Sejmiki mazowieckie wobec kwestii sposobu powoływania monarchy w Rzeczypospolitej w okresie Sejmu Wielkiego

Abstract

The author analyses, on the basis of the parliamentary instructions from the times of the Great Sejm, the attitudes of the Masovian regional assemblies towards one of the key issues of the systemic reform of the electoral monarchy, i.e. the establishment of the hereditary throne in the Republic of Poland. He discusses, differentiates and attempts to explain the reasons for the political behaviour of the nobility from the various lands. The author tries to prove thesis that the vivente rege election in Masovia was adopted as a one-off solution, forced by the political situation of the state. He presents the little-known but original election reform projects put forward by the Masovian nobility. The author explains the reluctance of the Masovian regional assemblies to establish a hereditary throne not by the stereotype of dark and conservative Masovians exposed in historiography, but most of all by the fear that due to economic weakness, the Masovian nobility would lose a significant part of its political importance along with the deprivation of the right to elections.