ISSN 2029-2074 THE POLISH-LITHUANIAN PECULIAR TYPE OF FEDERALISM Daniel Rodrigues University of Coimbra (Portugal) Keywords: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, federalism, multi-nationalism. Pagrindinės sąvokos: Abiejų Tautų Respublika, federalizmas, daugianacionalizmas. Introduction The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Rzeczpospolita( – Abiejų Tautų Respublika), officially born from the Union of Lublin (1569), can be seen as an interesting case study to understand the historical evolution of fed- eral political systems. As the result of a free union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania, the Rzeczpospolita was con- stituted of different regions with ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity. The Polish-Lithuanian state was a kind ofrespublica provinciae or respub- lica provincialis. And, the management of its internal differences made it a true multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state when, at the same time, the western European monarchies were developing opposite policies with the purpose to integrate and to assimilate their peripheries, homogenising their national territories. Thus, it is essential to see how the authorities of the Republic dealt with all these differences in order to preserve them in spite of the extent of such a vast Commonwealth. With the present crisis of the traditional nation-state and anticipating the possibility of its decadence in favour of infra-national and supra-na- 122 DANIEL RODRIGUES tional entities, it is important to not underestimate past experiences. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth should be seen as more than a mere political instrument created in order to defend the territorial integrity of both Polish and Lithuanian realms. It should be linked to the institutional building of multi-national states and, subsequently, to the modern right of minorities, the development of regionalism and federalism in the European states and in the European Union (EU). The Rzeczpospolita has a vital sig- nificance for the present studies on regional and federal matters. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a peculiar type of federalism and to see in which way some of its elements can be used. However, the concept of federalism, or confederalism, applied to the Rzeczpospolita cannot be de- tached from the present references to a “Europe of the Regions”. Cv vphy7hpxt qsurQyvuGvuhvh 8rhyu The first federalist, or proto-federalist, project in Poland was elaborated by Boleslas the Brave who, in the early 11th century, had the vision to cre- ate a federation of Western Slavs under Polish leadership as a response to German growing supremacy in Central Europe. However, his dream did not survive. The empire that he built with the support of Hungary and Ba- varia was destroyed by its enemies, a coalition lead by the German empire (Dziewanowski 1963: 443). After a period of territorial fragmentation, the Kingdom of Poland was restored in 1320 by Wladyslas the Short, becoming a kind of federation of lands. Previously independent or semi-independent, these lands preserved in some cases their own institutions and their voievod (or wojewoda, palatines) (Izdebski 1994a: 300). After his father, Kazimierz III the Great ruled what can be called the embryo of a multi-national em- pire (Castellan 1994: 51). Poles, Germans, Ruthenians, Wallachs, Jews and Armenians became part of it. During the 14th century, a new principle of representation emerged and had as a consequence the creation of the Diet (Sejm) in the next century (Izdebski 1994a: 300). Progressively menaced by its German neighbours and its encircle- ment by them, the Kingdom of Poland clearly needed to find the support of other nations in an analogous position. The Teutonic Order, which es- tablished itself on the Baltic fringes in 1226, was simultaneously a threat to 123 Poland, Hungary and the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania. Consequently, these were natural partners in a coalition or a union against the Teutonic knights. Strengthened by a traditional alliance of three centuries, a union between the kingdoms of Poland and Hungary was, at the time, the more viable and easiest solution. Nevertheless, this union was weak as it was revealed by divergences about foreign policy matters, the constant friction about the condominium in Red Ruthenia, and the question of Moldavia. Therefore, it ended when the princess Jadwiga of Anjou, daughter of Louis of Hungary, ascended to the throne of Poland after the death of her father and Kazimi- erz the Great, in 1374. The Union of Krewo (Kréva) (1385) linked the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania in a personal union of two dynasties and was the beginning of a durable association between them. According to the agreement, both nations maintained their own legal system and local cus- toms, the lands known “as terrae Lithuaniae et Russiae were attached to the Corona Regni Poloniae” (Dziewanowski 1963: 449), the Grand Duke con- verted to Roman Catholicism, and he assumed the Polish crown through his marriage with Jadwiga (1386). Jogaila, now Wladyslaw II Jagiello, had to govern the Kingdom of Poland, respecting the prerogatives of the mag- nates, landed gentry and other nobles. The privileges granted to nobility at Kashau (or Kassa, nowadays Košice) eleven years before the Union of Krewo (or Kréva), as the guarantee of its previous rights or the exemption from all taxes (with the exception of a nominal tax land), constituted the beginning of the limitation of monarchical power and it was one cause of failure for the “royal mechanism”. As stated by D. Stone: Recent dynastic changes gave many Polish nobles the sense that the state existed independently of the monarch, and they felt that they shared responsibility for running it. Having gained extensive privileges in return for their political support, Polish nobles came to regard kings as executive officers subject to supervision by the political nation composed of state officials meeting in groups such as the royal council and the sejm, which latter became the Polish parliament (Stone 2001: 5). In fact, the creation of the Sejm and the legal partnership between the king and the parliament lead to the implementation of a balance of political power. According to H. G. Koenigsberger, this dominium politicum et regale was not an exception, but the norm in the late medieval epoch (1978: 193). It was only during the 18th century that political changes in some parts of Europe were able to limit parliamentary power or simply to abolish it. 124 DANIEL RODRIGUES The newly formed union defeated Teutonic knights at Tannenberg (or Grünwald, or Žalgiris) in 1410 and, as a consequence, the Treaty of Toruń (or Thorn) divided their possessions into Western (or Royal) Prussia and Ducal Prussia. If the first was directly incorporated into Poland, the sec- ond became a fief of it. Samogitia was returned to Lithuania. Poland was dragged into eastern problems of Lithuania, of which the mounting con- flict with Muscovy was a major issue for its own future as an independ- ent nation. The Lithuanian expansionism to the East and its struggle for the dominium Russiae was no longer a reality since the defeat in the battle of the Vorskla River (1399) but, from the middle of the 15th century, the Muscovite propaganda began to present the dynastic and religious rights of the Tsar of Muscovy on Ruthenian lands as valid arguments for its annexa- tion. Polish kings were concerned about the question of Ruthenia and the project of a trialist Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian federation was evocated, and it was almost concluded during the 17th century. Another way found by Polish kings to face up to Muscovite claims was the conclusion of defen- sive alliances with the independent principalities of Pskov and Novgorod, which failed due to the ineffectiveness of Polish rulers to protect them of being conquered by the troops of Ivan III (1464 and 1470) (Dziewanowski 1963: 454, Stone 2001: 25–26). The same happened to the principality of Tver and the fortress of Smolensk which were lost to Muscovy in 1485 and 1514, respectively. After years of conflict with Muscovy and successive failures to defend its own interests and those of its allies, its inability to sustain Tartar raids in its southern-eastern provinces, and the Livonian War; the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania had no other solution than to establish a closer association with the Kingdom of Poland in exchange for Polish military assistance. This renewed association, deeper than the personal union realized in 1385, was fulfilled after a long and hard negotiation process, concluded with the Union of Lublin, in 1569. In 1569, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania agreed to become a federal union, also know as the Commonwealth of the Two Nations (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów). The new elective monarchy had one common king, a common diet and a common foreign policy. Both nations kept their own army, their own administration and their treasury. Finally, the Sejmiky (or regional assem- blies), established in 1454 by the Act of Nieszawa, were not abolished in Lublin. It was also decided that some Lithuanian territories were ceded to Poland. Kiev and Ruthenia, Podlachia and Volhynia, disputed by both na- 125 tions for a long time, passed under Polish administration. In respect to re- ligious matters, the Union of Lublin guaranteed freedom of religion as well as equality for the Greek Orthodox faith and the project of establishment of an autonomous reformed national church was in the mind of authori- ties. With the Union of Brest (1596), the Orthodox Church of Poland- Lithuania was allowed to retain its traditional liturgy; its clergy gained the prerogatives of the Latin priests, including the right of its bishops to sit in the Senate and their equality with the Roman Catholic episcopacy. As counterpart, it only had to recognize the supremacy of the Pope.