Constitution

Poland 1791 Constitution

IX. Regency

The council of Guardians shall be also a Regency, headed by the Queen, or in her absence by the Primate. A Regency may have place in only three cases: primo, during the King’s minority; secundo, during an infirmity causing permanent mental alienation; tertio, in the event that the King be taken in war. Minority shall last only until 18 years of age; and infirmity respecting permanent mental alienation shall not be declared except by a ready Sejm, by majority vote of three parts against the fourth of the conjoint Chambers. In these three cases, the Primate of the Polish Crown shall immediately convoke the Sejm, and if the Primate be slow in this obligation, the Marshal of the Sejm shall issue circular letters to the Deputies and Senators. The ready Sejm shall arrange the order of seating of the ministers in the Regency and shall empower the Queen to take the place of the King in his duties. And when the King in the first case emerge from minority, in the second come to complete health, in the third return from captivity, the Regency shall tender him account of its deeds and answer to the nation for the time of its office, even as is prescribed of the council of Guardians at every ordinary Sejm, in their own persons and property.

X. The Education of Royal Sons

Royal sons, whom the Constitution destines for succession to the throne, are the first sons of the nation, wherefore attention to their good education is a concern of the nation, without prejudice, however, to parental rights. Under the government of the King, the King himself, together with the Guardianship and with a supervisor of the education of the King’s sons designated by the estates, shall see to their education. Under the government of a Regency, the Regency, together with the afore-mentioned supervisor, shall have the education of the Kings’s sons entrusted to them. In either case, the supervisor designated by the estates shall inform every ordinary Sejm about the education and conduct of the royal sons. It shall be a duty of the Educational Commission to submit a scheme of instruction and education of the royal sons for confirmation by the Sejm, so that in their education uniform rules continually and early instill in the minds of future Successors to the Throne religion and love of virtue, country, liberty and the national constitution.