of the preceding year by wasting time in small sieges, and it
was not till he received a threatening message from Köprili that
he began to advance upon the Polish force covering Leopol, which
hardly amounted to 15,000 men. No exertions on the part of the
king could awaken Poland to a sense of its danger. Servitude had
numbed the senses of the peasants, and the nobles were wearied
with the length of the war. Ibrahim seemed unwilling to trust his
fortune against that of Sobieski. Sitting down before Trembowla,
a strong fortress in Podolia, he sent on the Tartar Noureddin
with 40,000 men “to bring the king before him dead or alive.”
♦Battle of Leopol.♦ It was late in August when this
detachment[63]--the flower of the Turkish army--arrived at
Leopol, and began to burn the suburbs. The Poles besought the
king to retire, and not risk his life in so deadly a combat.
“You would despise me,” said he, “if I were to follow your
advice.” The ground in the vicinity was undulating and covered
with vineyards, and John carefully made his dispositions in
order to conceal from the enemy the smallness of his force. He
planted several hills, which he could not occupy, with the spare
lances of his hussars, and concealed squadrons in the valleys
near the point of attack. Then, on the 24th of August, amidst
a storm of snow and hail which beat in the faces of the enemy,
he suddenly charged the infidels at the head of 5,000 cavalry,
repeating thrice the name of Jesus. The impetuous bravery of the
Poles spread terror in the Turkish ranks, and before nightfall
the whole force, though at least eight times the number of their
assailants, had fled in disorder. The storm was so unusual
for the time of year that contemporary memoirs speak of it as
miraculous; and it appears that this battle, more than any other,
contributed to cause the superstitious fear with which the
Turkish troops subsequently regarded John Sobieski.
♦Siege of Trembowla.♦ Ibrahim was dismayed at the king’s success.
He had captured the position of Podhaic, but he could not reduce
the garrison of Trembowla, commanded by Chrasonowski, a man
of determined courage. He now redoubled his assault upon that
place, which must have fallen but for the arrival of John with
the Polish army. The king posted his troops to advantage and
prepared for the attack; but during the night (Oct. 6th) Ibrahim
intercepted a letter to the besieged, which informed him that
the king in person was at the head of the Poles. ♦Retreat of
the Turks.♦ He at once raised the siege, and without striking
a blow retreated precipitately to Kaminiec, and thence across
the Danube. John would have pursued him beyond the outskirts of
Podolia, but the Polish vanguard, dreading a winter’s campaign in
the enemy’s country, set fire to the bridges, and compelled their
king to suspend his march.
♦Return of the king.♦ The whole country clamoured for his
return, and the Diet was impatient to return thanks to its
deliverer. The Vice-chancellor declared in the Senate that the
king moved like a tortoise towards the throne, but like an
eagle towards the enemies of the republic. He was now ready to
gratify the general wish, and returning to Zolkiew received a
number of foreign ambassadors sent to congratulate him upon his
election,--among them Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester,[64]
whom Dr. South was attending as domestic chaplain. The French
ambassador solicited John’s alliance against Brandenburg and the
empire, and held out hopes of persuading the Turks to make peace.
But the king deferred all fresh engagements for the present; his
grand aim in life was to save Poland from the Ottoman grasp.
Cracow was, as usual, the scene of the coronation, which was
fixed for the 2nd of February (1676). ♦Burial of the two last
kings.♦ Two days earlier, according to the Polish custom, John
followed to the grave the body of Michael, and the interest of
the ceremony was deepened on this occasion by the obsequies of
Casimir. The ex-king had died three years before, of grief, it
was said, at the fall of Kaminiec.[65] The reigns of the two
deceased kings, so fruitful in misfortunes to Poland, comprised
the whole of Sobieski’s wonderful career, and it was fitting
that their royal mourner should be he to whose prowess they were
chiefly indebted for retaining the crown. ♦Coronation.♦ The
coronation took place amid general rejoicings, broken only by a
few murmurs when the crown was set upon the queen’s head. It was
not long before she showed her unfitness to wear it.
♦Diet of 1676.♦ Two days later (February 4th) the Diet met, and
was conspicuous for its loyal enthusiasm. The king was entreated
not to lay down the office of Grand General, but he wisely
refused a privilege so invidious, and conferred the post upon
his old enemy, Demetrius Wiesnowiesçki. He displayed the same
generous spirit in his other appointments, offering the primacy
to Olzowski, the favourite of Eleanor, and the Grand Marshalate
to Lubomirski, son of his old rival. The brave Jablonowski
was rewarded with the post of Second General. His elevation
caused some trouble. The Diet proposed to make these dignities
triennial, which, in the present reign at least, would have been
a salutary enhancement of the royal power; but the queen, out of
gratitude to Jablonowski, worked hard in secret to defeat the
proposal. The king, though he favoured it at heart, appeared
neutral; and the project fell through.
John availed himself of the favourable temper of the Diet
to take exceptional measures for the national defence. He
proposed a capitation subsidy upon all alike, clergy as well as
laity, and strongly urged the necessity of forming a permanent
infantry. Hitherto this branch of the service had been fixed
at one-third of the regular army (16,000), but it had never
reached this standard, and being composed only of the peasants
and poorer nobles, commanded by foreign officers, its equipment
was disgracefully inefficient.[66] The Diet voted that the army
should be raised to 73,000 men, thus augmenting it by 25,000,[67]
and that of these 35,000 should be infantry. No king had ever
obtained such concessions from the nobility, but they were not
granted without a violent opposition. The old expedient was tried
of drawing out the Diet, but John defeated it by submitting to
a continuous sitting, and presiding upon the throne for forty
consecutive hours. He was able to announce that the Great Elector
had promised him succours, and that he hoped for an alliance with
Muscovy. The Diet did not rise before paying him the unusual
compliment of a decree that all the starosties which he had held
should remain hereditary in his family.[68]
♦The king fails to levy troops.♦ Unfortunately their good
resolutions were not carried into effect. Although the Dietines
ratified their proceedings, it was beyond the king’s power
to overcome the inertness and lethargy of the nobility. The
patriotic spirit died out at once when the magic of his personal
influence was withdrawn. Seizing upon a rumour which was
industriously raised by Austria, that the king was treating
in secret with the Turks and would use the money for his own
purposes, they refused to pay the subsidy, and threw every
obstacle in his way. John hastily assembled at Leopol those
troops which had not been disbanded; but, although their number
is variously stated, some even placing it as low as 10,000, it
probably did not amount to one-half of the force that the Diet
had decreed.
♦Armament of the Turks.♦ Meanwhile, Köprili had not been idle.
He assembled an army of 100,000 Turks, to be accompanied by a
vast host of Tartars. But his aim was more pacific than in the
former campaigns. He was beset by the proffered mediation of the
European powers, especially of Louis XIV., who wished to evade
his promise of sending armed assistance to Poland. Moreover, the
condition of Asiatic Turkey distracted his attention; his allies,
the Cossacks and the Tartars, inspired him with distrust; and he
felt that his fortune was outshone by the star of John Sobieski.
The name of the Polish hero was such a terror in the Ottoman
ranks that threats alone could induce many of the officers to
serve against him. Köprili looked out anxiously for a competent
general. He chose Ibrahim, Pacha of Damascus, called “Shaitan”
(Satan), from his combined bravery and cunning, and gave him
instructions to procure an honourable peace.
♦Invasion of Galicia.♦ Ibrahim secretly hoped to do more than
this, for he was confident that he could drive the king to
extremities. He pushed on at once into Galicia and crossed the
Dniester, expecting that John would attack him; but finding
that the king lay inactive at Zurawno, a small town on the left
bank, he advanced against him without delay. John called in
his squadrons of horse, which had been harassing the Tartars,
and prepared to improve his position. It had been chosen with
admirable judgment. He lay with the Dniester and the mountains
behind it covering his rear, while his left rested on the town
of Zurawno, and his right was protected by woods and marshes. In
front of his lines ran a rapid torrent, called the Swiczza, which
was easily fordable, and offered facilities for the construction
of entrenchments. On this task John employed his whole army, and
collected all the provisions within reach. When the seraskier
appeared on the heights in his front, he left his lines and
offered him battle (September 25th); but this was declined, for
all the Turkish troops had not yet come up. ♦Siege of Zurawno.♦
Ibrahim, when he had assembled them, formed them into a vast arc,
including the town of Zurawno, the Polish army, and the wood on
its right, with each of his wings resting on the river. He then
commenced a regular siege. His artillery was splendidly handled;
and his miners rapidly approached the Polish entrenchments.
John at once employed counter-mines, but the experience of the
Turks in Candia gave them a vast superiority. The king was
anxious to bring on a general action, and in a skirmish on the
29th of September the Poles had the advantage, but they lost
heavily. John’s situation was becoming desperate; the Tartars
who commanded the river prevented the arrival of provisions by
that route; and the Turkish artillery made frightful havoc in his
ranks.
♦Proposals of peace.♦ The liveliest alarm prevailed in Poland.
The Senate called out the Pospolite and placed Prince Radziwill
at its head; but the assembling of such a body was necessarily
slow. Meantime another engagement took place at Zurawno (October
8th), in which 2,000 Turks were slain; but John failed to break
through the enemy’s lines, and was once nearly surrounded and
cut off from his men by a body of janissaries. When however the
siege had lasted nearly twenty days, the Tartan khan, whose
dominion was menaced by the Muscovites,[69] pressed Ibrahim to
conclude a peace. The Seraskier knew the straits to which the
Poles were reduced, and he therefore sent an envoy to propose the
ratification of the treaty of Buczacz and an offensive alliance
against Muscovy. ♦Refused by the king.♦ John replied shortly that
he would hang the next man who brought him such a message. The
bombardment recommenced, and the soldiers murmured against their
king’s obstinacy. Paz repaired to the royal tent and announced
his intention to desert. “Desert who will,” cried John, “the
Turks shall not reach the heart of the republic without passing
over my corpse.” He then rode down the ranks, and reminding the
soldiers that he had extricated them from many a worse plight, he
gaily asked them if his head were enfeebled by the weight of a
crown. Yet he passed the night in the gravest anxiety, and when
morning broke (October 14th) he quitted his lines and drew up his
whole force in order of battle.
♦Ibrahim proposes fairer terms.♦ The Turks were astounded; and
the Tartars cried out that there was magic in his boldness. Brave
though he was, Ibrahim dared not face the chances of a defeat. He
knew that the Pospolite was approaching; he suspected that the
Tartars had been bought over; and he saw winter rapidly closing
in. Above all, he remembered that his instructions were pacific,
and that a serious reverse might cost him his head. ♦Peace of
Zurawno.♦ Before the armies engaged, he proposed a peace upon
honourable terms. No mention was now made of tribute. The Porte
was to retain only Kaminiec and a third of the Ukraine; the
question of Podolia was referred to a subsequent conference;
each army was to restore its prisoners of war. It is said that
Sobieski, with the sentiments of a Christian knight, inserted
an article to provide for the establishment of a Latin guard at
the Holy Sepulchre.[70] After witnessing the release of 15,000
captives, and the departure of the Turks (October 16th), John
retraced his steps to Zolkiew. He soon encountered the Pospolite,
which was advancing to his relief, and the two armies celebrated
the conclusion of peace with a grand flourish of trumpets.
♦Great services of the king.♦ Though satisfactory, the terms
were not glorious; but that they should have been obtained at all
by a handful of men in the direst extremities was cause enough
for rejoicing. A moral triumph like this, following so close upon
a crisis so dreadful, carries with it an air of romance. Yet,
making every allowance for good fortune and the earnest mediation
of his allies, we must regard it as due in the first instance
to the potency of the name of Sobieski. With an insignificant
force at his back he had conducted to a favourable issue five
successive campaigns against the Turks--four of them on Polish
ground--and had previously many times repulsed the hordes of
Tartars which they had poured into the country. By thus foiling
the aggression of the Turks when at the height of their power
John III. had rendered a signal service to Europe.
♦Death of Köprili.♦ The minister whose vast designs he had
thwarted was now upon his death-bed. Seven days after the peace
of Zurawno (October 23rd), Köprili expired at Constantinople. Had
it not been for Sobieski this able vizier would have extended
the dependencies of Turkey from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and
would have found a golden opportunity for his attack upon the
empire. His successor Mustapha, called “Kara,” or “the Black,”
was a man of a different calibre. He owed his advancement to
the intrigues of the seraglio; he had married a daughter of the
Sultan and possessed great influence over his master; and he
inherited the ambitious dreams of Köprili without his ability to
realise them.
♦Enthusiasm of Europe.♦ All Europe, with the exception perhaps
of Austria, rejoiced at the peace of Zurawno. Madame de Sevigné,
writing on the 18th of November, 1676, expresses the general
admiration for the hero of Poland;[71] and Condé sent a special
messenger to congratulate his friend. Louis XIV. eagerly sought
his alliance. He commissioned his ambassador in Poland, the
Marquis of Bethune, brother-in-law of the king, to invest him
with the order of the Holy Ghost. John imprudently accepted the
honour, and thus, in spite of the enthusiasm with which he had
been received, excited general murmurs. He was accused of wearing
the livery of France, and binding the republic to follow her
interests. In the Diet which assembled the next year (January,
1677,) his opponents were clamorous. They complained that,
besides part of the Ukraine, he had given up Kaminiec, the key
of the realm; and that instead of striving to recover them, he
was meditating war against Brandenburg and Austria. They also
accused him of aiming at absolute power by the secret help of
the French monarch. The majority of the Diet, however, did not
forget the dangers from which they had been rescued; and Gninski,
palatine of Kulm, was sent to Constantinople to ratify the peace
of Zurawno.
♦He supports the designs of France.♦ No notice was taken of the
other charges; yet John was undoubtedly conniving at the designs
of France. Louis XIV. had promised assistance to the insurgents
in Hungary against the emperor, and was encouraging Sweden to
attack the Great Elector. It is said that he gained over Sobieski
by the promise of ducal Prussia and a larger frontier on the
Baltic. At any rate the Marquis of Bethune was allowed to raise
troops destined for Hungary in the starosties of the king,
while secret permission was given to the Swedes to pass through
Courland to attack the Elector.[72] Frederic William naturally
resented the attitude of Poland, and in revenge fomented some
disturbances which had arisen in Dantzic.
This prosperous centre of commerce enjoyed, as a Hanse town, a
large share of independence. Though belonging to the republic of
Poland, it was governed by its own magistrates and its own laws.
♦Disturbances in Dantzic,♦ A religious struggle had broken out
between the magistrates, who were Calvinists, and the people, who
were headed by an eloquent Lutheran preacher. ♦Quieted by the
king.♦ John at once visited the city and mediated between the
contending parties (September, 1677), and the unusual spectacle
was presented of a Catholic acting as arbiter in a Protestant
dispute. His moderation won all hearts, and tranquillity was
soon restored. The astronomer Hevelius, who was one of the chief
citizens, entertained the king in his house, and entitled his
newly-found constellation, “Scutum Sobieski.”[73]
♦Activity of the Turks.♦ John was recalled from Dantzic by the
serious intelligence that the new Grand Vizier was placing
every obstacle in the way of the conclusion of peace. He kept
the Polish envoy for months at the gates of Constantinople; and
when at length he gave him an audience, his tone was haughty
and unconciliatory. The Austrian court, fearing for itself, had
done its utmost to persuade the Porte that the peace of Zurawno
was disgraceful to Turkey, and Mustapha, who longed for military
glory, encouraged the idea. His first blow, however, was to fall
on Muscovy. The Czar Feodor hastened to conclude the treaty with
Poland, which had long been pending, but he could look for no
assistance from the republic. He was worsted in the campaign
which followed, but the vizier, disgusted at the rigour of the
climate, looked out for a more alluring prey. His first thought
was to reopen the war with Poland; and he announced that he
should keep her envoy as a hostage until Podolia was ceded to the
Porte (September, 1678).
♦Coldness of John towards France.♦John now saw clearly that
the danger from Turkey was still pressing. He therefore at
once withdrew his support from the French designs in the west,
and prepared to confront his old enemy. ♦Reasons.♦ This change
in his policy is reasonable enough. He saw that the Hungarian
insurgents would probably call in the Porte, and in that case
his natural ally would be Austria, while from France he could
expect no material help. His judgment was most sagacious; but it
was not uninfluenced by personal reasons. He was offended at the
pride of the French king, who had refused him on his accession
the coveted title of “Majesty,” and had lately treated his queen
with some contempt. Immediately after her coronation, his queen
had set out for France to take the waters of Bourbon,[74] and to
display her dignity in her native country; but on her way she
encountered the French ambassador, who delicately hinted that his
master could not receive an elective queen with full honours. The
“Grand Monarque” could not stoop to receive on equal terms the
daughter of the captain of his brother’s Swiss Guards. The queen
retraced her steps in great indignation, which subsequent events
only tended to increase. Through her husband she begged a dukedom
for her father, the Marquis d’Arquien, but Louis, though his
language was fair, deferred compliance.[75] Moreover, John could
not but regard with disgust the scarcely concealed efforts of
France to set the Turks in motion against the house of Austria.
The king himself had throughout his life distrusted Austria and
counteracted her influence in Poland, but his chivalrous spirit
would have revolted from bringing the infidel against her. He now
perceived that it was his policy to make common cause with her.
♦His designs upon Kaminiec.♦ He was anxious to strike the first
blow against the Turks by surprising Kaminiec, which was poorly
guarded; but for this the consent of the Diet was necessary. He
had to publish his universals[76] to the Dietines describing his
projects, and to debate the question in the Diet when assembled.
This year (1679) it was convened at Grodno, in Lithuania, and so
stormy was the session that it was four months before the king’s
proposal passed. The Turks were thus enabled to strengthen and
re-victual the town at their leisure; and nothing was left to the
king but to send ambassadors to the European courts to propose a
general league against the Sultan.
♦Arming of the Turks.♦ A vast armament was in preparation at
Constantinople, and no one in Europe knew against whom it would
first be directed. Troops were daily arriving from the interior
of Asia, and Greece was made subject to a searching levy. It was
plainly time for the European powers to show themselves united
against the common enemy, but there was little prospect of such a
combination. Louis had lately concluded a peace with the Emperor
at Nimeguen (1679), but it was scarcely more than a suspension of
hostilities.
♦Polish Embassies in Europe.♦ The Polish ambassador, Radziwill,
had no success at the court of Vienna. He could not persuade
Leopold that he was in greater danger than Poland. But his
proposals were not merely defensive. He urged the formation
of a league, “which should hurl back the monster into his
native deserts, and revive from its ruins the ancient empire of
Byzantium.”[77] But when he arrived at Rome (July, 1680) he found
the Pope very favourably disposed towards a crusade. The chair
was now filled by Innocent XI., an Austrian by birth, who feared
that Vienna was the object of attack, and saw at once that Italy
must stand or fall with it. He had been formerly Papal Nuncio in
Poland, and in that capacity had bestowed his blessing on the
marriage of Sobieski. He now promised his hearty aid to the king,
whom he styled, “The invincible lieutenant of the God of armies,
that brazen wall against which all the efforts of the barbarians
have been dashed in pieces.” He agreed forthwith to furnish a
large subsidy.
♦Alliance with the Pope.♦ This close alliance with the Pope
widened the breach between Sobieski and the court of France.
There could be no peace between such haughty characters as
Innocent XI. and Louis XIV., and they were often at open enmity
about the Gallican clergy. Louis hated the Pope above all
things for his sympathy with the Austrian court. He now sought
to counteract his influence by sending as ambassador to Warsaw
Forbin-Janson, at this time bishop of Beauvais, who was to be
assisted by Vitry, a man of great resource.
♦Diet of 1681.♦ When the king assembled the next Diet at Warsaw
(Jan. 1681) he found the French party for the first time arrayed
against him. He had to report that his embassies had met with
complete success only at Rome, but that Savoy and Portugal had
sent him their good wishes. The majority of the Diet supported
him in his schemes against the Porte; but French intrigue
protracted the session for months, and finally dissolved it by
the veto on a frivolous pretext. Indignant at these proceedings,
Innocent XI., during his lifetime, withheld from Forbin-Janson
the Cardinal’s hat, which had been promised him at the accession
of Sobieski. ♦Peace with Turkey.♦ Fortunately, however, the Grand
Vizier suddenly assumed a peaceful attitude towards Poland, and
sent an envoy with conditions which she could honourably accept.
Mustapha was evidently bent on some more vast design; but though
he studiously concealed its nature, John seems to have divined it
from the first.
♦1681-2.♦ He spent the two succeeding years in strengthening and
disciplining his army, and in those peaceful employments to which
he was so much attached. At a wild spot, six miles from Warsaw,
he constructed his palace of Willanow, and introduced on his
estate the Dutch system of farming. For a time all the clamours
of faction were hushed; but it was only the calm which heralds
the approaching storm.