History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648)

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The history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648) covers a period in the history of

At the outset of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the second half of the 16th century, Poland–Lithuania became an elective monarchy, in which the king was elected by the hereditary nobility. This king would serve as the monarch until he died, at which time the country would have another election.^[4] This monarchy has been commonly referred to as a rzeczpospolita or republic, because of the high degree of influence wielded by the noble classes, often seen as a single non-homogenous class.

In 1572, Sigismund II Augustus, the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, died without any heirs. The political system was not prepared for this eventuality, as there was no method of choosing a new king. After much debate it was determined that the entire nobility of Poland and Lithuania would decide who the king was to be. The nobility were to gather at Wola, near Warsaw, to vote in the royal election.^[4]

The election of Polish kings lasted until the

The first Polish royal election was held in 1573. The four men running for the office were

A few of the elected kings left a lasting mark in the Commonwealth. Stephen Báthory was determined to reassert the deteriorated royal prerogative, at the cost of alienating the powerful noble families. Sigismund III, Władysław IV and John Casimir were all of the Swedish House of Vasa; preoccupation with foreign and dynastic affairs prevented them from making a major contribution to the stability of Poland-Lithuania. John III Sobieski commanded the allied Relief of Vienna operation in 1683, which turned out to be the last great victory of the "Republic of Both Nations". Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last of the Polish kings, was a controversial figure. On the one hand he was a driving force behind the substantial and constructive reforms belatedly undertaken by the Commonwealth. On the other, by his weakness and lack of resolve, especially in dealing with imperial Russia, he doomed the reforms together with the country they were supposed to help.^[4]

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, following the Union of Lublin, became a counterpoint to the absolute monarchies gaining power in Europe. Its quasi-democratic political system of Golden Liberty, albeit limited to nobility, was mostly unprecedented in the history of Europe. In itself, it constituted a fundamental precedent for the later development of European constitutional monarchies.^[4][5]

However the series of power struggles between the lesser nobility (

By the beginning of the 18th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous European states, was little more than a pawn of its neighbors (the Russian Empire, Prussia and Austria), who interfered in its domestic politics almost at will. In the second half of the 18th century, the Commonwealth was repeatedly partitioned by the neighboring powers and ceased to exist.^[4]

Economic and social developments

The agricultural trade boom in Eastern Europe showed the first signs of the approaching crisis in the 1580s, when food prices stopped increasing. It was followed by a gradual decline in agricultural products prices, a price

Capital and energy of urban enterprisers affected the development of mining and metallurgy during the earlier Commonwealth period. There were several hundred hammersmith shops at the turn of the 17th century. Great ironworks furnaces were built in the first half of that century. Mining and metallurgy of silver, copper and lead had also been developed. Expansion of salt production was taking place in Wieliczka, Bochnia and elsewhere. After about 1700 some of the industrial enterprises were increasingly being taken over by land owners who used serf labor, which led to their neglect and decline in the second half of the 17th century.^[6]

Gdańsk (Danzig) had remained practically autonomous and adamant about protecting its status and foreign trade monopoly. The

A rigid social separation legal system, intended to prevent any inter-class mobility, matured around the first half of the 17th century. But the nobility's goal of becoming self-contained and impermeable to newcomers had never been fully realized, as in practice even peasants on occasions acquired the noble status. Later numerous Polish szlachta clans had had such "illegitimate" beginnings. Szlachta found justification for their self-appointed dominant role in a peculiar set of attitudes, known as sarmatism, that they had adopted.^[6]

The

The increasingly uniform and polonized (in the case of

Already the Sandomierz Agreement of 1570, which was an early expression of Protestant irenicism later prominent in Europe and Poland, had a self-defensive character, because of the intensification of Counter-Reformation pressure at that time. The agreement strengthened the Protestant position and made the Warsaw Confederation religious freedom guarantees in 1573 possible.^[9]

At the heyday of Reformation in the Commonwealth, at the end of the 16th century, there were about one thousand Protestant

This Counter-Reformation offensive happened somewhat mysteriously in a country, where there were no religious wars and the state had not cooperated with the Catholic Church in eradicating or limiting competing denominations. Among the factors responsible, low Protestant involvement among the masses, especially of peasantry, pro-Catholic position of the kings, low level of involvement of the nobility once the religious emancipation had been accomplished, internal divisions within the Protestant movement, and the rising intensity of the Catholic Church propaganda, have been listed.[9]

The ideological war between the Protestant and Catholic camps at first enriched the intellectual life of the Commonwealth. The Catholic Church responded to the challenges with internal reform, following the directions of the Council of Trent, officially accepted by the Polish Church in 1577, but implemented not until after 1589 and throughout the 17th century. There were earlier efforts of reform, originating from the lower clergy, and from about 1551 by Bishop Stanislaus Hosius (Stanisław Hozjusz) of Warmia, a lone at that time among the Church hierarchy, but ardent reformer. At the turn of the 17th century, a number of Rome educated bishops took over the Church administration at the diocese level, clergy discipline was implemented and rapid intensification of Counter-Reformation activities took place.^[9]

Hosius brought to Poland the

Catholic efforts to win the population countered the Protestant idea of a national church with Polonization, or nationalization of the Catholic Church in the Commonwealth, introducing a variety of native elements to make it more accessible and attractive to the masses. The Church hierarchy went along with the notion. The changes that took place during the 17th century defined the character of Polish Catholicism for centuries to come.[9]

The apex of the Counter-Reformation activity had fallen on the turn of the 17th century, the earlier years of the reign of

Although attempts were made during the common Protestant-Orthodox congregations in

The Uniate Church, created for the Ruthenian population of the Commonwealth, in its administrative dealings gradually switched to the Polish language use. From about 1650, the majority of the Church's archival documents generated were in the Polish, rather than in the otherwise used Ruthenian (its Chancery Slavonic variety), language.^[19]

Culture of Early Baroque

The Baroque style dominated the Polish culture from the 1580s, building on the achievements of the Renaissance and for a while coexisting with it, to the mid 18th century. Initially Baroque artists and intellectuals, torn between the two competing views of the world, enjoyed wide latitude and freedom of expression. Soon however the Counter-Reformation instituted a binding point of view that invoked the medieval tradition, imposed censorship in education and elsewhere (the index of prohibited books in Poland from 1617), and straightened out their convoluted ways. By the middle of the 17th century the doctrine had been firmly reestablished, sarmatism and religious zealotry had become the norm. Artistic tastes of the epoch were often acquiring an increasingly Oriental character. In contrast with the integrative tendencies of the previous period, the burgher and nobility cultural spheres went their separate ways. Renaissance publicist Stanisław Orzechowski had already provided the foundations for Baroque szlachta's political thinking.^[20]

At that time there were about forty

By the mid 16th century Poland's university, the

One form of art particularly apt for Baroque purposes was the theater. Various theatrical shows were most often staged in conjunction with religious occasions and moralizing, and commonly utilized folk stylization. School theaters had become common among both the Protestant and Catholic secondary schools. A permanent court theater with an orchestra was established by Władysław IV at the Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1637; the actor troupe, dominated by Italians, performed primarily Italian opera and ballet repertoire.^[28]

Music, both sacral and secular, kept developing during the Baroque period. High quality church pipe organs were built in churches from the 17th century; a fine specimen has been preserved in Leżajsk. Sigismund III supported an internationally renowned ensemble of sixty musicians. Working with that orchestra were Adam Jarzębski and his contemporary Marcin Mielczewski, chief composers of the courts of Sigismund III and Władysław IV. Jan Aleksander Gorczyn, a royal secretary, published in 1647 a popular music tutorial for beginners.^[29]

Between 1580 and 1600 Jan Zamoyski commissioned the Venetian architect Bernardo Morando to build the city of Zamość. The town and its fortifications were designed to consistently implement the Renaissance and Mannerism aesthetic paradigms.^[31]

Mannerism is the name sometimes given to the period in art history during which the late Renaissance coexisted with the early Baroque, in Poland the last quarter of the 16th century and the first quarter of the 17th century. Polish art remained influenced by the Italian centers, increasingly Rome, and increasingly by the art of the Netherlands. As a fusion of imported and local elements, it evolved into an original Polish form of the Baroque.^[32]

The Baroque art was developing to a great extent under the patronage of the Catholic Church, which utilized the art to facilitate religious influence, allocating for this purpose the very substantial financial resources at its disposal. The most important in this context art form was architecture, with features rather austere at first, accompanied in due time by progressively more elaborate and lavish facade and interior design concepts.^[32]

Beginning in the 1580s, a number of churches patterned after the

The role of Baroque sculpture was usually subordinate, as decorative elements of exteriors and interiors, and on tombstones. A famous exception is the

Sejm deputies doing legislative work were generally not able to act as they pleased. Regional szlachta assemblies, the sejmiks, were summoned before sessions of general sejm; there the local nobility provided their representatives with copious instructions on how to proceed and protect the interests of the area involved. Another sejmik was called after the Sejm's conclusion. At that time the deputies would report to their constituency on what had been accomplished.^[33]

Sejmiks had become an important part of the Commonwealth's parliamentary life, complementing the role of general sejm. They sometimes provided detailed implementations for general proclamations of sejms, or made legislative decisions during periods when the Sejm was not in session, at times communicating directly with the monarch.^[33]

There was little significant parliamentary representation for the burgher class, and none for the peasants. The Jewish communities sent representatives to their own Va'ad, or Council of Four Lands. The narrow social base of the Commonwealth's parliamentary system was detrimental to its future development and the future of the Polish–Lithuanian statehood.^[33]

From 1573 an "ordinary" general sejm was to be convened every two years, for a period of six weeks. A king could summon an "extraordinary" sejm for two weeks, as necessitated by circumstances; an extraordinary sejm could be prolonged if the parliamentarians assented. After the Union the Sejm of the Republic deliberated in more centrally located Warsaw, except that Kraków had remained the location of

The order of sejm proceedings was formalized in the 17th century. The lower chamber would do most of the statute preparation work. The last several days were spent working together with the Senate and the king, when the final versions were agreed upon and decisions made; the finished legislative product had to have the consent of all three legislating estates of the realm, the Sejm, the Senate, and the monarch. The lower chamber's rule of unanimity had not been rigorously enforced during the first half of the 17th century.^[33]

General sejm was the highest organ of collective and consensus-based state power. The Sejm's supreme court, presided over by the king, decided the most serious of legal cases. During the second half of the 17th century, for a variety of reasons, including abuse of the unanimity rule (liberum veto), sejm's effectiveness had declined, and the void was being increasingly filled by sejmiks, where in practice the bulk of government's work was getting done.^[33]

Nobility rule, first royal election

The system of noble democracy became more firmly rooted during the first

In 1575 the nobility commenced a new election process. The magnates tried to force the candidacy of Emperor

Jan Zamoyski, one of the most distinguished personalities of the period, became the king's principal adviser and manager. A highly educated and cultivated individual, talented military chief and accomplished politician, he had often promoted himself as a tribune of his fellow szlachta. In fact in a typical magnate manner, Zamoyski accumulated multiple offices and royal land grants, removing himself far from the reform movement ideals he professed earlier.^[37]

The king himself was a great military leader and far-sighted politician. Of Batory's confrontations with members of the nobility, the famous case involved the Zborowski brothers:

In 1577 Batory agreed to George Frederick of Brandenburg becoming a custodian for the mentally ill Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, which brought the two German polities closer together, to the detriment of the Commonwealth's long-term interests.^[39]

War with Russia over Livonia

King

There were several candidates for the Commonwealth crown considered after the death of

In the meantime Sigismund also arrived and was crowned in Kraków, which initiated his long in the Commonwealth (1587–1632) reign as Zygmunt III Waza. The prospect of a personal union with Sweden raised for the Polish and Lithuanian ruling circles political and economic hopes, including favorable Baltic trade conditions and a common front against Russia's expansion. However concerning the latter, the control of Estonia had soon become the bone of contention. Sigismund's ultra-Catholicism appeared threatening to the Swedish Protestant establishment and contributed to his dethronement in Sweden in 1599.^[42]

Inclined to form an alliance with the

1605–1607 brought fruitless confrontation between King Sigismund with his supporters and the coalition of opposition nobility. During the sejm of 1605 the royal court proposed a fundamental reform of the body itself, an adoption of the majority rule instead of the traditional practice of unanimous acclamation by all deputies present. Jan Zamoyski in his last public address reduced himself to a defense of szlachta prerogatives, thus setting the stage for the demagoguery that was to dominate the Commonwealth's political culture for many decades.^[42]

For the sejm of 1606 the royal faction, hoping to take advantage of the glorious Battle of Kircholm victory and other successes, submitted a more comprehensive constructive reform program. Instead the sejm had become preoccupied with the dissident postulate of prosecuting instigators of religious disturbances directed against non-Catholics; advised by Skarga, the King refused his assent to the proposed statute.^[43]

The nobility opposition, suspecting an attempt against their liberties, called for a

The Sandomierz articles produced by the rebels were concerned mostly with placing further limitations on the monarch's power. Threatened by royal forces under

The reforms of the execution movement had clearly established the Sejm as the central and dominant organ of state power. But this situation in reality had not lasted very long, as various destructive decentralizing tendencies, steps taken by the szlachta and the kings, were progressively undermining and eroding the functionality and primacy of the central legislative organ. The resulting void was being filled during the late 16th and 17th centuries by the increasingly active and assertive territorial sejmiks, which provided a more accessible and direct forum for szlachta activists to promote their narrowly conceived local interests. Sejmiks established effective controls, in practice limiting the Sejm's authority; themselves they were taking on an ever-broader range of state matters and local issues.^[46]

In addition to the destabilizing to the central authority role of the over 70 sejmiks, during the same period, the often unpaid army had begun establishing their own "confederations", or rebellions. By plunder and terror they attempted to recover their compensation and pursue other, sometimes political aims.^[46]

Some reforms were being pursued by the more enlightened szlachta, who wanted to expand the role of the Sejm at the monarch's and magnate faction's expense, and by the elected kings. Sigismund III during the later part of his rule constructively cooperated with the Sejm, making sure that between 1616 and 1632 each session of the body produced the badly needed statutes. The increased efforts in the areas of taxation and maintenance of the military forces made possible the positive outcomes of some of the armed conflicts that took place during Sigismund's reign.^[46]

Cossacks and Cossack rebellions

There weren't very many Cossacks in the mid 16th century in the south-eastern borderlands of Lithuania and Poland yet, but the first companies of Cossack light cavalry had become incorporated into the Polish armed forces already around that time. During the reign of Sigismund III Vasa, the Cossack problem was beginning to play its role as Rzeczpospolita's preeminent internal challenge of the 17th century.^[38][48]

Conscious and planned colonization of the fertile, but underdeveloped region was pioneered in the 1580s and 1590s by the Ruthenian dukes of

Besides the leaders of the uprisings, Ukrainian personalities of the period included Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, Samuel Zborowski, Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski and Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny.^[47]

Many Cossacks

The Ottoman Empire demanded a total liquidation of the Cossack power. The Commonwealth, however, needed the Cossacks in the south-east, where they provided an effective buffer against Crimean Tatars incursions. The other way to quell the Cossack unrest would be to grant the nobility status to a substantial portion of their population and thus assimilate them into the Commonwealth's power structure, which was what Cossacks aspired to.^[47] This solution was being rejected by the magnates and szlachta for political, economic and cultural reasons when there was still time for reform, before disasters struck. The Polish–Lithuanian establishment had instead shifted unsteadily between compromising with the Cossacks, allowing limited varying numbers, the so-called Cossack register (500 in 1582, 8000 in the 1630s), to serve with the Commonwealth army (the rest were to be converted into serfdom, to help the magnates in colonizing the Dnieper area), and brutally using military force in an attempt to subdue them.^[48]

Oppressive efforts, often led by Poles, including

The Time of Troubles period in Russia resulted in peasant rebellions, such as the one led by Ivan Bolotnikov, which contributed also to peasant unrest in the Commonwealth and to further insurgency by the Cossacks there.^[49]

The uprising of

Toward the last years of his reign Władysław IV sought to enhance his position and assure his son's succession by waging a war on the Ottoman Empire, for which he prepared, despite the lack of nobility support. To secure this end the King worked on forming an alliance with the Cossacks, whom he encouraged to improve their military readiness and intended to use against the Turks, moving in that direction of cooperation further than his predecessors. The war never took place, and the King had to explain his offensive war designs during the "inquisition" sejm of 1646. Władysław's son Zygmunt Kazimierz died in 1647, and the King, weakened, resigned and disappointed, in 1648.^[52]

Seeking preponderance in Eastern Europe

The turn of the 16th and 17th centuries brought changes that, for the time being, weakened the Commonwealth's powerful neighbors (The Tsardom of Russia, The Austrian Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire). The resulting opportunity for the Polish–Lithuanian state to improve its position depended on its ability to overcome internal distractions, such as the isolationist and pacifist tendencies that prevailed among the szlachta ruling class, or the rivalry between nobility leaders and elected kings, often intent on circumventing restrictions on their authority, such as the Henrician Articles.^[53]

The nearly continuous wars of the first three decades of the new century resulted in modernization, if not (because of the treasury limitations) enlargement, of the Commonwealth's army. The total military forces available ranged from a few thousands at the Battle of Kircholm, to the over fifty thousands plus pospolite ruszenie mobilized for the Khotyn (Chocim) campaign of 1621. The remarkable during the first half of the 17th century development of artillery resulted in the 1650 publication in Amsterdam of the Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima book by Kazimierz Siemienowicz, a pioneer also in the science of rocketry. Despite the superior quality of the Commonwealth's heavy (hussar) and light (Cossack) cavalry, the increasing proportions of the infantry (peasant, mercenary and Cossack formations) and of the contingent of foreign troops resulted in an army, in which these respective components were heavily represented. During the reigns of the first two Vasas a war fleet was developed and fought successful naval battles (1609 against Sweden).^[54] As usual, fiscal difficulties impaired the effectiveness of the military, and the treasury's ability to pay the soldiers.^[53]

Moldavia

As a continuation of the earlier plans for an anti-Turkish offensive, that had not materialized because of the death of

In 1600 Lew Sapieha led a Commonwealth mission to Moscow to propose a union with the Russian state, patterned after the Polish–Lithuanian Union, with the boyars granted rights comparable with those of the Commonwealth's nobility. A decision on a single monarch was to be postponed until the death of the current king or tsar. Boris Godunov, at that time also engaged in negotiations with Charles of Sweden, wasn't interested in that close a relationship and only a twenty-year truce was agreed upon in 1602.^[57][58]

The Polish army

Sigismund III subsequently rejected the compromise solution and demanded the tsar's throne for himself, which would mean complete subjugation of Russia, and as such was rejected by the bulk of the Russian society. Sigismund's refusal and demands only intensified the chaos, as the Swedes proposed their own candidate and took over

The war effort, debilitated by a rebellious confederation established by the unpaid military, was continued. Turkey, threatened by the Polish territorial gains became involved at the frontiers, and a peace between Russia and Sweden was agreed to in 1617. Fearing the new alliance the Commonwealth undertook one more major expedition, which took over Vyazma and arrived at the walls of Moscow, in an attempt to impose the rule of Władysław Vasa again. The city would not open its gates and not enough military strength was brought in to attempt a forced take-over.^[57]

Despite the disappointment, the Commonwealth was able to take advantage of the

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth attained its greatest geographic extent,[59] but the attempted union with Russia could not have been achieved, as the systemic, cultural and religious incompatibilities between the two empires proved to be insurmountable.^[57] The territorial annexations and the ruthlessly conducted wars left a legacy of injustice suffered and desire for revenge on the part of the Russian ruling classes and people.^[57][58] The huge military effort weakened the Commonwealth and the painful consequences of the adventurous policies of the Vasa court and its allied magnates were soon to be felt.^[57]

The Commonwealth and Silesia during Thirty Years' War

In 1613 Sigismund III Vasa reached an understanding with Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, based on which both sides agreed to cooperate and mutually provide assistance in suppressing internal rebellions. The pact neutralized the Habsburg monarchy in regard to the Commonwealth's war with Russia, but had resulted in more serious consequences after the Bohemian Revolt gave rise to the Thirty Years' War in 1618.^[60]

The Czech events weakened the position of the Habsburgs in

The Lisowczycy entered northern Hungary (now Slovakia) and in 1619 defeated the Transylvanian forces at the Battle of Humenné. Prince Bethlen Gábor of Transylvania, who together with the Czechs had laid siege to Vienna, had to hurry back to his country and make peace with Ferdinand, which seriously compromised the situation of the Czech insurgents, crushed in the course and in the aftermath of the Battle of White Mountain.^[61] Afterwards the Lisowczycy ruthlessly fought to suppress the Emperor's opponents in Glatz (Kłodzko) region and elsewhere in Silesia, in Bohemia and Germany.^[60]

After the breakdown of the Bohemian Revolt the residents of Silesia, including the Polish gentry in

Although the Rzeczpospolita had not formally participated directly in the Thirty Years' War, the alliance with the Habsburg monarchy contributed to getting Poland involved in new wars with the Ottoman Empire, Sweden and Russia, and therefore led to significant Commonwealth influence over the course of the Thirty Years' War. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth also had its own intrinsic reasons for the continuation of struggles with the above powers.^[62]

From the 16th century the Commonwealth suffered a series of

The greatest intensity of

The actual hostilities, which were to bring the demise of Stanisław Żółkiewski, were initiated by the old Polish

In response to further Cossack attacks Tatar incursions continued as well, in 1623 and 1624 reaching almost as far west as the

More acute threat to the

The losses impacted severely the trade and customs income of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. The Crown lands were to be also affected, as in July 1626 the

Koniecpolski led a

Gdańsk (Danzig) was saved, but the next year the strengthened in the Ducal Prussia Swedish army took Brodnica, and early in 1629 defeated the Polish units at Górzno. Gustavus Adolphus from his Baltic coast position laid an economic siege against the Commonwealth and ravaged what he had conquered. At this point allied forces under Albrecht von Wallenstein were brought in to help keep the Swedes in check. Forced by the combined Polish-Austrian action Gustavus had to withdraw from Kwidzyn to Malbork, in process being defeated and almost taken prisoner by Koniecpolski at the Battle of Trzciana.^[64]

But in addition to being militarily exhausted, the Commonwealth was now pressured by several European diplomacies to suspend further military activities, to allow Gustavus Adolphus to intervene in the Holy Roman Empire. The Truce of Altmark left Livonia north of the Daugava and all Prussian and Livonian seaports except for Gdańsk ((Danzig)), Puck, Königsberg, and Libau in hands of the Swedes, who were also allowed to charge duty on trade through Gdańsk.^[64]

Compromised power

In the fall of 1632 a well-prepared Russian army took a number of strongholds on the Lithuanian side of the border and commenced a siege of Smolensk. The well-fortified city was able to withstand a general onslaught followed by a ten-month encirclement by an overwhelming force led by Mikhail Shein. At that time a Commonwealth rescue expedition of comparable strength arrived, under the highly effective military command of Władysław IV. After months of fierce fighting, in February 1634 Shein capitulated. The Treaty of Polyanovka confirmed the Deulino territorial arrangements with small adjustments in favor of the Tsardom. Władysław had relinquished, upon monetary compensation, his claims to the Russian throne.^[66]

Having secured the eastern front, the King was able to concentrate on the recovery of Baltic areas lost by his father to Sweden. Władysław IV wanted to take advantage of the Swedish defeat at Nördlingen and fight for both the territories and his Swedish dynastic claims. The Poles were suspicious of his designs and war preparations and the King was able to proceed with negotiations only, where his unwillingness to give up the dynastic claim weakened the Commonwealth's position. According to the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf of 1635 the Swedes evacuated Royal Prussia's cities and ports, which meant a return of the Crown's lower Vistula possessions, and stopped collecting custom duties there. Sweden retained most of Livonia, while the Rzeczpospolita kept Courland, which having assumed the servicing of Lithuania's Baltic trade entered a period of prosperity.^[66]

The position of the Commonwealth with respect to the

The Thirty Years' War period brought the Commonwealth a mixed legacy, rather more losses than gains, with the Polish–Lithuanian state retaining its status as one of the few great powers in central-eastern Europe. From 1635 the country enjoyed a period of peace, during which internal bickering and progressively dysfunctional legislative processes prevented any substantial reforms from taking place. The Commonwealth was unprepared to deal with grave challenges that materialized in the middle of the century.^[66]

See also

• History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty
• Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
• History of Poland (1569–1795)
• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)

Notes