King Henry's Articles (Polish: Artykuły henrykowskie) was a collection of fundamental constitutional law of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, composed in 1573 during the first interregnum following the extinction of Poland's second, Jagiellon dynasty. The document took its name from Henryk Walezy (the French Prince Henri de Valois), the first elected Polish king who was obliged to sign the Articles before being allowed to mount the throne. Subsequently every king-elect was required to swear fidelity to them.
The Articles stipulated that a king could be elected only by "free election." Every 2 years he was required to call a general sejm (Polish "sejm walny," or parliament). Any levy in mass or levy of taxes could be authorized only by the sejm. Between sejms, 16 senators--4 for six months at a time--were to be at the king's side as his resident advisers and overseers. Incorporated into the Articles were the Warsaw Confederation's guarantees of religious freedom. The nobility (szlachta)--the parliamentary source of the Commonwealth's laws--reserved to itself the right to refuse obedience to the king if he broke the laws of the Commonwealth.
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