Sigismund III of Poland
(Redirected from Zygmunt III Waza)
Categories: Polish monarchs | Swedish monarchs | Lithuanian rulers | Vasa | 1566 births | 1632 deaths
| Zygmunt III Waza | |
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| Reign in Poland | From September 18, 1587 until April 19, 1632 |
| Reign in Sweden | From November 17, 1592 until July 24, 1599 |
| Elected in Poland | On September 18 1587 in Wola, today suburb of Warsaw, Poland |
| Coronation in Poland | On December 27 1587 in the Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, Poland |
| Coronation in Sweden | On February 19, 1594 |
| Royal motto | "Pro jure et populo" ("For justice and the people") |
| Royal House | Vasa |
| Parents | John III Katarzyna Jagiellonka |
| Consorts | [[Anna of Austria, Habsburg|]] Constance of Austria |
| Children | with Anna of Austria, Habsburg Anna Maria Katarzyna Władysław IV Waza Katarzyna Krzysztof with Constance of Austria Jan Kazimierz Jan II Kazimierz Waza Jan Albert Karol Ferdynant Aleksander Karol Anna Konstancja Anna Katarzyna Konstancja |
| Date of Birth | June 20, 1566 |
| Place of Birth | Gripsholm Palace, Sudermannia, Sweden |
| Date of Death | April 19, 1632 |
| Place of Death | Warsaw, Poland |
| Place of Burial | Wawel, Sigismund Chapel, Kraków, Poland. buried on February 4, 1633 |
King Sigismund III of Poland, Sigismund of Sweden (June 20, 1566 O.S. – April 19, 1632 O.S.), was the son of King John III of Sweden (1537 – 1592), of the House of Vasa, and his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland (1526 – 1583). He ruled in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where he was known as Zygmunt III Waza, from 1587 to 1632 and in Sweden, where he was known as Sigismund Vasa, from 1592 until deposed in 1599. Elected to the Polish throne, he sought to create a personal union between the Commonwealth and Sweden. After he had been deposed from the Swedish throne, he concentrated on attempts to reclaim it. His reign initiated a series of wars between the Commonwealth and Sweden that would last until the 1660s. Due to his failure to achieve anything of lasting importance apart from setting the stage for future devastating wars, some historians (such as Pawel Jasienica) consider his reign to mark the beginning of the end of the Polish Golden Age.
Zygmunt III was commemorated by the striking Zygmunt's Column, commissioned by his son and successor, King Władysław IV.
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Royal titles
- Royal titles in Latin: Sigismundus Tertius Dei gratia rex Poloniæ, magnus dux Lithuaniæ, Russiæ, Prussiæ, Masoviæ, Samogitiæ, Livoniæque, necnon Suecorum, Gothorum Vandalorumque hæreditarius rex
- English translation: Sigismund III by God's grace king of Poland, grand duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Livonia, and also hereditary king of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals.
Sigismund Waza-Jagellon (1566-1632) was elected King of Poland and reigned 1587-1632. By paternal inheritance, he succeeded 1592 as King of Sweden and was regarded as having abdicated 1599 and finally deposed 1604. He was a heir to the title King of Jerusalem.
Biography
He was born at Gripsholm during his parents' imprisonment by King Eric XIV. Although Sweden was protestant, Sigismund was raised as a catholic. This fact combined with the troublesome personal union would later strike back at his attempts to find support in Sweden.
His mother, Katarzyna Jagiellonka, was the daughter of Sigismund I the Elder and his wife Bona Sforza. The Jagiellon dynasty had held the crown of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since the first ruler Wladislaus II had received it via his wife Jadwiga in 1386.
In 1587, he was a cadidate for the monarch of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, following the death of previous Polish king, Stefan Batory. The election was held in the shadow of conflict between Polish nobility (szlachta), with the two opposing sides gathered around kanclerz Jan Zamoyski and Zborowscy family. Sigismund, supported by Zamoyski and wife of the former king Anna the Jagiellonian was elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commnwealth on 19 August 1587 and recognized by the interrex, primate of Poland Stanisław Karnkowski.
However, the election was disputed by other candidate, Maximilian III of Austria, and opponents of Sigismund chose not to respect the election outcome and decreed that Maximilian is the righteous monarch. Neither Sigismund nor Maximilian were present in Commonwealth at that time. After receiving news of his election, Sigismund quickly departed from Sweden and arrived in Oliwa on 7 October (his landing was delayed due to the hostility from the Protestand Gdańsk). In his pacta conventa Sigismund accepted a reduction of monarch power in favour of the Sejm (Commonwealth parliament). Lesser Prussian Treasurer Jan Dulski representing the Crown Marshall Andrzej Opaliński proclaimed him to be the king. Sigismund returned to his ship on the same day, arriving in Gdańsk next day, and after approxmately two weeks he had departed to Kraków, where he was crowned on 27 December of that year.
When Maximilian attempted to resolve the dispute by bringing a military force and starting the war of Polish succession, he was defeated at the battle of Byczyna by the supporters of Sigismund, under the command of Polish hetman Jan Zamojski. Maximilian was taken captive and released only after intervention by Pope Sixtus V. In 1589, he waived his right to the Polish crown.
In 1592 he married the Austrian archduchess Anna Habsburzanka and after his father's death the same year, he received permission from Sejm to accept the Swedish throne. After Sigismund promised to uphold Swedish Lutheranism he was crowned king of Sweden in 1594. He tried to rule Sweden from Poland leaving Sweden under control of a regent, his paternal uncle, Duke Charles. In 1596 he succeeded in creating the Union of Brest, which attempted to bring part of the Orthodox religion into Catholicism. In the same year he transferred the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw.
After his wife Anna died in 1598 he married her sister Constance of Austria in 1605. In the meantime, trouble were growing on the southern border of the Commonwealth, where Jan Zamoyski and other magnates were engaged in the Magnate wars in Moldavia. Eventually after the defeat of Polish forces in the battle of Cecora in 1620 Commonwealth would have to relinquish its claims to the Principality of Moldavia.
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Due to Sigismund strong support of the counterreformation, his support in the mostly Protestant Sweden was eroding quickly. Charles soon took full control of Sweden and rebelled against Sigismund, ostensibly due to fears that Sigismund might re-Catholicize Sweden. In 1598 Sigismund tried to defeat him with a mixed army from Sweden and Poland but was defeated in the battle of Stångebro. Sigismund was restrained from ruling Sweden from abroad, but nevertheless returns to Poland, so in 1599 he was deposed. This and his decision to incorporate Livonia into the Commonwealth led to the Polish-Swedish War, which lasted, with minor breaks, to 1629. Little was gained in this war by either side. The kingship was ultimately ceded to Charles. Sigismund however did not relinquish his claims to the Swedish throne and his subsequent foreign policy was aimed at regaining the Swedish crown, which led to very harsh relations and several wars between the two countries, to end only after the Great Northern War.
In 1605 Sigismund attempted to strenghten the monarch power, by asking Sejm (Commonwealth parliament) to limit liberum veto, increase taxes and military. His opponents, led by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski declared a confederatio and rokosz in Sandomierz, leadin gto the civil war known as the rokosz Zebrzydowskiego. Eventualy, royalist forces defeat the rokoszans on 6 July 1607 at the battle of Guzów, but the eventual compromise was the return to the status quo from before 1605.
Another important conflict of his reign was the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618), also known as 'Dymitriady'. Sigismund and many Polish magnates attempted to expoit the Muscovy civil war (Time of Troubles) and after lenghty war the Truce of Deulino in 1618 gave some territorial concessions to the Commonwealth (mainly the Smoleńsk Voivodship). Nonetheless, this war increased tensions between Poland and Russia, and ruined the prospects for the Polish-Lithuanian-Muscovy Commonwealth.
Sigismund was a talented painter and goldsmith: of his three paintings that survive until the present day one was through centuries erroneously attributed to Tintoretto; from his workshop came the main part of the famous silver coffin of St. Adalbert of Prague at the Cathedral in Gniezno.
He died at the age of 65 in the royal castle in Warsaw.
Sigismund politics
Many historians believe that Sigismund viewed Poland only as a tool that would allow him to eventually regain the throne of Sweden. To this end he tried to strengthen his royal power and allied himself with Habsburgs and Counter-Reformation forces. Those politics were opposed by many from Polish nobility (the szlachta), most notably the chancellor Jan Zamojski. This led to a semi-legal rebellion against the king (rokosz), known as rokosz of Zebrzydowski (1606 – 1608), which was a response to Sigismund attempt to introduce majority voting in place of unanimity in the Sejm. Eventually Sigismund loyalist forces were victorious, but the rebels were unpunished. Partially in order to pacify the restless szlachta, Sigismund supported war with Muscovy (the Dimitriads, 1608 – 1618). Although Commonwealth forces were almost constantly shuffled between wars in the East (with Muscovy), north (with Sweden) and South (with Ottomans - the Polish-Ottoman wars), Sigisumund took advantage of Russia civil war (the Time of Troubles and secured temporary territorial gains for the Commonwealth.
While Sigismund never managed to regain the Swedish throne, his politics of personal ambition did succeed in provoking a long series of conflicts between the Commonwealth and Sweden and Muscovy. While the Commonwealth Sejm managed to thwart many ambitious (and dangerous) offensive plans of Sigismund (and later of his son, Wladislaw), the Vasa dynasty nonetheless succeeded in partially drawing the Commonwealth into the Thirty Years War. This sensless conflict with Sweden, combined with wars against Ottomans and Muscovy eventually culminated well after Sigismund's death in the series of events known as the Deluge, which ended the Golden Age of the Commonwealth.
During his reign he allowed the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns to inherit Ducal Prussia.
The royal family
Sigismund married twice. Firstly, on May 31, 1592, to Anna of Austria, Habsburg (1573 – 1598), daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria (1540 – 1590) and his wife Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551-1608). They had five children:
- Anna Maria (1593 – 1600)
- Katharina (1594 – 1594)
- Vladislaus (1595 – 1648), (reigned 1632 – 1648 as Władysław IV Waza of Poland)
- Katharina (1596 – 1597)
- Kristofer (1598 – 1598)
And secondly, on December 11, 1605, to his first wife's sister, Constance of Austria (1588 – 1631). They had seven children:
- Johan Kasimir (1607 – 1608)
- John Casimir (1609 – 1672), (reigned 1648 – 1668 as John Casimir II Vasa of Poland)
- Johan Albert (1612 – 1634)
- Karol Ferdynant (1613 – 1655)
- Alexander Karl (1614 – 1634)
- Anna Konstantia (1616)
- Anna Katharina Konstanze (1619 – 1651)
See also
- History of Poland (1569-1795)
- History of Sweden
- Foundation of Modern Sweden
- Unions of Sweden
- Kolumna Zygmunta
| Preceded by: {{{before}}}}|before=Stephen}} | {{{title}}} {{{years}}}}|title=King of Poland|years=1587–1632}} | Succeeded by: {{{after}}} |
| Preceded by: {{{before}}}}|before=John III}} | {{{title}}} {{{years}}}}|title=King of Sweden|years=1592–1599}} | Succeeded by: {{{after}}} |
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