Pacta Conventa

Timeline

1. 1573Kamiń near Warsaw · WarsawAt the first free election, the nobles, besides requiring Henry to accept the permanent Henrician Articles, drafted a Pacta Conventa specific to him, stating concrete pledges of money and military aid to the Commonwealth and relations with France. This document set the precedent of one contract per king, attaching negotiable governing obligations to the throne.
2. 1575–1576Kraków · Lesser PolandIn the election after Henry's flight, Stefan Batory signed a Pacta Conventa different from Henry's while also confirming the Henrician Articles. The two elections proved that the personalized contract could change with the candidate, turning royal election from mere dynastic succession into a political bargain with a written platform.
3. 1587–1588Warsaw · WarsawWhen Sigismund III Vasa was elected in 1587 he again signed a dedicated Pacta Conventa covering his Swedish origins, Baltic policy, and fiscal-military obligations to the Commonwealth. By then the personalized contract had become an indispensable step in every free election.
4. 1588–1600Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth · Polish–Lithuanian CommonwealthBy the end of the 16th century kings were bound both by the Henrician Articles (an unchanging charter) and the Pacta Conventa (a personal platform), letting the nobility bargain over specific policies at elections. The boundary between the two documents later blurred, but within 1551–1600 they should be treated as two distinct institutional instruments.