A register of senators and deputies attending the General Sejm in Warsaw, 9 February-21 March 1600

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The Warsaw General Sejm of 1600 was an important event in the reign of Zygmunt III Vasa (1587-1632). The king used it to embark on his programme of reforms, which, however, antagonized the nobility and fanned the flames of a rebellion rokosz led by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski in 1606. Chaired by Jan Szujski, Deputy Chamberlain of Brześć Litewski, the Sejm debated improvements of the judiciary and parliament, plans of a thorough overhaul of royal estates and amendments to legislation touching upon the sensitive issue of religion. In matters of foreign policy the Sejm urged the need to observe the peace settlement with Turkey and reviewed Poland's relations with the Danubian principalities, the Crimean Tartars and Sweden. The Brandenburg succession in the Duchy of Prussia and ways of revamping the army were debated at greater length, though the assembly was not able to reach a consensus on any of those points. Consequently, the Sejm was adjourned without producing a single resolution. This article focuses on the register of senators and deputies attending the Sejm of 1600. A list of this kind is a rarity among the records of 16th century Polish parliamentarism. Unlike the written instructions issued by local conventions (sejmiks), the 1600 register contains all the deputies and senators that were in fact present in Warsaw and not just the names of those that were elected. Due to its comprehensiveness it has greater value than the per diem lists, which do include the Lithuanian parliamentarians. This critical edition is based on the original register stored at the Czartoryski Library in Cracow, MS 2244 IV, pp. 29-35. The register belongs to a set of 33 documents from the years 1600 to 1608; together they take up 274 pages of a one-volume collection. Unfortunately, hardly anything is known about the aim of that remarkable compilation or its author, whose name could have been Przesmycki.