Politics in Livonia. General sejm in Warsaw. 1590.

This sejm was convened in December 1589. The pre-sejm sejmiks were held in February of 1590. The sejm began proceedings on 8 March 1590. Paweł Orzechowski, chamberlain of Chełm, was elected the marshal of the Chamber of Deputies. Sejm gather after the king Sigismund’s sojourn at his father’s, John III, in Reval (Tallin) in May 1590, during which the monarch of Sweden tried to convince his son to abandon the throne of the Commonwealth, in favour of Ernest (or Ernst) Habsburg, but Sigismund opposed. However, this situation was later the origin of a serious internal conflict. During the proceedings the matters of political system in Livonia were discussed, as well as fiscal matters, what led to adopting a conscription universal. The sejm finished proceedings on 21 April 1590.

See: K. Lepszy, Rzeczpospolita Polska w dobie sejmu inkwizycyjnego 1589-1592 [The Commonwealth in the age of the “inquisitional sejm”], Kraków 1939. E. Opaliński, Sejm srebrnego wieku 1587-1652. Między głosowaniem większościowym a liberum veto [Sejm of the Silver Age 1587-1652. Betwixt majority voting and liberum veto], Warszawa 2001; W. Czapliński, Sejm w latach 1587-1696 [1587-1696 Sejm], in: Historia sejmu polskiego [The history of Polish sejm], t. 1, Warszawa 1984, red. J. Michalski, s. 217-299. I. Malec-Lewandowska, Sejm walny koronny Rzeczypospolitej i jego dorobek ustawodawczy 1587-1632 [The Crown general sejm of the Commonwealth and its legislative achievements, 1587-1632], Kraków 2009. Ustawodawstwo zob. Volumina Constitutionum, T. 2, cz. 2, Design and layout prepared by S. Grodziski, Warszawa 2008, s. 138-169.