Medieval and modern times : an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . f race, created endless difficulties anddissensions. The government of Poland was the worst imaginable. Instead The defectiveof having developed a strong monarchy, as her neighbors — ernment ^°^Prussia, Russia, and Austria—had done, she remained in a stateof feudal anarchy, which the nobles had taken the greatest painsto perpetuate by binding their kings in such a way that they hadno power either to maintain order or to defend the country fromattack. The k
Medieval and modern times : an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . f race, created endless difficulties anddissensions. The government of Poland was the worst imaginable. Instead The defectiveof having developed a strong monarchy, as her neighbors — ernment ^°^Prussia, Russia, and Austria—had done, she remained in a stateof feudal anarchy, which the nobles had taken the greatest painsto perpetuate by binding their kings in such a way that they hadno power either to maintain order or to defend the country fromattack. The king could not declare war, make peace, imposetaxes, or pass any law,, without the consent of the diet. As the 4i6 Medieval and Modern Times The libenimveto The electivekingship diet was composed of representatives of the nobility, any one ofwhom could freely veto any measure, — for no measure couldpass that had even one vote against it,—most of the diets brokeup without accomplishing anything. The kingship was not hereditary in Poland, but whenever theruler died, the nobles assembled and chose a new one, commonly ?^^ m^_^^. Fig. III. The Election of a Polish King in theEighteenth Century This is an eighteenth-century engraving of a Polish diet, meeting inthe open country outside of Warsaw, whose churches are just visible,in order to elect a king. In the center of the picture a ditch sur-rounds the meeting place of the senators, who are holding a solemnpublic session out in front of their little house. On the plain there areprocessions of nobles and various indications of a celebration The Polishnobles andpeasants a foreigner. These elections were tumultuous, and the variousEuropean powers regularly interfered, by force or bribery, tosecure the election of a candidate whom they believed wouldfavor their interests. The nobles in Poland were numerous. There were perhapsa million and a half of them, mostly very poor, owning only atrifling bit of land. There was a saying th
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Keywords: ., bookauthorrobinson, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1919
