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| The Polish royal election of 1573, as imagined by Jan Matejko (d. 1893) |
On UK Election Day (which on this occasion has been awaited
for the unusually long span of five full years), what do our late medieval and
Renaissance forbearers tell us about how to vote?
Although we think of it as a period of mighty monarchies, 15th
and 16th Europe was in fact full of elections and voting. The
hundreds of bishops in Latin Christendom, for example, were all elected by
their cathedral chapters: the canons would hear a solemn Mass, gather in the chapter
house and vote. If they were ‘inspired by the Holy Spirit’ (in practice meaning
if the result had been negotiated or fixed in advance) the chapter would
unanimously acclaim a single candidate. Alternatively, they could hold a ballot
(‘per scrutinium’) or appoint a subcommittee to make the decision (‘per
comprossimum’). Republics such as Florence or Venice, meanwhile, had a constant flow of elections to office, with elaborate voting procedures involving beans, silver balls, and giant urns.
The pope in Rome was of course elected, by cardinals who
were locked in the Sistine Chapel, with the Botticelli frescos and their own make-shift
beds, until they reached a majority verdict. Papal elections in the Renaissance
were characterised by the electoral capitulation – a formal list of promises
which the cardinals would make the successful candidate swear to deliver, before
formally electing him. (Not being carved in stone or enshrined in legislation, pace the UK party leaders, these were
always transgressed).
And even in monarchies, there were plentiful and often
momentous elections. The kings of Poland, Hungary, Bohemia and Sweden were
elected throughout the Renaissance period, as was the Holy Roman Emperor
himself. A Polish royal election, for example, such as that of 1492, involved
the 40 or so members of the royal council assembling at Piotrków castle with
ample numbers of armed troops, ‘conferring’ for several weeks, and only when a
successful candidate emerged as a result of those negotiations did the council proceed
to a formal oral vote, in the castle Hall. Then there were fireworks, feasting
in Kraków, and a lavish coronation.
What these varieties of 15C and 16C European elections have
in common is a conviction that all the important issues had to be thoroughly
negotiated, and agreed, by the key players before proceeding to a vote – the purpose
of which was partly ceremonial, or symbolic. In that sense, the UK 2015
election campaign – which has been characterised by negotiations and posturing between
possible allies, well in advance of the actual vote – has had something of a
Renaissance echo to it.
