164 SZLACHTA
Nobility's bargaining power was high. Concessions obtained were rarely relin-
quished. In 1374, by the Statute of Kosice, Louis of Anjou, anxious to secure the
succession of his daughter, Jadwiga, exempted all noble demesnes from the
poradlne or land-tax, and reduced the rate levied on noble tenants to one-sixth
of its previous level. At Horodlo, on 2 October 1413, the new terms of the Union
of Poland and Lithuania provided for the extension of the privileges of the
Polish szlachta to the Lithuanian boyars. Forty-seven heraldic clans opened
their ranks to Lithuanian members. At Czerwinsk in 1422, at Jedlno in 1430,
and at Cracow in 1433, Wladyslaw Jagiello's concern for the future of his sons
progressively overcame his resistance to 'Neminem Captivabimus'—the prin-
ciple, equivalent to the English 'Habeas Corpus', that protected a nobleman's
land and person from confiscation and arrest unless sentence had been passed
against him in a court. At Nieszawa in 1454, during the second Teutonic War,
Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk conceded that no new tax would be levied nor army
raised without the consent of the new noble dietines. At Piotrkow in 1496, in
preparation for his ill-fated expedition to Moldavia, Jan Olbracht granted the
noble monopoly of land-holding. Five years later, his brother Aleksander tried
to use the Senate as a brake on the Nobility's pretensions. By the Act of Mielnik,
he decreed that the senators were subject only to their peers. But the Sejm soon
had its revenge. The constitution of NibilNovi passed at Radom on 14 June
1505, annulled the Act of Mielnik, established the primacy of the Chamber of
Envoys over the Senate, and ruled that no new laws could be introduced with-
out the consent of both chambers. Thereafter, legislation remained firmly in the
Nobility's control. The slogan 'Nic o nas bez nas' ('Nothing concerning us with-
out us') remained the basic concept of their 'Noble Democracy'.
The legislative supremacy of the Nobility was used to wrest further advan-
tages over the rest of society. Not content with their various immunities and
with their virtual monopolies in landed property, in government, and adminis-
tration, and in central political life, they proceeded to bolster their position in
the most detailed manner. In 1496, the Sejm which had established the noble
monopoly in land, also took pains to restrict the rights of the clergy, the
burghers, and the peasants. Henceforth, all the senior appointments in the
Church were limited to noble candidates. Except in Royal Prussia, burghers
were required to sell the land which they owned. Peasants were not allowed to
leave the village for the town. From 1501 onwards, a stream of constitutions tied
the peasantry firmly to the land, and to the will of their lord. In 1518, the com-
petence of the royal courts was withdrawn from appeals between lord and peas-
ant. In 1520, the Statute of Thorn fixed labour service at one day per week per
lan, initiating a process which legalized the ever harsher conditions of serfdom.
In 1550, the Nobility was allowed to purchase houses in the cities, and to enjoy
them without paying municipal taxes, notwithstanding all local legislation to
the contrary. In 1552, during the Calvinist troubles, the competence of the eccle-
siastical courts over the Nobility in matters of religion was withdrawn. In 1563,
when the purchase of solectwa or 'village jurisdictions' was regularized, the way