Szlachta
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The szlachta were the hereditary noble estate in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the dominating social class in the Kingdom of Polan
Szlachcic sejmik representative Tadeusz Rejtan (lower right), with szlachta republican right of ending any Senate (Sejm) session and nullifying any legislation passed (Liberum veto), defying Russian, Prussian, and Austrian autocratic might to cease legalization of the First Partition of Poland, by halting the Partition Sejm's exit from the Senate chamber on 30 September 1773, in effect proclaiming, "Murder me, not Poland." Painting by Jan Matejko, 1866
A Polish peasant in stocks in a 16th-century Polish woodcut
Lech I
Polish armor from the Battle of Orsha, 1514
Sarmatism
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Sarmatism was an ethno-cultural identity within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the dominant Baroque culture and ideology of the nobility that existed in the time from the Renaissance to th
Stanisław Antoni Szczuka in Sarmatian attire, wearing a kontusz
Sarmatian-style Karacena armor
Politically influential Elżbieta Sieniawska, in Sarmatist pose and male delia coat
Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, the most prominent nobleman of his times and a representative of Sarmatism.