John III Sobieski

“ But you have another claim upon my sympathy, for you are a Polish woman, and I can never forget that, but for John Sobieski, Vienna would have been a prey to the infidel."
"Upon your majesty's generous remembrance of Sobieski's alliance rests the last hope of Poland!" exclaimed the countess, kneeling and kissing the hand of the empress. "God has inclined to her redemption the heart of the noblest woman in Europe, and through her magnanimity will the wicked Empress of Russia receive her check. ”

“ At the death of the great John Sobieski, King of Poland, the father of his people, there arose a deep-rooted conspiracy in certain neighboring states, jealous of his late power and glorious name, determining to undermine the accession of his family to the throne; and they found an apt soil to work on in a corresponding feeling ready to break out amongst some of the most influential nobles of the realm. Foreign and domestic revolutionists soon understand each other ”

“ We know that such a king will maintain our nation in the rank which it occupies in the world. Such a man as he is will never make himself a vassal of the infidel. Poles, if we are deliberating here in peace on the election of a king, if the most illustrious dynasties are courting our suffrages, if our liberty remains secure, if even we have a country left to us, to whom do we owe it? Remember the marvels of Slobodyszcza, of Podhaic, of Kalusz, above all, of Kotzim, and take for your king John Sobieski! ”

“ The garrison emerged from the city, and coöperated with the victors, and booty of indescribable value fell into their hands. As Sobieski took possession of the abandoned camp, stored with all the wealth and luxuries of the East, he wrote, in a tone of pleasantry to his wife,
"The grand vizier has left me his heir, and I inherit millions of ducats. When I return home I shall not be met with the reproach of the Tartar wives, 'You are not a man, because you have come back without booty.'"
The inhabitants of Vienna flocked out from the city to greet the king as an angel deliverer sent from heaven. ”

“ King Jan Sobieski sending Message of Victory to the Pope, after the Battle of Vienna, September 12, 1683 The Immortal God, (to whom Honour and Glory be Ascribed for Ever) has Blest us with so Signal a Victory, as scarce the Memory of Man can Equal: The Enemy was not only content to Raise the Siege of Vienna, and Leave us Masters of the Field ”

“ Resumption of the war.During the absence of Charles in Prussia, a confederation was formed in the palatinate of Beltz under the auspices of the absent Casimir, to which Sobieski attached himself, and with him the able generals Lubomirski and Czarnieçki. When Charles returned he found that he had the greater part of Poland to re-conquer. Successes of Sobieski.In conveying his army through the marshes of Little Poland, he was blocked up between the Vistula and the San by Sobieski’s cavalry, and was only extricated by the prompt arrival of reinforcements. ”

“ Yet a few weeks later the Polish commander-in-chief formed a whole series of conspiracies for the purpose of dethroning his lawful sovereign, and openly placed himself beneath the protection of Louis XIV. of France, just as the rebels of the 18th century placed themselves under the protection of Catherine II. of Russia. And this rebel was none other than John Sobieski, at a later day the heroic deliverer of Vienna! If heroes could so debase themselves, can we wonder if men who were not heroes lent themselves to every sort of villainy? ”

“ He gained an easy victory over the divided forces of the republic, and entered Warsaw at the end of the month. Cracow surrendered early in October, and, as Casimir had fled into Silesia, the whole country lay at his feet. Charles X. conquers Poland,Surrounded by such a host of enemies, the nobles seemed to have no choice but to offer the crown to Charles X.; and the standing army, called Quartians, [28] among whom Sobieski commanded a troop, took the oath to the king of Sweden. But alienates it.But Charles was not inclined to keep faith with a people whom he had conquered in three months. ”

“ There can not be, this side of the world of woe, any thing more terrible than such an event.
The emperor, in his terror, had dispatched envoys all over Germany to rally troops for the defense of Vienna and the empire. He himself had hastened to Poland, where, with frantic intreaties, he pressed the king, the renowned John Sobieski, whose very name was a terror, to rush to his relief. Sobieski left orders for a powerful army immediately to commence their march. ”

“ Here the thinned and bleeding battalions of the grand vizier sought refuge. Sobieski and the Duke of Lorraine, flushed with victory, hurled their masses upon the disheartened foe, and the Turks were routed with enormous slaughter. Seven thousand gory corpses of the dead strewed the plain. Many thousands were driven into the river and drowned. The fortress was taken, sword in hand; and the remnant of the Moslem army, in utter discomfiture, fled down the Danube, hardly resting, by night or by day, till they were safe behind the ramparts of Belgrade. ”

“ The Poles hastily buried their dead in order to conceal their losses, and were so dispirited that the king could scarcely persuade them to wipe out the defeat. Great victory of Sobieski at Parkan.Although three days after he says [60] that his body is “as black as a coal,” [115] his exertions were unremitting to prepare his army for a grand attack. The Turks, as he had expected, were elated at their victory. A report spread widely among them, which even reached the European courts, that the hero had been slain; and they took a fresh lease of courage. The Vizier sent them reinforcements ”

“ Sobieski proscribed.and Sobieski, with others of the leading nobles, was proscribed. This violence raised a similar storm in the Polish army in Russia, who surrounded their general, and swore to follow him to the end of the earth. “I accept your oaths,” was his answer, “and the first thing I require of you is to save Poland.”
Yet Poland seemed lost beyond all hope. Sobieski’s troops scarcely amounted to 30,000 men, and there was now no chance of uniting them to the Pospolite. The Sultan takes Kaminiec,The Grand General flew to Kaminiec to reinforce and provision the garrison ”

“ 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. ”

“ The distracted state of Poland, where the helpless Michael Coribut Wieçnowiçki bore but the empty title of king, precluded the possibility of even an attempt at resistance, and the grand marshal of the kingdom, the heroic John Sobieski, who, with only 6000 men, had held his ground against the Cossacks, Turks, and Tartars, through the preceding winter, was compelled to withdraw from Podolia. ”

“ As our eye wanders over the royal and noble ranks, glittering with the insignia of their rank and military command, it rests on a slender youth of middle stature, whose eye has in it the promise of a future career of glory. Yes, you have guessed aright: the prince, his eldest brother, has already fallen in the cause; but Eugene of Savoy has escaped [269] to draw his maiden sword in the defence of the faith, and to learn under Sobieski his first lessons of that science in which he was hereafter to share the battle-fields and renown of our own Marlborough. ”

“ Prince James is led to the feet of his heroic father to receive the still honourable and sacred dignity of Christian knighthood. When this was done, the ardour of Sobieski became impatient of further delay. He sprang into his saddle, and riding forward to the front of the line, spoke to his followers in their own language: “Warriors and friends,” he said, “our enemies are yonder in the plain, in greater numbers than at Choczim, when we trampled [270] them under our feet. We fight them on a foreign soil, but we fight for our country ”

“ 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 [71] 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 ”

“ In Poland there was neither a republic nor a monarchy, but the sovereignty of one man under the control of an unrestrained class, which mistook licence for freedom. In order to understand the position of Sobieski and the difficulties with which he had to contend, a short account of the Polish constitution is indispensable.
Monarchy generally becomes elective.The authority of the king was originally absolute, but in a nation of fierce warriors he was easily controlled by armed assemblies of his subjects. His consulting them, though at first only a mark of favour, was soon looked upon as a right ”

“ Father Voynovski had tears in his eyes, the Bukoyemskis were weeping like beavers. Emotion and enthusiasm seized every man present.
"On the pagans, for the faith!" roared many voices. And then began rattling of sabres. But when it had grown somewhat quiet Pani Tachevski bent to the ear of her husband and, with pale lips, whispered into it,--
"O Yatsek, wonder not at my tears, for if thou go I may never see thee hereafter--but go!" ”

“ Then the king again spoke,--
"Enjoy your happiness quickly," said he to Tachevski, "for it deserves that, and it will not be long. Thou shouldst remain here a few days, but then thou must follow on quickly for we shall not wait for thee."
"It is easier for her to hold out without thee, than Vienna without us," said Pan Marek Matchynski, smiling at Yatsek.
"But Lyubomirski is shelling out the Turks there," said one of the hussars.
"I have good news from our men," said the king. "This I have commanded Matchynski to bring, to be read to you, and gladden the hearts of our warriors. ”

“ John advances into Hungary.At length (September 17) , weary of waiting for the Imperial troops, he started for the Danube. His design was to attack Lower Hungary, which had been a Turkish province for a hundred and fifty years, and to invest Buda, its capital. Thither the Vizier had retired to rally the remains of his army, and was avenging his defeat by the execution of a crowd of pachas. The Turks could hardly believe that the Christians would retaliate at once by invading their territory, and Sobieski’s advance created the utmost alarm. ”

“ The French fleet was destroyed, by very superior numbers, at La Hogue, and the Grand Alliance, aided at last by the ships, and the men, and the money of England, bore down the resistance of exhausted France. William was acknowledged King of England at the close of a struggle which had begun twenty-five years before. Lewis, having formally offered to support James's election to the throne of Poland, when Sobieski died, gave him up. Vauban complained that the war had been too prosperous on the Continent to justify so disastrous a termination. ”

“ The Czar Alexis massed 80,000 troops on the frontier in support of the candidature of his son, but the Poles took little notice either of him or his manœuvres. The Prince of Condé was supported by Sobieski and many of the Senate, but the prejudice against a Frenchman was universal among the lesser nobles. The two candidates most in favour were Prince Charles of Lorraine, secretly supported by Austria, and Philip, Duke of Neuberg, who, though sixty years of age, was set up as the real choice alike of the King of France and the Emperor. ”

“ The Seraskier knew the straits to which the Poles were reduced, and he therefore sent an envoy to propose the ratification of the treaty of Buczacz and an offensive alliance against Muscovy. Refused by the king.John replied shortly that he would hang the next man who brought him such a message. [42] The bombardment recommenced, and the soldiers murmured against their king’s obstinacy. Paz repaired to the royal tent and announced his intention to desert. “Desert who will,” cried John, “the Turks shall not reach the heart of the republic without passing over my corpse.” ”

“ The king notices bitterly that, since the arrival of the Emperor, everyone shunned them as if they had the plague. [103] The Poles were furious at this studied neglect, and besought John to lead them back at once to Poland. “Our subalterns regret that we have succoured the Emperor; they wish now that the proud race had perished beyond hope of resurrection.” [104]
So seldom had the army served beyond the frontiers, that its discipline, never strictly enforced, was now scarcely regarded; and numbers left the ranks and took the nearest road to their homes. ”

“ The familiar chant and its associations produced a dead calm in the tempestuous assembly, and at its conclusion the prelate ordered each palatinate to range itself round the banner of its palatine. Jablonowski proposes Sobieski.While his orders were being obeyed, Jablonowski, palatine of Red Russia, the home of Sobieski, took advantage of the silence to address all those within hearing. He represented Lorraine as too devoted to the empire, Neuberg as too young, Condé as too old, to command their armies with vigour. ”