some 990,000 km² and a population of 11–12 million (including some 4 million Poles and close to a million Lithuanians).

File:Anniversary anthem of Constitution of May 3 1791.jpg (1792) in Hebrew, Polish, German and French]]

• Polish – officially recognised; dominant language, used by most of the Commonwealth's nobilityAnatol Lieven, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence, Yale University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-300-06078-5}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iz3NACNOpCAC&dq=Polish+Latin+Ruthene+German+Armenian+Hebrew&pg=PA48 Google Print, p. 48]Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-19-925085-5}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1ixmu8Iga7gC&dq=Polish-Lithuanian+%22Polish+language%22&pg=PA194 Google Print p. 184]Östen Dahl, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001, {{ISBN|90-272-3057-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CsesLE3efLwC&dq=Polish-Lithuanian+%22Polish+language%22&pg=PA45 Google Print, p. 45]Glanville Price, Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe, Blackwell Publishing, 1998, {{ISBN|0-631-22039-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CPX2xgmVe9IC&dq=Polish-Lithuanian+%22Polish+language%22&pg=PA30 Google Print, p. 30] and by the peasantry in the Crown province;Mikulas Teich & Roy Porter, The National Question in Europe in Historical Context, Cambridge University Press, 1993, {{ISBN|0-521-36713-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu2SnETtV3kC&q=variety+of+languages&pg=PA295 Google Print, p. 295] official language in the Crown chancellery and since 1697 in the Grand Duchy chancellery.Kevin O'Connor, Culture And Customs of the Baltic States, Greenwood Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-313-33125-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IpR0-OrrwssC&q=Lithuanian+language+commonwealth&pg=PA115 Google Print, p. 115] Dominant language in the towns.
• Latin – officially recognised; commonly used in foreign relations and popular as a second language among some of the nobility.Karin Friedrich et al., The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772, Cambridge University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-58335-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qsBco40rMPcC&dq=Latin+language+szlachta&pg=PA88 Google Print, p. 88]
• French – not officially recognised; replaced Latin at the royal court in Warsaw in the beginning of the 18th century as a language used in foreign relations and as genuine spoken language. It was commonly used as a language of science and literature and as a second language among some of the nobility.They were the first Catholic schools in which one of the main languages of instruction was Polish. [...] Although he followed Locke in attaching weight to the native language, in general Latin lost ground to French rather than Polish. {{cite book |author=Richard Butterwick |title=Poland's last king and English culture: Stanisław August Poniatowski, 1732–1798 |year=1998 |page=70 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-820701-8}}
• Ruthenian – also known as Chancellery Slavonic; officially recognised; official language in the Grand Duchy chancellery until 1697 (when replaced by Polish) and in Bratslav, Chernihiv, Kiev and Volhynian voivodeships until 1673;{{Cite web|url=https://archives.gov.ua/ua|title=Державна архівна служба України|first=ЦДЕА|last=України|website=archives.gov.ua}}Although still sometimes in use by the end of the XVII century and lack of official decree like one for Grand Duchy chancellery, there was no separate Ruthenian Metrica since 1673. used in some foreign relationsDaniel. Z Stone, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LFgB_l4SdHAC&dq=%22official+language%22+Poland+Lithuania&pg=PA46 A History of East Central Europe], p. 46.Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski, Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe: History, Data, Analysis, M.E. Sharpe, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7656-0665-8}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jLfX1q3kJzgC&q=language+replaced&pg=RA1-PA177 Google Print, p. 177] its dialects (modern Belarusian and Ukrainian) were widely used in the Grand Duchy and eastern parts of the Crown as spoken language.
• Lithuanian – not officially recognised;Östen Dahl, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001, {{ISBN|90-272-3057-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CsesLE3efLwC&dq=Lithuanian+language+commonwealth&pg=PA41 Google Print, p. 41] but used in some official documents in the Grand Duchy{{cite web |url=http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/no_name_2/Edt1458.jpg |title="Mes Wladislaus..." a letter from Wladyslaw Vasa issued in 1639 written in Lithuanian language| access-date=3 September 2006}}{{cite book |last=Ališauskas |first=V. |author2=L. Jovaiša |author3=M. Paknys |author4=R. Petrauskas |author5=E. Raila |title=Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštijos kultūra. Tyrinėjimai ir vaizdai |year=2001 |location=Vilnius |page=500 |quote=In 1794 Government's declarations were carried out and in Lithuanian. |isbn=9955-445-26-2 |display-authors=etal}} and, mostly, used as a spoken language in the northernmost part of the country (in Lithuania Proper)Daniel. Z Stone, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LFgB_l4SdHAC&q=Lithuanian&pg=PA4 A History of East Central Europe], p. 4. and the northern part of Ducal Prussia (Polish fief).
• German – officially recognised; used in some foreign relations, in Ducal Prussia and by German minorities especially in the Royal Prussia and Greater Poland.Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, University of California Press, 1983, {{ISBN|0-520-04477-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=11MVdBYUX5oC&dq=languages+Polish-Lithuanian+German&pg=PA108 Google Print, p. 108]
• Hebrew – officially recognised; and Aramaic used by Jews for religious, scholarly, and legal matters.
• Yiddish – not officially recognised;Jan K. Ostrowski, Land of the Winged Horsemen: Art in Poland, 1572–1764, Yale University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-300-07918-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ucOZCQMVMNIC&dq=Polish-Lithuanian+Hebrew+Armenian&pg=PA27 Google Print, p. 27] used by Jews in their daily life.
• Italian – not officially recognised; used in some foreign relations and by Italian minorities in cities.{{cite book |author=Karol Zierhoffer, Zofia Zierhoffer |title=Nazwy zachodnioeuropejskie w języku polskim a związki Polski z kulturą Europy |year=2000 |page=79 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk |isbn=83-7063-286-6 |language=pl}} Podobną opinię przekazał nieco późnej, w 1577 r. Marcin Kromer "Za naszej pamięci weszli [...] do głównych miast Polski kupcy i rzemieślnicy włoscy, a język ich jest także częściowo w użyciu, mianowicie wśród wytworniejszych Polaków, którzy chętnie podróżują do Włoch".
• Armenian – officially recognised; used by the Armenian minority.
• Arabic – not officially recognized; used in some foreign relations and by Tatars in their religious matters, they also wrote Ruthenian in the Arabic script.

{{Main|Intermarium}}

The Duchy of Warsaw, established in 1807 by Napoleon Bonaparte, traced its origins to the Commonwealth. Other revival movements appeared during the November Uprising (1830–31), the January Uprising (1863–64) and in the 1920s, with Józef Piłsudski's failed attempt to create a Polish-led Intermarium (Międzymorze) federation that, at its largest extent, would span from Finland in the north to the Balkans in the south.{{cite book |last=Barile |first=Davide |date=2019 |title=Historic Power Europe; A Post-Hegelian Interpretation of European Integration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXu9DwAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-73113-2}} The contemporary Republic of Poland considers itself a successor to the Commonwealth,A. stated, for instance by the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997. whereas the Republic of Lithuania, re-established at the end of World War I, saw the participation of the Lithuanian state in the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth mostly in a negative light at the early stages of regaining its independence,Alfonsas Eidintas, Vytautas Zalys, Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918–1940, Palgrave, 1999, {{ISBN|0312224583}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0_i8yez8udgC&q=Polish-Lithuanian+Commonwealth+negative&pg=PA78 Print, p. 78] although this attitude has been changing in recent years.{{cite web |url=http://www.rp.pl/artykul/180354.html |title=Zobaczyć Kresy|author= Grzegorz Górny|publisher=Rzeczpospolita |language=pl |date=23 August 2008 |access-date=1 February 2009 |archive-date=10 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710071513/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/180354.html }}

{{Main|Administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

{{See also|Offices in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

{{Rzeczpospolita 1618}}

While the term "Poland" was also commonly used to denote this whole polity, Poland was in fact only part of a greater whole{{snd}}the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which comprised primarily two parts:

• the Crown of the Polish Kingdom (Poland proper), colloquially "the Crown"
• the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, colloquially "Lithuania"

The Commonwealth was further divided into smaller administrative units known as voivodeships (województwa). Each voivodeship was governed by a Voivode (wojewoda, governor). Voivodeships were further divided into powiats, each powiat being governed by a starosta. Cities were governed by castellans. There were frequent exceptions to these rules, often involving the ziemia subunit of administration.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

The lands that once belonged to the Commonwealth are now largely distributed among several Central and East European countries: Poland, Ukraine, Moldova (Transnistria), Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Also some small towns in Upper Hungary (today mostly Slovakia), became a part of Poland in the Treaty of Lubowla (Spiš towns).

Other notable parts of the Commonwealth, without respect to region or voivodeship divisions, include:

• Lesser Poland Province ({{langx|pl|Małopolska}}), southern Poland, with two largest cities, its capital at Kraków and Lublin in the north-east;
• Greater Poland Province ({{langx|pl|Wielkopolska}}), west–central Poland around Poznań and the Warta River system;
• Mazovia ({{langx|pl|Mazowsze}}), central Poland, with its capital at Warsaw;
• Lithuania Proper ({{langx|lt| Didžioji Lietuva}}), northwest Grand Duchy, its most Catholic and ethnically Lithuanian part, capital Vilnius;
• Duchy of Samogitia ({{langx|lt|Žemaitija}}; {{langx|pl|Żmudź}}), westernmost and most autonomous part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, also the western part of Lithuania Proper, capital Raseiniai;
• Royal Prussia ({{langx|pl|Prusy Królewskie}}), at the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, was an autonomous area since the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), incorporated into the Crown in 1569 with the Commonwealth's formation;
• Pomerelia ({{langx|pl|Pomorze Gdańskie}}), Pomerania around Gdańsk, western part of Royal Prussia;
• Ruthenia ({{langx|pl|Ruś}}), the eastern Commonwealth, adjoining Russia;
• Duchy of Livonia ({{lang|pl|Inflanty}}), a joint domain of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Parts lost to Sweden in the 1620s and in 1660;
• Duchy of Courland and Semigallia ({{Langx|lt|Kuršas ir Žiemgala}}; {{langx|pl|Kurlandia i Semigalia}}), a northern fief of the Commonwealth. It established a colony in Tobago in 1637 and on St. Andrews Island at the Gambia River in 1651 (see Couronian colonization);
• Silesia ({{langx|pl|Śląsk}}) was not within the Commonwealth, but small parts belonged to various Commonwealth kings; in particular, the Vasa kings were dukes of Opole (Oppeln), Prudnik (Neustadt) and Racibórz (Ratibor) from 1645 to 1666.

File:Poland1764physical.jpg

Commonwealth borders shifted with wars and treaties, sometimes several times in a decade, especially in the eastern and southern parts. After the Peace of Jam Zapolski (1582), the Commonwealth had approximately 815,000 km² area and a population of 7.5 million. After the Truce of Deulino (1618), the Commonwealth had an area of some 1 million km² (990,000 km²) and a population of about 11 million.

In the 16th century, the Polish bishop and cartographer Martin Kromer, who studied in Bologna, published a Latin atlas, entitled Poland: about Its Location, People, Culture, Offices and the Polish Commonwealth, which was regarded as one of the most comprehensive guides to the country.{{cite book |language=it |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FiNSAQAAIAAJ&q=Nel+1555+,+presso+Oporino+,+Marcin+Kromer+aveva+pubblicato+De+Origine+et+rebus+gestis+Polonorum+libri+XXX+,+in+un+latino+elegante+e+con+lo+spirito+critico+che+gli+veniva+da+un%27eccellente+formazione+umanistica+conseguita+in+gioventù+a+Bologna |page=76 |title=Traduzioni e circolazione delle idee nella cultura europea tra '500 e '700 |author=Girolamo Imbruglia |author2=Rolando Minuti |author3=Luisa Simonutti |publisher=Bibliopolis |year=2007 |isbn=978-88-70-88537-8}}

Kromer's works and other contemporary maps, such as those of Gerardus Mercator, show the Commonwealth as mostly plains. The Commonwealth's southeastern part, the Kresy, was famous for its steppes. The Carpathian Mountains formed part of the southern border, with the Tatra Mountain chain the highest, and the Baltic Sea formed the Commonwealth's northern border. As with most European countries at the time, the Commonwealth had extensive forest cover, especially in the east. Today, what remains of the Białowieża Forest constitutes the last largely intact primeval forest in Europe.

{{clear}}

File:Statuta Regni Poloniae.jpg|Statuta Regni Poloniae in ordinem alphabeti digesta (Statutes of the Polish Kingdom, Arranged in Alphabetical Order), 1563

File:Lukasz Opalinski (1581-1654).jpg|Grand Marshal of the Crown Łukasz Opaliński portraited with the insignium of his power in the parliament – the Marshal's cane, 1640

File:Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit 1, Vilnius, Lithuania - Diliff.jpg|Rococo iconostasis in the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, designed by Johann Christoph Glaubitz, 1753–1756

File:Malbork (DerHexer) 2010-07-14 067.jpg|18th century amber casket. Gdańsk patronised by the Polish court flourished as the center for amber working in the 17th century.{{cite book |author=Gordon Campbell |title=The Grove encyclopedia of decorative arts |year=2006 |page=13 |publisher=Oxford University Press US |isbn=0-19-518948-5}}

File:Kauffman Stanisław Poniatowski.jpg|Stanisław Poniatowski, Commander of the Royal Guards and Grand Treasurer. Painted by Angelika Kauffmann in 1786.

File:Sigismund at horse.jpg|Equestrian portrait of King Sigismund III of Poland, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1624

File:Tapestry with the Arms of Michał Kazimierz Pac.png|Tapestry with the arms of Michał Kazimierz Pac, Jan Leyniers, Brussels, 1667–1669

File:Museum in Poznan - Kufel 01.JPG|Silver tankard by Józef Ceypler, Kraków, 1739–1745

File:Lublin Kamienica Konopniców.jpg|Example of the merchant architecture: Konopnica's tenement house in Lublin, 1575

File:Zbroje husarskie.JPG|Hussars' armours, first half of the 17th century

File:Andreae Fricii Modreuij Commentariorum de Republica emendanda Libri quinque 1554 (46355727) (cropped).jpg|De republica emendanda (1554) by Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, proposed a deep programme of reforms of the state, society and church.

File:Merkuriusz Gloger t.1 s 284.jpg|Merkuriusz Polski Ordynaryjny, the first Polish newspaper published on the orders of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga in 1661

File:Kochanowski - Treny (1583).jpg|Title page of Treny (1580) by Jan Kochanowski, a series of elegies upon the death of his beloved daughter, is an acknowledged masterpiece.

File:Mango - Flora Sinensis 1656 (2950680).jpg|A plate from Michał Boym's Flora Sinensis (1656), the first description of an ecosystem of the Far East published in Europe{{cite book |author1=Gwei-Djen Lu |author2=Joseph Needham |author3=Vivienne Lo |title=Celestial lancets: a history and rationale of acupuncture and moxa |year=2002 |page=284 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-7007-1458-8}}

File:Taurus Poniatovii.PNG|Taurus Poniatovii, constellation originated by Marcin Poczobutt in 1777 to honor the king Stanisław II Augustus{{cite web |author=Ian Ridpath |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/poniatowski.htm |title=Taurus Poniatovii – Poniatowski's bull |work=www.ianridpath.com |access-date=2009-05-18}}

File:Pałac Branickich w Białymstoku - 12 VIII 2022 r. 7.jpg|Branicki Palace in Białystok, designed by Tylman van Gameren, is sometimes referred to as the "Polish Versailles".

File:Pažaislis Monastery exterior, Kaunas, Lithuania - Diliff.jpg|Pažaislis Monastery in Kaunas, Pietro Puttini, built 1674–1712

File:Peeter-Pauli kirik Vilniuses.jpg|Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Vilnius, Pietro Puttini, built 1675–1704

File:Ratusz Zamosc.jpg|Zamość City Hall, designed by Bernardo Morando, is a unique example of Renaissance architecture in Europe, consistently built in accordance with the Italian theories of an "ideal town".{{cite web |url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/564 |title=Old City of Zamość |publisher=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |date=2009-09-23 |access-date=2011-09-15}}

File:Siemiginowski Allegory of Spring.jpg|Plafond Allegory of Spring, Jerzy Siemiginowski, 1680s, Wilanów Palace

File:Łańcut synagoga 06.jpg|Łańcut Synagogue was established by Stanisław Lubomirski, 1733.After a fire had destroyed a wooden synagogue in 1733 Stanislaw Lubomirski decided to found a new bricked synagogue building. {{cite web |author=Polin Travel |url=http://www.jewish-guide.pl/sites/lancut |title=Lancut |work=www.jewish-guide.pl|access-date=2010-09-02}}

{{History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648)
• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)
• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–1795)
• List of medieval great powers
• Armorial of Polish nobility
• List of szlachta
• Polish heraldry
• Lithuanian nobility
• Armenians in Poland
• History of the Germans in Poland
• History of the Jews in Poland
• History of Poland
• History of Lithuania
• Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth
• Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite Commonwealth

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|refs=

Jagiellonian University Centre for European studies, "A Very Short History of Kraków", see: {{cite web |url=http://www.ces.uj.edu.pl/european/krakow/krakow_history.htm |title=1596 administrative capital, the tiny village of Warsaw |access-date=29 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312094359/http://www.ces.uj.edu.pl/european/krakow/krakow_history.htm |archive-date=12 March 2009 }}

{{cite book |author=Paul Robert Magocsi |title=A history of Ukraine |year=1996 |pages=286–287 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=0-8020-7820-6}}

{{cite book |author=Salo Wittmayer Baron |title=A social and religious history of the Jews |year=1976 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-08853-1}}

L'union personnelle polono-saxonne contribua davantage à faire connaître en Pologne le français que l'allemand. Cette fonction de la langue française, devenue l'instrument de communication entre les groupes dirigeants des deux pays. {{cite book |author=Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of History |title=Acta Poloniae historica |year=1970 |page=79 |chapter=Volume 22 |publisher=National Ossoliński Institute |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ffUAAAAMAAJ |language=fr}}

{{cite book |title=Art in Poland, 1572–1764: land of the winged horsemen |year=1999 |editor=Jan K. Ostrowski |page=32 |publisher=Art Services International |isbn=0-88397-131-3}} In 1600 the son of the chancellor of Poland was learning four languages: Latin, Greek, Turkish, and Polish. By the time he had completed his studies, he was fluent not only in Turkish but also in Tatar and Arabic.

{{cite book |author=Mariusz Karpowicz |title=Baroque in Poland |year=1991 |page=68 |publisher=Arkady |isbn=83-213-3412-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3lZAAAAIAAJ}}

{{cite book |author=Bertram Benedict |title=A history of the great war |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorygreatwa02benegoog|access-date=13 August 2011 |year=1919 |publisher=Bureau of national literature, inc. |page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorygreatwa02benegoog/page/n51 21]}}

{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0 |url-access=registration |first=Norman |last=Davies |title=Europe: A History |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0/page/699 699] |isbn=0-19-820171-0}}

Jan Zamoyski's speech in the Parliament, 1605 {{cite book |author=Harbottle Thomas Benfield |title=Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) |year=2009 |page=254 |publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC |isbn=978-1-113-14791-2}}

{{cite book |author=Richard M. Golden |title=Encyclopedia of witchcraft: the Western tradition |year=2006 |page=1039 |chapter=Volume 4 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=1-57607-243-6}}

{{cite book |author1=Lola Romanucci-Ross |author2=George A. De Vos |author3=Takeyuki Tsuda |title=Ethnic identity: problems and prospects for the twenty-first century |year=2006 |page=84 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=0-7591-0973-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AajCaf34k3oC&q=arabic+Tatars+Polish+Lithuanian+Commonwealth&pg=PA84}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=107 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211201802/http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=107 |archive-date=11 December 2008 |title=European Jewish Congress – Poland |publisher=Eurojewcong.org |access-date=1 February 2009}}

Thus, at the time of the first partition in 1772, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth consisted of 43 per cent Latin Catholics, 33 per cent Greek Catholics, 10 per cent Christian Orthodox, 9 per cent Jews and 4 per cent Protestant {{cite book |author=Willfried Spohn, Anna Triandafyllidou |title=Europeanisation, national identities, and migration: changes in boundary constructions between Western and Eastern Europe |year=2003 |page=127 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-29667-6}}

Ex quo serenissima respublica Poloniae in corpore ad exempluin omnium aliarnm potentiarum, lilulum regiuin Borussiae recognoscere decrevit (...)
{{cite book |author=Antoine-François-Claude Ferrand |title=Histoire des trois démembremens de la Pologne: pour faire suite à l'histoire de l'Anarchie de Pologne par Rulhière |year=1820 |page=[https://archive.org/details/histoiredestroi00ferrgoog/page/n235 182] |chapter=Volume 1 |publisher=Deterville |url=https://archive.org/details/histoiredestroi00ferrgoog |language=fr}}

Total and Jewish population based on Frazee; others are estimations from Pogonowski (see the following reference). Charles A. Frazee, World History the Easy Way, Barron's Educational Series, {{ISBN|0-8120-9766-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Br-ElA3OpEMC&dq=demographics+Poland+Lithuania+7000000&pg=PA50 Google Print, 50]

{{cite book |title=Rzeczpospolita w dobie Jana III (Commonwealth during the reign of John III) |year=1988 |editor=Aleksander Gieysztor |page=45 |publisher=Royal Castle in Warsaw |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8BBAAAAYAAJ}}

{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09144a.htm |title=Lemberg |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |access-date = 3 September 2010}}

{{cite book |author=PPerry Anderson |title=Lineages of the absolutist state |year=1979 |page=285 |publisher=Verso |isbn=0-86091-710-X}}

{{cite book |author=Jacek F. Gieras |title=Linear induction drives |year=1994 |page=V |chapter=Volume 30 of Monographs in electrical and electronic engineering, Oxford science publications |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-859381-3}}

{{cite book |title=Migrants and citizens: demographic change in the European state system |author=Rey Koslowski |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2000 |page=[https://archive.org/details/migrantscitizens00kosl/page/51 51] |url=https://archive.org/details/migrantscitizens00kosl |url-access=registration |quote=polish lithuanian commonwealth americas western europe. |isbn=978-0-8014-3714-4}}

{{cite book |last=Pacy |first=James S. |author2=James T. McHugh |title=Diplomats without a Country: Baltic Diplomacy, International Law, and the Cold War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRbdAwtxVIAC&q=Union+of+Lublin&pg=PA18 |access-date=3 September 2006 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location= Westport, Connecticut |isbn=0-313-31878-6 |year=2001}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.lvivtoday.com.ua/exploring-lviv/336 |title=Palaces and Castles in a Lion Country |work=www.lvivtoday.com.ua |date=2 June 2008 |access-date=19 May 2009 |archive-date=25 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425073036/http://www.lvivtoday.com.ua/exploring-lviv/336}}{{cite book |author=Rosemary A. Chorzempa |title=Polish roots |year=1993 |publisher=Genealogical Pub. |isbn=0-8063-1378-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/polishrootskorze00chor}}

{{cite book |author=Daniel H. Cole |title=Pollution and property: comparing ownership institutions for environmental protection |year=2002 |page=106 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-00109-9}}

{{cite book |author=Państwowy Instytut Badania Sztuki Ludowej |title=Polska sztuka ludowa (Polish Folk Art) |year=1974 |page=259 |chapter=Volumes 28–29 |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Sztuki}}

{{cite book |author=M. L. Bush |title=Rich noble, poor noble |year=1988 |pages=8–9 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=0-7190-2381-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIG7AAAAIAAJ}}

{{cite book |author=Jarmo Kotilaine |title=Russia's foreign trade and economic expansion in the seventeenth century: windows on the world |year=2005 |page=47 |publisher=Brill |isbn=90-04-13896-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=57LnE5DO2rQC}}

{{cite web |author=Maciej Kobyliński |url=http://www.polinow.pl/przelom_bugu-bugiem_do_gdanska |title=Rzeczpospolita spichlerzem Europy |work=www.polinow.pl |access-date=28 December 2009 |language=pl}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/2437/ |title=Setting Sail |work=www.warsawvoice.pl |date=29 May 2003 |access-date=21 May 2009 |archive-date=26 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080126150531/http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/2437/}}

{{cite book |author=Artūras Tereškinas |title=Imperfect communities: identity, discourse and nation in the seventeenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania |year=2005 |page=31 |publisher=Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas |isbn=9955-475-94-3}}

The death of Sigismund II Augustus in 1572 was followed by a three-year Interregnum during which adjustments were made in the constitutional system. The lower nobility was now included in the selection process, and the power of the monarch was further circumscribed in favor of the expanded noble class. From that point, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and constantly supervised by a group of senators.
{{cite web |url=http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/longhist3.html |title=The Elective Monarchy |work=Poland – The Historical Setting |publisher=Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress |year=1992 |access-date = 15 July 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604230420/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/longhist3.html |archive-date = 4 June 2011 |df=mdy-all}}

{{cite book |author=William J. Duiker, Jackson J. Spielvogel |title=The Essential World History: Volume II: Since 1500 |year=2006 |page=336 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=0-495-09766-7}}

{{cite book |author=Nicholas L. Chirovsky |title=The Lithuanian-Rus'commonwealth, the Polish domination, and the Cossack-Hetman state |year=1984 |page=367 |publisher=Philosophical Library |isbn=0-8022-2407-5}}

{{cite book |author=Tomasz Kamusella |title=The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe |year=2008 |page=115 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-55070-4}}

{{cite book |author=Krzysztof Olszewski |title=The Rise and Decline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth due to Grain Trade |year=2007 |page=7 |url=http://venus.unive.it/olszewski/Polish%20Grain%20Trade%20-%20Krzysztof%20Olszewski.pdf| access-date =22 April 2009}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{cite book |author=Krzysztof Olszewski |title=The Rise and Decline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth due to Grain Trade |year=2007 |pages=6–7}}

{{cite book |author=Francis Dvornik |title=The Slavs in European History and Civilization |year=1992 |page=300 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=0-8135-0799-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LACpYP-g1y8C}}

{{cite book |author=David Sneath |title=The headless state: aristocratic orders, kinship society, & misrepresentations of nomadic inner Asia |year=2007 |page=188 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-14054-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OR14qaApQbgC}}

{{cite book |author=Stephen K. Batalden, Sandra L. Batalden |title=The newly independent states of Eurasia: handbook of former Soviet republics |year=1997 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newlyindependent00bata/page/45 45] |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-89774-940-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/newlyindependent00bata/page/45}}

{{cite book |author=Serhii Plokhy |title=The origins of the Slavic nations: premodern identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus |year=2006 |page=169 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-86403-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCdUmCWxwJ8C}}

{{cite book |author=Peter Kardash, Brett Lockwood |title=Ukraine and Ukrainians |year=1988 |page=134 |publisher=Fortuna |isbn=978-0-7316-7503-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pl1pAAAAMAAJ}}

{{cite book |author=Sarah Johnstone |title=Ukraine |year=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ukraine00john/page/27 27] |publisher=Lonely Planet |isbn=978-1-74104-481-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/ukraine00john/page/27}}

{{cite book |author=Piotr Wandycz |title=The price of freedom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5plR3x6jLAC&pg=PA66 |access-date= 13 August 2011 |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-415-25491-5 |page=66|publisher=Psychology Press }}

{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 |title=Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to History |publisher=Britannica.com |date=31 January 1910 |access-date=1 February 2009}}

{{cite book |last=Zinkevičius |first=Z. |title=Rytų Lietuva praeityje ir dabar |publisher=Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla |year=1993 |page=70 |quote=Official usage of Lithuanian language in the 16th century Lithuania's cities proves magistrate's decree of Vilnius city, which was sealed by Žygimantas Augustas' in 1552...//Courts juratory were written in Lithuanian language. In fact, such [courts juratory written in Lithuanian] survived from the 17th century... |isbn=5-420-01085-2}}

{{cite book |author=Institute of History (Polish Academy of Sciences) |title=Acta Poloniae historica |year=1991 |page=42 |chapter=Volumes 63–66 |publisher=National Ossoliński Institute |isbn=0-88033-186-0}}{{cite book |author=Joanna B. Michlic |title=Poland's threatening other: the image of the Jew from 1880 to the present |year=2006 |page=42 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-3240-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6h2pI7o_zQC}}

{{cite book |title=A history of Eastern Europe: crisis and change |year=2007 |page=189 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |author=Robert Bideleux, Ian Jeffries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PTB0gn_qwTcC&q=polish+lithuania+commonwealth+grain+exports&pg=PA189 |isbn=978-0-415-36627-4}}

{{cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23126&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=Memory of the World Register Nomination Form |work=portal.unesco.org |access-date = 2 August 2011}}

{{cite book |title=Revolt and revolution in early modern Europe: an essay on the history of political violence |author=Yves-Marie Bercé |year=1987 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=151}}

}}

{{Main|Bibliography of the history of Poland}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |first1=Juliusz |last1=Bardach |first2=Boguslaw |last2=Lesnodorski |first3=Michal |last3=Pietrzak |title=Historia panstwa i prawa polskiego |location=Warsaw |publisher=Paristwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe |year=1987 |isbn=978-83-01-07919-2}}
• {{cite book |first=Richard |last=Brzezinski |title=Polish Armies (1): 1569–1696 |series=Men-At-Arms Series |volume=184 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |year=1987 |isbn=0-85045-736-X}}
• {{cite book |first=Richard |last=Brzezinski |title=Polish Armies (2): 1569–1696 |series=Men-At-Arms Series |volume=188 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |year=1988 |isbn=0-85045-744-0}}
• {{cite book |first=Robert |last=Frost |year=2015 |title=The Oxford History of Poland–Lithuania |volume=I: The Making of the Polish–Lithuanian Union, 1385–1569 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820869-3}}
• {{cite journal |first=Henryk |last=Litwin |url=https://www.msz.gov.pl/resource/49da65c5-9917-40de-b542-5c89751cacf6:JCR |title=Central European Superpower |journal=BUM Magazine |date=October 2016}}
• {{cite book |first=Zenonas |last=Norkus |year=2017 |title=An Unproclaimed Empire: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania: From the Viewpoint of Comparative Historical Sociology of Empires |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-28154-7}}
• {{cite book |first=S. C. |last=Rowell |year=2014 |title=Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire within East-Central Europe, 1295–1345 |series=Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-65876-9}}
• {{cite book |first1=S. C. |last1=Rowell |first2=Darius |last2=Baronas |year=2015 |title=The Conversion of Lithuania. From Pagan Barbarians to Late Medieval Christians |publisher=Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore |location=Vilnius |isbn=978-609-425-152-8}}
• {{cite book |first=Daniel Z. |last=Stone |year=2014 |title=The Polish–Lithuanian State, 1386–1795 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-80362-3}}
• {{cite book |last1=Sužiedėlis |first1=Saulius A. |title=Historical Dictionary of Lithuania |date=2011 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7536-4 |edition=2}}

{{refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• [http://www.commonwealth.pl Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624022527/http://www.commonwealth.pl/ |date=24 June 2011 }} {{in lang|pl|en}}
• [http://www.wilanow-palac.pl/pasaz Knowledge passage] {{in lang|pl}}
• [http://rzecz-pospolita.com/ The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth – Maps, history of cities in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417044200/http://rzecz-pospolita.com/ |date=17 April 2021 }} {{in lang|pl}}
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010f8z The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on BBC Radio 4 "In Our Time"] 14 Oct. 2021, Melvyn Bragg with Robert I. Frost, University of Aberdeen, Katarzyna Kosior, Northumbria University and Norman Davies, University of Oxford

{{Coord|50|03|14|N|19|56|05|E|type:country|display=title}}

{{Empires}}

{{Former Monarchies}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth}}

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