CHAPTER III.

Poland becomes an elective Monarchy.-Religious Toleration.-Henry of Anjou elected.-Henry absconds.-Stephen Batory.-Introduces the Jesuits.-Disciplines the Cossacks.--Origin, Manners, &c., of the Cossacks.-Sigismund III., Prince of Sweden, elected.― Swedes revolt and expel Sigismund. Demetrius the Russian Impostor.War with Russia.-The Poles take Moscow, and carry Czar prisoner to Warsaw.-A Pole, Czar of Russia.-Zolkiewski. War with Gustavus Adolphus.-Wladislas VII. The Revolt of the Cossacks.-Casimir III.--Charles Gustavus overruns Poland.-Is repelled.-Treaty of Oliva.— Project of Partition.-Revolts of the Nobles.-Casimir abdicates the Throne.-Liberum Veto.

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SIGISMUND'S funeral bell was the tocsin of anarchy in Poland. Being without a male heir, this last of the Jagellons restored the crown to his subjects for their disposal, a trust which occasioned them much perplexity. The nobles, among whom had sprung up that spirit of equality and jealousy which had so entrenched on the regal authority, would not bend to a rival of their own order; and with the same feeling, which has made them in late years rather submit to the domineering and treacherous interference of foreign powers than bear any stretch or even appearance of power in their peers, they preferred to look abroad for a king. The Polish crown thus became a prize of competition for foreign princes, and it still possessed

sufficient temptations to have many candidates; for besides the opportunity that a monarch, backed with extraneous forces, might have of extending the authority, there remained still many important privileges like interstices between the inclosures of the laws. The neighbouring potentates now began a struggle for Poland, and at length the unhappy country became the prey of their conflicting interests in addition to the evils of civil dissension.

During the interregnum which succeeded the death of Sigismund, the Archbishop of Gnesne, on whom the authority devolved at such times, convoked the diet to debate on the choice of a new king. In this meeting, which was held in 1573, the laws were passed which regulated the elections. The motion. made by John Zamoyski, representative of Belz, in Gallicia, that all the nobles should have a voice in the nomination, was carried; and it was agreed, that they should meet in a plain near Warsaw. In this diet also the coronation-oath, or pacta conventa, was revised. The principal articles were the same as have been even since administered to the kings-elect, stripping the monarch of all active power, making the crown elective, and requiring regular convocations of the diet every two years. They bound him also to observe perfect toleration of religious principles, promising among themselves, (inter nos dissidentes de religione,) as well for themselves as their posterity, never to take up arms on account of diversity in

religious tenets. The Roman Catholic, however, remained the state religion, and the kings were bound to be of that profession of faith.

The nobles accordingly assembled at Warsaw, armed, and with all their pomp of retinue. Several candidates were nominated, among whom were Ernest, son of the Emperor Maximilian of Austria, and Henry, Duke of Anjou, son of Catharine de Medicis, and brother of Charles IX. the reigning king of France. The latter was the successful competitor, and an embassy was sent to Paris to announce the decision. We cannot refrain from inserting, at full length, the description given of this Polish deputation by an eye-witness then living at Paris :

"It is impossible to express the general astonishment when we saw these ambassadors in long robes, fur caps, sabres, arrows, and quivers; but our admiration was excessive when we saw the sumptuousness of their equipages, the scabbards of their swords adorned with jewels, their bridles, saddles, and horse-cloths decked in the same way, and the air of consequence and dignity. by which they were distinguished. One of the most remarkable circumstances was their facility in expressing themselves in Latin, French, German, and Italian. These four languages were as familiar to them as their vernacular tongue. There were only two men of rank at court who could answer them in Latin, the Baron of Millau and the Marquis of Castelnau-Maurissière. They had been commissioned expressly to support the

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honour of the French nation that had reason to blush at their ignorance in this point. . . . . They (the ambassadors) spoke our language with so much purity, that one would have taken them rather for men educated on the banks of the Seine and the Loire, than for inhabitants of the countries which are watered by the Vistula or the Dnieper, which put our courtiers to the blush, who knew nothing, but were open enemies of all science; so that when their guests questioned them, they answered only with signs or blushes."*

Thus was Henry called to the throne, and he who was engaged at the very moment of his election in fighting against the Protestants †, now took the oath of toleration to all dissenters and sectaries. He accepted the crown reluctantly; for, although all was ready for the king's departure to Poland, this prince did not hurry to set out. However honourable the object of his voyage, he regarded it as an exile. But no sooner had he reached Poland, than he was informed of the death of his brother, and the vacancy of the French throne. Not choosing to forfeit his hereditary right and the substantial authority of the crown of France, and knowing that the Poles would not allow him to swerve from his oath, which bound him to reside in Poland, he took the singular resolu

* Histoire de J. A. De Thou, &c.

+ He was besieging Rochelle, which was in the possession of the Huguenots.

De Thou. Vol. IV. Liv. 22.

tion to abscond, and leave the country by stealth. He was overtaken a few leagues from Cracow by one of the Polish nobles, but resolutely refused to return *.

This singular and unexpected event renewed the factions, some of which called Maximilian of Austria to the throne, but were at last obliged to yield to the opposite party, who chose Anne, the sister of Sigismund, and Stephen Batory, Duke of Transylvania, for her husband, A. D. 1575.

This prince was possessed of rare qualities and high talent, having raised himself by his valour, and without the least violence or collusion, to the dukedom of Transylvania; and he was now called spontaneously to the Polish throne. Nor did he degenerate after his exaltation, vanquishing the Russians in a series of battles, distinguished by striking features of barbarity on the side of the enemy, and valour, chastened with mercy, on that of Batory. Peace was at length concluded by the interposition of Possevin, the Jesuit, and legate from the Pope.

This was the circumstance which gave the Jesuits an introduction into Poland. Their order was then only noted for its learning; and Batory, imagining he was acting for the improvement of his people, entrusted to them the care of the University of Wilna, which he had just founded. Succeeding years, how

*The Relazione di Polonia, mentioned in the preceding chapter, contains a full account of this proceeding, which, as the author says, is so singular, that "non si trova in alcun istoria antica ò moderna un caso tale."