Jan III Sobieski

1674-1696

Jan III Sobieski was born in Olesko, Galicja on June 2, 1624 and died 72 years later on June 17,1696. He was a native Pole of noble blood, who through his mother inherited the Ziolkowski fortune, and through his father - Jakub Sobieski- the enormous Sobieski estates. He was one of the wealthiest nobles in Poland, who later augmented his fortune by marrying Maria Kazimiera d'Arquien, the widow of John Zamoyski. Sobieski studied at the University of Krakow and traveled all over Europe. He fought in the Cossack insurrection and helped expel the Swedes from Poland. For his services and accomplishments he was given the title of the Commander in Chief of the army. One of Sobieski's ambitions was to unify the Christian Europe in a crusade to drive the Turks out of Europe. He organized the Holy League to preserve the Christendom. In 1683, in alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I , he led the army that defeated the Turks in Vienna, which turned out to be a great victory and made the Polish King a hero to all of Christian Europe.

Sobieski and his family

Jan III Sobieski: 1674-1696 And The Siege of Vienna of 1683

One of the most important battles of the 17th century was the battle of Vienna, which was fought on September 12, 1683. The outcome of this battle would have a profound effect on the future of Eastern, if not of all, Europe. The Battle of Vienna was mainly fought by the Turks, with about 15,000 Tatars on their side, against a less numerous combination of Polish, German, and Austrian forces. The Turkish forces were led by the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, an ambitious man, but who wasn't a very good general judging by the number of battles he had lost. The opposing forces were led by Jan Sobieski. On May 21, 1674, Sobieski was elected king as John III by the Diet. This was after the death of King Michael Wisniowiecki the previous year, on November 10. Sobieski was an intelligent, talented, and a brave man. He was also a patriot of Poland and always wanted the best for his country.

Sobieski, Jan III

1629 1696

Polish king who saved Vienna from the Ottoman Turks

by Rit Nosotro (
Last updated: 03/29/2005 07:51:22 )

He is a perfect oval which from a distance looks like a very large egg stood on the small end, wrote one French observer, as he watched the Polish king, Jan III Sobieski. Blessed with a large head, enormous belly, and small feet, Jan Sobieski did indeed look something like an egg. He was a man of parts: theologian, philosopher, mathematician, historian, possessing a remarkable good memory, and speaking to perfection Latin, Polish, French, Italian, German, Turkish and Tartar. As one exhalted on a wall, Sobieski was an accomplished intellectual, and as a warrior he was one of the greatest in Polish history. He was a master in battle and the culmination of his daring and skill came when he led a combined army of Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, and Austrians against the Ottoman Turks and miraculously broke the siege of Vienna. Although, Sobieski was not born a king, his origins were nonetheless noble. He was born during a violent thunderstorm on the August 17, 1629, in the family castle at Olesko, Galicia (now in the Ukraine.) From the moment that he could walk, he was given a smaller version of the curved Polish saber and was trained by his father in the arts of war. Whenever his family went to Mass at Zolkiew, his mother would take him, and his brother Mark to the tombs of their ancestors so that they could say prayers for their forbears who had died in battle, defending Poland from the ungodly hordes. He and his entire family were devote Catholics and Sobieski remained so his whole life. Jan grew and became very skilled in the art of war. It was this skill that would allow him to make his mark on history and further Gods purpose on the earth. As a reward for his completion of school in Krakow, Sobieskis father sent him and his brother on a tour of Europe, where they ended up spending a great deal of time in France. It was there that Sobieski formed his French ties that would allow him to ascend the throne later in his life. It was also where he met his wife-to-be. She was the daughter of a Marquis who was a captain in the Swiss Guard of the Duke of Orleans. Described as being strong-willed and precocious, Marie Casimire de la Grange d'Arquien was a fitting match for the young Sobieski. They were married in 1665. Upon his return from France, Sobieski learned that the Cossacks had killed his father. Later on his brother was beheaded by the Turks on the battlefield. This endowed Sobieski with a healthy hatred for the Turks, and he swore to repay them. He worked his away up through the ranks of the Polish army, and as a general he defeated the Turks in battle twice, as they attempted to take over part of Poland. As a result, he was appointed Hetman (Commanding General) of all Polands armies, which placed him in a position to later become king of Poland. In the meantime world events were taking a serious turn. The Ottoman Turks were pushing forward into Europe. They had already overrun Greece, Bulgaria,

Rumania, and most of Hungary. Things only got worse as the Turks pushed forward towards Vienna. Their commander, Kara Mustafa, wore a green cord around his neck, which the Sultan had given him to strangle himself if he failed in his attempt to capture Vienna. If Vienna fell, then most of Europe would be open for the picking. At this point, the remaining countries of Europe looked to Poland for support. Time had indeed brought change. Jan Sobieski was now Jan III Sobieski, having been elected king after his resounding defeat of the Ottoman Turks at Chocim and also due to the enormous bribes that the French, under Louis XIV, the Cathlolic Sun King, had paid magnates to elect him. Louis XIV had expansionist plans into Germany (finally attacking in 1688) causing difficulty for Jan to hammer out an alliance with the Austrians and the Germans. Allied with Prince Eugene of Savoy, Jan assembled his own army, the main body being composed of the feared hussars. They were called such because of the strange lyre-shaped metal-and-leather construction, which was riveted to the back of their armor. Above them, arose a beautiful fanlike design of some three dozen eagle feathers. When the hussars charged, the wind would blow through the feathers causing them to sing. This would then terrify the enemy horses and throw the opposing army into confusion. The Turks feared the hussars mightily and it was on them that Sobieski placed his hope of victory. On September 12, 1683, at 4 a.m. in the morning, Sobieskis army of about 81,000 men attacked a Turkish army that numbered more than 140,000. The Turks fought doggedly but inch by inch, they were forced to give up ground. Finally, when the terrain was right, Sobieski ordered the hussars forward and soon after the Turkish battle line was broken as the Turks scattered in confusion. At 5:30 p.m., Sobieski entered the deserted tent of Kara Mustafa and the siege of Vienna was over. The pope and other foreign dignitaries then hailed Sobieski as the Savior of Vienna and Western European civilization. In a letter to his wife he wrote, All the common people kissed my hands, my feet, my clothes; others only touched me, saying: Ach, let us kiss so valiant a hand! Ironically, in his greatest moment of glory, the sun began to go down on his reign. His attempts to leave a dynasty behind him, failed. Even Leopold, the Holy Roman Emperor, ignored Sobieski, who had saved his capital, and in an outright insult, refused to review the hussars who had so gallantly destroyed the Turkish battle line. Other rulers who feared his newly acquired status snubbed him, and instead of being recognized for saving them, he and his country became marked for destruction. At the end of his life, as his country was unraveling around him, Sobieski, like Humpty Dumpty, had fallen irrepairably from his exhalted postion. He died in 1696, a disappointed and broken man. (Less than a century later, as Catholic nobles failed to supress Poland's Eastern Orthodox populace, Russia, Prussia, and Austria carved Poland off the map. This greed led to world wide destruction as expanionist Germany rose out of Prussia and Communism rose out of Russia.) In Sobieski's world of the Roman Catholic counter-reformation, Sabieski was scorned and feared by Transylvanian Saxons and other protestant Lutherians. He had done something that everyone thought impossible, and in this we can see Gods hand working. During the battle, Sobieski found himself in a grim strategic position, and the Tartars were in an excellent position to wreak havoc on his

forces. However, Kara Mustafa held them back because he feared something unexpected. As a result, the Tartars deserted his army, furious for not being allowed to attack Sobieski. In addition, Kara Mustafa, against all the advice on the contrary from his generals, split his forces so that while the majority of his army were carrying on the siege, the minority were fighting the coalition of forces led by Sobieski. It was only later on when he saw the error in his strategy that he called on the larger force to attack, but by then Sobieski had the upper hand. There is something mysterious in Kara Mustafas decisions. Why would he be so resolute and stubborn against his generals? Perhaps God hardened the heart of Mustafa's like that if the Pharaoh in Exodus 14. Against overwhelming forces, Sobieski, must have understood like Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:14), that "the battle belongs to the Lord". The significance of this battle was so enormous that certainly divine intervention caused Sobieskis improbable victory. Where would the world be today if Vienna had fallen? What if Europe had fallen under Muslim domination? Would John Nelson Darby and the Brethren in England have been raised up? Would missionaries have set out to China? There are countless considerations of what course history might have taken if Europe had fallen under Muslim rule. By looking at the chaos that has enveloped the Muslim world, it is possible to see what Europe might have become. Historians remember Sobieski for his historic victory, but he didnt just break the siege of Vienna. God used him for a greater purpose, to protect Christendom and thus continue the spread of the gospel throughout the earth. Another miraculous defeat of aggressive Islam came in 1697 when Prince Eugene of Savoy lost only 300 men in the destruction of 30,000 soldiers and Tartar horsemen under the Ottoman Sultan Mustapha. From Sobieski onward, the Ottoman Turks regressed to become the sick man of Europe.

Jan III Sobieski (John Sobieski, 1629-1696) Jan Sobieski was an excellent king for the period during which he was elected. His father wanted to educate both his sons well and first sent them to study at the University of Cracow, in the Faculty of Philosophy. Later, he sent both of them abroad, where they could complete their education. Subsequently, the future king had the opportunity to learn the art of war on all the fronts where Polish armies fought. He took part in the Battle of Beresteczko in 1651 (in the Ukrainian rebellion led by Hetman Bohdan Chmielnicki), during the Polish-Swedish war (1655-1660) and in the Battle of Warsaw, where he commanded Tartar units fighting on the Polish side against the Swedes. Next he fought against the Transylvanians, Russians, Cossacks and Tartars, as well as against rebels who, led by Prince Lubomirski, rose against King Micha3 Korybut Wi4niowiecki in 1666. His special success was the defeat of the Turkish army at Chocim in 1673. It was this victory that helped to get him elected king of Poland a year later. The experience he gained on the battlefields came to fruition in an event which was significant not only for the history of Poland. By the late 17th century the Turks were attempting to penetrate deeper and deeper into the heart of Europe, threatening Vienna. Realising that should Vienna fall, Poland would find herself in a very difficult position, in 1683 Sobieski set off to relieve the besieged city. On 12 September 1683 Polish hussars (heavy cavalry with characteristic plumage on their backs) under Sobieski's command gained a victory, thus definitively stopping the Turks in one of the greatest and most significant battles in Europe at the time. Nowadays that march to Vienna is referred to as the Relief of Vienna. Sobieski wrote numerous letters to his French wife, Queen Marie Casimire d'Arquien ('Marysie@ka'), describing the battle which decided the fate of Europe. His letters make up a fascinating chapter in Old Polish epistolography. Sobieski's great love for his wife also had political consequences, as it tied him to the French court. Thanks to that, he understood the need for domestic reform and a change in Poland's foreign policy. Thus he wanted to strengthen Poland's position on the Baltic coast by taking East Prussia, and to retrieve Polish Silesia from the Habsburgs. In his home policy, by trying to make Poland a hereditary monarchy and to abolish the principle of liberum veto (viz. statutes were passed in parliament only by a unanimous vote), he attempted to enhance royal prerogative, which had become too dependent on the magnates. However, these reforms were not implemented due to the opposition by part of the noble estate, which had become too accustomed to the enjoyment of significant privileges. Sobieski was not only a great military leader, but also an excellent politician. He died on 18 June 1696, leaving a memory of the great glory of Polish military prowess.

Facts After the Vienna victory, when welcomed by the Austrian Emperor Leopold I, Jan Sobieski reportedly paraphrased the words of Julius Caesar by saying, 'Veni, vidi, Deus vicit,' (I came, I saw, God carried the victory). Indeed, the victory of the Poles supported by the Emperor's army, broke the Turkish power which never recovered from the defeat. In the 18th century, a partition of Turkey was even contemplated, but never took place. However, partition is what happened to Poland. Characteristically, Turkey, which had fought our ancestors for over two hundred and fifty years, was the only state in Europe that never recognised the partitioning of Poland.

Jan Sobieski was born in 1629 in Olesko, and died in Wilanw in 1696. His father, Jakub, at a later time Palatine of BeOz and Ruthenia, was the author of many works including a diary of the Chocim war, Commentariorum Chotinensis belli libri tres, on which WacOaw Potocki based his Transakcyj wojny chocimskiej ("Transaction of the Chocim War"). The future king studied at Krakw Academy, then travelled to Germany, France, Netherlands and England where he completed his education. After returning to Poland, he participated in military expeditions; at Beresteczko he was heavily wounded. He fought against the Swedes (though initially he took their side), against Moscow and the Cossacks. In the subsequent years, he came into contact with the royal court of Jan Kazimierz and Maria Ludwika, where he met a Frenchwoman, Marie Cazimire dArquien - MarysiePka, whom he married in 1665. Remaining within the court circle, he acted against the sedition of Jerzy Lubomirski. He held in turn the following posts: Grand Crown Marshal, Field Hetman and Grand Crown Hetman (1668). In 1673 he achieved a famous victory over the Turks in the Battle of Chocim - 1673; he fought against them also between 1674-1676. The military success gained then paved for him the way to the throne. The coronation took place in 1676. Several years later, in 1683, he won fame with the rescue of Vienna, which was described, among others, by Wespazjan Kochowski, Wojciech StanisOaw ChroQciPski and Andrzej Wincenty Ustrzycki. Sobieski was an excellent art patron, he supported painting and artistic handicrafts. Of the royal buildings the most sumptuous was the residence in Wilanw, whose concept and artistic design recalled the military services of the king and his endeavours to ensure stable peace for Poland. In the history of literature, Sobieski is noted as the author of the letters to MarysiePka, recognised as a masterpiece of old Polish epistolary prose. These letters were created mainly between 1665-1683 when Jan and MarysiePka were parted owing to such events as the rebellion of Lubomirski, MarysiePkas journeys to Paris, the war campaign of 1675 and 1676, and the Vienn rescue of 1683. Traces of these events and the people connected with them can be found in the letters. Consequently, some of them played the role of leaflets or news. The letter written in the night of 13 September 1683 "in the Viziers tents" may serve as an example. It began with the proud words: "Bg i Pan nasz na wieki bOogosOawiony daO zwyciRstwo i sOawR narodowi naszemu, o jakiej wieki przeszOe nigdy nie sOyszaOy." ("God and our Lord, forever blessed, gave such victory and fame to our nation as had never been heard of before in past centuries.") In the ending, Sobieski remarked: "List ten najlepsza gazeta, z ktrego na caOy Qwiat kazaS zrobiS gazetR, napisawszy, que cest la lettre du Roi a la Reine" ("This letter is the best newspaper, to be made a paper world-wide, having

written que cest la lettre du Roi a la Reine") [that it is a letter from a king to a queen]. Indeed, this letter came into circulation, and European circulation for that matter. By the end of 1683 it had as many as five editions in Poland; it was also translated into several European languages and reached about twenty editions in various countries: England, Austria, Spain, Germany and Italy. In the letters, the reader can find information on the everyday life of that time, about war expeditions and politics, but, above all, the reader learns about the emotional world of Sobieski and MarysiePka, and comes into contact, despite the visible convention of Baroque pastoral romance, with the authentic feelings of the loving pair. The letters were written in Polish but, taking into account the nationality of the addressee, the author interwove into the text French words and expressions, and freely polonised French words. A characteristic feature of the linguistic layer of the letters is the presence of a code. This role is sometimes played by numerals substituting for names and expressions related to military actions. There occurs also a love code ("oranges" stand for love, "confiture"for letters). The code was accompanied by pseudonyms: Sobieski appeared under the name of Celadon, Phoenix and la Poudre (dust); exceptionally numerous pseudonyms accompanied MarysiePka: Astrea, Diana, Cassandra, Rose and Morning Star. Some of them were taken from a pastoral romance which was fashionable at that time at the courts, Astre, by Honor dUrf, telling the love story of a shepherd Caledon and a shepherdess Astrea.

John (Jan) III Sobieski (August 17, 1629 - June 17, 1696) was the king of PolishLithuanian Commonwealth from 1674 to 1696.
Royal titles

Official title was (in Latin): Joannes III, Dei Gratia rex Poloniae, magnus dux Lithuaniae, Russie, Prussiae, Masoviae, Samogitiae, Livoniae, Smolenscie, Kijoviae, Volhyniae, Podlachiae, Severiae, Czernichoviaeque, etc. English translation: John III, by God's grace King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia (Ukraine & Belarus), Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Livonia, Smolensk, Kyiv, Volhynia, Podlasie, Siewierz and Czernichow, etc.

Biography

He was born in 1629 at Olesko, Poland to Jakub (James) Sobieski (1580-1646), Voivod of Ruthenian Voivodship and Castellan of Krakw, Zofia Teofillia (DaniOowicz). In 1668 King Jan II Kazimierz appointed John Sobieski the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish army. After a distinguished military career, and following the death of King Jan II Kazimierz's successor, Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki, John Sobieski was elected by the szlachta as king of Poland on May 21 1674 and was crowned on February 2, 1676.

"Jan III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna", painted by Jerzy Eleuter SzymonowiczSiemiginowski, abt. 1686, National Museum in Warsaw. John Sobieski's military prowess, as exhibited in a war against the Ottoman Empire, contributed to his election as king of Poland. Later he allied with the Holy Roman Emperor. His greatest success came on September 12, 1683 as victor at the Battle of

Vienna, with Polish, Austrian and German troops, once more against the Turks under Kara Mustafa. The pope and other foreign dignitaries then hailed Sobieski as the "Savior of Vienna and Western European civilization." In a letter to his wife he wrote, ...All the common people kissed my hands, my feet, my clothes; others only touched me, saying: Ach, let us kiss so valiant a hand!". Jan III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna.jpg