THE CROWN OF POLAND MADE ELECTIVE.

283

A. D.

1572.

when Casimir IV. held the sceptre of empire. During his Ch.24 reign (1450-1492) Lithuania, which then comprised Hungary, Bohemia, and Silesia, was added to the kingdom, and the university of Cracow was founded. Poland was then the great resort of the Jews, to whom were committed the trade and commerce of the land. But the rigors of the feudal system proved unfortunate for the prosperity of the kingdom. The Diet of the nation controlled the King, and perpetuated the worst evils of the age.

Polish

When, in 1572, Sigismund II., the last male heir of the house of Jagellon, died, the nobles were sufficiently powerful Electo make the crown elective. From this period we date the tion of decline of Poland. The Reformation, so beneficent in its kings. effects, did not spread to this Sclavonic country; and the barbarism of the Middle Ages received no check.

On the death of Sigismund, the nobles would not permit the new sovereign to be elected by the Diet, but only by the whole body of the nobility. The plain of Praga was the place chosen for the election; and, at the time appointed, such a vast number arrived, that the plain, although twelve miles in circumference, was scarcely large enough to contain them and their retinues. Such a sight had never been seen since the Crusaders were marshalled on the field of Chalcedon. All were gorgeously apparelled, and decked with ermine, gold, and jewels-for the Polish horseman frequently invested half his fortune in his horse and dress. In the centre of the field was the tent of the late King, capable of accommodating eight thousand men. The candidates for the crown were Ernest, Archduke of Austria; the Czar of Russia; a Swedish Prince; and Henry of Valois, Duke of Anjou, and brother of Charles IX., King of France.

Duke of

Anjou.

The first candidate was rejected because the House of Austria The was odious to the Polish nobles; the second, on account of his arrogance; and the third, because he was not powerful enough to bring advantage to the republic. The choice fell on the Duke of Anjou; and he, for the title of King, agreed

284

A. D.

HUMILIATING CONDITIONS.

Ch. 24 to the ignominious conditions which the Poles proposed, viz., that he should not attempt to influence the election of his 1572 successors; or assume the title of heir of the monarchy; or declare war without the consent of the Diet; or impose taxes 1682. of any description; or have power to appoint his ambassadors;

to

or induct any foreigner to a benefice in the church: that he should convoke the Diet every two years; and that he should not marry without its permission. He was also required to furnish four thousand French troops, in case of war; to apply annually, for the sole benefit of the Polish State, a considerable part of his hereditary revenues; to pay the debts of the crown; and to educate, at his own expense, at Paris or Cracow, one hundred Polish nobles. Scarcely, however, had he been crowned, when his brother died, and he was called to the throne of France. Never did criminal long more to escape from prison, than did Henry of Valois to break Henry the fetters which bound him to his imperious subjects. He resolved to abandon them at all hazards, concealed his intentions with great address, gave a great ball at his palace, and in the midst of the festivities, set out full speed towards Silesia. He reached Paris in safety, and was soon after crowned King of France.

flies

from his

kingdom.

His suc

He was succeeded by Stephen, Duke of Transylvania; and cessors. he, again, in 1587, by Sigismund, Crown Prince of Sweden. The two sons of Sigismund were then successively elected Kings of Poland, the last of whom, John II., was embroiled in constant war. It was during his disastrous reign that John Sobieski, with ten thousand Poles, defeated eighty thousand Cossacks. On the death of Michael, in 1673, who had succeeded John II., Sobieski, on account of his military talents, was elected King, under the title of John III.

John

So

bieski.

Poland now needed a strong arm to defend her. Her decline had already commenced, and Sobieski himself could not avert the ruin which impended. For some time the Monarch enjoyed cessation from war, and his energies were directed to repair the evils which had disgraced his

SOBIESKI AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

285

A. D.

to

country. But before he could prosecute successfully any Ch.24 useful reforms, the war between the Turks and the eastern powers of Europe broke out, and Vienna was besieged by an 1683 overwhelming army of two hundred thousand Mohammedans. The city was bravely defended, but its capture seemed inevit- 1764. able. The Emperor of Germany, in his despair, implored the aid of Sobieski, who was invested with the command of the allied armies, consisting of Austrians, Bavarians, Saxons, and Poles, and amounting to seventy thousand men. With this force he advanced to relieve Vienna, and beneath its walls, in the year 1683, he obtained one of the most signal victories in the history of war. Immense treasures fell into his hands, and Vienna and Christendom were saved.

Aus

The Emperor treated his deliverer with arrogance and chilling coldness. No gratitude was exhibited or felt. Sobieski, Ingratihowever, in spite of the ingratitude of Leopold, pursued his tude of victories over the Turks; and, like Charles Martel, ten centu- tria. ries before, freed Europe from the danger of a Mohammedan yoke. But he saved a serpent, which turned and stung

him for his kindness.

Fred

eric Au

He was succeeded, in 1696, by Frederic Augustus, Elector of Saxony, whose reign was a constant succession of disasters. It was at this time that Poland was invaded and conquered by Charles XII. of Sweden. To him succeeded Frederic Augustus II., the most extravagant and licentious Monarch of his age. His reign, as King of Poland, was exceedingly Reign of disastrous. Muscovite and Prussian armies traversed the plains of his country at pleasure, and extorted whatever they gustus. pleased. Faction opposed faction in the field and in the Diet. The National Assembly was dissolved by the veto, the laws were disregarded, and brute force prevailed on every side. The miserable peasants in vain sought the protection of their powerless lords. Bands of robbers infested the roads, and hunger invaded the cottages. The country rapidly declined in wealth, population, and public spirit.

Under the reign of Stanislaus II., who succeeded Frederic

286

A. D.

PARTITION OF POLAND.

Ch. 24 Augustus II., in 1764, the ambassadors of Prussia, Austria, and Russia, informed the miserable King that, in order to 1764 prevent further bloodshed, and to restore peace to Poland, the to three powers had determined to insist upon their claims to 1772. some of the provinces of the kingdom. This barefaced and iniquitous scheme, which had originated with Frederic the Great, was carried into effect in the year 1772. Poland was dismembered, and territories, inhabited by four millions eight hundred thousand people, were divided between Frederic, Maria Theresa, and Catharine II.

Re

morse of

Maria

The

resa.

Neither Frederic nor Catharine had any scruples as to the lawfulness of this act, but the conscience of Maria Theresa long resisted. "The fear of hell," said she, "restrains me from seizing another's possessions;" but sophistry was brought to bear upon her mind, and the lust of dominion asserted its powerful sway. This crime was regarded with detestation by the other powers of Europe; but they were too much occupied with their own troubles to interfere, except by expostulation. England was at this time disturbed by difficulties in the colonies, and at the second partition, in 1794, France was distracted by revolutionary tumults.

Stanislaus, robbed of one third of his dominions, now Polish directed his attention to those reforms which had been so reforms. long imperatively needed. He entrusted to the celebrated Zamoyski the task of revising the Constitution. The patriotic chancellor recommended the abolition of the "liberum veto," a fatal privilege, by which any one of the armed equestrians, who assembled on the plain of Praga to elect a King, or deliberate on State affairs, had power to nullify the most important acts, and even to dissolve the Assembly. Zamoyski also recommended the emancipation of serfs, the encouragement of commerce, the elevation of the trading classes, and the abolition of the fatal custom of electing a King. But the Polish nobles, infatuated and doomed, opposed these wholesome reforms. They even had the madness to invoke the aid

HER RUIN CONSUMMATED.

287 of the Empress Catharine to protect them in their ancient Ch. 24 privileges.

A. D.

to

1794.

struggles.

Too late they perceived their folly. An army of one 1773 hundred thousand men again invaded Poland, to effect a new partition. The unhappy country, without fortified towns or mountains, abandoned by all the world, distracted by divisions, and destitute of fortresses and military stores, was crushed by the power of gigantic enemies. The patriots made a desperate Polish struggle under Kosciusko, a Lithuanian, but were forced to yield to inevitable necessity. Warsaw for a time held out against fifty thousand men; but, in 1794, the Polish hero was defeated in a decisive engagement, and unfortunately taken prisoner. His countrymen still rallied, and another bloody battle was fought at Praga, opposite Warsaw, on the other side of the Vistula, when ten thousand were slain. Praga was reduced to a heap of ruins; and twelve thousand citizens were slaughtered in cold blood. Warsaw soon after surrendered, Stanislaus was sent as a captive to Russia, and the final partition of the kingdom was made.

"Sarmatia fell," but not "unwept," nor yet "without a crime." "She fell," says Alison, "a victim of her own dissensions, of the chimera of equality falsely pursued, and the rigor of aristocracy unceasingly maintained. The eldest born of the European family was the first to perish, because she had thwarted all the ends of the social union; because she united the turbulence of democratic to the exclusion of aristocratic societies; because she had the vacillation of a republic without its energy, and the oppression of a monarchy without its stability. The Poles obstinately refused to march with other Causes nations in the only road to civilization: they had valor, but it could not enforce obedience to the laws; it could not preserve domestic tranquillity; it could not restrain the violence of petty feuds and intestine commotions; it could not preserve the proud nobles from unbounded dissipation and corruption; it could not prevent foreign powers from interfering in the affairs of the kingdom; it could not dissolve the union of

U

of the

fall of

Poland.