His sons.The history of his three sons deserves a word of remark. Charles XII., who as a boy was a devoted admirer of John Sobieski,[147] invaded Poland in 1705, and would have offered the crown to Prince James; but the prince, being then in Germany with his brother Constantine, was seized by the Saxon troops, and honourably confined at Leipsic; and, as his brother Alexander nobly refused to profit by his misfortune, the opportunity passed by. Alexander died at Rome as a capuchin, and his two brothers resided in Poland on their estates. James Sobieski had two daughters, of whom the younger, Maria Clementina, was married to the Chevalier St. George, called the “Old Pretender,” and became the mother of the unhappy Charles Edward.
Character of John Sobieski,The life and exploits of John Sobieski have in modern times scarcely received their due meed of attention. Born in a country half civilized, half barbarous, whose independence has now been completely effaced, his glory has not proved so enduring as that of less remarkable men who have figured on a more conspicuous stage. As general, as patriot, and as Christian hero, he will bear comparison with the greatest names in any age. As general.No man ever won so many battles in the most desperate situations; no man ever achieved such deeds with forces often insignificant and always unruly. His fertility of resource was amazing; yet it was only equal to the swiftness of his execution. His chief glory is that, unlike any other great conqueror, his grandest triumphs were obtained in defensive warfare, and that all his efforts were directed either to the salvation of his country or to the honour of his religion. As patriot.His individual greatness appears most striking in the ascendancy which he early acquired in his own country. His frank and simple bearing, his noble mien, and his stirring eloquence, enabled him, while he was still a subject, to sway the minds and wills of his fellow-countrymen as if by an irresistible charm.As Christian hero. He laboured for the safety of Poland with a perfect singleness of aim; and when that was fully secured, he strove with a like fixity of purpose for the destruction of the Ottoman power. To us his crusading ardour may seem to have been out of date, but we must remember that in the seventeenth century the Turks still inspired a lively alarm, and that if at the present day we regard them with pity or contempt, the first step towards this change was accomplished by the sword of John Sobieski.
As king.As a king, he is not entitled to the same high praise. In a land of peace and order he might have ranked as a benefactor to his people, but in the home of licence and anarchy his temper was too gentle and refined to employ the severity which was needed. A king of Poland, if he was to heal the disorders of his realm, must first have made himself feared; the natural temperament of Sobieski made him prefer to be loved. Clemency and generous forgiveness were parts of his disposition;[148] and the necessary result upon his policy was that he resigned himself too easily to bear the vexations which surrounded him. When he did act, his method was most unwise; for in his principal attempt at reform—when he aimed at establishing hereditary succession—he exposed himself to the charge of a grasping self-interest.
As head of his family.But we cannot acquit him of deplorable weakness in the management of his own family. A hasty passion had thrown him into the power of an unscrupulous and despotic woman, and his uxorious fondness left her only too much scope for the activity of her caprice. We have seen more than once that he could oppose her when his duty seemed clearly marked out for him; but, for the sake of his own peace, he allowed her to intermeddle without ceasing in the affairs of Poland. The only result of his indulgence was that very misery in his domestic circle which he had sought to avoid. Of the charge against him of avarice we have already spoken. His chivalrous enthusiasm and cultivated intelligence would have gone far to disprove it, even if the treasure which he left behind him had not been found to be only moderate.
His great services,His services to his country were extraordinary, although he himself confessed that he could not arrest her fall. He found her at the opening of his career plunged in civil strife and beset with foreign enemies; he left her at its close with peace fully assured to her, and with her glory at its zenith. Within two years of his death the peace of Carlowitz was signed with the Turks, by which they renounced all claim to Kaminiec, Podolia, and the Ukraine. The fruit of his victories was thus fully reaped; but his efforts to revive commerce and to form an infantry among the serfs, which would have been the first step to their emancipation, were never afterwards renewed. Could only retard the fall of Poland.A patriot life like his may be said to have tried the institutions of his country, and to have found them wanting. After seventy-five years of anarchy, that dreaded Partition, which had been mooted in his day[149] but which he had postponed for a hundred years, was at length carried into effect. Austria, whom he had saved by his prowess, Prussia, whom he had hoped to reunite to his country, Russia, whom his ancestor[150] had laid at her feet—each took a share of the spoil. No other patriot arose to save Poland from her rapid decline; and John Sobieski may be called the last, as he was the greatest, of her independent kings.
Oxford: A. Thomas Shrimpton and Son, 23 and 24, Broad Street.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The burghers, however, were under a separate civil jurisdiction. A tribunal for administering this foreign or Teutonic law was established in 1347 in six principal towns.
[2] Poland in the seventeenth century measured 2600 miles in circumference, while France measured only 2040.
[3] Cosmography, by Peter Heylin, published in 1648, reprinted from his Microcosmus, published in 1621.