Sigismund III was the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from December 27, 1587, and the King of Sweden from November 27, 1592, to July 1599. Sigismund sought to unite the Commonwealth and Sweden under his authority. For a short time, he succeeded. In 1592, he united both states under his personal union; but in 1595, the Swedish parliament elected the Duke of Södermanland as the regent of Sweden instead of the absent king. Sigismund spent most of his remaining years trying to regain his lost throne. Sigismund remained quite a controversial figure in the history of the Commonwealth.
The Beginning
He was born on June 20, 1566, in the castle Gripsholm, where his mother Katerina Jagiellonka had accompanied her husband, John, imprisoned by his brother Eric XIV. Sigismund was raised by Jesuits. As a descendant of Jagiellonian women, the 21-year-old Prince Sigismund was elected Polish king in 1587, thanks to the efforts of his aunt Anna Jagiellonka. Inviting the last Jagiellon and the successor of the Swedish crown to the throne, the Polish-Lithuanian side expected to settle territorial problems with Sweden and claim disputed land in the north of the country.
Soon after the coronation, Sigismund spoke out against his rival, the Archduke of the Austrian Maximilian; the latter defeated in Battle of Byczyna and taken prisoner (1588), but was released under the treaty of 1589, by which he surrendered any claim to the throne of the Commonwealth. Sigismund disliked the Polish-Lithuanian gentry for either for his appearance or character; his dislike intensified even more when, after traveling to Reval (1589) for a meeting with his father, he secretly entered into negotiations with Ernest, the Duke of Austria. On certain conditions he was ready to renounce his favor from the crown. The young king did not favor the powerful Zamoysky. The first reason for discord between them was Estland, who Sigismund had promised to add to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at contractual points but did not fulfill his promise. The result was the Inquisitional position against the King (1592), and the weakening of royal power. Zamoysky, who was counting on ruling as king, was surrounded by Jesuits.
The main task of Sigismund was the consolidation of Catholicism, and the destruction of Protestantism and Orthodoxy. The suppression of the uprising of Kosinsky (1591-1593) and the rebellion of Nalivaiko (1594-1596), actively contributed to the conclusion of the Brest Union in 1596. He considered the struggle with the “enemies of the Faith of Christ” (the Orthodox Russian kingdom and Protestant Sweden), his first priority in foreign policy. Along with these tasks, Sigismund was guided by dynastic interests.
Weakening the Power of the King
The reign of Sigismund is the beginning of an era of disintegration of the state. The primary event was the Zebrzydowski Rebellion. The main reason for the rebellion was Sigismund’s systematic attempts to assert absolutism; which, however, was constantly resisted. Sigismund sought to restrict the rights of the lords, to transform former posts into royal-dependent ranks and to organize Polish society with the help of majorats, whose support would give them a voice in the Senate. With all his aspirations for absolutism, Sigismund promoted the principle of unanimity at the Diet, which radically undermined any possibility of reform. When Zamoysky, at the Diet of 1589, made a proposal that edicts from the lords would be decided by a majority vote, the opponent was the king himself, who put opposition Opalinsky against Zamoysky. Government anarchy, established under Sigismund, was beginning to become a great problem for the state.
Wars with Russia
Carrying out plans for expansion to the east, Sigismund supported False Dmitry I, concluding with him a secret treaty. Upon his accession to Moscow, the pretender promised to give Poland the Chernigov-Seversky region. After the death of False Dmitry I, Sigismund in 1609 led the siege of Smolensk.
The troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the command of Zholkiewski in 1610, occupied Moscow. Russian boyars decided to elect the son of Sigismund III, Prince Vladislav, to the throne of Moscow. On October 29, 1611, the former Tsar Vasily Shuisky and his brothers Dmitry and Ivan brought him homage in Warsaw. After the liberation of Moscow in 1612, the war continued until 1618, when a truce was concluded in Deulin, one condition of which the Smolensk, Chernigov, and Seversk territories remained in the Commonwealth.
The Struggle for Sweden
In 1592, Sigismund married the daughter of the Archduke of Austria, Karl, and the granddaughter of Emperor Ferdinand I, Anne, who gave birth in 1595 to the future King Vladislav.
After the death of his father, John III in 1592, Sigismund went to Sweden and was crowned Swedish king in 1594, but on his return to Poland, he was forced to appoint his Uncle Charles, the Duke of Sedermanland, as regent of Sweden, who, by supporting Protestantism had aspired to the throne.
In 1596, Sigismund moved the capital from Krakow to Warsaw. During his second stay in Sweden in 1598, Sigismund alienated many supporters: he was finally removed from the throne in 1599, and his uncle was declared the king of Sweden in 1604, under the name of Charles IX. Sigismund did not want to give up his rights to the Swedish throne and conducted an unsuccessful war with Sweden.
After the death of his first wife, Anna Habsburg, in 1598, Sigismund married her sister Constance in 1605, who in 1609 gave birth to a son named Jan Kazimir. Sigismund III Vasa, terribly saddened by the death of his wife Constance, on July 10, 1631, and seriously ill, died of a stroke on April 30, 1632.
Sources:
- Cf. Niemczewicz, “Dzieje panowania Zygmunta III”
- Siarczyński, “Obraz wieku panowania Zygmunta III