Poland adopts Europe's first modern written national constitution
On this day · 3 May 1791
In a single dramatic session, the Great Sejm passed a charter that made Poland-Lithuania Europe's first to enshrine modern constitutional rule.
On May 3, 1791, the Great Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth adopted the Government Act — a written constitution that made the Commonwealth Europe’s first, and the world’s second after the United States, to pass such a basic law.
Drafted partly by King Stanisław August and steeped in Enlightenment thinking, it introduced a separation of powers, strengthened the monarchy, extended rights to townspeople, and abolished the liberum veto — the rule that had let any single deputy torpedo all legislation.
The vote itself was nearly a coup. Reformers opened debate days early, while many opponents were still away on Easter recess, with the royal guard posted around Warsaw’s Royal Castle to keep order.
The constitution survived barely 19 months before being annulled under foreign pressure.
Its brief life did not dim its legacy: May 3 remains a Polish national holiday.
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