Sigismund III Vasa (1587–1632) , painted by
Martin Kober Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland 1587–1632 and King of
Sweden 1592–1599. He was the son of
John III Vasa of Sweden and
Catherine, the daughter of
Sigismund I the Old of Poland. He annoyed the Polish nobles by deliberately dressing in Spanish and other Western European styles (including French hosiery). An ardent
Catholic, Sigismund III was determined to win the Swedish crown and bring Sweden back to Catholicism. Subsequently, Sigismund III involved Poland in unnecessary and unpopular
wars with Sweden during which the diet refused him money and soldiers and Sweden seized
Livonia and
Prussia. The first few years of Sigismund's reign (until 1598) saw Poland and Sweden united in a
personal union that made the
Baltic Sea an internal lake. However, a
rebellion in Sweden started the chain of events that would involve the Commonwealth in more than a century of
warfare with Sweden. The
Catholic Church embarked on an ideological counter-offensive and
Counter-Reformation claimed many converts from
Protestant circles. The
Union of Brest split the
Eastern Christians of the Commonwealth. In order to further Catholicism, the Uniate Church (acknowledging papal supremacy but following
Eastern ritual and
Slavonic liturgy) was created at the
Synod of Brest in 1596. The Uniates drew many followers away from the
Orthodox Church in the Commonwealth's eastern territories. Sigismund's attempts to introduce
absolutism, then becoming prevalent in the rest of Europe, and his goal of reacquiring the throne of Sweden for himself, resulted in a
rebellion of the szlachta (gentry). In 1607, the Polish nobility threatened to suspend the agreements with their elected king but did not attempt his overthrow. For ten years between 1619 and 1629, the Commonwealth was at its greatest geographical extent in history. In 1619, the Russo-Polish
Truce of Deulino came into effect, whereby Russia conceded Commonwealth control over
Smolensk and several other border territories. In 1629, the Swedish-Polish
Truce of Altmark took place; the Commonwealth ceded to Sweden most of Livonia, which the Swedes had invaded in 1626. Sigismund III Vasa failed to strengthen the Commonwealth or to solve its internal problems; he concentrated on futile attempts to regain his former Swedish throne.
Commonwealth wars with Sweden and Moscow ''.
Piotr Skarga (1536-1612) was a preacher and
polemicist.Sigismund’s desire to reclaim the Swedish throne drove him into prolonged
military adventures waged against Sweden under
Charles IX and later also Russia. In 1598, Sigismund tried to defeat Charles with a mixed army from Sweden and Poland, but was defeated in the
Battle of Stångebro. As the
Tsardom of Russia went through its "
Time of Troubles," Poland failed to capitalize on the situation.
Military campaigns undertaken brought Poland at times close to a conquest of Russia and the Baltic coast during the Time of Troubles and
False Dimitris, but military burden imposed by the ongoing rivalry also along other frontiers (the
Ottoman Empire and Sweden) prevented this from being accomplished. After
prolonged war with Russia, Polish forces occupied
Moscow in 1610. The office of tsar, then vacant in Russia, was offered to Sigismund's son,
Władysław. Sigismund, however, opposed his son's accession as tsar, as he hoped to obtain the Russian throne for himself. Two years later the Poles were driven out of Moscow and Poland lost an opportunity for a Polish-Russian union. Poland escaped the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which ravaged everything to the west, especially Prussia. In 1618, the
Elector of Brandenburg became hereditary ruler of the
Duchy of Prussia on the
Baltic coast. From then on, Poland's link to the Baltic Sea was bordered on both sides by two provinces of the same
German state.
Southern wars and Polish hegemony: Abdicated
Vasili IV compelled to kneel before King Sigismund III Vasa in Warsaw in 1611The Commonwealth viewed itself as the "bulwark of the
Christendom" and together with the
Habsburgs and the
Republic of Venice stood in the way of the Ottoman plans of European conquests. Since the second half of the 16th century, the Polish-Ottomans relations were worsened by the escalation of
Cossack-
Tatar border warfare, which turned the entire border region between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire into a
semi-permanent warzone. A constant threat from
Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of
Cossackdom. In 1595,
magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
intervened in the affairs of
Moldavia. This started a series of conflicts that would soon spread to
Transylvania,
Wallachia and
Hungary, when the forces of the Polish magnates clashed with the forces backed by the Ottoman Empire and occasionally the Habsburgs, all competing for the domination over that region. With the Commonwealth engaged on its northern and eastern borders with nearly constant conflicts against Sweden and Russia, its armies were spread thin. The southern wars culminated in the Polish defeat at the
Battle of Cecora in 1620. The Commonwealth was forced to renounce all claims to Moldavia, Transylvania, Wallachia and Hungary.
Religious and social tensions The population of Poland-Lithuania was neither overwhelmingly
Roman Catholic nor Polish. This circumstance resulted from the federation with the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where
East Slavic Ruthenian populations predominated. In the days of the "
Republic of Nobles", to be Polish was much less an indication of ethnicity than of rank; it was a designation largely reserved for the
landed noble class, which included members of Polish and non-Polish origin alike. Generally speaking, the ethnically non-Polish noble families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually adopted the
Polish language and
culture. As a result, in the eastern territories of the Kingdom the Polish-speaking landed nobility dominated over the peasantry, whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. Moreover, the decades of peace brought huge colonization efforts to
Ukraine, which heightened tensions between peasants,
Jews and nobles. The tensions were aggravated by the conflicts between the
Orthodox and
Greek Catholic (both
Church Slavonic liturgy) churches following the
Union of Brest and by several
Cossack uprisings. In the west and north of the country, cities had large
German minorities, often of
reformed beliefs. According to the
Risāle-yi Tatar-i Leh (an account of the
Lipka Tatars written for
Suleiman the Magnificent by an anonymous
Polish Muslim during a stay in
Istanbul in 1557–8, on his way to
Mecca) there were 100 Lipka Tatar settlements with mosques in Poland. In 1672, the Tatar subjects rose up in an
open rebellion against the Commonwealth.
Władysław IV Vasa (1632–1648) During the reign of Sigismund's son,
Władysław IV Vasa, the
Cossacks in Ukraine
revolted against Poland; wars with Russia and Turkey weakened the country; and
szlachta obtained new privileges, mainly exemption from income tax. Władysław IV aimed to achieve many military goals, including conquests of Russia, Sweden and Turkey. His reign is that of many small victories, few of them bringing anything worthwhile to the Commonwealth. He was once elected a Russian
tsar, but never had any control over Russian territories. Like his father, Władysław was involved in Swedish dynastic ambitions. He failed to strengthen the Commonwealth or prevent the crippling events of the
Khmelnytsky Uprising and the
Deluge that devastated the Commonwealth from 1648 onward.
John Casimir Vasa (1648–1668) with
Tugay Bey at
Lwów'' The reign of Władysław's brother
John Casimir, the last of the Vasas, was dominated by the culmination in the
war with Sweden, the groundwork for which was laid down by the two previous Vasa kings. In 1660, John Casimir was forced to renounce his claims to the Swedish throne and acknowledge Swedish sovereignty over
Livonia and city of
Riga. Under John Casimir, the Cossacks grew in power and
at times were able to defeat the Poles; the
Swedes occupied much of Poland, including Warsaw, the capital; and the King, abandoned or betrayed by his subjects, had to seek temporary refuge in
Silesia. As a result of the wars with the Cossacks and Russia, the Commonwealth lost
Kiev,
Smolensk, and all the areas east of the
Dnieper River by the
Treaty of Andrusovo (1667). During John Casimir's reign,
East Prussia successfully renounced its formal status as a
fief of Poland. Internally, the process of disintegration started. The nobles, making their own alliances with foreign powers, pursued independent policies; the
rebellion of
Jerzy Lubomirski shook the throne. John Casimir, a broken, disillusioned man, abdicated the Polish throne on 16 September 1668 amid internal anarchy and strife and returned to France, where he joined the
Jesuit order and became a
monk. He died in 1672.
Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1654) The
Khmelnytsky Uprising, by far the largest of the
Cossack uprisings, proved disastrous for the Commonwealth. The Cossacks, allied with the Tatars, defeated the forces of the Commonwealth in several battles, the Commonwealth scored a major victory at
Berestechko, but the Polish-Lithuanian empire ended up "fatally wounded". The easternmost parts of its territory were effectively lost to Russia, which resulted in a long-term shift in the balance of power. In the short-term the country was weakened at the moment of the
invasion by Sweden.
The Deluge (1648–1667) ,
Russia,
Brandenburg and the
Cossacks Although Poland-Lithuania was unaffected by the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the following two decades subjected the nation to one of its worst trials ever. This colorful but ruinous interval, the stuff of legend and popular historical novels of
Nobel laureate
Henryk Sienkiewicz, became known as
potop, or the
Deluge, for the magnitude and suddenness of its hardships. The emergency began when the
Ukrainian Cossacks rose in revolt and declared an independent state based in the vicinity of
Kiev, allied with the
Crimean Tatars and the Ottoman Empire. Their leader
Bohdan Khmelnytsky defeated Polish armies in
1648 and
1652, and after the Cossacks concluded the
Treaty of Pereyaslav with Russia in 1654, Tsar
Alexis overran the entire eastern part of the Commonwealth (Ukraine) to
Lwów (Lviv). Taking advantage of Poland's preoccupation in the east and weakness,
Charles X Gustav of Sweden intervened. Most of the Polish nobility along with the Polish
vassal Frederick William of
Brandenburg-Prussia agreed to recognize him as king after he promised to drive out the Russians. However, the Swedish troops embarked on an orgy of looting and destruction, which caused the Polish populace to rise up in revolt. The Swedes overran the remainder of Poland except for Lwów and
Danzig (Gdańsk). Poland-Lithuania rallied to recover most of its losses from the Swedes. In exchange for breaking the alliance with Sweden, Frederick William, the ruler of
Ducal Prussia, was released from his vassalage and became a
de facto independent sovereign, while much of the Polish
Protestant nobility went over to the side of the Swedes. Under Hetman
Stefan Czarniecki, the Poles and Lithuanians had driven the Swedes from the Commonwealth's territory by 1657. The armies of Frederick William intervened and were also defeated. Frederick William's rule over
East Prussia was
recognized, although Poland retained the right of succession until 1773. (dark green) forever changed the balance of power in Eastern Europe The
thirteen-year struggle over control of Ukraine included an
attempted formal union of Ukraine with the Commonwealth as an equal partner (1658) and Polish military successes in 1660–1662. This was not enough to keep eastern Ukraine. Under the pressure of continuing Ukrainian unrest and the threat of a
Turkish-Tatar intervention, the Commonwealth and Russia signed in 1667 an
agreement in the village of Andrusovo near
Smolensk, according to which eastern Ukraine (left bank of the
Dnieper River) now belonged to Russia. Kiev was also leased to Russia for two years, but never returned and eventually Poland recognized Russian control of the city. The
potop wars episode inflicted irremediable damage and contributed heavily to the ultimate demise of the state. Held responsible for the greatest disaster in Polish history, John Casimir abdicated in 1668. The population of the Commonwealth had been reduced by a staggering 1/3, by military casualties, slave raids, plague epidemics, and mass murders of civilians. Most of Poland's cities were reduced to rubble, and the nation's economic base was decimated. The war had been paid for by large-scale minting of worthless currency, causing runaway inflation. Religious feelings had also been inflamed by the conflict, ending tolerance of non-Catholic beliefs. Henceforth, the Commonwealth would be on the strategic defensive facing hostile and increasingly more powerful neighbors.
Commonwealth after the Deluge In the
Treaty of Oliva in 1660, John Casimir finally renounced his claims to the Swedish crown, which ended the feud between Sweden and the Commonwealth and the accompanying string of wars between those countries (
War against Sigismund (1598–1599),
Polish–Swedish wars (1600–1629) and the
Northern War (1655–1660)). After the
Truce of Andrusovo of 1667 and the
Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686, the Commonwealth lost
left-bank Ukraine to Russia.
Polish culture and the
Uniate East Slavic Greek Catholic Church gradually advanced. By the 18th century, the populations of
Ducal Prussia and
Royal Prussia were a mixture of Catholics and Protestants and used both the German and Polish languages. The rest of Poland and most of Lithuania remained overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, while Ukraine and some parts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (
Belarus) were
Greek Orthodox and
Greek Catholic (both
Church Slavonic liturgy). The society consisted of the upper stratum (8% nobles, 1% clergy), townspeople and the peasant majority. Various nationalities/ethnicities or linguistic groups were present, including Poles, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Armenians and Tatars, among others. ==Native kings; wars with the Ottoman Empire==