JOHN SCOTUS JOHN SOBIESKI. 



25) 



king left his retreat, and carried war arid devastation 

 through the kingdom. His barons, taken by surprise, 

 could make no effectual resistance, and, despairing 

 of mercy from John, sent a deputation to France, in 

 which they offered the crown of England to the dau- 

 phin Louis. Philip gladly accepted the proposal, 

 and Louis, with a fleet of 600 vessels, landed at Sand- 

 wich, and proceeded to London, where he was 

 receive^ as lawful sovereign. John was immediately 

 deserted by all his foreign troops, and most of his 

 English adherents ; but the report of a scheme of 

 Louis for the extermination of the English nobility, 

 arrested his progress, and induced many to return to 

 their allegiance. While the king's affairs were begin- 

 ning to assume a better aspect, he had the misfortune, 

 in a march from Lynn across the sands into Lincoln- 

 shire, to lose, by the sudden flow of the tide, all his 

 carriages and baggage. Being already in a bad state 

 of health, this event so aggravated his disorder, that 

 he died at Newark, in October, 1216, in the forty- 

 ninth year of his age, and seventeenth of his reign. 

 No prince in English history has been handed down 

 to posterity in blacker colours than John, to whom 

 ingratitude, perfidy, and cruelty were habitual. 

 Apparent gleams of vigour and energy were, indeed, 

 occasionally manifest ; but they always proved mere 

 explosions of rage, and soon subsided into meanness 

 and pusillanimity. His private life was stained with 

 extreme licentiousness, and the best part of his con- 

 duct as-a ruler, was the attention he paid to commerce 

 and maritime affairs. More charters of boroughs 

 and incorporations for mercantile pursuits date from 

 him than from any other of the early kings, and the 

 popular constitution of the city of London was his 

 gift. He left, by his second wife, a family of two 

 sons and three daughters, and had many illegitimate 

 children. 



JOHN SCOTUS. See Erigena. 



JOHN THE PARRICIDE, or JOHN OF 

 SUABIA, was the murderer of his uncle, the 

 emperor Albert I. (See Albert I.) Himself of a 

 mild, peaceful disposition, he would, perhaps, have 

 endured the injustice of his uncle, who withheld 

 from him his hereditary dominions and fief, had not 

 his anger been fanned into a flame by the enemies 

 of the emperor. After the perpetration of the 

 bloody deed (in the neighbourhood of Hapsburg, 

 May 1, 1308), the murderers took to flight ; among 

 them was John, who wandered in the monastic habit 

 through Italy, and finally sank into such obscurity, 

 that nothing was known with certainty of him. 

 Rodolph of Wart was apprehended and punished by 

 the rack on the spot where the deed was committed ; 

 the other murderers escaped, with the exception of 

 three boys, who confessed nothing, though threatened 

 with a cruel death, which they actually suffered. 

 But a sanguinary revenge was taken on the relations 

 of the murderers by Leopold, the second son of the 

 emperor, and by Agnes, his sister, the widowed 

 queen of Hungary. They were executed with the 

 most terrible torments, their castles demolished, and 

 the inhabitants slain by hundreds. More than a 

 thousand innocent men, women, and children perished. 

 The history of John of Suabia has given rise to the 

 tragedy of that name, which, for more than twenty 

 years, has been performed on the German stage. 



JOHN OF FIESOLE. See Fiesole. 



JOHN OF LEYDEN. See Anabaptists. 



JOHN SOBIESKI, or JOHN III., king of Poland, 

 one of the greatest warriors of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, was born 1629. His father, James Sobieski, 

 equally distinguished for his virtues in peace and his 

 courage in war, took great care to nourish the 

 same qualities in his sons, Mark nnd John. The 

 Poles had just been defeated at Pilawiecz, when 



these youths returned from their travels. Thfe 

 misfortune only served to excite their courage. 

 Mark fell in a second engagement with the Cossacks, 

 on the banks of the Bog ; but John, more fortunate 

 than his brother, became successively grand marshal 

 and general of the kingdom. Full of courage, he 

 exposed himself, like the meanest soldier, to the 

 greatest dangers, and when urged to take care of 

 his person, replied, " If I follow your advice, you will 

 despise me." He became the terror of the Tartars 

 and Cossacks, over whom he was perpetually gaining 

 new victories. November 11, 1673, he won the 

 celebrated battle at Choczim against the Turks, who 

 lost there 28,000 men. The following year, he was 

 elected king of Poland. When the Turks had laid 

 siege to Vienna, in 1683, he hastened thither with a 

 Polish army, and rescued the imperial city. His 

 cavalry was splendid, but his infantry poorly 

 equipped. To conceal the condition of the latter, 

 he was advised to send one of the worst clothed 

 regiments of infantry over the river by night, to 

 save them from the gaze of spectators. Sobieski 

 was of a different opinion. When the regiment was 

 on the bridge, he said to those who surrounded him, 

 " Behold them they are invincible ; they have 

 sworn never to wear any dress but that of enemies : 

 in the last war, they were all clothed in the garb of 

 Turks." On his arrival, he chose the most advan- 

 tageous position, ascended an elevation to observe 

 the disposition of the grand vizier, and remarked 

 " He has selected a bad position. I understand 

 him ; he is ignorant, and persuaded of his own 

 genius. We shall gain no honour from this victory." 

 Sobieski was not deceived. The next day the 

 Turks were driven from their camp in terror, 

 leaving behind the holy standard of Mohammed, 

 which the conqueror sent to the pope with the 

 following letter : " I came, I saw, and God has con- 

 quered." On his entrance into Vienna, at the head 

 of his victorious Poles, the inhabitants received him 

 with indescribable enthusiasm. They pressed around 

 to embrace his feet, to touch his garments or his 

 horse, and proclaimed him their saviour and deliverer. 

 He was moved even to tears, and, under the strong 

 impulse of his feelings, called this the happiest day 

 of his life. In 1693, he was attacked by a dangerous 

 sickness, and was doomed to witness that dissension 

 which usually attends the election of a king in 

 Poland. Foreign enemies united with domestic 

 factions. Sobieski was no longer in a condition to 

 quiet the disturbances, and the moment was fast ap- 

 proaching which was to deprive him at once of his life 

 and his throne. The queen wished him to make a 

 will, and communicated her wishes through one of 

 the bishops. He refused, asserting that, in a nation 

 like his, party rage would prevail over all his 

 influence. He died 1696, in the twenty-third year 

 of his reign. Scarcely had he closed his eyes, when 

 jealousy and envy united to stain his memory. 

 Some reproached him with having purchased lands 

 contrary to the laws, which forbade the king to hold 

 any private property. Others maintained that the 

 Christian league which he had joined against the 

 Turks, had cost his country more than 200,000 men. 

 Others still asserted that he was too fond of money 

 and expensive journeys. Certainly no court was 

 ever less stationary than his. He performed the tour 

 of Poland every year with his queen, and visited all 

 his estates, like a nobleman. This fault, however, 

 if it may be called a fault, should not cast a veil over 

 the virtues of Sobieski. He was fond of the sciences, 

 spoke several languages, and deserved to be loved 

 for his gentleness and affability. His three sons died 

 without leaving any male descendants. The 

 character of Sobieski is displayed in the Lettreg du 



