1701 LITHUANIAN REPUBLICAN CONVENTIONS IN VILNIUS: ATTEMPTS TO CONSOLIDATE POWER WON BY THE ANTI-SAPEGIAN MOVEMENT

Abstract

The article analyses two conventions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania republicans, aristocracy and nobility that won the power in Lithuania at the end of 1700, which took place in Vilnius in 1701. First of the conventions in Vilnius took place 0n May 2–14, 1701. The second convention in Vilnius started meetings in same year, from July 23 through to August 12, 1701. The article discusses documents that were approved in these conventions, location of the gatherings and their significance in the sequence of republican conventions in 1698–1703. The analysis is focused on the influence of the conventions in establishing a new form of republican confederate governance in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, also assessing the international and military context of the conventions. The conventions of the republicans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, having gathered for two meetings in Vilnius in 1701, were the most important political events in the life of Lithuanian state. In the course of these conventions the supreme Lithuanian state power of the time, the nature of which was quite special – close to confederate, decided on the most important issues, facing the new authority, established after the victory by the republicans against the Sapiehas, the aristocrats of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who by the end of the seventeenth century had reached the status of hegemons. These conventions at the capital of Lithuania were extraordinary events that attracted key politicians of the time and some active nobility, which would not participate in great numbers but still were more actively than at other forums, such as inaugurations and sessions of the Lithuanian Tribunal. Republican conventions were initiated in 1698 and ended in 1703. Both 1701 conventions held their meetings in Vilnius alongside the Vilnius sessions of the Lithuanian Tribunal. First of the conventions took place at the eve of the Sejm of the Republic, and the second one soon after the Sejm, thus problems discussed in the conventions were closely related to the agenda of the Sejm of the Polish and Lithuanian state. Keywords: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, eighteenth century, Great Northern War, Lithuanian Civil War, the Sapiehas, August II, confederation, republicans, Vilnius.