Pole manipulacji czy walka o egzystencję? Realizacja prerogatywy królewskiej wobec sejmików w drugiej połowie XVI i na początku XVII w.

The subject of this paper is the political practice existing in the relations between the Royal court and the local assemblies of gentry in the Commonwealth of Poland in the second half of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. The functioning of power relations, especially the conducting of the legislative process, was based on the defined foundations of the state order, established in the constitutional law called the Henrician Articles that came into force in 1576. They demanded of the Royal court that they respect the position and role of local assemblies, empowered in the political system of the Commonwealth of Poland. These relations were invested with pragmatism to a large extent. In order to have the political needs fulfilled, the court endeavored to win a friendly attitude of local assemblies towards the realization of its political plans during the parliamentary sessions. At the same time, the local assemblies which were developing the conviction that they were merely one of the instruments of the Royal politics, appealed to their own problems, which made the target of their politics during the summoned diets. In this way, the Royal politics very often clashed with the aspirations of the gentry at the assemblies’ meetings, sometimes entering the sphere of rivalry.