in number, according to the calculations of historians, upwards of
200,000 fighting men. The brave Hungarians, heretofore the bulwark of
Austria against the Ottoman, but now alienated by oppression and
misgovernment, revolted under the celebrated Tekeli, and opened a way
into the heart of the Austrian empire. Kara Mustapha commanded the
immense army destined by the Porte for this warfare, and for once he
showed judgment and decision in neglecting small objects and pushing
forward at once to Vienna. Leopold fled in haste with his court: the
Imperial General, the brave Charles of Lorraine, threw in part of his
small army to reinforce the garrison, but was unable to oppose the
progress of the besiegers. The trenches were opened July 14, and the
heavy artillery of the Turks crumbled the weak ramparts, and carried
destruction into the interior of the city. Unhappy is the country which
trusts to foreign aid in such a strait! The German princes had not yet
brought up their contingents; and even Sobieski, the last man to delay
in such a cause, could not collect his army fast enough to meet the
pressing need of the occasion. Letter reached him after letter,
entreating that he would at least bring the terror of his name and
profound military skill to the relief of Austria; and he set off to
traverse Moravia with an escort of only two thousand horse, leaving the
Grand General Jablonowski to bring up the army with the utmost speed.
After all, the Polish troops reached Tuln, on the Danube, the place of
rendezvous, before the Bavarians, Saxons, and other German auxiliaries
were collected. September 7, the whole army was assembled, in number
about 74,000. Vienna was already in the utmost distress. Stahremberg,
the brave commandant, had written to the Duke of Lorraine a letter,
containing only these pithy words, “No more time to lose, my Lord; no
more time to lose.” Incapable of resisting with its enfeebled garrison a
general assault, the place must have fallen but for the avarice and
stupid pride of Mustapha, who thought that the imperial capital must
contain immense treasures, which he was loth to give up to
indiscriminate plunder; and never dreamed that any one would be hardy
enough to contest the prize with his multitudes before it fell into his
hands from mere exhaustion. There was indeed no more time to lose: it
was calculated on August 22, that Vienna could only hold out three days
against a general assault; and September 9 arrived before the Christian
army moved from Tuln. Five leagues of mountain road still separated it
from Vienna, in any part of which its progress might have been stopped
by such a detachment as the immense Turkish army might well have spared.
The battle of deliverance, fought September 12, 1683, was short and
decisive: the Turks were disgusted and disheartened by their general’s
misconduct. Sobieski was not expected to command in person; but the
Tartars had seen him lead his cavalry to the charge too often to
overlook the signs which marked his presence, and the knowledge of it
sunk their hearts still more. “Allah!” said the brave Khan of the
Tartars, as he pointed out to the Visir the pennoned lances of the
Polish Horse Guards, “Allah! but the wizard is amongst them, sure
enough.” The Visir attempted to atone by courage for his past errors,
but despair or disaffection had seized on soldiers and officers. Even
the veteran Tartar chief replied to his entreaties,—“The Polish king is
there. I know him well. Did I not tell you that all we had to do was to
get away as fast as possible?” The Polish cavalry pushed forward to the
Visir’s tent, and cut their way through the Spahis, who alone disputed
the victory; and with the capture of their great standard the
consternation and confusion of the Turks became final and complete.
Entering Vienna the next day, Sobieski was received with an enthusiasm
little pleasant to the jealous temper of the Emperor, who manifested his
incurable meanness of disposition, not only in his cold reception and
ungracious thanks of the deliverer of his kingdom, but in the
ingratitude and perfidy of all his subsequent conduct.
Whether from pure love of beating the Turks, or from a false hope that
Leopold might be induced to perform his promises, Sobieski, contrary to
the wishes of the Republic, pursued the flying enemy into Hungary. Near
Gran, on the Danube, he met with a severe check, in which his own life
had nearly been sacrificed to the desire of showing the Imperialists
that he could conquer without their help. This he acknowledged after his
junction with the Duke of Lorraine. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I confess I
wanted to conquer without you, for the honour of my own nation. I have
suffered severely for it, being soundly beat; but I will take my revenge
both with you and for you. To effect this must be the chief object of
our thoughts.” The disgrace was soon wiped off by a decisive victory
gained nearly on the same spot. Gran capitulated, and the king led his
army back to Poland in the month of December.
The glory of this celebrated campaign fell to Poland, the profit accrued
to Austria. Kaminiec was still in the possession of Turkey, and
continued so during the whole reign of Sobieski: not from want of
effort, for the recovery of that important fortress was the leading
object of the campaigns of 1684, 5, and 7; but the Polish army was
better suited for the open field than for the tedious and expensive
process of a siege. In 1686, Leopold, apprehensive lest Sobieski should
break off an alliance distasteful to his subjects and unsatisfactory to
himself, (for the Emperor had broken every promise and failed in every
inducement which he had held out to the Polish sovereign,) threw out
another bait, which succeeded better than the duplicity and ingratitude
of the contriver deserved. He suggested the idea of wresting from the
Turks Moldavia and Wallachia, to be held as an independent and
hereditary kingdom by Sobieski and his family, and promised a body of
troops to assist in the undertaking. The great object of Sobieski’s
ambition, by pursuing which he lost much of his popularity and incurred
just censure, as aiming at an unconstitutional object by
unconstitutional means, was to hand the crown of Poland to his son at
his own decease, and render it, if possible, hereditary in his family.
The possession of the above-named provinces was most desirable as a step
to this; or, if this wish were still frustrated, it was yet desirable as
placing his posterity among the royal houses of Europe: and with a
preference of private to public interest, which is not less censurable
for being common, he rejected an offer made by Mahomet to restore
Kaminiec, and to pay a large sum to indemnify Poland for the expenses of
the war, that he might pursue his favourite scheme of family
aggrandizement. Satisfied, however, with having engaged him in this new
diversion of the Turkish power, Leopold had not the smallest intention
of sending the promised troops; and the King of Poland was involved in
great danger from their non-appearance at the expected place. This
campaign, however, was so far satisfactory, that Moldavia yielded
without resistance or bloodshed; a second and a third expedition,
undertaken in 1688 and 1691, to consolidate and extend this conquest,
were unsuccessful, and the sovereignty soon passed back into the hands
of Turkey. The campaign of 1691 was the last in which Sobieski appeared
in the field.
The reader will see from this brief account that he added few laurels,
after the campaign of Vienna, to those by which his brows were so
profusely garlanded. Indeed he scarcely deserved to do so; for great and
disinterested as his conduct often was, in this juncture he sacrificed
national to family interests, and consumed the blood and riches of his
countrymen in a needless and fruitless war.
Sobieski’s internal policy has little to recommend it, or to exalt his
fame. Devoted to his wife, who proved herself unworthy his affection by
the most harassing demands upon his time and attention, and still more
by a pertinacious, unwise, and unconstitutional interference in state
affairs, which had not even the excuse of being well directed, but was
continually employed to promote private interests, to gratify private
prejudices, and, ultimately, at once to violate the laws and sow
dissension in her own family by securing the crown of Poland to her own
son, and choosing a younger in preference to the elder branch, the king
lowered his popularity and reputation by thus weakly yielding to an
unworthy influence, and, as the natural consequence, he was continually
thwarted by a harassing and often factious opposition. Civil discord,
family quarrels, and the infirmities of a body worn out prematurely by
unsparing exposure for more than forty years to the toils of war,
combined to embitter the decline of his life. In the five years which
elapsed from Sobieski’s last campaign to his death, the history of
Poland records much of unprincipled intriguing, much personal
ingratitude, and some upright opposition to his measures, but nothing of
material importance to his personal history. He died June 17, 1696, on
the double anniversary, it is said, of his birth and his accession to
the throne; and by another singular coincidence, his birth and death
were alike heralded by storms of unusual violence.
The character of Sobieski is one of great brilliancy and considerable
faults. As a subject, he displayed genuine, disinterested patriotism; as
a king, the welfare of his family seems to have been dearer to him than
that of his country. Nor did his domestic government display the vigour
and decision which we might reasonably have expected from his powerful
mind. But his justice was unimpeachable; he was temperate, and
unrevengeful even when personally affronted, which often happened in the
tumultuous Diets of Poland; and, in a bigoted age, he displayed the
virtue of toleration. The constant labours of an active life did not
choke his literary taste, and his literary attainments were
considerable; he spoke several languages, aspired to be a poet, and
loved the company of learned men. He was remarkable for the suavity of
his temper and the charms of his conversation. Such a character, though
far from perfection, is entitled to the epithet GREAT, which he won and
enjoyed; and, as a soldier, he has a claim to our gratitude, which not
every soldier possesses. His warfare was almost uniformly waged against
an aggressive and barbarian power, which, in the utmost need of
Christian Europe, he stood forward to resist, and finally broke. Like
other nations, Turkey has had its alternations of success and loss; but
never, since the campaign of Vienna, have the arms of the East
threatened the repose of Europe.
The history of Sobieski’s life and reign is told at large in the works
of his countryman Zaluski; in the Life by the Abbé Coyer, of which there
is an English translation; and in a recent publication by M. Salvandy.
The same writer has republished a most interesting collection of
Letters, written by Sobieski to his queen during the campaign of Vienna,
printed for the first time in Poland about ten years ago.
[Illustration]
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Changed “General Keith” to “Governor Keith” on p. 78.
2. Changed “well worthy attention” to “well worth attention” on p. 119.
3. Changed “Geographie” to “Géographie” on p. 140.
4. Silently corrected typographical errors.
5. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
7. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript
character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.