While pacta conventa (a sort of manifesto or government programme) comprised only the personal undertakings of the king-elect, the Henrician Articles were a permanent constitutional law which all King-Grand Dukes were obligated to swear to uphold.[2][4]
The charter took the form of 18 articles written and adopted by the Polish-Lithuanian nobility in 1573 at the town of Kamień, near Warsaw, during the interregnum after the extinction of the Jagiellon dynasty.[3] The document took its name from that of Henry of Valois, the first Polishking and Lithuanian grand duke elected in a free election. He was obliged to sign the Articles to be allowed to ascend the throne.[3] Subsequently, every king-elect was required to swear fidelity to them, like the similar documents, the pacta conventa, but the latter were tailored and different for each king-elect.[2] Acceptance by the king-elect of the articles was a condition for his elevation to the throne, and they formed part of the royal oath at the coronation.[2]
Provisions
The king was to be chosen by election by the szlachta, and his children had no right of inheritance with regard to the throne.[2][3]
The king's marriages had to gain the approval of the Senate.[4]
The king had to convene a general sejm (the Commonwealth Parliament) at least once every two years for six weeks.[2]
The king had no right to create new taxes, tariffs or such without the approval of the Sejm;[3]
Between sejms, 16 resident senators were to be at the king's side as his advisers and overseers.[2][3] The Royal Council of 16 senators was elected every two years during the Sejm's 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.[3] All royal decrees had to be counterstamped by the chancellors or the deputy chancellors.[3]
The king had no right to call a pospolite ruszenie (levée en masse) without the 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.[2]
^MELC. "Henriko artikulai". vle.lt. LNB Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
^ abcdefghijklJuliusz Bardach, Bogusław Leśnodorski and Michał Pietrzak, Historia państwa i prawa polskiego (History of the Polish State and Law), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1987, pp. 216–7.
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