Marszałek izby poselskiej w sejmie Rzeczypospolitej XVI–XVIII w.

Abstract

The jurisdiction and tasks of the marshals (speakers) of the Old-Polish Sejm Chamber of Deputies were shaped in practice and thus were not regulated by law for many decades. The literature on the subject has always stressed that the ‘director’ of the Chamber of Deputies had to reckon with the will of his colleagues, that he did not have too many prerogatives, and the role he played during parliamentary debates resulted primarily from his personal qualities and social position. This article, however, deals with customary powers and prerogatives of the Sejm marshal, and those which in the eighteenth century began to be described in parliamentary constitutions. It is also an attempt to synthetically summarise the research conducted thus far into the ways of electing the marshal of the Sejm and the role he played in the Sejm from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. It involved not only presiding over the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies and did not end with the closing of the Sejm session, but also included important activities after the session had finished, related to the drafting of the constitutions, and managing the election of the next marshal, which was no less important at the beginning of the next Sejm.