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 p88  Chapter XI
The Union of Lublin

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Since 1385, when Jogaila had signed the Act of Kreva, Lithuania and Poland had been linked almost continuously with one another as two separate, independent, but allied political entities. After the reign of Vytautas, with the exception of short intervals,⁠1 both were subject to the same rulers, and the Poles proceeded rather consistently to elect Lithuania's previously chosen Grand Duke as their King. In the meanwhile, attempts made to complete the union of Lithuania and Poland were many (1401, 1413, 1432, 1434, 1437, 1439, 1501), but they never achieved any definite results. After the death of Zigmantas (1440), this question was seriously discussed only once in the course of more than a century — at Mielnik, in 1501, when Alexander sought election to the Polish throne as a support against Moscow. But even on this occasion the agreement was never ratified by the Lithuanian Diet, while the treaty of 1499 merely concerned itself with the choice of a common ruler. Furthermore, the First Lithuanian Statute of 1529 had not only legislated for Lithuania as an entirely distinct and independent state, but had never even mentioned any existing ties with Poland. It had also denied foreigners the privilege of receiving appointments to higher offices in the Lithuanian government, much to the dissatisfaction of the Poles who claimed that, by reason of the various Acts of Union, they were not to be regarded as a foreign element. And although the political union of Lithuania and  p89 Poland had been gradually transformed into a merely traditional alliance, pending always on the selection of a common ruler, two facts prevented its complete dissolution; namely, the Polonization of the Lithuanian aristocracy and the existence of the Muscovite state, mena­cing the vast territorial possessions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

1. Polonization of the Lithuanian Gentry

The influx of the Polish element into Lithuanian affairs began simultaneously with the coronation of Lithuania's Grand Duke, Jogaila, as Poland's King, and the introduction of Christianity into Lithuania through Polish channels. This Polonizing movement chiefly affected the higher social levels. It gained momentum, not so much from the absorption by the Lithuanians of a superior western culture coming through Poland as the main source, but rather from the establishment of personal ties between the two neighboring and politically allied aristocracies, and more so, from the subsequent unnecessary and wide use of the Polish language, in preference to the Lithuanian, in churches, schools and more influential circles.

At the time when Jogaila formally accepted Christianity, Lithuania possessed no native clergy. A few Franciscan monks lived at Vilnius and Naugardukas (Nowogrodek), where they had been first settled by Gediminas, and at Drochin and Lyda, where they had succeeded in establishing themselves in later years (1350‑1366). Quite possibly some of them may have become well acquainted with the Lithuanian language of the people and may even have enlisted Lithuanians in their ranks. But their influence and numbers were evidently insignificant, since, generally, the clergy and the missioners attempting to christianize Lithuania, for the most part, could not speak Lithuanian. As a result, three of the first four bishops of Vilnius were definitely Poles; namely, Andrew Jastrszebiec (1388‑99), Nicholas Gorzkowski (1407‑13), and Peter Jastrszebiec (1414‑21). And in the diocese of Samogitia, some forty-two years after its formation, a Pole, Bishop Bartholomew, presided (1459‑69). The Polish clergy also continued to  p90 represent the majority in the Vilnius Chapter even at the end of the fifteenth century.

Having attained this definite advantage at the very beginning of the Polish-Lithuanian relations, the Polish element made no effort to surrender it. The following facts indicate how widespread the domination of the Polish nation tended to become in the religious affairs of Lithuania:

This Polish influence existed not only in the ecclesiastical sphere, but necessarily spread into the political and cultural fields. After all, the first schools were either cathedral schools or schools conducted by monks, as the Benedictines, introduced by Vytautas at Trakai in 1409. The teachers were mainly members of the clergy, the majority of whom were unacquainted with the Lithuanian language, and even for centuries afterwards, never seemed to be interested in learning the spoken word of the people they came to Christianize.⁠2 Furthermore, Lithuania itself had no higher institutions and very few other schools. As a result, its educated men and its prominent individuals and officials were usually the products of the University of Cracow. And although this university in that period was an international organization where Latin prevailed, nevertheless, it existed on Polish soil and in Polish surroundings, which necessarily branded its culture as Polish.

The clergy was a privileged class in itself, having received various rights simultaneously with the founding of the Catholic Church in Lithuania in 1387. Its more eminent members were actively connected with the political life of the country. They acted as secretaries, while bishops were automatically enrolled in the Grand Ducal Council. And from the fifteenth century, an already existing fact was given official recognition: members of the gentry alone were considered eligible for higher ecclesiastical positions and pastoral duties, all others being admitted only to  p92 curacies. Church properties and estates, as those of the gentry, were exempt from taxation, except in case of particular assessments in time of war. But even this obligation was looked upon by the clergy as a form of "voluntary contribution" rather than an important patriotic duty. And it was inevitable that such an influential group of men, educated mainly in Poland and much better acquainted with the Polish than the Lithuanian language, would produce some effect on the leaders of the nation.

The Polish and Lithuanian upper classes had been in constant contact with one another from the year 1386. And perhaps due to the fact that after the formation of the Lithuanian-Polish alliance, the Lithuanian Grand Duke resided for the most part in Poland, the Polish element almost immediately assumed an important position. Thus, while Skirgaila acted as Jogaila's viceroy, the Pole, Clement Moskorzewski, was appointed Elder of Vilnius (1389). Jogaila, attempting to hold Lithuania against Vytautas, resorted to the assistance of Polish arms, and garrisoned the city of Vilnius with Polish troops (1390). Once peace had been reestablished, Polish artists, architects, diplomats and colonists appeared in Lithuania. When the Samogitian delegation journeyed to Constance in 1415, to present its case against the Teutonic Knights before the Church Council, it was headed by two Lithuanians, George Gedgaudas and George Galiminas, as well as Vytautas' secretary, Nicholas Sepienski, a Pole. Many of the same Vytautas' chancery officials were drawn from Polish ranks. And in 1413, at Horodlo, the parties of both countries had agreed to reorganize the Grand Duchy along the lines of the Polish model and forty-seven families of the gentry were endowed with the Polish coat of arms.

Although the aristocracy and the lesser gentry of Lithuania had, for more than a century, repeatedly indicated their unwillingness to merge their state with Poland into one political unit, nevertheless, during that same period they unconsciously yielded to the process of denationalization under Polish auspices. Since the different exaggerated notions of social honor and liberty seemed to flow from the confines of the Kingdom of Poland, they gradually accepted the Polish language as a medium of social intercourse,  p93 and adopted Polish customs as a means of acquiring social prestige. The villagers and peasants, whose lives were restricted by reason of their utter subjection to the boyars, were influenced in this matter to a certain limited extent by the example of their masters and by the clergy of their churches.

Yet in spite of Polonization in the religious, social, cultural and even political fields, the aristocracy and gentry defended the dignity of their Lithuanian origins against the Poles. In the fifteenth century, they had developed and publicized a theory, which temporarily had been accepted almost as proved fact — that the Lithuanians had originated from the Romans. They attempted to substantiate their claims by emphasizing various similarities in the Lithuanian and the Latin languages, and by proposing names of various fictitious or legendary Lithuanian rulers, beginning with Publius Libonius (Palemonas), a refugee Roman soldier. And in the sixteenth century, there appeared a number of polemical works, sponsored chiefly by Radvila the Black, which campaigned for the rejection of the proposed Polish-Lithuanian Union.

2. The Diet of Warsaw

During Lithuania's war with Muscovy, the Kingdom of Poland displayed a complete apathy towards the Grand Duchy, and refused to grant any assistance. Meanwhile, the gentry offered but a half-hearted military and financial support to Sigismund, who himself was quite anxious to enlist Polish aid. As a result, while the war was still in progress, Sigismund Augustus invited a Lithuanian delegation to attend the Polish Diet at Warsaw in 1563 to discuss the concessions demanded by the Poles in return for military cooperation: the completion of a final union between Lithuania and Poland.

This union was favored by the Lithuanian petty gentry rather than by the oligarchy of magnates, for upon the former rested the chief burden of prosecuting the war. Heated, but fruitless conferences on this question took place, lasting some three months (November 21, 1563, to February 22, 1564). The Polish leaders  p94 simply insisted upon a so‑called execution of the previous pacts of alliance between Lithuania and Poland since 1385. The Lithuanian representatives claimed that these previous agreements had lost all force and that negotiations should begin anew. And after the news of the Lithuanian victory over the Muscovites at Ula reached the Diet of Warsaw, the Lithuanian delegates became almost irreconcilable to the proposals of the Poles; they consented only to a personal union under one ruler, who was to be elected on the Lithuanian-Polish frontier by two numerically equal bodies of electors representing the respective states, and absolutely refused to abandon the separate Lithuanian National Diets.

The landed gentry, continuing the war against Moscow, nevertheless, had decreed at Vitebsk to demand an immediate union with Poland as the simplest solution to a difficult situation. Their detailed request reached the Diet of Warsaw and seriously weakened the position assumed by the magnates, under the leader­ship of Radvila the Black. Consequently, the latter were compelled under such severe pressure to make many concessions and arrange a tentative plan for the proposed union. They agreed to abolish the separate installation of the Grand Duke at Vilnius, and combine the ceremony with the coronation at Cracow. They also agreed to adopt a common currency and to permit Poles to acquire estates in Lithuania. They refused, however, to consent to the creation of a common Diet for Lithuania and Poland, except when necessary to consider common questions and problems. In this instance, the Diets were to be summoned on the Polish-Lithuanian frontier. The final settlement of further details was then postponed for a future conference, at which the union of the two states was to be consummated.

3. Administrative Reforms

During the two years which followed the Diet of Warsaw, various reforms were introduced into the administrative apparatus of the Lithuanian government. These reforms were embodied in the revised Second Lithuanian Statute, which was promulgated in 1566 with the approval of Sigismund Augustus by the Lithuanian  p95 Diet, and granted a very definite concession of power to the boyars. Two main reasons spurred the speedy enactment of these amendments to the Lithuanian code of laws; namely, the need of the lesser gentry's whole-hearted cooperation in the war against Muscovy, and the necessity of diminishing the interest of some of the lesser gentry in a union with Poland, especially since these boyars had hoped to widen their privileges through such union, decrease the extent of their obligations, and assume a more influential role in the administration of Lithuanian state affairs. The reforms dealt chiefly with the judicial system and the constitution of the National Diet as a legislative organ.

The territorial division of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into palatinates, a process which had been inaugurated in 1413, was completed⁠3 at this time. Counties were then created within these palatinates, and in each of these counties three distinct tribunals of justice, possessing jurisdiction only over the designated locality, were erected. All personal privileges, which, much to the disadvantage of the lesser gentry, had in the past reserved the trial of magnates and other dignitaries exclusively to the Grand Duke, were abolished. Consequently, it was decreed that all civil cases, involving both magnates and boyars without any exception, were to be referred to the Land Courts, whose judges were to be appointed by the Grand Duke from among the four candidates selected by the county dietine; that disputes concerning boundaries of estates were to be handled by a special nominee of the Grand Duke in each county; and that criminal offenses were to be punished by the County Court of the Palatine or Elder, also delegated for this office by the Grand Duke.

Similarly, the new Lithuanian Statute arranged for a very definite representation of the lesser gentry at the National Diet. According to its provisions, two deputies were to be selected from each and every county throughout the Grand Duchy by the respective county dietines, and these deputies were to form the second Chamber of the Diet; the Grand Ducal Council continued as the Senate in the capacity of an advisory organ; and the Diet was endowed with the  p96 power to enact laws, levy taxes, and declare war. In this way, a thorough parliamentary system of government was created in Lithuania, insuring thereby a more positive participation of the boyars in national affairs. These reforms, nevertheless, certainly could not guarantee that the influence of the oligarchy would no longer dominate the actual course of events, nor that the lesser gentry of Lithuania would actually attain such equality with the Grand Ducal Council or Senate as the Polish szlachta had gained in relation to the Polish Senate or Royal Council.

It is interesting to note that this Second Lithuanian Statute also retained the law adopted in 1447, which did not allow foreigners to receive offices or to acquire estates in Lithuania. These reforms did not in the least affect the rights of the peasants, who had already been condemned to serfdom, attached to the soil, and made subject to the particular law of the landlords.

4. The Diet of Lublin

Since the unfinished war with Muscovy continued to incline the lesser gentry of Lithuania towards a more intimate association with Poland, a meeting of the Lithuanian and Polish Diets was scheduled to take place in the Polish town of Lublin at the end of the year 1568. Before leaving for Lublin, the Lithuanian deputies headed by the magnate, Nicholas Radvila, known as the Brown (Radvila the Black had died in 1565), the Samogitian Elder John Katkevicius, and Vice-Chancellor Eustache Valavicius, exacted from Sigismund Augustus a solemn promise, which guaranteed the Lithuanians that their rights and opinions would be respected, and that no attempt would be made to create a Lithuanian-Polish Union without their full consent and approval.

The Diets convened on January 10th of the following year. Relying on the recently promulgated Second Lithuanian Statute by whose articles Sigismund was expressly bound to protect the territorial sovereignty and integrity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Lithuanians simply refused to accede to the Polish demands that negotiations be resumed on the basis of the Act of  p97 Mielnik and the Recess of Warsaw, neither of which had been ratified by the Lithuanian Diet.

The plan of union proposed by the Lithuanian representatives and rejected by the Poles consisted of the following details: a commonly elected ruler with separate installation at Vilnius as Lithuanian Grand Duke, and separate coronation as Polish King at Cracow; a common defense; common diets, which would discuss only common questions and assemble alternately in Poland and in Lithuania; continuance of separate national diets; reservation of Lithuanian governmental offices exclusively to the subjects of the Grand Duchy; permission for Poles to acquire landed estates in Lithuania, and for Lithuanians in Poland; a common monetary standard; an independent Lithuanian treasury controlled by a Lithuanian treasurer; determination of the exact borders of the two states by a specially appointed commission.

Finally, when it became evident that no suitable agreement could be reached, the Lithuanian delegates announced their decision to abandon all further discussions of a proposed union with Poland and departed from Lublin on March 1st. Vice-Chancellor Valavicius alone remained in Lublin to study the reaction of the Poles.

It is then that Sigismund Augustus, abetted by the Polish Diet, initiated a series of acts, which not only violated his previously given promises, but also exerted tremendous moral pressure upon the Lithuanians and subsequently forced the latter to agree to the type of union sought by the Poles. By royal decree he proceeded to incorporate Podlesia, Volhynia, Kiev and Bratslav into Poland. Protests of Lithuanian delegations sent to Poland were unheeded. Attempts of the Lithuanian gentry, already handicapped by the state of war existing with Muscovy, to mobilize against Poland proved futile. In the meantime, officials presiding in the four palatinates seized from the Grand Duchy, were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Polish Crown and to renounce all ties with Lithuania. Those who refused to obey were immediately deprived of their possessions.

On June 6th the Lithuanian senators and newly elected deputies of the Grand Duchy's county dietines arrived at Lublin for the  p98 purpose of resuming negotiations with the Poles. Valavicius and Katkevicius acted as the chief Lithuanian spokesmen. They demanded the restoration of Podlesia, Volhynia, Kiev and Bratslav, and the dismissal of the delegates of these provinces from the Polish Diet. At the moment, however, the Lithuanians had not only found themselves unable to oppose the violations of the territorial integrity of their country by means of armed force, but they also found it impossible to alter the attitude assumed by the Poles, and impossible to win the support of their Grand Duke, Sigismund Augustus, who seemed to be quite convinced of the benefits that might be derived from an intimate Polish-Lithuanian relation­ship. Consequently, on June 27th, the Lithuanian Diet announced its acceptance of all conditions proposed by the Poles. And on July 1, 1569, both parties ratified the Act of Lublin, uniting Lithuania and Poland.

By the terms of the Union of Lublin, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland remained completely sovereign states, merely united as equal partners in a confederation or league of nations, which fact was usually denoted by the very inexact title, the Republic of Poland. They formed one state only insofar as they shared a common ruler, who was elected in common, and a Diet, at which senators and deputies from Lithuania and Poland sat side by side. The duality of this Commonwealth was emphasized by each country's retention of its own army. The coronation of their ruler as the King of Poland and his installation as the Grand Duke of Lithuania were accomplished by one and the same ceremony at Cracow. The palatinates of Volhynia, Bratslav, Kiev and Podlesia, of course, remained incorporated with Poland as exclusively Polish possessions.

After the consummation of the union, the Diet of Lublin continued in session until August 12th, as the first common Diet of Poland-Lithuania. It was agreed that the House of Deputies (as previously determined both in Lithuania and Poland) was to consist of two representatives from every county, duly elected at the county dietines; and that bishops, palatines, castellans, and ministers,⁠4  p99 by reason of their status were to be the only recognized members of the Senate. In this manner, the great number of dignitaries and princes, who had previously enjoyed senatorial rank in Lithuania, were excluded from participation in the common Polish-Lithuanian Diets. Warsaw was designated as the ordinary meeting-place, unless for some sufficiently grave reason the site was transferred by the ruler to another Polish city. Livonia (Vidzeme and Latgale), although annexed in 1566 by Lithuania as part and parcel of the Grand Duchy alone, upon the insistence of the Poles, was placed under the condominium of Poland-Lithuania. Similarly, the Duke of Courland and Semigallia was required to acknowledge his vassalage to both partners of the Commonwealth. Furthermore, a special committee was appointed to prepare another revision of the Lithuanian Statute, mainly for the purpose of removing the clause which made it illegal for Poles to acquire estates and obtain offices in Lithuania. The Statute was finally amended 1588‑9, and Poles were allowed to become landlords, but not officials in Lithuania.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 Svitrigaila, 1430‑32; Zigmantas, 1432‑40; Casimir, 1440‑47; Alexander, 1492‑1501.

2 The first Lithuanian seminary was established in Vilnius only in 1582.

3 Five new palatinates were formed; namely, Volhynia, Bratslav (Braclava), Brest (Brasta), Minsk and Mstislavl.

4 The Grand Marshal, the Marshal of the Court, the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor and Grand Treasurer, both in Lithuania and Poland, were the only ministers to whose office senatorial dignity was attached. Only during the last half of the eighteenth century were some changes introduced.

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