Union of Lublin
[1] The Commonwealth was ruled by a single elected monarch who carried out the duties of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and governed with a common Senate and parliament (the Sejm).
Lithuanian magnates were afraid of losing much of their power, since the union would make their legal status equal to that of the much more numerous Polish lower nobility.
[5][6] The Polish and Lithuanian elites strengthened personal bonds and had opportunities to plan their united futures during increased military cooperation.
Though the Polish szlachta wanted full incorporation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Crown, the Lithuanians continued to oppose that and agreed only to a federal state.
[9] The Union of Lublin was superseded by the Constitution of 3 May 1791, under which the federal Commonwealth was to be transformed into a unitary state by King Stanisław August Poniatowski.
[citation needed] By the late 15th century, the Polish language was already making rapid inroads among the Lithuanian and Rus' elites.
In culture and social life, both the Polish language and Catholicism became dominant for the Ruthenian nobility, most of whom were initially Ruthenian-speaking and Eastern Orthodox by religion.
[citation needed] This eventually created a significant rift between the lower social classes and the nobility in the Lithuanian and Ruthenian areas of the Commonwealth.
Attempts to limit the power of Lithuanian magnates (especially the Sapieha family) and unify the laws of the Commonwealth led to the koekwacja praw movement, culminating in the koekwacja reforms of the Election Sejm of 1697 (May–June), confirmed in the General Sejm of 1698 (April) in the document Porządek sądzenia spraw w Trybunale Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskego.
[citation needed] The Union of Lublin provided for merger of the two states, though each retained substantial autonomy, with their own army, treasury, laws and administration.
[20] Nevertheless, on 29 May 1580, a separate ceremony was held in the Vilnius Cathedral during which bishop Merkelis Giedraitis presented Stephen Báthory (King of Poland since 1 May 1576) a decorated sword and a hat adorned with pearls (both were sanctified by Pope Gregory XIII himself), while this ceremony manifested the sovereignty of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and had the meaning of elevation of the new Grand Duke of Lithuania, this way ignoring the stipulations of the Union of Lublin.
Although it created one of the largest states in contemporary Europe, one that endured for over 200 years,[25] Sigismund failed to push through the reforms that would have established a workable political system.
However, while all the nobility in the Commonwealth was in theory equal under the law, the political power of the magnates was not weakened significantly, and in the end they could too often bribe or coerce their lesser brethren.
[26] Following the Żeligowski's Mutiny after which the Lithuania's capital Vilnius Region was occupied and which eventually led to the annexation of it into Republic of Poland in 1922, the Lithuanians formally renounced the 1569 Union of Lublin.
