907 



ZAMOYSKL 



ZAMOYSKI. 



003 



to him, Zamoyeki, fearing the consequences of crowning such a proud 

 spirit, turned his eyes to the other competitors. He was averse to the 

 Emperor Maximilian I. for two reasons : because the Imperial policy 

 would huve involved Poland in a war with the Turks ; and because 

 the Austrian pride was insupportable to the Polish nobles. Henri, on 

 the contrary, was of a nation which cultivated a good understanding 

 with the Porte, and was remarkable for urbanity, and could not bring 

 a French force to act against the Poles so easily as their Austrian 

 neighbour. Zamoyski's familiarity with the archives of the kingdom 

 enabled him to be of great use in suggesting precedents for the formal 

 conditions upon which the crown was offered to Henri ; and he was 

 placed at the head of the deputation sent to Paris to intimate the 

 result of the election to the new king. The speech he made on the 

 occasion has been much praised for the justice of its ideas, the elegance 

 of its style, and the delicacy with which the speaker prnised Henri 

 without disparaging his competitors. It was published at Rome in 

 1574. The new king appointed Zamoyski grand-chamberlain and 

 starost of Kryszyn. Great discontent was excited by Henri's refusing 

 to confirm the pacta conventa presented to him by the Dissidents 

 before his coronation ; and Zamoyski's popularity with his order was 

 shaken for a time by his defending the conduct of Henri on this occa- 

 sion. He regained it however before the precipitate retreat of Henri 

 from Poland. 



Zamoyski and the equestrian order now turned their eyes to Stephen 

 llathori as the only candidate likely to counterbalance the influence of 

 the House of Austria. The crown was offered to Bathori on the con- 

 dition of his marrying Anne, sister of Sigismund Augustus, the assent 

 of that princess to the arrangement having been previously obtained. 

 The Diet was convoked on the 14th of January 1540 ; Bathori was 

 proclaimed king, and while the Austrians hesitated what course to 

 adopt, he advanced by a rapid march to Krakau, and was crowned 

 there. He testified his gratitude to Zamoyski by nominating him 

 grand-chancellor, a choice so agreeable to the equestrian order that 

 they rose in a body and approached the throne to thank the king. 



During the greater part of the ten years' reign of Bathori, Zamoyski 

 was his chief and confidential councillor. By his advice Bathori's first 

 cares were directed to replenish his empty treasury and re-unite the 

 provinces of his distracted kingdom. With this view overtures of 

 peace were made to Austria, and envoys despatched to Rome to per- 

 suade the noble political emigrants who had sought refuge there to 

 return. To the hostile indications from the Muscovites and Tartars, 

 a sedulous care to avoid furnishing them with a pretext for hostilities 

 was oppdsed. Bathori marched against Danzig, which he forced to 

 capitulate : Zamoyski dictated the conditions. 



In 1579 the storm from the side of Muscovy broke in upon Livonia. 

 Bathori convened the Diet, and exhorted its members to avenge the 

 insult. Some deputies were of opinion that hostilities should be com- 

 menced against the Tartars also ; but Zamoyski's prudent advice to 

 finish with the Russians before they engaged with another enemy, 

 backed by his representations that by attacking the hordes dependent 

 on the Porte they would bring that power also upon them, carried 

 the day. The necessary subsidies were voted, and the campaign 

 commenced. The address of Zamoyski also obtained from this Diet 

 its sanction of a new judicial organisation of the kingdom, in con- 

 sequence of which courts of appeal were established at Lublin and 

 Petrikau. 



The campaign was successful ; Bathori conducting the military 

 operations, and Zamoyski, who accompanied him everywhere, relieving 

 him of the load of civil affairs. The Diet of 1580 was a stormy one : 

 the enemies of Zamoyski, irritated by his favour with the king, endea- 

 voured to thwart his policy. At last the subsidies were granted, and 

 military operations resumed with success. In 1580 Bathori undertook 

 the siege of Ploskow, leaving Zamoyski at the head of the main army 

 with the title of Hetman. The soldiers murmured at being placed 

 under one whom they considered a mere scholar and civilian ; and 

 perhaps the severe discipline which the fastidious morality of the 

 scholar induced Zamoyski to enforce rendered a considerable degree 

 o/ discontent unavoidable. He remained however at the head of the 

 army till the conclusion of a peace, in January 1582, the negociations 

 of which were left entirely to his management. 



By that treaty the czar ceded Livonia, Esthland, and Novogorod. 

 Zamoyski set his troops in motion as soon as the treaty was signed. 

 The Swedes had already entered Livonia, but his prompt measures 

 frustrated their intentions. At the Diet which waa held in October 

 1582, Tartar envoys appeared to demand tribute : the Poles replied 

 by despatching Zamoyski to the frontier, which he placed in a state of 

 defence, and thus awed the enemy into inaction. On his return to 

 Krakau he received in marriage a niece of the king : the nuptials were 

 celebrated by a magnificence almost regal. 



From this time however till the death of Bathori, Zamoyski took 

 comparatively little ostensible part in public affairs. He retired to 

 his native place, Skokow, and busied himself in colonising his estates 

 and instituting colleges and printing-presses. This retirement has been 

 plausibly enough said to have been prolonged by the odium he incurred 

 through the active part he took in ui-ging on the execution of Samuel 

 Zborowski (May 25, 1584). 



After the death of Bathori however (December 13, 1586) it became 

 manifest that though Zamoyski's enemies were powerful, his hold 



upon the national mind was not materially weakened. The partisans 

 of Zborowski mustered, it is true, in such force at the Diet as to force 

 that body to remove him from the command of the army. By the 

 advice of his friends he fled secretly at the moment, but only to collect 

 troops, and to encamp on the 30th of June (the day appointed for the 

 election), at the head of 10,000 horsemen, on the right bank of the 

 Vistula, directly opposite Warsaw. The Zborowski mustered in force 

 on the opposite bank ; but Zamoyski prevailed, and his candidate, 

 Sigismund III., was chosen. The Zborowski protested against tho 

 election, and sent deputies to their candidate, the Archduke Maxi- 

 milian, brother of the Emperor Rudolph, inviting him to assert his 

 claims by force of arms. 



The King of Sweden hesitated to hazard his son in so anarchical a 

 kingdom as Poland ; but the prince himself, at the invitation of 

 Zamoyski, accepted the offered crown. On landing at Danzig ho was 

 met by messengers, who brought news of the defeat of Maximilian in 

 the neighbourhood of Krakau by Zamoyski, and urgent solicitations 

 from the grand-chancellor to hasten his march. Sigismund entered 

 Krakau on the 29th of December 1586, and was presented by Zatnoyski 

 to his victorious army as their king. After this ceremony Zamoyski 

 marched in pursuit of Maximilian, who had retreated into Silesia. 

 The archduke was obliged to surrender; and the Diet of 1687 decreed 

 that he should be retained as a hostage until his brother the emperor 

 became security for his renouncing the Polish throne. The pope 

 interfered in the affair, but the negociations were protracted. At last 

 Maximilian consented to relinquish his pretensions, was set at liberty, 

 and conducted to the Austrian frontier, which he no sooner crossed 

 than he announced his resolution not to keep the promises he had 

 made while a prisoner. This breach of faith elicited a pamphlet from 

 Zamoyski, published in 1590, with the title ' Pacificationis inter 

 Domurn Austriacain ac Regem Poloniae et Ordines Regui Tractatae, 

 Scripta aliquot.' 



The next seven years of Zamoyski's life were consumed in a double 

 struggle between foreign foes, against whom he had to make head, 

 and domestic factions, from whom he had to wring a reluctant sup- 

 port. The king was not his friend, for Zamoyski thwarted his wishes 

 on many occasions, but could not dispense with him. Amid all the>e 

 difficulties the grand-chancellor baffled the Ottoman army in 1591-92 ; 

 barred the retreat through Poland to the Tartars, who had made a 

 predatory incursion into Hungary, in 1593; defeated the Turks in 

 Wallachia in 1595, and again in 1596; and the Swedes in 1597. After 

 the last campaign, conscious that his physical powers were giving way, 

 he resigned the command of the army to his lieutenant, John Charles 

 Chodkiewicz. From this time till 1605 Zamoyski remained in retire- 

 ment, occupied with his colonies and literary pursuits. The fruits 

 of the latter were given to the world under the title ' Dialectica 

 Chrysippea/ 



He emerged from his retreat in 1605 to attend the Diet, and Ihnv; 

 is a wild grandeur about this the closing scene of his public life. The 

 first wife of Sigismund III., an Austrian princess, was dead, and ho 

 waa bent upon marrying her sister. Zamoyski, who had opposed the 

 first marriage, was still more hostile to this : he was firmly convinced 

 that the interests of Poland required an intermarriage with the royal 

 family of Russia. The debate became violent. The grand-chancellor, 

 laden with years and infirmities, had resolved to take no part in it, 

 but the contagious excitement of the scene rendered him incapable of 

 adhering to his resolution. He caused his seat to be placed near the 

 throne, and after apologising for this liberty on account of his debility, 

 presumed to address the king in a strain that has rarely been heard by 

 princes. He declared his opinion that the king should concentrate his 

 attention on the Swedish war with a view to terminate it; he reminded 

 him that he had often before sacrificed the interests of the state to his 

 own private ends ; he protested against the marriage with an Austrian 

 princess as likely to be fatal to Poland. Nor did he stop here : he 

 accused the king of intending to secure the crown for his son in 

 violation of the constitution, and of corresponding clandestinely with 

 foreign powers ; and he reminded him in a tone of increasing asperity 

 that the Poles had ere then deposed and banished kings with whom 

 they were offended. Sigismund, irritated by such language, replied 

 with equal violence, and at the conclusion of his speech laid his hand 

 on his sword. At this the senate and deputies quitted their seats in a 

 body \\ith threatening murmurs ; but the voice of the old chancellor 

 was heard above all the din " Withdraw your hand from your sword, 

 prince ; do not oblige history to record that we were Brutuses and you 

 a Caesar." 



At the close of the Diet Zamoyski retired again to his estates. On 

 the 3rd of July 1605 his attendants, who had fancied him sunk in 

 meditation, found on approaching his chair that he was dead. 



Zamoyski was an elegant scholar, an accomplished diplomatist, and 

 a successful general. That he should have been able to keep himself 

 at tho head of affairs during a period of nearly thirty years, in so 

 turbulent a state as Poland, is of itself a guarantee of the power and 

 energy of his character. His writings, even at this distance of time, 

 are calculated to please by their elegance, and by the knowledge of 

 human nature that they display. His stern stoicism was the necessary 

 consequence of a highly-cultivated mind forced to combat during the 

 better part of his life with the factions of a fierce oligarchical state. 

 The part of his career upon which the mind feels most pleasure in 



