page_title: Szlachta
section_title: End of the Jagiellonian dynasty
hierarchical_section_title: Szlachta / Privileges / Accretion of sovereignty to the szlachta / End of the Jagiellonian dynasty
caption_attribution_description: This portrait of the later Henry III of France was long mistaken for a portrait of his younger brother Francis of Alençon, due to a false inscription at the bottom of the portrait. (Not shown here.) The preparatory sketch that formed the basis of this work, preserved in the National Library of France, shows clearly that this is Henry III.
context_page_description: The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class in the Kingdom of Poland and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Grand Duchy and its neighbouring Kingdom became a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  The origins of the szlachta are obscure and are the subject of several theories. Traditionally, its members were landowners, often in the form of "manorial estates" or so-called folwarks. The nobility won substantial and increasing political and legal privileges for itself throughout its entire history until the decline and end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century. Apart from providing officers for the army, among its chief civic obligations were electing the monarch, plus filling advisory and honorary roles at court, e.g., Stolnik - "Master of the King's Pantry," or their assistant, Podstoli, and in the state government, e.g. Podskarbi, "Minister to the Treasury". They served as elected representatives in the Sejm and in local Sejmiki assemblies, appointing officials and overseeing judicial and financial governance, including tax-raising, at the provincial level.
context_section_description: Until the death of Sigismund II Augustus, the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, all monarchs had to be elected from within the royal family. However, from 1573, practically any Polish noble or foreigner of royal blood could potentially become a Polish–Lithuanian monarch. Every newly elected king was supposed to sign two documents: the Pacta conventa, the king's "pre-election pact", and the Henrican articles, named after the first freely elected king, Henry of Valois. The latter document was a virtual Polish constitution and contained the basic laws of the Commonwealth:
  Free election of kings
  Religious tolerance
  The Sejm to meet every two years
  Foreign policy controlled by the Sejm
  A royal advisory council chosen by the Sejm
  Official posts restricted to Polish and Lithuanian nobles
  Taxes and monopolies set up by the Sejm only
  Nobles' right to disobey the Monarch should s/he break any of these laws.
  In 1578 king, Stefan Batory, created the Crown Tribunal to reduce the enormous pressure on the Royal Court. This placed much of the monarch's juridical power in the hands of the elected szlachta deputies, further strengthening the nobility as a class. In 1581 the Crown Tribunal was joined by a counterpart in Lithuania, the Lithuanian Tribunal.
caption: Henry of Valois, first elected monarch of Poland-Lithuania
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