Election
The Election Sejm of 1632 convened on 27 September at its traditional site at Wola near Warsaw to consider both the royal election and legislative items, with Marshal of the Sejm Jakub Sobieski presiding.
The indecisiveness of the Catholic faction allowed Władysław to campaign for increased rights for Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians, and thus he obtained their support. At the same time, his evident religious tolerance did not lose him the support of his Catholic backers. Nor did Władysław's breaking custom to go to Warsaw during the election generate noticeable disapproval.
A commission headed by Władysław drafted "Measures for the Appeasement of the Ruthenian People of the Greek Faith that Live in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania," by which Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Orthodox metropolitans were granted legal jurisdiction. Władysław, lobbied by Peter Mogila, also granted the Orthodox Church the right to its own hierarchs, subject to the candidates' confirmation by the government. Many differences regarding the Orthodox Church and the Union of Brest were thus settled. The religious freedoms that had been established in 1573 by the Warsaw Confederation were reaffirmed, and a new tax was adopted, the kwarta, which sent 40% of starostwos' incomes to the Royal Treasury. It was decided to fortify Puck and to create there a port for the Commonwealth Navy. The Cossack delegation's proposal for increased funding and a Cossack register was turned down; similarly, requests from the Royal Army were rejected. Some of the Sejm's proposals were vetoed by the Senate.
The decision on who would be the Commonwealth's next king was reached on November 8, but as the pacta conventa were not yet ready, the official announcement was delayed until November 13. In the pacta conventa, Władysław pledged himself to fund a military school and equipment; to find a way to fund a naval fleet; to maintain current alliances; not to raise armies, give offices or military ranks to foreigners, negotiate peace treaties or declare war without the Sejm's approval; not to take a wife without the Senate's approval; to convince his brothers to take an oath to the Commonwealth; and to transfer the profits from the Royal Mint to the Royal Treasury rather than to a private treasury.
At least 3,543 votes were cast for Władysław. When the election result were announced by the Crown Grand Marshal, Łukasz Opaliński, the nobility (szlachta) who had taken part in the election began festivities in honor of the new king, which lasted three hours.
This election sejm was the third sejm of 1632. It had been preceded by an ordinary general sejm (March 11 – April 2, 1632) and by the convocation sejm (June - August 1632) .
Read more about this topic: Election Sejm Of 1632
Famous quotes containing the word election:
“Savages cling to a local god of one tribe or town. The broad ethics of Jesus were quickly narrowed to village theologies, which preach an election or favoritism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Well, I am chiefly interested in the renomination, so don’t get disconsolate over that. If we lost the election I shall feel that the party is rejected, whereas if I fail to secure the renomination it will be a personal defeat.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“He hung out of the window a long while looking up and down the street. The world’s second metropolis. In the brick houses and the dingy lamplight and the voices of a group of boys kidding and quarreling on the steps of a house opposite, in the regular firm tread of a policeman, he felt a marching like soldiers, like a sidewheeler going up the Hudson under the Palisades, like an election parade, through long streets towards something tall white full of colonnades and stately. Metropolis.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)