Self-government of the City of Cracow in Pre-industrial Period

Abstract

The city of Cracow functioned from the times of its founding (1257) to the Constitution of 3 May 1791 on the Magdeburg Law, but the municipality also had local characteristics. In the beginning of the city’s founding, the main role was played by hereditary mayors (wójt) and courtroom juries. After Władysław the Short had confiscated the mayor’s office in 1312, as a result of a rebellion of Mayor Albert, the degradation of this body followed. From that time, the mayors performed only judicial and police function and they were dependent on city council.

This body was created shortly after the city had been founded. Initially appointed by the mayor and then by co-optation, it was the real representative of citizens. As a consequence of the rebellion of Mayor Albert, the municipality lost its entire autonomy; thereafter, the council was annually appointed by the monarch or his official, from the 15^th century – by the governor (wojewoda) of Cracow, who selected 8 councillors-in-office (rajca) while the councillors, who had been in office previously, but were not selected in that given year, formed a 16-person old council. It was a lifelong office. Only towards the end of the 17^th century the council retrieved the right to choose new councillors. The body gained a privileged position in the city, accumulating in its hands all the most important competences, including nominations for aldermen and professional officials, with a scribe and liquidator at its forefront, but also the representation of the city in external affairs. Staffed with a small group of families, it became an oligarchic institution, advocating mainly the interests of its own group to the disadvantage of the entire population who, after all the conflicts, received in the 16^th century a right to control public finances and their own representatives who became referred to as a quadragintavirate. Finally, in the second half of the 17^th century a broader representation of common people was formed – communitas – which took over the function of the quadragintavirate. These structural institutions have upheld the autonomy of the municipality and for centuries have shaped civic attitudes of the inhabitants of Cracow.