Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/306

Rh 294 POLAND [HISTORY. Sigis- nuuid 1632) The new king signed the pacta conventa, and an alliance offensive and defensive between Poland and Sweden ; the navigation of the Baltic was secured, and the debts of the nation were to be discharged. Sigismund, however, soon became unpopular among his new subjects, and among other causes of offence he violated the pacta conventa by marrying an Austrian princess, Anne, daughter of the archduke Charles, without their consent. In 1595, at Brzesc in Lithuania, took place the so-called union of the Greek and Latin Churches, but this union was not brought about without considerable violence. The disputes between the king and the diet were destined to be renewed when (his wife being dead) he married her sister Constantia in 1605. This union was also entered into without the con sent of his subjects, and caused the cup of their wrath, already full, to overflow. On this occasion Jan Zamoiski, the chancellor already mentioned, addressed a vehement oration to the king, which is quoted at full length by Lelewel, in which he brought his marriage against him among many other charges. When Zamoiski had finished, Sigismund rose from his throne in a moment of anger and seized his sword. At this gesture a murmur of indignation ran through the diet, and Zamoiski cried in the midst of the crowd, &quot; Rex, ne move gladium ; ne te Caium Caesarem, nos Brutos sera posteritas loquatur. Sumus electores regum, destructores tyrannorum ; regna, sed ne impera.&quot; A great rokosz or secession, as the phrase was in Polish, was the result of this. But the rebels wanted able leaders, and the king defeated them at Guzow, near Radom, on the 6th July 1607, and thus his throne, already tottering, seemed to become a little stronger. He pardoned the insurgents ; and the country, on the verge of civil war, seemed pacified ; but the rebellion was a fatal precedent. The most important events in this reign were the transac tions which took place between Poland and Russia. The renegade monk Otrepieff personated the young Dmitri of Russia, who had been assassinated, probably by the orders of Boris Godounoff, and aspired to seat himself upon the throne of the czars. This wonderful plot was concocted at Cracow, and seems to have been a plan of the Jesuits to bring over the Russians to the Latin Church. 1 In 1606 the pretender was killed in a tumult, and many of the Poles who had accompanied him to Moscow were murdered. In 1G17 Sigismund sent his son Wtadystaw to Moscow, which had been taken by the Polish general Zolkiewski. Wtadystaw was elected czar by a certain faction ; but the Russians, disliking to have a heretic for their emperor, rose against the newly appointed sovereign ; and the patriotism which was lacking to the boyars was found in the unselfish devotion of a provincial butcher. Russia was freed, and a new dynasty was established in the person of Michael Romanoff. Sigismund had many wars with the Turks, which led to no very important results ; the great victory, however, of Chodkiewicz at Khotin (September 28, 1622) has become ever memorable in Polish annals, and has formed the subject of several poems. Lengnich, in his Jus Publicum Regni Poloni, tells us that in 1632 the Cossacks petitioned to be allowed to take part in the diets. Their request was refused in an insulting manner ; and the Poles had soon to pay dear for their insolence. Sigismund died in 1632 ; his statue still ornaments the city of Warsaw, which he made the capital in the place of Cracow. He was unceasing in his efforts to extirpate Protestantism from his dominions. The luxury of the nobles at this period has been described at great length by Lelewel. He has also much to tell us about the small armies of retainers kept up by the Poles, which it is a pity there was no statute of 1 See, however, Rome et Demetrius, by A. P. Pierling, S.J. (Paris, 1878), for the contrary view. maintenance, as in England, to check. These private troops, however much bravery they may have occasionally shown, prevented all unity of action. The reign of Sigismund III. was on many grounds a disastrous one for Poland, and it was a very long one. There were constant military revolts and religious tumults. The king and his Austrian wife were so foolish as to be partly drawn into the Thirty Years War. They thought that, supported by the emperor and the king of Spain, they might be able lo regain the crown of Sweden. They therefore permitted the emperor to enrol troops in Poland, and even sent him some regiments of Cossacks ; they also got ready a fleet in the Baltic strange as it may seem to hear of Poland as a naval power. All these plans, however, ended miserably. By the treaty of Malborg (Marienburg), in 1623, Sweden gained Livonia, Elbing, and part of Prussia. He was succeeded by his son Wtadystaw IV., who was Wtady elected by the diet. During his reign the usual wars took *aw place with the ancient enemies of the republic, the Swedes, Russians, and Turks. Before its close the revolt of Bogdan Chmielnicki had broken out, which cost Poland her Cossack subjects, who had been so happily gained over by the more vigorous policy of Batory. The Zapor- ogians, or Cossacks of the Dnieper, now transferred their allegiance to Alexis of Russia. They had long felt uncomfortable under the Polish government owing to the proselytizing tendencies of the bigoted Sigismund HI. Fresh alarms were caused by the erection of the fortress of Kudak on the Dnieper, and they broke out into open rebellion. In 1638 they were deprived of the right of having a hetman ; and Pawluk, their chief, was decapitated in spite of an express promise that his life should be spared. Wtadystaw was in constant collision with his nobles. He fretted under the restrictions placed upon his power, and attempted to carry on wars without the con sent of the diet. But the nobles compelled him to break all his engagements. He died at Merecz in Lithuania, between Grodno and Vilna, May 20, 1648, and was suc ceeded by his brother John Casimir (Jan Kazimie rz), the John other candidates being the czar Alexis, father of Peter the Great, and Ragotzi, prince of Transylvania, One of the first acts of the new king was to endeavour to negotiate with Bogdan, but the negotiations were brought to an abrupt termination by the treachery of Wisniowiecki, the Polish general, who fell upon the unsuspecting Cossacks while they were deliberating about the terms of the con vention. After this massacre Bogdan raised another army, but was completely defeated by John Casimir at Beresteczko in 1651. The kingdom, however, was thrown into the greatest confusion by the disputes of the nobles, and all vigorous action was paralysed. The blood-stained annals of these wars are full of horrors : the population in many districts was entirely extirpated ; everywhere murder and plunder were rampant ; and tortures too hor rible to mention were inflicted upon the unhappy prisoners. At a diet held in 1652 a single nuntius for the first time annulled by his liberum veto the united resolutions of the whole assembly, Sicinski, from Upita in Lithuania, stop- oeto - ping the diet with the simple word &quot; niepozwalam &quot; (I forbid). As soon as he had uttered this ominous protest he quitted the assembly. Those who were present were puzzled as to what construction they ought to put upon such a proceeding, but Sicinski had not acted without con federates on whom he could rely. An angry debate ensuu d, but the principle was finally carried by a majority and firmly established. Ruptures of this kind became more frequent, as Lelewel tells us, and the queen Louise Marie, who had great influence over the king, frequently made use of them. Lengnich, in his Jus Publicum Regni Poloni (1742), enu merates thirteen occasions on which this baleful practice