Jan Zamojski as a Representative of the Belz Voivodeship at the Warsaw Convocation Sejm in 1573

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is to study the position of Jan Zamojski as the sole ambassador of the Belz Voivodeship at the Warsaw Convocation Sejm in 1573. Such work will provide a better understanding of the sejm activities of the nobility of the Belz land in the late 16th century. The methodological basis of the article is the general scientific methods of critical analysis and synthesis. Among the special historical methods can be distinguished historical-comparative and problematic-chronological approaches. Legislative achievements of the pre-convocation sejms of Belz, Kalisz, Krakow, Poznan and Sandomierz voivodeship, resolutions of the Warsaw Convocation Sejm in 1573 and private correspondence of Jan Zamoyski in this period were used as a source base. Comparing the provisions of the instructions of the Belz pre-convocation sejm with the proposals of Wielkopolska and Malopolska ambassadors, as well as analysing Zamoyski’s letters at this time, we came to the conclusion that the views of the Ukrainian voivodeship largely coincided with those of Wielkopolska and Malopolska. In particular, in the instructions adopted in Belz, Wisla and Schröd, we come across mentions of necessity to agree on the time, place of election and form of participation of the nobility in this process, as well as to determine the principles of domestic and foreign policy for the interregnum. In addition, the Belgian ambassador Zamoysky in a letter to the provincial officer of the Ruthenian voivodeship Yakub Herburt put forward the idea of a common Sejm for all Ukrainian lands. In part, such statements can be interpreted as a rhetorical tool that helped Zamoyski achieve the main political goal at the time — to expand the circle of his supporters in different regions of the Commonwealth.