Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland in the context of "Senate of Poland"

In the history of Poland, a royal city or royal town (Polish: miasto królewskie) was an urban settlement within the crown lands (Polish: królewszczyzna).

The most influential royal cities enjoyed voting rights during the free election period in Poland (1572–1791). These cities were Gdańsk, Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Lwów, Wilno, Toruń, Lublin, Kamieniec and Elbląg. Other important royal cities included Gniezno (ecclesiastical capital of Poland and former capital of early medieval Poland), Płock (former capital of medieval Poland), Piotrków (second most important political center of Poland in the early and mid-16th century as the main location of the Sejm, and then the main Crown Tribunal location alongside Lublin, thus one of the two judiciary capitals of Poland), Grodno (de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1580s and then the general sejm location alongside Warsaw), Bydgoszcz and Kalisz (temporary locations of the Crown Tribunal), and Sandomierz, Przemyśl, Kazimierz.

Polish Americans (Polish: Polscy Amerykanie) are Americans who are of full or partial Polish origin. Polish settlement in the United States started in the mid-19th century. The flow of people has fluctuated over time depending upon conditions in Poland and the United States. The Polish American population is concentrated around the Great Lakes and the Mid-Atlantic. Illinois, New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are the states with the largest populations though none of them contain more than 15% of the Polish American population.

Poland has a long history of republicanism going back to the establishment of the first national legislature, the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1386. This legislature became bicameral in 1493. Poland and Lithuania formed a federated state in 1569 with the establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this commonwealth of two nations there was a joint legislature called the General Sejm. An elective monarchy was started in 1572. Influenced by the Constitution of the United States, the commonwealth enacted a written constitution called the Constitution of 3 May 1791.

The General Sejm (Polish: sejm walny, Latin: comitia generalia) was the bicameral legislature of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was established by the Union of Lublin in 1569 following the merger of the legislatures of the two states, the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was one of the primary elements of the democratic governance in the Commonwealth (see Golden Liberty). The sejm was a powerful political institution. The king could not pass laws without its approval.

The two chambers of a sejm were the Senate (senat) consisting of high ecclesiastical and secular officials, and the lower house, Chamber of Deputies [pl] (izba poselska), the sejm proper, of lower ranking officials and the representatives of all szlachta. Together with the king, the three were known as the sejming estates, or estates of the sejm (stany sejmujące, literally, "deliberating estates").

Nihil novi nisi commune consensu ("Nothing new without the common consent") is the original Latin title of a 1505 act or constitution adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament), meeting in the royal castle at Radom.