John II Casimir Vasa
John II Casimir Vasa | |
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John II Casimir Vasa (
As a prince, John Casimir embarked at
The
The intrigues of his wife for the
Royal titles
- Official titles in Latin: Ioannes Casimirus, Dei Gratia rex Poloniae, magnus dux Lithuaniae, Russie, Prussiae, Masoviae, Samogitiae, Livoniae, Smolenscie, Severiae, Czernichoviaeque; nec non-Suecorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque haereditarius rex, etc.
- English translation: John Casimir, by God's grace King of Poland, Grand Duke of Goths and Vandals.
Biography
Early life, family and rise to power
John Casimir was born in
John Casimir for most of his life remained in the shadow of his older half-brother, Władysław IV Vasa. He had few friends among the Polish nobility. Unfriendly, secretive, dividing his time between lavish partying and religious contemplation, and disliking politics, he did not have a strong power base nor influence at the Polish court, instead supporting unfavorable Habsburg policies. He did, however, display talent as a military commander, showing his abilities in the Smolensk War against Muscovy (1633).[6]
Between 1632 and 1635, Władysław IV sought to enhance his brother's influence by negotiating a marriage for John Casimir to
In 1636 he returned to the
In 1641 John Casimir decided to become a
King of Poland
In 1648 John Casimir was elected by the Polish Parliament to succeed his half-brother on the Polish throne. The reign of the last of the Vasas in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth would be dominated by the
In 1660 John II Casimir was forced to renounce his claim to the Swedish throne and acknowledge Swedish sovereignty over Livonia and the city of Riga in modern-day Latvia.
John Casimir had married his brother's widow, Marie Louise Gonzaga (Polish: Maria Ludwika), who was a major support to the King. Marie Louise suddenly died in 1667 and this may have caused the monarch's early political decline.
Abdication and death
On 16 September 1668, grief-stricken after the death of his wife in the previous year, John II Casimir abdicated the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and returned to France, where he rejoined the Jesuits and became abbot of
In the autumn of 1672, John Casimir had intended to return to Poland, but fell ill before departing and was prevented from doing so. The seizure of
The Lwów Oath
On 1 April 1656, during a Mass in the Latin Cathedral in Lwów, conducted by the papal legate Pietro Vidoni, John II Casimir in a grandiose and elaborate ceremony entrusted the Commonwealth under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he announced as The Queen of the Polish Crown and other of his countries. He also swore to protect the Kingdom's folk from any impositions and unjust bondage. This is referred to as the Lwów Oath.
As almost the whole country was occupied by Swedish or
After the King, a similar vow was taken by the
The Commonwealth forces finally drove back the Swedes in 1657 and the Russians in 1661. After the war, promises made by John Casimir in Lwów, especially those considering the peasants' lot, were not fulfilled, mostly because of objections by the Sejm, which represented the szlachta nobility and was not attracted to the idea of reducing serfdom, which would negatively affect their economic interests.
Legacy
John Casimir left no surviving children. All his brothers and sisters having predeceased him without surviving issue, he was the last of the line of
John Casimir was, after his brother, the head of the genealogical line of
Patron of the arts
The vast collection of paintings, portraits, porcelain and other valuables belonging to the Polish Vasas was mostly looted by the Swedes and Germans of Brandenburg who brutally sacked Warsaw in the 1650s, during the Deluge.[9] Most of them were sold off to wealthy nobles, displayed in other parts of Europe, or would eventually belong to private collectors, though some of the famous works survived hidden in Opole like The Rape of Europa by Guido Reni.
The most important additions to the royal collection were made by John II Casimir, a passionate collector of
When John Casimir abdicated the Polish–Lithuanian throne, he brought many of his paintings and portraits with him to France. The collection remaining at
In fiction
John Casimir was a character in Henryk Sienkiewicz's novels With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i Mieczem) and The Deluge (Potop).
Ancestry
Ancestors of John II Casimir Vasa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
- History of Poland (1569–1795)
References
- ^ "Jan Kazimierz". Sciaga.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ "Historical Collections of the Vilnius University Library – MANUSCRIPTS". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 7 July 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
- ^ a b "John II Casimir". chestofbooks.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Jan II Kazimierz Waza, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Tom X, 1964, p. 410
- ^ a b "kazimierz". szlachta.internetdsl.pl. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ "Władca, co kaprysił" (in Polish). Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-295-80362-3.
- ^ "Onet – Jesteś na bieżąco". dampol.republika.pl. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ ISBN 83-223-1818-9p. 129
- ^ Dedesz Aga Archived 30 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Lager-Kromnow, Birgitta (1973). "Katarina Jagellonica". Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (in Swedish). Vol. 20. Stockholm: National Archives of Sweden. p. 779. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ von Wurzbach, Constantin (ed.). Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 20 – via Wikisource.
- ISBN 9789151839042.
- ^ Dahlbäck, Göran (1985). "Margareta". Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (in Swedish). Vol. 25. Stockholm: National Archives of Sweden. p. 139. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Sigismund I at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Ward, Adolphus William; Prothero, George Walter; Leathes, Stanley Mordaunt, eds. (1911). The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. XIII. Macmillan. p. 67. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 261–262.
- ^ Marczali, Henrik (1877). "Candalei Anna II. Ulászló neje, magyarországi útjának és a menyegzői ünnepélyek leírása (Közlemények a párisi Nemzeti könyvtárból 1448-1596, 83-122)" [The Description of the Route to Hungary and the Wedding of Anne of Foix, the Wife of Ladislas II. Announcements from the National Library of Paris in French 1448-1596]. Hungarian Historical Journal. 23: 97–113.
- ^ Walter Goetz (1953), "Albrecht V.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 158–160; (full text online)
- von Wurzbach, Constantin (ed.). Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 6. p. 151 – via Wikisource.