John Sobieski: Lothian prize essay for 1881Tatham, Edward H. R. (Edward Henry Ralph)
History
John Sobieski: Lothian prize essay for 1881
Tatham, Edward H. R. (Edward Henry Ralph)
John III Sobieski, King of Poland, 1629-1696
He returned to Zolkiew in November, dissatisfied with the
results of the campaign. ♦Jealousy of John’s generals.♦ At
its outset he had been attended by numbers of distinguished
foreigners, anxious to serve under so great a prince, but he
had found himself enfeebled by the lukewarm support of his two
Grand Generals, Jablonowski and Sapieha. Both were jealous of his
monopolising the glory by commanding in every campaign; but each
of them had ulterior reasons. Jablonowski was the chief of the
faction of Louis XIV., who was straining every nerve to gain over
Poland; Sapieha dreamed of separating Lithuania from Poland, and
becoming sovereign of the Grand Duchy. In the ensuing Diet the
faction of each had its complaints against the king. The former
blamed him for his ill-success against Kaminiec; the latter
accused him of depriving Lithuania of her rights by summoning
the Diet to meet at Warsaw instead of at Grodno. The Lithuanians
at first refused to attend it, but they yielded on the king’s
proposal that it should be called the Diet of Grodno. Their
opposition to his plans, however, was relentless, and one of the
family of Paz[122] carried his abuse so far as to threaten to
make him feel the weight of his arm. Such was the treatment that
was reserved for the saviour of Europe at the hands of his own
subjects!
♦Unsuccessful campaign of 1685.♦ His health had now become so
feeble that in the next campaign (1685) he was able to gratify
Jablonowski by leaving him in command. His loss was at once
keenly felt. Skilful though he was, the Grand General allowed his
army to be caught in a defile in the forest of Bucovina, and it
required all his ability to rescue it from utter annihilation.
Ashamed at his own pride no less than at his reverse he shunned
the royal presence.[123]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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