The Liberum Veto

On this day in 1652 the Polish Seym felt the first shudders of anarchy that would be created by the infamous liberum veto law. This specified that a single nobleman had the right to stall a parliamentary session if he disagreed with an issue at hand.

The powerful magnate Janusz Radiwill was responsible for giving this poisonous cat it's first dance amongst the pigeons, and his lead was later followed by a host of rich aristocrats who saw the law as a tool to protect their own interests. In this first instance, Radziwill ordered his lackey Wladyslaw Sicinski to enact the right of the veto, hence disrupting the Seym.

The liberum veto was originally enshrined in Polish law in the sixteenth century, at a time when Poland boasted many democratic qualities that set it apart from its autocratic neighbours. Almost ten percent of the nation were enfranchised, whilst religious tolerance was markedly stronger in Poland than in other European countries.

For many decades the right to exercise the veto went unused. However. as Poland slipped into decline magnates began to employ it for there own cynical ends.

Whilst initially the liberum veto was envisaged as a means of pausing the session and hence allowing for continued debate, a loop-hole specified that if the matter was not settled then all laws already passed in the accompanying session would be invalidated. When magnates began using the liberum veto at their whim during the eighteenth century, it led to a farcical state of affairs that engendered complete anarchy.

It was not until 1791 that the law was finally banned. But the writing was already on the wall for the Polish state. It suited her neighbours that Poland remained backward, and in riposte to her resurgence during the Enlightenment, Catherine the Great of Russia masterminded the dismemberment of the country. The question as to who was responsible for the downfall of Poland still inspires heated debate to this day. Often it is King Stanislaw Poniatowski, (r. 1764-1795) who takes the blame, but in reality, the seeds of destruction were sown centuries before that unlucky monarch ascended the throne.