Arming of the Turks.A vast armament was in preparation at Constantinople, and no one in Europe knew against whom it would first be directed. Troops were daily arriving from the interior of Asia, and Greece was made subject to a searching levy. It was plainly time for the European powers to show themselves united against the common enemy, but there was little prospect of such a combination. Louis had lately concluded a peace with the Emperor at Nimeguen (1679), but it was scarcely more than a suspension of hostilities.
Polish Embassies in Europe.The Polish ambassador, Radziwill, had no success at the court of Vienna. He could not persuade Leopold that he was in greater danger than Poland. But his proposals were not merely defensive. He urged the formation of a league, “which should hurl back the monster into his native deserts, and revive from its ruins the ancient empire of Byzantium.”[77] But when he arrived at Rome (July, 1680) he found the Pope very favourably disposed towards a crusade. The chair was now filled by Innocent XI., an Austrian by birth, who feared that Vienna was the object of attack, and saw at once that Italy must stand or fall with it. He had been formerly Papal Nuncio in Poland, and in that capacity had bestowed his blessing on the marriage of Sobieski. He now promised his hearty aid to the king, whom he styled, “The invincible lieutenant of the God of armies, that brazen wall against which all the efforts of the barbarians have been dashed in pieces.” He agreed forthwith to furnish a large subsidy.
Alliance with the Pope.This close alliance with the Pope widened the breach between Sobieski and the court of France. There could be no peace between such haughty characters as Innocent XI. and Louis XIV., and they were often at open enmity about the Gallican clergy. Louis hated the Pope above all things for his sympathy with the Austrian court. He now sought to counteract his influence by sending as ambassador to Warsaw Forbin-Janson, at this time bishop of Beauvais, who was to be assisted by Vitry, a man of great resource.
Diet of 1681.When the king assembled the next Diet at Warsaw (Jan. 1681) he found the French party for the first time arrayed against him. He had to report that his embassies had met with complete success only at Rome, but that Savoy and Portugal had sent him their good wishes. The majority of the Diet supported him in his schemes against the Porte; but French intrigue protracted the session for months, and finally dissolved it by the veto on a frivolous pretext. Indignant at these proceedings, Innocent XI., during his lifetime, withheld from Forbin-Janson the Cardinal’s hat, which had been promised him at the accession of Sobieski. Peace with Turkey.Fortunately, however, the Grand Vizier suddenly assumed a peaceful attitude towards Poland, and sent an envoy with conditions which she could honourably accept. Mustapha was evidently bent on some more vast design; but though he studiously concealed its nature, John seems to have divined it from the first.
1681-2.He spent the two succeeding years in strengthening and disciplining his army, and in those peaceful employments to which he was so much attached. At a wild spot, six miles from Warsaw, he constructed his palace of Willanow, and introduced on his estate the Dutch system of farming. For a time all the clamours of faction were hushed; but it was only the calm which heralds the approaching storm.
Designs of Louis XIV.Louis XIV. had never abandoned his encroachments upon the empire. At the end of 1681 he availed himself of a legal fiction, created by his own “Chambers of Reunion,” to occupy Strasburg, Casale, and other important towns on the imperial frontier. The Diet of Ratisbon vehemently protested against this spoliation, but in vain. They did not dare to provoke him to open war; for it was known that his envoys were strongly urging the Turks to invade Austria. His plan seems to have been to acquire the glory of saving the Empire after the fall of its capital, and to exact in return for his services large territorial concessions. His ambition was to have the Dauphin proclaimed king of the Romans.
The Turks protect Hungary.At length his policy seemed on the point of success. Kara Mustapha threw off the mask (1682), and declaring Hungary tributary to the Sultan, announced his intention of protecting the new province. Count Emeric Tekeli, who had ably headed its revolt since 1678, was invested with the caphtan as hospodar. Schemes of Leopold.Leopold vainly endeavoured, by his minister Caprara, to obtain a renewal of the peace made with the Turks in 1664; but the influence of France in the divan was too strong for him. He then turned to the Diet at Ratisbon;[78] but its counsels were divided, the western electors being in favour of war with France. His only hope seemed to be an alliance with Poland, yet his relations with the king were not cordial, and he had lately refused his offer of a league. He made the attempt, however, and succeeded beyond his hopes. John was convinced that the peace which he had concluded with the Turks was merely temporary. It therefore seemed his duty to strike at once while he could be sure of an ally. Such a course was in keeping with his life-long purpose to curb the Ottoman power. It also agreed well with the hatred which his queen had conceived against the court of France, and the promise of an archduchess for his son was not to be despised.
Offers of France to the king.Louis left no stone unturned to divert him from his resolution. He tempted him with the provinces of Silesia and Hungary, to become the property not of the republic but of the king and his heirs, if he would join him against the Empire; French conspiracy against him. and finding him proof against his offers he began a conspiracy to dethrone him. On the assembling of the next Diet (January 27th, 1683) the heat of parties was tremendous. When Leopold’s ambassador, the Count of Walstein, and Palaviccini, the Papal Nuncio, had stated their proposals of alliance, the deputies in the pay of France put in their protest. Besides placing every obstacle in the way of public business, they appealed to the outside public. Pamphlets appeared daily in which the policy of the king was warmly condemned. The selfish cabinet of Austria, which had refused to save Poland, was declared her eternal enemy, and the nobles were warned that the king could not ally himself with such a court without imbibing its despotic views.
Discovered by the king.The opposition gathered strength, and the consequences might have been serious had not the king fortunately intercepted some letters of the French ambassador, which disclosed the details of his plot (March). He read these letters in full Diet, and their contents excited the utmost indignation. The ambassador boasted that through Morstyn, the Grand Treasurer, he knew all the secrets of the cabinet, that he had bought over numbers of the principal nobles, whose names he gave, and that the nation was so venal that he felt certain of destroying the league. He added that the king had rejected all his offers, but that he trusted to make him powerless. Among the nobles mentioned were Jablonowski, now Grand General of Poland, and Sapieha, who, since the death of Michael Paz, had been Grand General of Lithuania. The latter belonged to a family upon which the king had showered his favours.
His tact.John used this information with wonderful tact. He at once declared that the ambassador, to show his zeal to his master, had evidently slandered the grandees; Morstyn alone, whose guilt was proved by a letter in his own hand, deserved the punishment of treason. The king concluded by saying that he trusted the Diet would help him to show the French king that the Polish nation was not altogether venal. The speech was received with shouts of applause, and the suspected nobles were now foremost in supporting the king. A similar change took place in the nation, and the French ambassador found it unsafe to go abroad without an escort. The Grand Treasurer would have been brought to trial if he had not escaped to France.