Golden Liberty (Latin: Aurea Libertas; Polish: Złota Wolność, Lithuanian: Auksinė laisvė), sometimes referred to as Golden Freedoms, Nobles' Democracy or Nobles' Commonwealth (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka or Złota wolność szlachecka, Latin: áurea libertas) refers to a unique aristocratic political system in the Kingdom of Poland and later, after the Union of Lublin (1569), in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Under that system, all nobles (szlachta), regardless of economic status, were considered to have equal legal status and enjoyed extensive legal rights and privileges. The nobility controlled the legislature (Sejm — the Polish Parliament) and the Commonwealth's elected king.
Read more about Golden Liberty: Development, Assessment, Similar Systems, Proverb
Famous quotes containing the words golden and/or liberty:
“But when the bowels of the earth were sought,
And men her golden entrails did espy,
This mischief then into the world was brought,
This framed the mint which coined our misery.
...
And thus began th’exordium of our woes,
The fatal dumb-show of our misery;
Here sprang the tree on which our mischief grows,
The dreary subject of world’s tragedy.”
—Michael Drayton (1563–1631)
“There is nothing with which it is so dangerous to take liberties as liberty itself.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)