Provisions
The provisions of the Henrician Articles stated that:
- kings of the Commonwealth were all to be chosen by election by the szlachta, and his children had no right of inheritance with regards to the throne;
- king marriages had to gain the approval of the Senate;
- the king must convene a general sejm (Polish parliament) at least once every two years for six weeks;
- the king had no right to create new taxes, tariffs or such without approval of the Sejm;
- between sejms, 16 resident senators were to be at the king's side as his advisers and overseers. This Royal Council of 16 senators was elected every two years during the Sejm session. Four of their number (rotating every six months) were obliged to accompany the king and serve as advisers and supervisors to ensure that the king made no decision contrary to the laws of the Commonwealth. All royal decrees had to be counter-stamped by the chancellors or the deputy chancellors.
- the king had no right to call a pospolite ruszenie (levee en masse) without approval of the Sejm. Further, the Articles upheld the informal tradition that the king could not send those troops to serve outside the Commonwealth's borders without compensation.
- provide for the standing, royal army (wojsko kwarciane);
- the king had no right to declare war or peace without approval of the Sejm;
- the king must abide by the Warsaw Confederation's guarantees of religious freedom;
- finally, if the monarch were to transgress against the law or the privileges of szlachta, the Articles authorized the szlachta to refuse the king's orders and act against him (in Polish practice it became known as the rokosz). Each king had to swear that "if anything has been done by Us against laws, liberties, privileges or customs, we declare all the inhabitants of the Kingdom are freed from obedience to Us".
Read more about this topic: Henrician Articles
Famous quotes containing the word provisions:
“Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)