Free Royal Cities Act

The Free Royal Cities Act (full Polish title: "Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej"; English: "Our Free Royal Cities in the States of the Commonwealth") was an act adopted by the Four-Year Sejm (1788-92) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on April 18, 1791, in the run-up to the adoption of the Constitution of May 3, 1791.

The Free Royal Cities Act was subsequently stipulated, in that Constitution's Article III, to be an integral part of the Constitution.

The Act granted, to the Commonwealth's townspeople, personal security, the right to acquire landed property, and eligibility for military officers' commissions, public offices, and membership in the "szlachta" (nobility).

The Act constituted a major element in the Constitution's advancement of democracy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (which was converted by the Constitution into a unitary state, henceforth called the "Polish Republic" — "Rzeczpospolita Polska").

References

* Joseph Kasparek, "The Constitutions of Poland and of the United States: Kinships and Genealogy", Miami, American Institute of Polish Culture, 1980, pp. 31-33.