Introduction
Throughout 14th-century Europe, people were being ruled by monarchs. This was a time of one-person rule. They were the bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire, which answered to the Pope. The kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire also responded to the Pope. There were also the independent monarchs of England, Spain, and France. There was one exception in Italy. In Venice, they had a combination of a guild system and a monarchy that ran the nation. This tradition of not letting the people have any say in the government went back to the Babylonians, and it stayed the same in Europe for centuries. This was until the mid-1400s when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was established. This nation wanted to be free from oppressive monarchs and bishops found elsewhere in Europe. They wanted a republic.
Before the Commonwealth
In the Slavic villages of Poland and Lithuania, the people had a primitive system of government that would later be constructed on a larger scale. This government is when Nobles would group together and elect one of their own to go up and be the village king for a time. The appointed noble would listen to the Council of Nobles, consisting of the nobles not elected king. Some high-status villagers, such as priests and blacksmiths, could also participate in the advisory committee, and they would advise directly to the Council of Nobles and the king. This led to more freedom in the village, and the villagers passed laws and built public works quickly because of the system. The people were content with this government and would not leave it. This is one of the main reasons the Commonwealth was an elected monarchy.
During the Commonwealth
King Jagiellonian unified the empires of Poland and Lithuania into a colossal Empire, which included modern-day Western Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, and parts of Romania. In Poland and Lithuania, the Sejm was a national council of nobles. The two countries unified these two systems into the Great Sejm. This council elected a monarch to rule the country. The Great Sejm acted much like parliament in modern-day Great Britain. Except they did not select a prime minister. Instead, they established a king. This was the first elective monarchy that governed a country in the world. Never before had the elective monarchy been brought to such a scale. Because of this, the people had more freedom by influencing their local representatives to advocate for them in the government. In the Great Sejm, the nobles could veto any policies the king would make, allowing for a well-rounded empire. But, the significant advantage of having an elective monarchy is that you can form personal unions with other countries. A Personal Union is when you unify two countries based on the same hereditary line. For example, Poland and Lithuania were unified this way, as did Austria and Hungary in the Holy Roman Empire. This allowed the Commonwealth to absorb many countries, such as Moldova and the Baltic sisters, Estonia and Latvia. In fact, at any moment, any monarchy in Europe, except England, had the same dynasty as the Commonwealth for one point in history. The Commonwealth would have been unified with France if not for the distance between these two empires. They would have been unified to form a mega-colossal Empire in the heart of Europe that would have indeed orchestrated European politics for centuries. But, this did lead to some downsides.
The Downsides
Although this government was the best in Europe in the short term, it couldn’t last long. The nobles on the Great Sejm could be easily bribed. This government could be infiltrated quickly, as the Austrians and Russians tried. The line of succession was precarious, with the Commonwealth gaining many personal unions in their favor and not in their favor. War devastated the empire because coordination could not occur amidst the Great Sejm’s bickering. The army was unorganized, and the generals were highly corrupt. The Russians started the downfall of the Commonwealth by having a war with them. The Russians had a smaller army but had better coordination because they were a centralized monarchy. The Commonwealth troops could not react fast enough to repel the invasion and lost much territory. This war was followed by rebellions throughout the empire, and other empires took advantage of this weakness. The Prussian and Austrian Empires took vast swaths of territory from the Commonwealth. This led Russia, Prussia, and Austria to divide the great empire into thirds. The remnants of the Commonwealth made themselves into the city-state of Krakow. The Austrians puppeteered this city-state until they fully annexed it in the late 1700s. This was the end of the elective monarchy.
Conclusion
With the fall of the Commonwealth, the other great European powers took this as a sign not to allow republics. They thought the republic would be weak and all republics would be like the Commonwealth. This led to resilience against reforms, especially in Russia. The people of Europe tried desperately to implement reforms, and it all came to a head with the first French Revolution. However, an elective monarchy allowed for excellent administrative skills. Because of this, many universities were founded, including the prestigious Jagiellonian University. The Polish Renaissance was a great golden age in Polish and Lithuanian history. In addition, the Polish Navy was organized, and it was the second most powerful navy in the Baltic, behind Denmark but in front of Russia. Writers who wrote many revolutionary textbooks saw the good side of the Commonwealth and took this to heart. With the Revolutions of 1848, many nations became more democratic. More and more nations were becoming presidential and parliamentary democracies. Today, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth is not very much remembered in the hearts and minds of today, except for the historians at Harvard and other universities. But we can take inspiration from the Commonwealth to implement in our society.
