AN Historical Account OF THE DIVISIONS IN POLAND From the DEATH of K. JOHN SOBIESKI To the Settlement of the Present KING on the THRONE CONTAINING A Particular Relation of the Late KING's Death and of all the Intrigues of the several Candidates till the Coronation of the Elector of Saxony Translated from the French Original Written by M. de la Biazdiere LONDON Printed for H. Rhodes at the Star near Fleet-Bridge T. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard A. Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhill and D. Midwinter and T. Leigh at the Roseand Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCC TO THE READER THis Work is a Continuation of the History of the Diets of Poland that was Publish'd in 1697. The Poles engaged the Author to write this Second Relation and sent him according to Promise all Necessary Instructions The Sincerity that appears in their Memoirs is such as an Historian would wish for to enable him to give an Account of a Transaction of which all the Circumstances are almost unknown to the Publick Poland may be look'd upon as the most famous Theatre of Europe for Variety of Scenes Persons of the most refin'd Wits were the Actors in this Affair and whilst the Princes of Christendom were at War every where else it would seem they reserv'd Poland for a place of Intrigue The Polish Nobility being as Zealous for their Religion as Jealous of their Liberty had not hitherto suffer'd any thing to escape them that Humane Prudence could suggest for maintaining themselves in the Possession of their Right which they had enjoy'd Time out of Mind to chuse their Sovereign They had preserv'd this Right whilst other Nations had lost it This Valorous Nation had also signaliz'd themselves by their Courage and won almost as many Battles as they had Fought In short the Poles seem'd to have surpassed the Generosity of the Ancient Romans in the most innocent State of their Republick because the Latter made War meerly to extend the Limits of their Empires and the Former had often neglected or despis'd the Fruits of their Victory like those first Conquerors of whom 't was said Contenti Victorià Imperio Abstinebant The Poles had a way of making Conquests peculiar to themselves The Mildness of their Government made other People wish to be partakers of the same Laws The famous Jagellon having embrac'd the Christian Religion by that Means became K. of Poland to which he reunited Lithuania whereof he was Apostle as well as Sovereign His Posterity govern'd that State till the Death of Sigismund Augustus who dyed at the Castle of Knichin in Lithuania in 1572. It was in the Person of that Prince that this Illustrious Family was extinguish'd Henry de Valois who succeeded him the next Year Reigned too short a while in Poland to be regretted there Stephen Battori who mounted the Throne next comforted the Poles for all the Losses they had Sustained but by a new Misfortune greater than those that had gone before that Prince left no Children and by his Death depriv'd Poland of the Hopes of finding a Successor equal to himself The Eldest Branch of Vasa did by the Election of Sigismund III Quit the Throne of Sweden to mount that of Poland and the Alliance of these two Great Monarchies became a Subject of War which made the Poles lose the Conquests they had made in the preceding Reign Uladislaus Son to Sigismund gave his Subjects cause to hope that he might repair those Disgraces by his Valour and Conduct but the Misfortune with which they were over-whelm'd after his Death by the Revolt of the Cosacks and the War with Sweden depriv'd the Poles of all hopes of Remedy for their incurable Maladies The Mighty Courage of K. Casimir gave his Subjects time to come to themselves a little Hereby that Prince found a Way to allay that Distemper that he could not perfectly Cure but by his Abdication he involv'd the Kingdom in New Misfortunes K. Michael who succeeded him lost Caminiec and Podolia It was then the Poles began to fear the Loss of their Kingdom but Providence not designing its Ruine did by the Death of that Prince deliver the Poles and all Europe from a danger which they had so much cause to Apprehend The Defeat of the Turks at Choczin and the Election of John Sobieski rais'd the Courage of the Poles who believ'd that under the Conduct of so Great a Prince they could not be Vnfortunate Their Thoughts were Just That Prince sav'd Vienna and the Empire and by that Great Action made his Subjects look upon all that he had done for them as nothing His Insensibility of their Condition join'd with one Mistake was the Cause or Pretext at least that they made use of to deprive his Posterity of the Crown which the Custom of the Nation seem'd to have assur'd them of but that Custom was abolish'd and after his Death his Family was Excluded Their Resentments have carryed them further The Aversion they entertain'd for the Memory of that Prince made them renounce their own Interests and the Blindness of that Nation became so excessively Great that they could not see their own Ruine before them tho' they had carefully avoided the same ever since the Foundation of their Monarchy The Hatred they always entertain'd for the Germans made them in 1386 prefer Jagellon D. of Lithuania to William D. of Austria Sigismund Marquis of Brandenburg was excluded from the Succession at the same time and on the same Account The other German Princes that offer'd themselves to the Poles since the Death of Sigismund Augustus had no better Success And if Ernest the two Maximilians of Austria and so many other German Princes had not been excluded it might have been said that the Poles lov'd their Money as much as they hated their Persons So many and such repeated Denials did not baulk the Germans they always presented themselves as Candidates when ever an Interregnum happen'd and Poland which in 1621 was not in the least afraid of an Army of 200000 Turks was daunted in 1697 by 12000 Saxons This is a Mystery that is not easie to be unfolded The Polish Memoirs which afforded us the Subject Matter of what follows will illustrate abundance of things The Reader may blame the Conduct of that Nation and at the same time commend their Sincerity The Affairs of this Kingdom are at present in a deplorable State But the Poles have Piety and Courage They may perhaps put on Resolutions agreeable to their Genius They came formerly to seek one of their Kings in the Abby of Cluny whither he had retired they may find this at the Court of France if the Peace continue long enough to prevent his being employd in commanding the Armies of that Crown ADVERTISEMENT IT was thought fit for to publish this part of the Secret History of Poland first There is in the Press and will speedily follow the Secret Memoirs of Poland c. during the
to any of his Arguments On the 10th of September that Matter came under Debate The Marshal of the Diet made a Speech in the Senate and spoke by an innuendo against the Interests of that Princess with so much warmth that the Cardinal who had too openly declared himself in her Favour thought himself obliged to interrupt him This seemed so much the greater an Affront to the Marshal because the Law forbids such Interruptions He had said that they ought Mediam tenere viam inter praefractam contumaciam deforme obsequium The Primat had desired him to explain what he meant by those Words and Hamiecki asked him the reason of the Affront which in his Person he had offered to the whole Body of Gentry The Deputies took his Part and being of the Mind that the Queen should withdraw during the Sitting of the Diet they most of 'em went out and were follow'd by the greatest part of the Senators Their pretence was that the Arch-Bishop had abus'd the Mareschal They were very glad of giving him this Mortification purely because they thought him too much wedded to the Queen's Interest and the Bishop of Cujavia out of Envy to the Primate fomented the Division that so he might sit as President in the Diets This Difference lasted four days but was adjusted by the Prudence of the Bishops who offer'd themselves as Mediators The Deputies met again on the nineteenth Several Bishops and Senators waited upon them at their Chamber where the Bishop of Cujavia declared that the Queen in compliance with the repeated Instances of the Primate Bishops and himself and to remove all occasion of complaint had resolv'd to retire She kept her word and the same say set out for Bialana near Warsaw after she had received the sad News from Leopold that the Confederate Army had committed great Outrages upon her Lands and upon those that belong'd to the late King that it had exacted very large Contributions from the Inhabitants and even threatned to seize upon the whole if they were not speedily satisfied They committed the same Disorders on the States of the Clergy and Gentry The Misfortune was Universal and every Day they expected fresh News of more Disasters The Turks and Tartars by their Preparations continually alarmed them and the Muscovite who used to make an Advantage of the Misfortunes of his Neighbours seemed to be willing to break with the Crown His Resident had some Days before presented a Letter to the Senate wherein the Czar his Master demanded of the Republick that the King they chose should maintain the Treaties concluded with Muscovy and should no longer take upon him the Titles of the Provinces of Smolensko Kiovia and Czernichovia which he pretended had been granted to him in the last Treaty of Leopold They were neither surpized nor daunted at this Demand for they all knew that the Muscovites are as insolent in Prosperity as they are abject in Adversity Besides the Czar had too much Business upon his Hands with the Turks and Tartars against whom he had declared War for no other Reason but because he saw them attack'd by the Empire Poland and the Republick of Venice against whom those Infidels had made but a weak Defence ever since the Confederacy which these three great States had concluded betwixt themselves The Czar John died in Jan. 1696. not at all lamented by his Subjects who had so great a Contempt for him that contrary to the Custom of the Nation they obliged him to make his younger Brother Collegue in the Throne The Czar Peter invested with the Authority which he had unjustly usurped from his eldest Brother was willing to let his Subjects see that he was not unworthy of the Favours they had bestowed upon him He laid Siege to the City of Asoph a second time and was more successful in it than the first This Place was surrendred to him on the 28th of July and had obtained as honourable Conditions as they could have hoped for from a Nation that makes use of the very least Advantages The Garrison went out on the 29th being 3000 Turks with their Arms Bag and Baggage and were transported ten Leagues by the Czar's Gallies The Muscovites had lost at this Siege the very best of their Troops and two or three such Victories more would undoubtedly ruine their Empire The Poles were well satisfied that the Haughtiness of the Muscovite was not so much raised by the taking of Asoph as by the vain Promises which the Germans had made him of causing a powerful Diversion and of putting the Czar into a Capacity of conquering Tartary whilst the Imperialists drove the Turks out of Europe The Muscovites thought it a noble Project whilst the Poles who knew the State of the Affairs of Germany looked upon it as Impracticable so that they returned Answer to the Czar's Resident That the King who should be chose should advise with the Republick whether it was proper for the Welfare of the State to give him Satisfaction as to his Demands or to retake by force the Provinces which his Master had unjustly usurped The Proposal of the Muscovite did not so much alarm the Poles as the Confederate Army did whose Deputies demanded Pay for ten Years past and threatned Military Execution if the Republick did not give them speedy Satisfaction It was hard for the Diet to get out of these Troubles they were all for paying off the Army tho' none of them were for contributing the least Penny toward it The Publick Treasure was exhausted by the Mismanagement of those who had the Care of the Finances Several Persons disaffected to the late Government were on this urgent Occasion for making use of the Money which the late King had heaped up They remonstrated that since those vast Riches were gotten out of the State it was but just to apply them to its present Necessities and to the Discharge of its Debts The Queen and the Princes of the Blood had still some Friends left who opposed this Design and even when the Interest of the Royal Family was sinking Horodenski Deputy of the Palatinate of Czereniechovia left the Diet about the end of September after he had protested against all that should be resolved upon in his Absence Such a Protestation as this is enough in Poland to break up a Diet. The Republick could not conquer the stubbornness of the Deputy Whereupon according to Custom in the like Case they made a General Confederacy whereby it was ordered That the Diet of Election should be in the open Field by the Convention of all the Gentry and it was further added That those who should propose a Piasto or a Pole by Birth should be looked upon as Enemies to their Country But to the great Surprize of the Royal Family whose Interest it was that the Diet should be held before Winter that so all Foreign Competitors might be prevented the opening of it was fixed for the 15th of May in the Year next ensuing which
Reign of John Sobieski III. which will compleat the Secret History of Poland from the beginning of that Prince's Reign to the Time that the Elector of Saxony their present Sovereign mounted the Throne It contains abundance of Original Letters writ by the Emperor K. of Poland Senate of Venice D. of Lorrain Count Teckley and other Great Persons and Generals during the Campaign of Vienna discovers many Intrigues of those Courts and others not hitherto made publick and contains Geographical Remarks on Poland Hungary Germany c. no less pleasant than profitable to the Reader AN Historical Account OF THE DIVISIONS IN POLAND From the Death of King JOHN SOBIESKI To the Settlement of the Present King on the Throne c. THE Death of any Prince is always attended with a Change in the State That of his Polish Majesty made but little Impression on the Republick they forgot his Merit which they supposed to have received a sufficient Reward and his Subjects who ought to have been affected with the Loss of their Sovereign to applaud his Piety and to esteem his Valor had their Eyes fixed on one single Fault which had tarnished his other excellent Qualifications They excused it in the Person of Sobieski Grand Marshal and Great General of the Crown but could not pardon it in John III. King of Poland It was his Opinion That in order to ensure the Crown to his Family it was requisite to make himself Master of large Treasures which being distributed just at the time of Election might gain his Son those Votes which he had acquired by his great Actions Had he been as good a Politician as he was a Commander he would have followed another sort of a Conduct he would have left less Money and more Friends to his Family who are more useful for the carrying on of great Designs The States of Poland which after the Defeat of the Turks at Choczin had seen their General make his Appearance at the Diet of Election with a Magnificence worthy of a King thought fit to reward the Vertue of a Gentleman who seemed to have been born to wear a Crown They granted to his Merit what they refused to the Birth Promises and Intrigues of so many Princes who were his Competitors He had the Glory of carrying the Day from them all and dyed in Hopes that the Prince Royal his Son would have been Heir to his Fortune He imagined that he had taken all the Precautions that Humane Prudence could direct without considering that this has often failed those who thought themselves to be the wisest of Men and that 't is Divine Providence which disposes of the Crowns as it thinks fit After the King had taken such Measures which were as false as he esteemed them safe he left the Execution of them to the Queen his Consort a Princess of a Genius far above those of her Sex and yet such as had its Faults She was for making more of the Post she was in than the King desired and had the Satisfaction for two and twenty Years together to see her Designs succeed which have since raised such Regrets in her as will last while she lives Her first Project was to preserve the King's Health and to prolong a Life that was so precious to her A Jew of Casal named Jonas was then in Poland and passed for a learned Man among those of his Religion and had neglected Trade and Usury which are so alluring to the Men of that Sect that he might wholly apply himself to the Study of Physic The Queen made this Man his Majesty's Physician in Ordinary whose Reputation was established and soon after increased more perhaps by the good Constitution of the King than by the Art or Skill of the Doctor The Success of Dr. Jonas drew a great many Jews to him in hopes of having a share in his Favour Among the rest he introduced one into the Queen's Acquaintance who may be look'd upon as one of the Occasions of the Misfortunes of her and her whole Family This Jew's Name was Bethsal born in Russia and had no other Qualification but what the Jews are all endowed with but understood his Talent so well that even whilst he practised Usury with the utmost Rigor he had the Address of appearing Magnificent and Disinterested This Man waited upon the Queen whose blind side every one was acquainted with He brought his Recommendation along with him being resolved to throw away a considerable Summ of Money which he foresaw he should make up again in a little time He proposed to take the King's Lands by Lease and offered one third for them above their real Value His Proposal was very well received and they engaged him to take his Majesty's other Demeans which he accepted of upon the same Conditions The King seemed so well satisfied with his Conduct that he began to bestow several Favours at his Request They waited upon Bethsal to buy those Offices that were vacant and he who bad most was always look'd upon as best qualified This buying and selling of Offices was not at first publickly known those who could not get into any imagin'd that this Jew was the Opposer of their Fortunes and resolved to assassinate him But his Prudence prevented the Effects of the Publick Odium he maintained thirty Poles for his Guard and paid them so well that he preserved a Life against which had not their Interest interposed they would perhaps have been the first that would have made any Attempt Bethsal looked upon himself rather as a Minister of State than a Farmer of the Kings Revenue All Offices several Starostas and other Dignities that rose not so high as Palatins and other great Dignities of the Crown were distributed to none but those who made their Application to and bargain with him The Poles cryed shame on their Prince's Blindness and the Author of this so vile a Mismanagement On the contrary the Jews looked upon Bethsal as another Mordecai and Sobieski a second Ahasuerus The K. of Poland could not be ignorant of the Artifice of this Man on whom he had too much relied The Poles to this Day accuse him of having heaped up so much Treasure by the Sale of Offices and such a Conduct so full of Self-Interest has made his Memory to stink among them He had the Misfortune during his Life never to be acquainted with the odiousness of this buying and selling of Places and this Disgrace happened to him by a Fate incident to Princes of having too many Flatterers but no True Friends about them The Poles whilst the King was living could not dissemble their hatred to Bethsal whom they accused of Extortion and Sacriledge The first Crime was easie to prove He was convicted of the second by all those who had entred Foreign Merchandises into the Kingdom This Jew who had farmed the Customs caused the Merchants to appear before him presented a Crucifix to them and after he had made them worship it took an
the most reason to complain in this Conjuncture The laying of him aside had nothing in it that was sufficient besides that it was not honest for if the Elector granted the Proposal that Minister's Party would be quite lost and the Saxon would be universally acknowledged if he rejected it the Rokosz would be plunged again into the former Troubles and Anxieties which the fear of a Coronation had infused into them The two Events were equally dangerous there was but one Remedy which was become useless because it had been often promised but was never attended by performance The Palatine of Vilna Triumphed in his own weakness and attributed to his own Prudence all the Irresolution which he had so often made appear He had sent his Son to Cracow to know whether or no the Elector would hearken to an Accommodation and the Answer he received was that if the Sapieha's did not quickly submit themselves they would see their most Mortal Enemies presently after the Coronation advanced to all the great Preferments in Lithuania The Friends of France being Repulsed desired the Coronation and Accommodation with Saxony for no other end but that they might be easie in their minds and hear no more talk of an Affair the tediousness of which had quite tyred them out Polignac could no longer built upon any but only some certain Friends who in truth were proof against all Trials and upon the Nobility very formidable when they are in a Body but which it was impossible for them to muster together so many times without being at great Charges So that he had no other Hope left than in the over-hasty and-precipitated Resolutions of the Elector Things were in this Condition when he understood that the Elector had sent for his Equipage and his most precious moveables from Dresden to render his Coronation more Magnificent and that by the Counsel of the Palatine of Lencicia he was so far from delaying his Coronation that he had laught at all the Conferences held upon that Subject and perform'd the Solemnity upon the 15th of September as had been ordered in his Council In short the vigour and weakness with which the Rokosz had Alternatively acted infused strenuous Resolutions into the Factious of eight Officers who kept the Keys of the Treasury there were six who adhered to the Prince of Conti's Interests But the Council of Saxony resolved to force a Place which had been always accounted Sacred and for the Execution of this Peice of violence to make use of two Monks whose Character ought to have better instructed ' em Wizicki the regular Abbot of Czermin of the Order of St. Bernard and Grand Secretary of the Crown was a Man in the Kingdom the most given to Wine and as well known by the Name of Sitis as by the Title of his Abby his Dignity or his Family Wihowski Regular Abbot of St. Croiz a Benedictine formerly Excommunicated by Pope Innocent XI and who after so many Years had never put himself to the trouble to release himself from lying under the scandal of these Censures These two Monk who durst not break open the Treasurie because the Law forbid it bethought themselves of breaking down a Pane of the Wall and fierce as Conquerors that enter a Breach they seiz'd upon the Royal Ornaments maugre the Protestations of Panskokonski Guardian of the Crown and the Burgraves of Cracovia whose Consent is necessary to Authorize a proceeding so irregular and all those other proceedings which the Pishop of Cujavia had done and was to do in usurpation of the Primate's Prerogatives The Elector's Council however composed of four or five Senators declared the Archbishoprick of Guesna vacant and the Marshal of the Confederacy an infamous Person and a Traytor to his Country After this the Bishop of Cujavia observed no more Measures He lookt upon himself as the Arbitrator of the State of Poland and believed that every thing was to give way to the Impetuosity of his Genius and the violence of his Counsels In vain his Friends all laid before him that in conformity to the Statute of 1550 the King's Coronation was not to be Solemnized but by the Archbishop of Guesna with the unanimous consent of the Nation and that the Queen was to be a professed Roman Catholick To this they also added a Bull of Sixtus Quintus forbidding under pain of Excommunication all Bishops of Poland to Crown the King to the prejudice of the Archbishop of Guesna and prohibiting that Prelate himself to Crown a King who was in the least suspected of Heresie The Bishop of Cujavia made answer that Battori had been Crowned without any regard to the Oppositions of contrary Faction That upon such an extraordinary occasion he might do what one of his Predecessors had done at the Coronation of that Prince That as for the Conversion of the Electrice he knew not what might fall out that if She refused to abjure they might follow the same Rule that had been observed in reference to Queen Helena the Wife of King Alexander who because she was the Daughter of the Czar of Muscovy and consequently professed the Rites of the Greek Schismaticks was acknowledged by the Polanders for their Queen tho they would never consent to her Coronation He cunningly alledged that the Regulation in 1550 was made for no other Reason but because that Princess had too much favoured the Schismaticks But it was sufficient for that Prelate to produce feeble Reasons provided they were but plausible Upon the 13th of September began the Ceremonies of the Coronation The Obsequies of the Deceased King were Solemnized by way of Representation because the Mutineers were not Masters of Warsaw where the Corps lay in Deposito The 14th the Elector went to the Church of St. Stanelaus according to Customs to honour the Memory of that Martyr who was kill'd at the Altar saying Mass upon the 8th of May 1079. by the Hand of King Boleslaus to whom that Holy Man had adventur'd to make the same reproach that the forerunner of Christ made to King Herod Upon the 15th of the same Month the Bishop of Cujavia assisted by two more Crown'd the Elector and omitted none of the Ceremonies that were practis'd upon the like occasions The greatest part of the Officers of the Crown and of Lithuania were absent The Germans tho Lutherans perform'd the Duties of their Places upon the refusal of some other of the Polish Lords and out of the fear they were in least the Polanders should testify their Resentments the Saxons were distributed into several Quarters of the City and a good Garrison was put into the Castle The choice of the German Troops were drawn up above the Church during the Ceremony and the Elector made a new Abjuration which was thought to be as Sincere as the former 'T is not known whether the length of the Ceremony or the News of the Prince of Conti's departure or the Electors being tyr'd was the reason that a fainting fit seiz'd