Magnates of Poland and Lithuania in the context of "Third Partition of Poland"

The szlachta (Polish pronunciation: [ˈʂlaxta] ; Lithuanian: šlėkta; lit. 'nobility') , the nobles, were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the dominating social class in the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was exercising political rights and power. Szlachta as a class differed substantially from the feudal nobility of Western Europe. The estate was officially abolished in 1921 by the March Constitution.

The origins of the szlachta are obscure and the subject of several theories. The szlachta secured substantial and increasing political power and rights throughout its history, beginning with the reign of King Casimir III the Great between 1333 and 1370 in the Kingdom of Poland until the decline and end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century. Apart from providing officers for the army, its chief civic obligations included electing the monarch and filling honorary and advisory roles at court that would later evolve into the upper legislative chamber, the Senate. The szlachta electorate also took part in the government of the Commonwealth via the lower legislative chamber of the Sejm (bicameral national parliament), composed of representatives elected at local sejmiks (local szlachta assemblies). Sejmiks performed various governmental functions at local levels, such as appointing officials and overseeing judicial and financial governance, including tax-raising. The szlachta assumed various governing positions, including voivode, marshal of voivodeship, castellan, and starosta.

The Targowica Confederation (Polish: konfederacja targowicka, IPA: [kɔnfɛdɛˈrat͡sja tarɡɔˈvit͡ska], Lithuanian: Targovicos konfederacija) was a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates on 27 April 1792, in Saint Petersburg, with the backing of the Russian Empress Catherine II. The confederation opposed the Constitution of 3 May 1791 and fought in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, which led to the Second and Third Partitions of Poland.

John Jonston or Johnston (Polish: Jan Jonston; Latin: Joannes or Johannes Jonstonus or Johnstonus; 15 September 1603 – c. 1675) was a Polish scholar and physician, descended from Scottish nobility and closely associated with the Polish magnate Leszczyński family. The standard author abbreviation Jonst. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

The General Sejm (Polish: Sejm walny, also translated as the General Parliament) was the parliament of the Kingdom of Poland. It had evolved from the earlier institution of Curia Regis (King's Council) and was one of the primary elements of democratic governance in the Polish dominion.

Initially established in 1386, it officially functioned as a bicameral diet since the formation of the Senate in 1493. The Sejm was composed of members of the royal council or king's court (the royal court, who played the largest role), provincial crown offices such as castellans, voivodes and higher nobility or magnates (the aristocratic element represented by the senate, upper house), members of the nobility who did not hold any crown offices and city council representatives (the democratic element represented by the lower house or chamber of deputies). These were the so-called three parliamentary states: the king, the senate and the parliamentary chamber. The Sejm was a powerful political institution, and from early 16th century, the Polish king could not pass laws without the approval of that body. The Sejm of Poland and the Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were merged into the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Union of Lublin in 1569.

Polish landed gentry (Polish: ziemiaństwo, ziemianie, singular: zemianin, from ziemia, "land") was a social group or class of hereditary landowners who held manorial estates. Historically, ziemianie consisted of hereditary nobles (szlachta) and landed commoners (kmiecie; Latin: cmethones). The Statutes of Piotrków (1496) restricted the right to hold manorial lordships to hereditary nobility. The non-nobles thus had to either sell their estates to the lords or seek a formal ennoblement for themselves (not an easy task), or had their property taken away. A rare exception was the burgesses of certain specially privileged "ennobled" royal cities who were titled "nobilis" and were allowed to buy and inherit manorial estates and exercise their privileges (such as jurisdiction over their subjects) and monopolies (over distilleries, hunting grounds, etc.). Therefore, in the szlachta-dominated Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth there was almost no landed gentry in the English meaning of the term, i.e. commoners who owned landed estates. (However, this is merely a matter of semantics; the gentry of England were roughly equivalent to lower nobility of other countries.) With the Partitions these restrictions were loosened and finally any commoner could buy or inherit land. This made the 20th-century Polish landed gentry consist mostly of hereditary nobles, but also of others.

They were the lesser members of the szlachta, contrasting with the much smaller but more powerful group of "magnate" families (sing. magnat, plural magnaci in Polish), see "Magnates of Poland and Lithuania". Compared to the situation in England and some other parts of Europe, these two parts of the overall "nobility" to a large extent operated as different classes, and were often in conflict. After the Partitions of Poland, at least in the stereotypes of 19th-century nationalist lore, the magnates often made themselves at home in the capitals and courts of the partitioning powers, while the gentry remained on their estates, keeping the national culture alive (for a preserved, non-magnate example, see Dąbrowski Manor in Michałowice).

Chicken War or Hen War (Polish: Wojna kokosza) is the colloquial name for a 1537 anti-royalist and anti-absolutist rokosz (rebellion) by the Polish nobility.

The derisive name was coined by the magnates, who for the most part supported the King and claimed that the conflict's only effect was the near-extinction of the local chickens, which were eaten by the nobles gathered for the rokosz at Lwów, in Ruthenian Voivodeship.

The House of Radziwiłł (Polish pronunciation: [raˈd͡ʑiviww]; Lithuanian: Radvila; Belarusian: Радзівіл, romanized: Radzivił; German: Radziwill) is a Polish princely family of Lithuanian origin, and one of the most powerful magnate families originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later also prominent in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. Part of the representatives of the Radziwiłł family were known for their persistent and consistent struggle for the independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and for their crucial role in preserving the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a separate state in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The family was founded by Radvila Astikas, but over time it split into many branches, such as the Biržai-Dubingiai and Goniądz-Meteliai lines. However, most of the branches became extinct by the 18th century, with only the Nesvizh-Kleck-Ołyka line surviving to this day. Their descendants were highly prominent for centuries, first in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Prussia. The family produced many individuals notable in Lithuanian, Polish, Belarusian, German as well as general European history and culture. Many members of the Radziwiłł family served in high-ranking officers positions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (e.g. 13 were Voivodes of Vilnius, the capital city, 10 were Castellans of Vilnius, seven were Grand Chancellors of Lithuania, nine were Grand Marshals of Lithuania, seven were Grand Hetmans of Lithuania, etc.). The Radziwiłł family received the title of Reichsfürst (prince) from the Holy Roman Emperor in the early 16th-century and were the first nobles in Lithuania and Poland who received this title.