POLISH HISMRYJ&i 81 



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duces, dukes, or generals, in reference to the almost 

 invariable practice of their conducting the armies of the 

 state to the field in person. In the fourteenth century the 

 nobles availed themselves of the weakness of a female 

 reign to diminish the power of their sovereign, and to 

 extend that of their own order. They enacted that no 

 taxes should be levied, that no new laws should be 

 passed, in short, that no measure of any importance 

 should, as formerly, be effected by the king, but by 

 representatives chosen from among themselves. Hence 

 the origin of the diets of Poland, of which there were two 

 kinds, Ordinary and Extraordinary, the former statedly 

 assembled once in two years, while the latter was sum- 

 moned by the king only on great emergencies. The 

 diets consisted of the king, the senators, and deputies 

 from provinces and towns, amounting altogether to about 

 four hundred members. These assemblies could sit only 

 for a limited time, and any individal, however humble, 

 had the power of calling for a division of the meeting on 

 any question, and one dissentient voice had the effect of 

 rendering the whole deliberations ineffectual. This latter 

 right, which was termed liber um veto, and which was 

 repeatedly exercised, was the cause of the greatest calami- 

 ties, and often of much bloodshed. Without the unani- 

 mous consent of the diet the king could determine no 

 question of importance, could not declare war, make 

 peace, raise levies, employ auxiliaries, or admit foreign 

 troops into his dominions, with other restrictions, which 

 almost extinguished the regal authority. Nor did the 

 nobility stop here. Having thus undermined the power 

 of the king there was but one step more to gain to them- 

 selves the uncontrolled government of the nation, namely, 

 to render the throne elective. This was accordingly 

 accomplished, and the king of Poland enjoyed now the 

 title, but little of the power or dignity of a free sovereign. 

 Liberty, so much boasted of by the Poles, seems from this 

 period to have been confined to the nobles alone. They 

 arrogated an unlimited sway over their respective terri- 



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