The Oxford history of Poland-Lithuania, Volume I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569

The political union between the kingdom of Poland and the grand duchy of Lithuania is one of the longest-lasting political unions in European history, yet it is known more for the way it ended, destroyed by its neighbours in the late eighteenth century, than for its success in sustaining for over four centuries a consensual, decentralized, multinational, and religiously plural model of political union based on a concept of republican citizenship. From its inception in 1385–6, a vision of political union was developed that proved attractive to Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, and Germans. The union was extended to include Royal Prussia in the 1450s and Livonia in the 1560s. This book charts the formation of the English union down to its final definition in Lublin in 1569. It examines the often bitter disagreements over the nature of the union that nevertheless were overcome by a republican vision of a union of peoples in one political community of citizens under an elected monarch. The book challenges interpretations of the union informed by the idea that the emergence of the sovereign nation state represents the essence of political modernity, and presents the Polish-Lithuanian union as a case study of a composite state.