Uladzimir Padalinski. An Image of a Sejm Deputy in the Language of Political Discourse of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the second half of the 16th – early 17th century
The second half of the 16th century was a period of a rapid development of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s parliamentary system. Large-scale state reforms of the 1560s consolidated the principle of electivity of noble representatives at the General Sejm (Sojm). From that moment only land deputies were authorized representatives of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the Sejm (since 1569 – at the joint Polish-Lithuanian Sejm). Let us emphasize that the General Sejm also stimulated the development of an active political culture of the nobility, including the language of politics. The article reflects the Sejm delegates’ duties and moral virtues that were formed in the imagination of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania nobility in the second half of the 16th – early 17th century, and examines the most important functions and motivations for the public activities of the land representatives. The study considers terms, concepts and ideas associated with the parliamentary activities of the nobility. The author concludes that in the language of the political discourse of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania the holistic and stable image of the Sejm delegate was formed in the second half of the 16th – early 17th centuries. The most important functions that the land delegates were supposed to perform were formulated. On the one hand, the Sejm delegates had to communicate the district nobility social and political interests to the highest ruling circles. On the other hand, they had to monitor the preservation of both nobility’s rights and freedoms and the foundations of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system. The author shows that the ideal motivation for the land delegates’ political activities was to act for the good of the state. Accordingly, the requirements for the moral and intellectual image of the nobility representatives were high. In the nobility’s imagination the Sejm delegate could not be self-serving and put private interests above the public ones.
The study is based on various sources, both official documents (statutes, privileges, etc.) and narrative sources (parliamentary diaries, speeches, sejmik’s instructions, etc.).