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SIGISMUND (OF POLAND). 



SIGISMUND III. (OF POLAND). 



08 



throw all the imposts on the inhabitants of towns, whose number was 

 comparatively small, and on the peasants, >who were already crushed 

 by the oppression of the landowners. The crown was in possession 

 of extensive demesnes, but they were generally granted for life to 

 some noble, and the prodigal Alexander had greatly diminished them. 

 All these difficulties were however overcome by the firmness and pru- 

 dence of Sigismund, and he was much assisted in his task by the 

 treasurer of the crown, Bonar, who succeeded, by hie great industry 

 and strict economy, in restoring order to the finances of the country. 

 The revolt of Glinski, a most powerful Lithuanian grandee, who, 

 having been educated at the court of the Emperor Maximilian I., 

 acquired great military skill in his campaigns, involved Sigismund in 

 a bloody war with Muscovy. Glinski, who had enjoyed supreme 

 iufluence under Alexander, created many enemies, who attributed to 

 him treasonable projects, and he was treated with perhaps injudicious 

 harshness by Sigismund. He attacked and murdered his chief enemy, 

 Zabrezinski, a powerful grandee ; and having committed that crime, 

 he declared, together with a great number of adherents, for the Czar 

 of Moscow, who promised to elevate him to the dignity of a sovereign 

 prince of Smolensk. Aided by the traitor, the Muscovites invaded 

 without opposition many provinces of Lithuania, but a brilliant 

 victory obtained by the king in person stopped the progress of the 

 enemy, who were expelled from the Polish frontier, and their own 

 country was invaded. The spirit of insubordination among the army 

 however prevented Sigismund from obtaining any result from his 

 victory, and he was obliged to accept the czar's proposals of peace. 

 It was concluded by a treaty which left the frontier of the belligerent 

 powers in the same state as it was before the war. The families of 

 Glinski and his adherents were permitted to join them in Muscovy, 

 but many of them were pardoned and restored to their estates and 

 former dignities. [RUSSIA.] 



Bohdan, prince of Moldavia and Wallachia, invaded (1510) the 

 southern provinces of Poland ; he was however soon defeated, and 

 compelled to conclude a treaty, by which he acknowledged himself 

 the vassal of the kings of Poland. This acquisition became after- 

 wards the origin of long and bloody wars with the Ottoman Porte, but 

 an immediate collision with that power was avoided by the prudence 

 of the king. 



Pope Julius II. sent an embassy to Sigismund to compliment him 

 on his recent success, and to propose to him to become the head of a 

 league which that pope proposed to form for the expulsion of the 

 Turks from Europe ; but this flattering proposition was declined by 

 the Polish monarch, and a brilliant victory over the Tartars, in which 

 27,000 of those barbarians were slain, secured for a considerable time 

 the tranquillity of the frontiers. Sigismund married Barbara, daughter 

 of Stephen Zapolya, waywode of Transylvania. The Emperor Maxi- 

 milian, who watched with jealousy the influence which Poland exer- 

 cised over Bohemia and Hungary, and which was increased by 

 Sigismund's marriage, by his intrigues, and particularly by the agency 

 of Glinski, incited the Czar of Muscovy to attack Poland. In 1514 

 the Muscovites invaded the frontier of Lithuania with an immense 

 force, and took Smolensk. They advanced into Lithuania with an 

 army of 80,000 men, which however, being met by the Lithuanian 

 geneial, Prince Ostrogski, with a force of 32,000 men, was completely 

 routed at the battle of Orsha. But this brilliant victory was without 

 any result, as the army soon dispersed, without even taking Smolensk, 

 which remained in the possession of Muscovy at the ensuing peace. 



These events induced the Emperor Maximilian to seek the friend- 

 ship of Sigismund, whom he invited to a congress at Vienna in 1515. 

 This meeting produced no advantage to Poland, and the promises 

 given by the emperor on that occasion to interfere with the Teutonic 

 order and the Muscovites on the behalf of Poland, proved entirely 

 delusive. The matrimonial alliance between an Austrian duke and a 

 Jagellonian princess of Bohemia, which was agreed on there, in the 

 course of time placed the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary on the 

 head of the Austrian monarchs, a circumstance which greatly increased 

 their power, and destroyed the influence that Poland had possessed 

 over those countries. 



After the death of his first queen, Sigismund married Bona, the 

 daughter of John Galeazzo Sforza, last duke of Milan. She was a 

 most beautiful and accomplished princess, but of a dissolute and 

 abandoned character. She did much mischief by her ambition and 

 intrigues, although she introduced into Poland many Italian refine- 

 ments, and the Spanish courtesy, which rendered the Court of Poland 

 one of the most brilliant and refined in Europe. 



The troubles produced by the Reformation of Luther in the 

 Prussian provinces induced Sigismund to repress them by severe 

 measures, which were, however, taken from political motives, and not 

 from any religious intolerance; for Sigismund on many other occa- 

 sions showed himself very tolerant towards the doctrines of the 

 Reformation, which under his reign spread over Poland, saying in 

 answer to Eckius, the celebrated antagonist of Luther, who had sent 

 him Henry VIII.'s book against that reformer, that he wished to be 

 king of goats as well as of sheep. Albert of Brandenburg, grand- 

 master of the Teutonic order, having become a convert to Protestantism, 

 the part of Prussia which was still held by the order was erected into 

 a secular principality, and Albert of Brandenburg was created here- 

 ditary duke of Prussia, and became a liege to the crown of Poland. 



Thus Poland gave the first example of a diplomatic recognition of a 

 Roman Catholic institution, secularised by the Reformation. Albert's 

 successors continued to recognise the suzerainetd of Poland till the 

 treaty of Velau (1657), by which Prussia was declared an independent 

 dukedom. This was the origin of the dominion of the Brandenburg 

 family over Prussia. 



The dukedom of Mazovia was reunited .with Poland after the death 

 of the last prince in 1526 ; and the Wallachians, who attacked Poland 

 ia 1530, were defeated with great losa. The affairs of Wallachia 

 requiring the display of a considerable force, the king ordered the 

 arriere ban of the equestrian order to assemble at Leopol in 1539. 

 According to the account of a contemporary historian (Orichovius), 

 150,000 militia, splendidly armed, assembled at the royul summons. 

 But this numerous force, instead of marching against the common 

 enemy, raised an outcry against the authority of the king, claiming 

 the redress of certain imaginary wrongs, and the extension of their 

 already overgrown privileges. Thus they separated, without pro- 

 ducing any effect whatever, and the memory of this miserable expe- 

 dition was ridiculed by the nickname of the Chicken War. 



Sigismund died in 1548, in the eighty-second year of his age, with 

 the character of a wise, just, and magnanimous prince, notwithstand- 

 ing that in the latter years of his reign he had become unpopular, 

 owing to the misconduct of his queen Bona, to whom be was dotingly 

 attached. He was succeeded by his son 



SIGISMUND AUGUSTUS, who had been elected and crowned 

 during his lifetime, and was only then ten years old. Before his 

 accession to the throne, and even after the death of his first wife, 

 Elizabeth of Austria, he secretly married Barbara Radzivill, widow of 

 Gastold, palatine of Troki, a most beautiful and accomplished lady, 

 and he declared his marriage publicly a few days after he was pro- 

 claimed king. This union, although agreeable to the Lithuanians, 

 was strongly opposed by the Poles, who were afraid that it would 

 give the Radzivills and other Lithuanian families an undue influence 

 in the councils of the king. A violent opposition, influenced by the 

 queen-mother, was raised in two diets against the king's marriage, who 

 was required to abandon his wife; and the primate Dzievzgowski 

 promised to distribute on the heads of all the nation the sin of 

 perjury which the king would commit by breaking his marriage oath 

 to Barbara. The firmness of the king quelled that factious opposition, 

 and Barbara was crowned, but she died shortly afterwards, not with- 

 out strong suspicion of having been poisoned by her mother-in-law 

 Bona Sforza. 



At the suggestion of his mother, Sigismund Augustus married 

 Catherine of Austria, the widowed duchess of Mantua. This was a 

 very unfortunate marriage for Poland ; it waa the cause of Sigi-mund 

 Augustus dying without issue, of the Jagellonian dynasty becoming 

 extinct, and the throne, which during its existence had been elective 

 only in theory, becoming so in practice. 



The most remarkable events of Sigismund Augustus's reign are 

 the acquisition of Livonia, which voluntarily submitted to Poland, in 

 order to save itself from the Muscovite yoke, and the union between 

 Poland and Lithuania, which was effected at the diet of Lublin, 1569. 

 By this arrangement, it was agreed that the deputies and senators of 

 both nations should deliberate in common. The rights of the Polish 

 nobles were extended to those of Lithuania, and the throne of both 

 countries became equally elective ; yet the laws, finances, and army 

 remained distinct. This union continued until the final dissolution of 

 Poland. 



It was under the reign of Sigismund Augustus that the doctrines of 

 the Reformation acquired a greater influence in Poland, particularly 

 among the higher classes ; so that there was a time when its complete 

 triumph was expected by the enemies and equally dreaded by the 

 adherents of Rome. Sigiamund Augustus was wavering, and his 

 mind seems to have been much unsettled by the conflict of religious 

 opinions. There are however sufficient grounds to believe that he was 

 friendly to a reform of the national church, as his favours were 

 bestowed chiefly on the open and secret promoters of that measure. 

 It is therefore very probable, that had he lived longer, this great event 

 would have taken place in Poland. He died in 1572. 



SIGISMUND III., the son of John III. of Sweden, and a sister of 

 Sigismund Augustus, was born in 1566, and elected king of Poland iu 

 1587, chiefly through the influence of the Zamoy skies. The choice 

 was unfortunate ; bigoted in his attachment to the Roman Catholic 

 religion, in which he had been educated, he was ever ready to sacrifice 

 the interests of his kingdom to those of his church. He thus lost his 

 hereditary dominions, and created a general discontent in Poland by 

 his complete subserviency to the Jesuits and the house of Austria, aa 

 well as his tendency towards despotism. A civil war ensued ; but the 

 insurgents being defeated, the country was restored to peace. An 

 individual named Demetrius, pretending to be the legitimate heir to 

 the throne of Moscow, who was believed to have been murdered by 

 Godoonoff [GODOONOFP], appeared in Poland. Sigismund, expecting 

 that he would subject the Russian church to the supremacy of Rome, 

 secretly favoured him ; and many powerful grandees having espoused 

 his cause, he ascended the throne of Moscow, but was afterwards 

 murdered in a popular riot. Au impostor however appeared, who 

 pretended that he had escaped from the massacre, and created great 

 disturbance in Muscovy, where Prince Shooyski was elected Czar 



