John III Sobieski | King of Poland, Hero of Vienna (2024)

John III Sobieski (born August 17, 1629, Olesko, Poland—died June 17, 1696, Wilanów) was the elective king of Poland (1674–96), a soldier who drove back the Ottoman Turks and briefly restored the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania to greatness for the last time.

Early life and career

Sobieski’s ancestors were of the lesser nobility, but one of his great-grandfathers was the famous grand-hetman (military commander) St. Żółkiewski, and, when John was born, his father, James (Jakub) (1588–1646), had already taken a step to the higher ranks, sharing an office on the royal court. At the end of his life, the father even became castellan of Kraków, an office that secured him the highest rank among the members of the Polish Senate, or first chamber of the parliament.

John was well educated and toured western Europe in his youth, as was usual for a Polish noble of his class. When the Swedes invaded Poland in 1655, he joined them in opposition to the Polish king John Casimir. The following year he changed sides again and became one of the leaders in the fight to expel the Swedes. In 1665, through the influence of his patroness, Queen Maria Louisa (Ludwika), he was appointed to the prestigious office of grand marshal. In 1666 he became hetman of the Polish army. In October 1667 he defeated the Tatars and the Cossacks near Podhajce (now Podgaytsy, in Ukraine), and in the spring of 1668, when he triumphantly returned to Warsaw, he was named grand-hetman. In 1665 he had married an ambitious young French widow, Marie-Casimire de la Grange d’Arquien (Marysieńka). Marysieńka planned to have John elected king after King John Casimir’s resignation in 1668. When this plan failed—the nobility elected Michael Wiśniowiecki in 1669—she began working to obtain support from Louis XIV of France for her husband’s advancement. Since they were often separated—the husband on the front, his wife on journeys to France—Sobieski wrote long letters to Marysieńka, which are now a highly interesting and important historical source. Her letters have not been preserved.

During the short reign of King Michael (1669–73), Sobieski distinguished himself by further victories over the Cossacks, and simultaneously he tried to undermine Michael, whose policies favoured the Habsburgs against France. Michael died in November 1673, and almost on the same day Sobieski won a splendid victory over the Turks under Hussein Paşa near Chocim (Hoţin). Although this victory did not alter the disastrous conditions of the Peace of Buczacz concluded in 1672 (Poland had to cede territory to the Turks and to pay a considerable indemnity), Sobieski’s reputation was so great that in May 1674 he was elected king in preference to the candidate backed by the Habsburgs.

At first Sobieski followed a pro-French policy. He tried to end the Turkish war by French mediation and concluded the secret Treaty of Jaworów with France (June 1675), in which he promised to fight the Holy Roman (Habsburg) emperor after the conclusion of peace with the Turks. In fact, only an armistice with them was concluded at Żórawno (October 1676), and the conditions were only slightly more favourable than those of Buczacz.

Sobieski’s hopes of compensating for losses to the Turks in the southeast by using French and Swedish support to make territorial gains from Prussia in the northwest were also disappointed. Furthermore, Louis XIV was neither ready to recognize Marysieńka’s French relatives as members of a royal family nor willing to support the succession of Sobieski’s son James (Jakub) to the Polish throne. The great nobles, especially those from Lithuania, were opposed to the French alliance because they feared that Sobieski was striving to attain absolute power with the help of France. It was becoming clear, moreover, that it was impossible to reconcile the interests of Poland and those of Louis, whose aim was to use Sobieski as an obedient vassal against the Habsburgs. Poland, for its part, had no differences with the Habsburgs and, after a series of Turkish attacks, came to regard the Ottomans, the allies of France, as its deadliest enemies.

The siege of Vienna

Sobieski, therefore, though always an admirer of France, shifted away from the French alliance and concluded a treaty with the Holy Roman emperor Leopold I against the Turks (April 1, 1683). By the terms of the treaty, each ally had to support the other with all his might if the other’s capital were to be besieged. Thus, when a great Turkish army approached Vienna late in the summer of 1683, Sobieski himself rushed there with about 25,000 men. Because he had the highest rank of all military leaders gathered to relieve Vienna, he took command of the entire relief force (about 75,000 men) and achieved a brilliant victory over the Turks at the Kahlenberg (September 12, 1683), in one of the decisive battles of European history.

In the campaign that followed in Hungary (in the autumn of 1683), however, Sobieski was less successful, and his relations with the emperor Leopold deteriorated because of differences in temperament and conflicting political plans. Sobieski’s idea was to liberate Moldavia and Walachia (present-day Romania) from Ottoman rule and to expand Poland’s influence to the shores of the Black Sea. But his advances into Moldavia, undertaken between 1684 and 1691, were mostly failures, and during the last one he was even in danger of being captured. Despite his previous victories, he was thus not able to achieve his objective. Only in 1699, three years after his death, were the territories that had been lost in 1672 recovered.

In the last years of his life, from 1691 until his death in 1696, Sobieski was often seriously ill and had to face quarrels with the nobles and within his own family. His eldest son, James, was bitterly opposed to the queen and the younger princes. All of Sobieski’s sons were interested in succeeding to the throne and tried to obtain help, either from the emperor or from France. The marriage of Sobieski’s daughter Kunegunda to Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria (1694), was the only bright spot in these rather gloomy years.

Although the second half of the reign was much less brilliant than the first, the personal wealth of the royal couple continued to grow because they knew how to obtain money in exchange for offices and favour. Thus, the king left a considerable fortune when he died.

Sobieski also spent large sums on his residences in Żółkiew and Jaworów and especially on the palace of Wilanów near Warsaw, a fine example of Baroque architecture. He was also a patron of poets and painters. Of all the Polish rulers of the 17th century, he was the best educated and took the greatest interest in literature and cultural life.

The struggle against Ottoman power in Europe was the keystone of Sobieski’s foreign policy, with which all other foreign relations were closely connected. When the Russians, traditionally Poland’s enemies, showed willingness to join the league against the Turks, Sobieski concluded with them the “Eternal” Peace of 1686 (the Grzymułtowski Peace). In this treaty, Kiev, which had been under temporary Russian rule since 1667, was permanently ceded by Poland. But despite all the failures and disappointments he experienced after 1683, Sobieski was able to deliver southeastern Poland from the threat of Ottoman and Tatar attack.

In domestic policy Sobieski was least successful. All his endeavours to strengthen the position of the crown and stabilize the army failed completely, and his own sons opposed him. The nobles showed little interest in defending the country after the great victory of 1683 had been won, and the Lithuanian magnates fought each other rather than the Turks. Thus, John Sobieski, although a brilliant general and organizer, was unable to prevent rebellion in his family and the dissension among his subjects that finally led to Poland’s downfall in the 18th century. This tends to make him, in the final reckoning, a somewhat tragic figure.