The Seventeenth Century in Focus: Lithuanian Strategies of Parity and Distinctiveness in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Abstract

This study investigates the evolving political agency of Lithuanian elites within the seventeenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, challenging dominant historiographical narratives that often subordinate Lithuanian experiences to a broader, Poland-centric framework. It engages critically with prevailing interpretations offered by scholars such as Richard Butterwick, Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves, and Thomas Ertman, arguing that these accounts insufficiently address the institutional, cultural, and legal distinctiveness of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within the dual state. Framing its analysis around the concepts of political distinctiveness and parity, the paper explores how Lithuanian elites sought to preserve autonomous governance structures and assert equal status in the face of increasing Polish dominance. Through a close examination of two critical episodes - the Treaty of Kiejdany of 1655 and the Pacification Sejm of 1673 - this study demonstrates how Lithuanian political actors actively contested the imbalances of the union. The Kiejdany agreement is reevaluated not as an act of treason, as traditionally depicted in Polish historiography, but as a calculated assertion of Lithuanian sovereignty amid existential military threats. Similarly, the Pacification Sejm is reconsidered as a moment of intensified Lithuanian political negotiation, wherein demands for equitable parliamentary representation and monarchical presence underscored broader claims to parity within the Commonwealth. By foregrounding Lithuanian agency, this paper offers a reinterpretation of the Commonwealth as a contested and negotiated polity, rather than a monolithic Polish project. In doing so, it contributes to a more balanced understanding of early modern statehood and identity formation in East-Central Europe.