Rokosh ( pol . Rokosz , literally - rebellion, rebellion) - an official uprising against the king, to which the nobility had the right to protect their rights and freedoms. Initially, this was a congress of the entire Polish gentry (and not just deputies) to the Sejm. This word came to Polish from Hungary, where a similar meeting took place on the Rákos field. To know the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , going to Rokosh, formed a gentry confederation directed against the king.
The right to rokosh as a rebellion against the king came from the medieval right to resist royal power. The legal basis for the gentry’s right to rokosh was the right to refuse obedience to the king ( non praestanda oboedientia ), recorded in the so-called “ Melnikovsky Privilege ” ( October 23, 1501 ), the “ Henrykus articles ” of 1573 and the Pacta conventa (signed upon election by each king, starting with Heinrich Valois ).
One of the largest rokoshi was the “cockerel” ( 1537 ) and the rokosh led by Mikolai Zebrzydowski against Sigismund III Vasa in 1606-1607 (otherwise “ Sandomierz Rokosh ”).
See also
- Confederation of Commonwealth