Declaration of King Sigismund Augustus regarding Polish-Lithuanian union

456th anniversary

By means of this statement, submitted at the sitting of the Sejm in 1564, King Zygmunt II August (Sigismund II Augustus) ceded to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland the hereditary right of the Jagiellons to govern the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Since Zygmunt had no male successor to the throne, this move was to facilitate the expected election of a ruler of the two countries then bound by a personal union and to prevent a possible political crisis, something that was particularly menacing with regard to Muscovite expansionism. The king’s declaration was a prelude to the planned real union between Poland and Lithuania.

Document from the collection of the Ossolineum
Document from the collection of the Ossolineum

The original text