sion of the Ukraine mander, as a frontier guard, had once been the most faithful friends Oppres- of Poland, but had now become by oppression her most inveterate enemies a result caused by the non-residence of the landholders, who were mainly Polish nobles and themselves never visited the Ukraine, Cossacks. but intrusted the charge of their estates to stewards or middlemen, who enriched themselves by a double system of plunder from both landlords and tenants. After one revolt of the Cossacks had been suppressed, the Diet of Poland passed a decree annulling almost all the liberties of those brave and warlike people, thus completely alienating them and winning their inveterate animosity. Cossack Revolt A comparatively private instance of tyranny brought matters to a crisis. A Cossack named Bogdan, who dwelt on the banks of the Bogdan. Dnieper, had saved the wife of the Castellan of Cracow from being under John Casimir, A. D. 1648 captured by the Turks; and the castellan had rewarded him with a windmill and a small estate adjoining, where he lived happily until the death of the castellan, when the steward sought to deprive him of his property. Bogdan resisted; whereupon the steward fired his house, and his wife and infant son perished in the flames. This outrage was well calculated to rouse the passions of the already-excited Cossacks, who immediately flew to arms, solicited aid from the Turks, and were speedily reinforced by an army of forty thousand Tartars of the Crimea. Bogdan assumed the position of hetman of this Tartar army, and made himself master of the entire Ukraine; after which he led his army into Poland, where his troops perpetrated the most horrible deeds of violence. In the midst of this war King Ladislas VII. of Poland died, A. D. 1648, whereupon his brother JOHN CASIMIR was elected King of Poland by the Polish Diet. John Casimir's reign was an unfortunate one for 1668. his country. With the support of Sultan Mohammed IV. of Turkey, Bogdan's Bogdan assumed the title of Prince of the Ukraine, laid waste all of Ravages. Lithuania, and everywhere reduced the convents, the churches and the of Poland. Jesuit colleges to ashes. John Casimir unfortunately adopted the title of hereditary King of Swedish Sweden, thus provoking an invasion of Poland by King Charles X. of Invasion Sweden. John Casimir fled from Warsaw, which was entered by the Swedish monarch; but the insolence and oppression of the Swedish soldiers incensed the Poles, who fled in large numbers to join the standard of their fugitive king. The Czar Alexis of Russia, who had also invaded Poland, now concluded a truce with the Poles, who were also supported by Holland, Denmark, the Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg and the Emperor Leopold I. of Germany. By the Peace of Oliva, in 1660, John Casimir relinquished his foolish pretensions to the crown of Sweden. Peace of Cossack Submis sion. Peace of SOV with In the meantime Bogdan had died, and the Cossacks of the Ukraine had returned to their allegiance to Poland on receiving guarantees for their civil and religious liberties. But the war with Russia was renewed, and it continued until 1667, when the Peace of Andrussov was concluded, by which Russia retained Smolensk, Kiev, Tchernigov and all the country of the Cossacks east of the Dnieper. The territory Russia. of the Cossacks west of the Dnieper was annexed to Poland, and the Zaporog Cossacks, near the mouth of the same river, were placed under the common jurisdiction of Poland and Russia, ready to serve against the Turks as occasion demanded. The resources of Poland were also exhausted by a war with the Turks; though this war afforded a field for the development of the military genius of John Sobieski, "the Buckler of Christ," one of the greatest warriors of his time, who greatly distinguished himself in Poland's continual wars with the Cossacks, the Tartars, the Swedes, the Russians and the Turks, and who obtained the dignity of Grand Marshal of Poland. One of his most memorable exploits was the great victory which he won with only twenty thousand men over one hundred thousand Cossacks and Tartars in a series of battles lasting seventeen days, in 1667, thus saving Poland from destruction. During John Casimir's unfortunate reign the elegances of civilized life were introduced into Poland by intercourse with France, but the destructive wars with the Cossacks and the Tartars had injured commerce and retarded the progress of education. John So- bieski's over the Turke. Polish Civiliza tion. Veto. The Liberum Veto-a dangerous innovation introduced into the Liberum Polish Diet about this time-enabled any one member of the Diet to defeat any measure to which he was opposed, to stop the proceedings and even to dissolve the Diet. Scarcely any measure could be proposed in an assembly of four hundred persons which would receive the approbation of every one of them; and every member was thus enabled to prevent the passage of even the most important laws when he was influenced by passion, by private interest or by bribery from foreign sources. This absurd custom, so pregnant with disorders, hastened the ruin of Poland, which the want of a middle class was destined to bring on sooner or later. Finally John Casimir, worn out by misfortunes, and seeing his dominions depopulated by constant wars and pestilence, which he was unable to avert without great sacrifices, began to sigh again for the seclusion of the prelacy which he had exchanged for the Polish throne. Twenty years of his life had been imbittered by the cares and vexations of government when he resolved to abdicate his royal dignity. He therefore convened the Polish Diet in 1668, announced his resolution in an affecting speech, bade farewell to his subjects and his John Casimir's Abdica tion. Michael Wiesnowiski, A. D. 1669 1673. War with the Cossacks, Tartars and Turks. John So bieski's Victory over the Turks. John A. D. 16741696. country, and retired into France, where he was kindly received by King Louis XIV., and where he lived in a style suitable to his rank until his death, in 1672. John Casimir's abdication was followed by an interregnum of seven months; after which MICHAEL WIESNOWISKI was elected King of Poland in a stormy session of the Polish Diet, and was compelled to accept the Polish crown against his will. He had passed his previous life in a monastery, and was extremely poor and wholly unfit for his royal duties. His entire reign of four years, A. D. 1669-1673, was a period of internal dissension and virtual anarchy. Four Diets were dissolved in less than four years. In the midst of these domestic troubles the war with the Cossacks was renewed; and the Turks and Tartars, the allies of the Cossacks, invaded Poland, seized the city of Kaminiec in 1672, and gained possession of the Ukraine, in spite of the prodigies of valor and military skill of John Sobieski. King Michael Wiesnowiski, in a state of great alarm, concluded a humiliating peace with the Turks, ceding to them the city of Kaminiec and the province of Podolia, and even agreeing to pay to them an annual tribute of twenty-two thousand ducats. The Ukraine west of the Dnieper was relinquished to the Cossacks, who were to be placed under the protection of the Turks. The Polish Diet refused to ratify this treaty, as it preferred to continue the war. The day after King Michael Wiesnowiski's death, John Sobieski with a small force gained a brilliant victory near Kotzim over eighty thousand Turks, who fled, leaving forty thousand dead upon the field, November 11, 1673-a victory which electrified all Christendom. After an interregnum of some months, JOHN SOBIESKI was elected Sobieski, King of Poland by the national Diet at Wola in 1674, and was crowned at Cracow with unusual magnificence. He had the arduous task of raising his kingdom from a condition of extreme depression and embarrassment. By extraordinary exertions he augmented the military force of his kingdom, and by his prowess he rescued twothirds of the Ukraine from the Turks in 1676. By the Peace of Peace of Zarowno, October 26, 1676, the Turks were allowed to retain the city of Kaminiec, a part of the Ukraine and Podolia; but Poland was relieved from the tribute promised by Michael Wiesnowiski, and retained that part of the Ukraine wrested from the Turks. Zarowno. John Sobieski's Relief of Vienna. King John Sobieski attracted the attention of all Europe by his relief of Vienna from the besieging host of two hundred thousand Turks under Kara Mustapha in 1683, thus immortalizing his name and throwing a great splendor over the waning glories of Poland; but this splendor was only temporary, and did not for a moment arrest the rapid decline of the Polish kingdom. John Sobieski's talents were confined to brilliant military exploits. He was a great soldier, but no statesman. He could preserve Poland from her foreign foes, but was utterly unable to reduce the turbulent Polish nobility to order, or to put an end to the internal dissensions which distracted his unhappy kingdom. By the Treaty of Leopold, or Lemberg, in 1686, which John Sobieski signed with tears in his eyes, the hero-king was obliged to cede Smolensk, Kiev, Tchernigov, Little Russia and other territories, and the exclusive sovereignty of the territory of the Zaporog Cossacks, to the Czar of Russia, in order to obtain the Czar's alliance and aid against the Turks and the Tartars. His Failure as King. Peace of with Russia. bieski's Last Years. John Sobieski's last years were rendered sad by his failure to intro- John Soduce reforms into the Polish government. The nobles invariably interposed their Liberum Veto; and at the close of a stormy session of the Diet, in 1688, the unhappy king confessed with tears in his eyes that he was unable to save Poland. John Sobieski reigned as a mere crowned cipher until his death, in 1696; and with him ended the greatness of Poland. After an interregnum of some months, the Elector Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony was elected King of Poland in 1697 with the title of FREDERICK AUGUSTUS I. By the Peace of Carlowitz, in 1699, Poland recovered Kaminiec, Podolia and that part of the Ukraine ceded to the Turks by the Peace of Zarowno in 1676. Frederick Augustus I., A. D. 16971733. SECTION III.-FIRST CZARS AND EARLIER ROMANOFFS Vassili V., A. D. 15051533. VASSILI V., who became Autocrat of all the Russias upon the death of his illustrious father, Ivan the Great, in 1505, carried out his father's policy firmly and successfully. In 1510 he annexed Pskov to his dominions, thus extinguishing the last of the semi-independent principalities of Russia. The Tartars of Kazan revolted against him; but they were utterly routed in battle in 1524, and again in 1530, when they were made tributary to Russia. Vassili V. engaged in many with the wars with the Poles and the Lithuanians, without accomplishing any important results. He further enlarged and consolidated the Russian dominions by his abilities as a warrior and a statesman. After a reign of twenty-eight years, he died in 1533. His Wars Tartars and with Poland. Ivan IV., the IVAN IV., THE TERRIBLE, the son and successor of Vassili V., was only a child when the death of his father made him Autocrat of all Terrible, the Russias. His mother Helena assumed the regency, contrary to Russian custom, and held her position four years, crushing all opposi A. D. 1533 1584. and Helena tion with despotic cruelty. She was poisoned in 1537; whereupon the Shuiski. regency was seized by the Shuiski, a powerful boyar family, whose chief was the president of the supreme council of boyars. Tyranny and Misrule of the Shuiski Family. Overthrow of the Shuiski The Shuiski family had suffered many humiliations and much bad treatment from the Grand Princes of Russia. They now gratified their revenge by inflicting all kinds of indignities upon the youthful Ivan IV., whose life was passed in a state of constant terror. They plundered the national treasury and robbed the Russian people, and the insolent regent even went so far as to throw himself on the bed of the young Ivan IV. and rudely thrust his feet into the lap of the Autocrat of all the Russias. The Shuiski family punished all opposition to their despotic power with remorseless cruelty, and Ivan IV. saw his friends dragged from his presence and put to death with horrible tortures in spite of his entreaties in their behalf. 66 In 1543, when Ivan IV. was fourteen years of age, the Shuiski were overthrown by the Glinski, another boyar family, who siezed the regency and were sustained by the boy sovereign himself, who inFamily. formed the Shuiski that he no longer needed their guidance and would no longer submit to their encroachments on his royal prerogative. Said he: "I ought to punish you all, for all of you have been guilty of offenses against my person; but I will be indulgent, and the weight of my anger shall fall only on Andrew Shuiski, who is the worst among you." Andrew Shuiski, the head of the family, endeavored to justify himself; but Ivan IV. would not listen to him. Exclaimed the boy despot: Seize and bind him, and throw him to my dogs! They have a right to the repast!" Thereupon a pack of ferocious hounds, which Ivan IV. took delight in rearing, were brought under the window and irritated by every possible means; and, when they were sufficiently Shuiski. exasperated, Andrew Shuiski was thrown among them. His cries increased their fury, and they tore his body to shreds and devoured it. The Glinski pursued a course of cruelty and despotism similar to Tyranni- that which had characterized the rule of the Shuiski. The only differof the ence between the two families was this: While the Shuiski treated the Glinski boy sovereign with the greatest indignity and contempt, the Glinski Family. thrust him forward as a cover for all their acts, and plundered, killed and tortured in his name. They diligently taught Ivan IV. that the boyars were his natural enemies instead of the chief supporters of his throne, and that he could maintain his power and dignity only by the most stern and cruel measures. Cruel Death of Andrew Cruel and cal Rule The Glinski applauded and encouraged the development of the boy despot's naturally-cruel instincts. They praised him when he tormented wild animals for his own amusement, and when he threw tame ones down from the summit of his palace with the same cruel delight; |