Crown Tribunal (
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
:
Trybunał Koronny,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
Iudicium Ordinarium Generale Tribunalis Regni) – was the highest
appealIn law, an appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision.The specific procedures for appealing, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly from country to country...
courtA court is a body, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes and dispense civil, criminal, or administrative justice in accordance with rules of law....
in the
Crown of the Polish KingdomThe Crown of the Polish Kingdom , or simply the Crown , is the name for the territories under direct Polish administration in the times of the Kingdom of Poland until the end of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
for most cases, exceptions being the cases were a noble landowner was threatened with loss of life and/or property - then he could appeal to the
Sejm courtA sejm court was a court that sat in cases of impeachment — in the words of the May 3rd Constitution of 1791 — of government "ministers [...] charged with breach of law by a deputation designated to examine their deeds [...]."The composition and functioning of sejm courts were spelled...
(parliament court).
In 1578 king
Stefan BatoryStephen Báthory was a Hungarian noble Prince of Transylvania , then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania . He was a member of the Somlyo branch of the noble Hungarian Báthory family...
created the Crown Tribunal in order to reduce the enormous pressure on the
Royal CourtRoyal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:*Court , the household and entourage of a monarch or other ruler, the princely court*Royal Court Theatre, in London, England...
.
Crown Tribunal (
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
:
Trybunał Koronny,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
Iudicium Ordinarium Generale Tribunalis Regni) – was the highest
appealIn law, an appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision.The specific procedures for appealing, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly from country to country...
courtA court is a body, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes and dispense civil, criminal, or administrative justice in accordance with rules of law....
in the
Crown of the Polish KingdomThe Crown of the Polish Kingdom , or simply the Crown , is the name for the territories under direct Polish administration in the times of the Kingdom of Poland until the end of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
for most cases, exceptions being the cases were a noble landowner was threatened with loss of life and/or property - then he could appeal to the
Sejm courtA sejm court was a court that sat in cases of impeachment — in the words of the May 3rd Constitution of 1791 — of government "ministers [...] charged with breach of law by a deputation designated to examine their deeds [...]."The composition and functioning of sejm courts were spelled...
(parliament court).
In 1578 king
Stefan BatoryStephen Báthory was a Hungarian noble Prince of Transylvania , then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania . He was a member of the Somlyo branch of the noble Hungarian Báthory family...
created the Crown Tribunal in order to reduce the enormous pressure on the
Royal CourtRoyal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:*Court , the household and entourage of a monarch or other ruler, the princely court*Royal Court Theatre, in London, England...
. This placed much of the monarchs juridical power in the hands of the elected szlachta deputies, further strengthening the nobility class. In 1581 the Crown Tribunal was joined by a counterpart in Lithuania, the
Lithuanian TribunalLithuanian Tribunal was the highest appeal court for the bajorai of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the counterpart to the Crown Tribunal of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, on which it was based...
(
Trybunał Litewski).
Tribunal consisted of 27 secular deputies elected from nobility (
szlachtaSzlachta is the noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the increasingly polonized territories under their control . The nobility arose in the late Middle Ages and existed through the 18th century and into the 20th century...
) each year during the sessions of local parliaments (
sejmikA sejmik was a regional assembly in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and earlier in the Kingdom of Poland. Sejmiks existed until the end of the Commonwealth in 1795 following the partitions of Poland...
s) and 6 ecclesiastical deputies elected by capitulas. The tribunal was headed by a Tribunal President (
prezydent in Crown,
prezes in Lithuanian Tribunal) and a Marshal (
marszałek trybunału). The Marshal was chosen from and by the judges themselves, while the President dealt with ecclesiastic matters (and was himself a high-ranking priest).
Two main locations of the Crown Tribunal were the towns of
Piotrków TrybunalskiPiotrków Trybunalski is a city in central Poland with 80,738 inhabitants . It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship , and previously was the capital of Piotrków Voivodeship...
(for lands of
Greater PolandGreater Poland or Great Poland, Polish Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań...
, held in autumn and winter) and
LublinLublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,462 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
(for lands of
Lesser PolandLesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...
, in spring and summer). Until 1590 some sessions were held in Łuck, and since 1764 in
PoznańPoznań is a city in west-central Poland with over 557,264 inhabitants . Located on the Warta River, it is one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest...
.
Decisions were supposed to be taken by
consensusConsensus in the English language is defined firstly as unanimous or general agreement; and secondly group solidarity of belief or sentiment. Ideally, achieving consensus requires serious treatment of every group member's considered opinion...
in the first or second voting, if there was no consensus, the third could was to be decided by a simple majority.
The Tribunals had many problems since their creation, as the judges rarely had any formal training and were basically politicians elected each year. With the progressing degradation of Polish political system, in the early 18th century the Tribunals became as corrupted and dependent on the
magnateMagnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
s as the Polish parliament,
SejmThe Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. Each member of Sejm is called Poseł.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the King. It was commonly termed a three-estate parliament...
. Several minor reforms had little effect until finally, the Tribunals were subject to a major reform by the
Great SejmThe Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm was a Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw, beginning in 1788...
of 1788-1792. However those reforms, along with the Tribunals themselves, were soon annulled in the aftermath of the
partitions of PolandThe Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
.
Crown Treasury courts were created in 1613 (
Trybunał Skarbowy Koronny, Trybunał Skarbowy Litewski).
Wages for all judges were decided at Sejm meetings.
See also
- Exile#History section discusses the 'banicja' (exile) and 'infamia' penalties of the Commonwealth