The book contains an analysis of a social group of 330 people including secular great senators
(that is: ministers, voivodes, and grand castellans, so-called chair castellans) and crown dignitaries
from the second half of the 17th century, that is, from the first decades of the magnate oligarchy
epoch. The list of senatorial and dignitary posts, the appointment to which constitutes the
objective of the examination, is given in our book. The analysis covers such issues as holding of
highest state posts, possession of Crown lands, and marital connections among the members of the
group in question.
A separate chapter has been devoted to each of the above three issues. The last chapter
additionally contains a survey of careers in the selected senatorial families — the advancing,
holding high posts and declining ones.
The discussed group has been established in the way similar to that in T. Zielinska's book
Magnateria polska epoki saskiej. Funkcje urzędów i królewszczyzn w procesie przeobrażeń warstwy
społecznej (The Polish Magnates in the Saxon Times. The Functions of Posts and Crown Lands in the
Process of Transformation of Social Groups), Wrocław 1977. As a result, a comparison of results is
possible.
The main sources of the present book are Sigillata and Crown Registration Book (Libri
Inscriptionum Metryki Koronnej) registering documents issued by the royal chancellory. We have
also used fiscal sources, especially inspections and inventories of Crown lands, and additionally the
archives of certain magnate families, such as for example Zamoyski family.
The senatorial and dignitary posts examined in the present book were held for life time by
royal nomination. In the years 1648—1696 Polish monarchs (and their wives) enjoyed great
freedom of distribution of posts and Crown lands. They were constrained, however, by numerous
legal limitations such as the land indigenousness. prohibiting nominations for local posts for those
nobility members who did not have their own lands in these territories, and incompatibilia, that
is the prohibition of accumulation of certain posts by a single person. The kings had also to
consider the custom of favouritism: numerous nominations were made available due to support of
chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński, crown referendary Stanisław Antoni Szczuki or other high dignitaries.
Finally, they had to consider various internal and sometimes foreign pressures. In the period
involved, the trading of posts and Crown Lands was highly developed.
The senatorial-dignitary group of the Crown, which estabilished itself as a result of
interaction of numerous, sometimes contradictory factors, was characterized by two features:
relatively small accumulation of posts by individual families, and a considerable proportion of first
generation senators and dignitaries.
The small accumulation of senatorial and dignitary posts by individual families becomes
particularly clear when the situation in the second half of the 17th century is compared with the
Saxon epoch ( 1697 — 1763): 330 senators and dignitaries from 186 families vs. 369 senators and dignitaries from 190 families. Of interest is also a juxtaposition of families which gave the greatest
number of senators and dignitaries. In the second half of the 17th century there were Potocki (11
people). Leszczyński (9), Denhoff, Lubomirski and Opaliński (8) families. During the reign of the
Vettyn Saxon dynasty, the leading senatorial-dignitary families of the Crown were Potocki and
Lubomirski (16 senators and dignitaries each), Czapski (11 people), Tarłowie (8 people). Thus, in
the examined period, the accumulation of senatorial and dignitary posts was smaller than in the
Saxon period, but similar to that during the reign of the first two Vasas: in the years 1587—1648,
367 senators and dignitaries from 202 families (according to the yet unpublished calculations of
Dr Krzysztof Chłapowski).
A strong concentration of senatorial and dignitary posts can be observed in the second half of
the 17th century in the Great Duchy of Lithuania. Radziwiłł, Pac and Sapieha families, the
consecutive hegemons in Lithuania, in the years 1648—1696 had in toto 36 senators and
dignitaries, which means that more than 20% of the total number of Lithuanian senators and
dignitaries came from these three families.
The first generation senators and dignitaries constituted about 29% of the examined
population. This significant percentage shows that the admission to the senate for the non-
-senatorial families was not closed. However, for half of the hominum novorum the promotion to
the senatorial-dignitary circle was ephemeral — they were simultaneously the first and the last
senators in their families. Now people seldom reached the highest chairs in the senate, with no less
difficulty obtaining ministerial positions.
Although numerous senatorial and dignitary posts were linked with profits in money and in
kind, the basic wages were Crown lands Formally accessible to all the gentry, they were in fact
controlled by senators and dignitaries who accumulated in their hands 84% of Crown lands
(judging by the profits they gave, on the basis of the 1647 tax kwarta from Crown Lands). About
17,5% of the examined group did not possess any lands. On the other hand, senators and
dignitaries controlled the richest ones. The elite group of 24 people, dominated by the
Małopolanians and ministers, distinguished themselves by accumulating the Crown lands
amounting to 5000 zlotys of tax. The holding of high state posts enabled easy access to lucrative
Crown lands. As a result of the general custom of transferring lands to other memebers of the
same family by way of cession and so-called iuris communcativi numerous Crown lands remained
for many generations in the possession of the same family or families related by kinship.
Marital relatedness, after post holding and possession of Crown lands the third defining
element of the senatorial-dignitary elite in the gentry society did not play the role of an
independent career stimulus. Connectedness by marriage supplemented such elements as high
position and considerable wealth. The people and families newly admitted to senatorial-
-dignitary elite could not expect at once advantageous marriages with the families belonging to
the elite for a long time. On the other hand, the declining families (temporarily losing access to the
senate and to dignitary, becaming impoverished) did not drop out of the high level marital
relatedness at once.
When the clerical promotion was backed up financially (hereditory properties, Crown lands)
and by advantageous marital connections, and the family was not threatened by the extinction
because of lack of a male heir, a long term stabilization of the family in the social elite of the
Republic was possible. The careers began in the second half of the 17th century by such families as
Bieliński, Gurowski, Branicki. Jabłonowski, Miączyński. Rzewuski, Szembek, Wielopolski, and
Załuski provide convincing evidence.
Despite the continuous inflow of new people and new families to the exclusive senatorial-
-dignitary elite, the number of families capable of retaining a permanent position in this elite was
gradually decreasing. During almost two centuries — since the coronation of Sigmuntus III till the
death of Augustus III —the number of such families did not exceed 40.