The Free Royal Cities Act (full Polish title: Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej; English: "Our Free Royal Cities in the States of the Commonwealth", or the Law on the Cities, Prawo o miastach) was an act adopted by the Four-Year Sejm (1788-92) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on April 18, 1791, in the run-up to the adoption of the Constitution of May 3, 1791.
The Free Royal Cities Act was subsequently stipulated, in that Constitution's Article III, to be an integral part of the Constitution.
The Act granted to the Commonwealth's townspeople personal security, the right to acquire landed property, and eligibility for military officers' commissions, public offices, and membership in the szlachta (nobility).
The Act constituted a major element in the Constitution's advancement of democracy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (which was converted by the Constitution into a unitary state, henceforth called the "Polish Republic" — "Rzeczpospolita Polska").
Famous quotes containing the words free, royal, cities and/or act:
“People who wish to salute the free and independent side of their evolutionary character acquire cats. People who wish to pay homage to their servile and salivating roots own dogs.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“How far men go for the material of their houses! The inhabitants of the most civilized cities, in all ages, send into far, primitive forests, beyond the bounds of their civilization, where the moose and bear and savage dwell, for their pine boards for ordinary use. And, on the other hand, the savage soon receives from cities iron arrow-points, hatchets, and guns, to point his savageness with.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“As humans have a prior right to existence over dogs by virtue of being more highly evolved and having a superior consciousness, so women have a prior right to existence over men. The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy.”
—Valerie Solanas (b. 1940)