Pacta conventa

In the Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth Pacta Conventa described a treaty between king and his subjects. From 1573, each new elected king had to sign the Pacta Conventa as one of the conditions for being granted the crown. The first to sign the Pacta Conventa was Henry II Walezy in 1573, who also signed the Henrician Articles guaranteing religious tolerance. After the election of Zygmunt III Waza in 1587 the Pacta Conventa and Henrician Articles were combined togehter. Pacta Conventa obliged the king to work towards the goals that the election sejm demanded. Those varied from time to time, and could inculde various demands from areas of foreign and domestic politics, defense, taxes, religion, etc. Pacta Conventa weakend the position of the king and defended the Commonwealth political system, the Nobles' Democracy. In 1768, Sejm merged Pacta Conventa into the new cardinal laws.

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