Poland Deluged

	Poland in the Seventeenth Century
The Polish rider (Rembrandt)

Sigismund III (1587-1632)

Sigismund III (Zygmund) was a member of the House of Vasa - Sweden's ruling family and had reigned in Sweden from 1592 until 1599 when he was deposed for his attempts to reintroduce Catholicism. A patron of the Jesuits, Sigismund embraced the Catholic cause in Poland just as enthusiastically. He allied with the Hapsburgs, marrying Anne of Austria, sister of Ferdinand II (and then their sister subsequent to his first wife's death).

"Three T's make up our King: Taciturnity, Tardiness and Tenacity"
(The Polish verdict on Sigismund III).

In 1598, with the help of his Polish subjects, Sigismund invaded Sweden in an attempt to overthrow Charles and regain the throne, but was defeated.

In 1600, Charles retaliated by invading the Polish province of Livonia. The Poles fought back, re-conquering Livonia and defeating the Swedes in a series of battles.

The expense of Sigismund's war, his "incestuous" marriage to Constance (his dead wife's sister) and a series of proposals to expand central government combined to make Sigismund widely unpopular. In 1606, dissident nobles led by Mikolaj Zebrzydowski raised a Roskosz (rebellion) against him. Sigismund cleverly responded with studied moderation, conceding the demands of Orthodox rebels so as to isolate the Protestants. When Zebrzydowski called outright for Sigismund's deposition, the magnates rallied to his support, and the rebels' force dissolved in disorder before a magnate army.

Sigismund treated the rebels with great moderation, and in 1609 the Sejm pardoned them and reiterated the right of nobles to resist royal excesses. Any constitutional moves that would strengthen central power foundered.

In 1609, Sigismund's ambitions turned to Russia, where various Polish nobles who had supported the claim of the False Dmitrii to the Russian throne were already fighting. Provoked by Swedish intervention in Russia, Sigismund invaded (September 1609), besieged Smolensk and occupied Moscow.

Sigismund's attempts to make first his son, Wlasdislaw, and then himself Tsar provoked a fiercely nationalist response from Russia. The Polish people were content with having gained Smolensk (June 1611) and stopped voting taxes to support the incursion.

"This left the Polish garrisons in Muscovy in a most awkward position, since the forces of the national movement had them under siege. First they ate grass and offal, then they ate each other, and the survivors finally surrendered. The Moscow Kremlin fell on 6 November 1612"
(Parker).

Despite these setbacks, Sigismund continued to nurse the ambition that Wladislaw might become Tsar.

Sigismund's armies had mixed success against the Turks. Sigismund had tried to help his Hapsburg allies against the Transylvanian Prince, Bethlen Gabor, who responded by conspiring with the Ottomans to attack Poland. The Turks were initially successful defeating the unprepared Poles at Cecora (1620)

A seventeenth century Hetman

In 1621 it seemed Ottoman success would be repeated, when 65,000 Poles and Cossacks were surrounded at Chocim (Khozim) by almost 200,000 Turks.

Heroically led by the aging Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (1560-1621), who died soon after, the Poles fought to their last barrel of gunpowder and finally turned the tide with a desperate cavalry attack on their besiegers.

The Battle of Chocim was commemorated in an epic poem by Waclaw Potocki, Wojna chocimska (The War of Chocim).

Wladyslaw IV (1632-48)

Sigismund's son Wladyslaw (Ladislaus) IV (1595-1648) was less religious than his father. He eased restrictions on Orthodox Poles granting them religious liberty at his Coronation Diet, and recognizing their bishoprics.
Wladislaw also made peace with Russia (June 1634), abandoning all claim to be Tsar of Russia.

Wladislaw IV had been elected king unanimously in thirty minutes, and he wanted to keep the nobles on his side. He planned to increase his power by transforming the Cossacks into an effective army, defeating the Tatars, and leading a crusade to recapture Constantinople from the Turks.
Turning these pipe dreams into practice was not easy.

The Polish nobility were all in favor of "registering" some Cossacks as regular soldiers whilst reducing the rest to serfdom, but the Cossacks themselves (many of whom had fled serfdom) resisted all attempts to register only some of their number.

The Orthodox Cossacks were also very suspicious of Catholics. They wanted to plunder Tatar wealth on the Black Sea, not mount a campaign to bring Moldavia and the Crimea under Polish control.

Wladislaw needed the consent of the Sejm to attack the Turks, but in 1647 it refused to consent and demanded the demobilization of the Cossack army that Wladislaw had been preparing.

Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1595-1657) (Polish Bohdan Chmielnicki , Russian Bogdan Khmelnitsky) was born into a wealthy Cossack family. He was Orthodox but received some of his education from the Jesuits. Captured at the Battle of Cecora, he was imprisoned in Constantinople for two years where he learnt Turkish. Denied justice when his son was killed in a local feud, he fled to the Zaporozhian Cossacks and was elected hetman in 1648.

The Cossacks had been disappointed by the Polish government's refusal to carry through on the plan to attack the Tatars, and so were receptive to Khmelnitsky's scheme to ally with the Tatars and attack the Poles instead.

May 1648, Polish forces were twice defeated by a joint Zaporozhian-Tatar army - joined in the second battle by many "registered" Polish Cossacks. Later the same month (16 May) Wladislaw (who had been personally liked by many Cossacks) suddenly died.

The Deluge (Potop)

John II Casimir (1648-68)

John Casimir (1609-72) (Polish Jan Kazimierz) had fought with Hapsburgs against France and spent the years 1638-40 imprisoned by the French. He married Marie Louise de Gonzague-Nevers, his brother's widow (May 1649).

Janusz Radziwill

Casimir was despised by some magnates including Jerzy Lubomirski and the Radziwills - Janusz and Boguslaw.
In 1652, Janusz Radziwill used his liberum veto to bring government to a halt. He soon moved from disruption to treason - conspiring with the Swedes to divide Lithuania from Poland and himself become King of Lithuania.

John Casimir's first problem was the Cossack rebellion, and in the summer of 1651 the Poles managed to defeat the Cossacks in heavy fighting (partly because the utterly unreliable Tatars had changed sides again, bribed by Casimir).

Khmelnytsky looked around for allies and found a number - Janus Radziwill and George II Rákózi of Transylvania were both eager to profit from Poland's problems. However, it was the Russians' intervention in support of the Cossacks that was most important.

The Russians invaded Lithuania in 1654. This deeply alarmed Sweden, who feared that the security of its territories on the Baltic Coast would be undermined if the Russians seized Smolensk. In 1655, the armies of Charles X of Sweden invaded Poland.

The Swedish were initially very successful - occupying Krakow (Cracow) , Sandomierz and Warsaw. Radziwill and other magnates transferred their allegiance to Charles. In 1657, George of Transylvania invaded in fulfillment of his alliance with Charles X.

Then the tide turned. Denmark attacked Sweden, and Charles X had to withdraw most of his troops to deal with the threat. The Dutch - fearful of a Swedish stranglehold on the Gdansk trade that was so important to their economy - allied with Poland. A Dutch fleet was sent to raise the blockade of Gdansk. The Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia attacked Swedish troops in Western Pomerania. The withdrawal of Sweden compelled George Rákózi to retreat south and then surrender.

Furthermore in 1657, Khmelnytsky the Cossacks' inspirational leader, died. Their new Hetman, Ivan Vyhovs'kyi, concluded an agreement with the Poles called the Union of Hadiach. It guaranteed the rights of Ukrainian noblemen within Poland, but not of most Cossacks and they refused to accept it. The Russians saw it as a betrayal of the Pereyaslav (Pereiaslaw) Agreement and attacked Vyhovs'kyi's Polish-Tatar-Cossack force. A stalemate resulted between Russian and Polish forces that was finally resolved in the Truce of Andrusovo (1667).

In 1660 the Peace of Oliva was concluded between Poland, Sweden, and the United Provinces The Dutch gained free passage through the Baltic Sound. John Casimir abandoned his claim to the throne of Sweden.

Poland did not have peace for long. In 1666, angered by the attempts of Casimir and his wife to guarantee their control of the army and of the succession to the throne, Jerzy Lubomirski mounted a new Rokosz against the crown. (Lubomirski was hand-in-glove with the Hapsburgs, who resented French influence operating through Marie Louise de Gonzague-Nevers).

Worn out and receiving little support, John Casimir abdicated (16 September 1668) and retired to France.

Jérémi Wisniowiecki

Michael (1669-73)

Michael (Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki, 1640-73) was the son of Jérémi Wisniowiecki - a wealthy magnate who had led the Poles to many success against the Cossacks. Michael was not cut from the same cloth.

"His only accomplishment was that he could speak eight languages, but he had nothing intelligent to say in any of them, and he quickly settled down to a minimum of ruling"
(Zamoyski).

Michael's election had marked the triumph of those who wanted a purely Polish candidate over the French and Hapsburg factions. But Michael promptly married Eleonora of Hapsburg, sister of the Emperor Leopold. However, he did not rule in the Hapsburg interest or anyone else's.

Kamieniec Podolski

The Turks invaded in 1672, captured the important fortress of Kamieniec Podolski and turned its cathedral into a mosque. Michael's envoys capitulated to the Turks at Buczacz, signing away the remaining Polish-held Ukraine and agreeing to pay tribute to the sultan.

"[Michael] exercised no control over the magnates, the Army, the Turks, his wife, or the Nuncio. It is very difficult to learn how exactly he occupied his mind. He died on 10 November 1673 from a surfeit of gherkins, presumably in his prime"
(Davies).

John III Sobieski (1674-96)

	John (Jan) Sobieski (1629-96) had been Grand Hetman (Commander in Chief) of Poland since 1668. On the day after Michael's death, Sobieski inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turks at Chocim.
	Sobieski returned in triumph to Warsaw during the electoral Sejm and was acclaimed king.
	In 1665, Sobieski had married Marie-Casimire de la Grange d'Arquien, called by him "Marysienka" as a term of endearment. He spent much of his life away campaigning against Turks and Tatars, but corresponded regularly in long, affectionate letters, packed with historical information. [Unfortunately, her replies have not been preserved].

The palace of Wilanow, constructed for Jan Sobieski, 1681-86.

Wilanow

Jan Sobieski's maternal grandfather and his brother were both beheaded on the battlefield by Tatars, and his uncle died in Tatar captivity. Sobieski was never at any risk of underestimating the Ottoman Empire. Soon after his accession he reorganized the army, but initially adopted a pro-French, anti-Hapsburg policy that required compromise with the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Zórawno (Zurawno) of October 1676 conceded most of the Turkish territorial gains granted in the Treaty of Buczacz, but Polish slaves were released and tribute payments stopped.

Sobieski soon grew tired of his alliance with Louis XIV: - the French promised much but delivered little and expected Poland to be a compliant anti-Hapsburg client.

Sobieski's march

Sobieski allied with Leopold against the Turks (April 1683) and despite French protests, led an army to assist Vienna against the Ottomans laying siege to it.

For a brief interval Sobieski was the hero of Europe, but he received few practical benefits from the victory. Noble dissension (including a faction around Sobieski's own son, Jacob) prevented any real exploitation of Turkish weakness. Southeastern Poland was less vulnerable to Tatar and Turkish attacks, but Sobieski schemes to seize Moldavia and Walachia failed.

The final years of Sobieski's reign were marked by magnate disorder (especially in Lithuania), disruption of Sejms by the liberum veto, and his failure to engineer any sort of structural reform in Polish government.

In the eighteenth century Poland gradually descended into anarchy and was carved up between neighboring states.