Book by an eminent historian of the eighteenth-century history of Poland-Lithuania presents the most important events of that period and provides readers with a detailed analysis of how the Constitution of 3 May – the unique political act and the first constitution in Europe - was developed and of the document itself. The book discusses also the important role of the Constitution for the subsequent generations. Richard Butterwick is Professor of Polish-Lithuanian History at University College London. He is the author of the books Poland's Last King and English Culture: Stanisław August Poniatowski 1732-1798 (1998), The Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church 1788-1792: A Political History (2012) and The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1733-1795: Light and Flame (2020).