Polish Constitution of May 3rd, 1791

The constitution of May 3rd, 1791 was written during the diet 4 years, by Noble S under the reign of last king de Pologne and large-duke of Lithuania Stanislas II. It was a major legislative act, a reference in the Histoire of Poland, the Lithuania and other nations of the old Union of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was also the first constitution in Europe.

It approaches several important points:

the middle-class men from now on are represented with the Diet, and have the possibility of making career in the administration;
noble or middle-class poor cannot ensure the role of representative, because it could be tried to serve as the interests of the powerful ones;
One restores hereditary monarchy: the family of Saxony is selected to control;
the peasants from now on are subjected to the jurisdiction of the State and either to that their lords. It is also allowed to the peasants to leave the grounds on which they work, and those having been useful in the army are free, i.e. they are not any more servile and do not have any more a drudgery to achieve;
the army, object of all the pressures on behalf of being coparcener in, sees its number fixed at 100.000 soldiers;
On the level of territorial management, one establishes local commissions to manage the public law and to take care of the good respect of the laws;
to ensure the guard of the executive power, the “Guard of the Laws of the Nation” is ensured by the king, the primacy and 5 ministers.

Herbert, Prussian minister, qualifies this Constitution of “death-blow against the Prussia”.

The May 3rd since became national Festival in Poland.

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