„Ja na to nie zezwalam, ani nie chcę nowego na bracią swą stanowić”. Przywódcy szlacheccy Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego na sejmie lubelskim 1569 roku

The existence of an independent nobility movement in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, separate from the local magnates milieu, is one of the fundamental factors in researching the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in early modern times. Without such a nobility movement, it is impossible to speak of the noblemen’s democracy in the 16th –18th century. The article presents the activities of the Lithuanian delegation at the Sejm of Lublin in the summer of 1569. It presents the ideas and demands of the nobility and its political leaders. A group of deputies presented a whole gamut of demands, reflecting the needs and socio-political interests of the minor and middle nobility, to the Sejm. Political leaders who acted as spokespersons for the rights and freedoms of the nobility were the land deputies Malcher Snowski and Mikołaj Stankiewicz-Billewicz. Both of them enjoyed high regard among the nobility. They strived to transform its postulates into concrete parliamentary decisions. Economic independence was an important factor in ensuring their independent political position. The author concludes that in the 1560s an independent movement was established in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the slogans of noblemen’s democracy. However, in the second half of the 16th century, the leaders of the nobility movement of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania could only hope to fulfill their aspirations if they were supported either by the monarch or by those magnates who supported the slogans of the noblemen’s democracy.