"Initium Calamitatis Regni"? John Casimir and monarchical power in Poland-Lithuania, 1648-68
ENJohn Casimir, last Vasa king of Poland-Lithuania, was elected in succession to his brother, Wladyslaw IV, in 1648 and reigned through twenty years of revolt, foreign war and civil war. In 1648 the Ukrainian Cossacks under Bogdan Chmielnicki rose against Polish rule. After six years of inconclusive fighting, Chmielnicki abandoned his Tartar allies for Tsar Alexei of Muscovy at the Treaty of Perejaslaw (January 1654). The combination of Cossack and Muscovite proved too strong for the politically divided Commonwealth; in the next three years it seemed as if the entire state would be overrun as Charles X of Sweden, Frederick William of Brandenburg and Gyorgy Rakoczy of Transylvania all invaded for a share of the spoils. The Commonwealth was not swept away, however, in this ‘Deluge’, as it is known in Polish history. In alliance with the Habsburgs and Denmark, John Casimir made peace with Brandenburg in 1657, drove out Rakoczy and came to terms with Charles X at Oliva in 1660. Victory did not bring John Casimir any political rewards; he met growing opposition to his campaign to force through the election vivente rege of the Duc d’Enghien as his successor. This move, inspired by John Casimir’s French queen, Louise Marie of Gonzaga, ultimately provoked a civil war in which the leader of the opposition, Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, finally defeated the king at Mątwy in July 1666. This defeat meant there could now be no victory against the Muscovites; at the Peace of Andruszów in 1667, the Ukraine was partitioned along the line of the Dnieper, with Kiev going to Muscovy, nominally for three years, but in fact for good. A year later John Casimir abdicated, exhausted by the struggles of his reign. He retired to France, where he lived on a pension from Louis XIV as Abbot of St Germain-des-Pres until his death in 1672.
