Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden (where he is known simply as Sigismund) from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599. He was deposed from the Swedish throne by his uncle, Charles IX of Sweden, and a meeting of the Riksens ständer (Swedish Riksdag), he spent much of the rest of his life attempting to reclaim it.
Background
Ethnicity:
Father was King John III of Sweden and his mother was Catherine Jagellonica of Poland.
Sigismund was born on 20 June 1566 to Catherine Jagiellon of Poland and King John III of Sweden at Gripsholm. His parents, at the time, were being held prisoner by King Eric XIV, but despite the Protestant domination of Sweden young Sigismund was raised as a Roman Catholic. Regaining the throne of Sweden would be one of the primary driving forces in his life. His Polish connection came through his mother who was the daughter of Sigismund I the Old and the Jagiellonian family had been the royal family of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) obtained the crown in 1386 through his Angevin wife, Saint Queen Jadwiga. In 1587 Sigismund stood for election to the Polish throne after the death of King Stephen Bathory.
Education
Sigismund was raised by Society of Jesus as the true Roman Catholic.
Career
The reign of King Sigismund III of Poland is often spoken of as the beginning of the end of Polish greatness. In terms of worldly success he certainly met with many defeats and setbacks. Yet, he was also one of the great Catholic champions of Europe and his reign can also be seen as one of many opportunities for an even greater Poland. He was stubborn, but a man of principle who would follow the hard but upright path rather than compromise his values for a more sure chance at success. As a monarch who reigned during the Catholic Reformation (also called the counter-reformation) he constantly worked to see the restoration of all of his subjects to the true faith embodied in the Church of Rome headed by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Oddly enough for such a staunchly Catholic monarch his story begins in the staunchly Protestant Kingdom of Sweden. Sigismund's rule is often criticized in Poland for his unsuccessful decisions that negatively affected the diplomatic and financial situation of the country, however, especially by the nationalists, he is widely praised for conquering the eastern empires and gaining territories for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, thus creating the largest country in Europe of the 16th and 17th century that lasted until the final partition in 1795.
One of the royal champions of the Catholic Reformation period.
Shortly after his victory over his internal enemies, Sigismund took advantage of a period of civil unrest in Muscovy (known as the Time of Troubles) and invaded Russia, holding Moscow for two years (1610–12) and Smolensk thereafter. In 1617 the Polish-Swedish conflict, which had been interrupted by an armistice in 1611, broke out again. While Sigismund’s army was also fighting Ottoman forces in Moldavia (1617–21), King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden (Charles IX’s son) invaded Sigismund’s lands, capturing Riga (1621) and seizing almost all of Polish Livonia. Sigismund, who concluded the Truce of Altmark with Sweden in 1629, never regained the Swedish crown. His Swedish wars resulted, moreover, in Poland’s loss of Livonia and in a diminution of the kingdom’s international prestige.
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. His policies were opposed by many within the circles of the wealthy Polish nobility (the szlachta), most notably the chancellor Jan Zamoyski. This led to a semi-legal rebellion against the king (rokosz), known as Zebrzydowski Rebellion (1606–1608), which was a response to Sigismund's attempt to introduce majority voting in place of unanimity in the Sejm. Eventually Sigismund's forces were victorious, but the rebels went 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), Sigismund took advantage of the civil war in Russia (the Time of Troubles) and secured temporary territorial gains for the Commonwealth.
While Sigismund never managed to regain the Swedish throne, his personal ambition to do so did succeed in provoking a long series of conflicts between the Commonwealth and Sweden temporarily allied with Muscovy. While the Commonwealth's Royal Parliament managed to thwart many of the plans of Sigismund (and later of his son, Władysław), the Vasa dynasty nonetheless succeeded in partially drawing the Commonwealth into the Thirty Years' War. The conflict with Sweden, combined with wars against Ottomans and Muscovy, culminated well after Sigismund's death in the series of events known as The Swedish Deluge, which ended the Golden Age of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that spanned for almost a century.
During his reign Sigismund permitted the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns to inherit Ducal Prussia. This decision later greatly strengthened the Duchy and following the Commonwealth's major military defeat in the Second Northern War during the reign of Sigismund's younger son, John II Casimir, under the terms and conditions of the Treaty of Oliva, Prussia became a sovereign state and country that eventually Partition Poland together with Austria and the Russian Empire in the late 18th century.
Views
The King was the true Roman Catholic and was considered to be one of the royal champions of the Catholic Reformation period. He made the Commonwealth very much the dominant power of Central and Eastern Europe and just as importantly ensured that Poland remained a solidly Catholic country in the face of Protestant incursions.
Personality
Sigismund worked to gain more power for the king. The King was ultimately victorious and despite what his many detractors might say his reign marked a period of Polish greatness the likes of which has not often been seen. He was considered a brave man, a talented monarch and something of a renaissance man as is evidenced by his devout faith and his artistic talent. If the reforms he planned were successful and if he would create a personal union with Poland's neighbours, Sigismund might have been the father of a Catholic dynasty that stretched across Poland, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Turkey and Russia.
Interests
Sigismund was a gifted artist, painter and goldsmith; only one of his three paintings survived, one was for centuries erroneously attributed to Tintoretto; and from his own, personal workshop came the main part of the famous silver coffin of St. Adalbert of Prague at the Cathedral in Gniezno.
Connections
Sigismund III was the son of King John III of Sweden and his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland.
Sigismund married twice. Firstly, on 31 May 1592, to Anna of Austria (1573–1598), daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria (1540–1590) and his wife Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551-1608). They had five children.
Father:
John III of Sweden
He was King of Sweden from 1568 until his death. He was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. He was also, quite autonomously, the ruler of Finland, as Duke John from 1556 to 1563. In 1581 he assumed also the title Grand Prince of Finland.
Mother:
Catherine Jagiellon
She was a Polish princess and the wife of John III of Sweden. As such, she was Duchess of Finland (1562–83), Queen of Sweden (1569–83) and Grand Princess of Finland (1581–83). Catherine had significant influence over state affairs during the reign of her husband, and negotiated with the pope to introduce a counter reformation in Sweden.
grandmother:
Bona Sforza
She was a member of the powerful House of Sforza, which ruled the Duchy of Milan since 1447. In 1518, she became the second wife of Sigismund I the Old, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Their marriage lasted 30 years until Sigismund's death in 1548. Ambitious and energetic, Bona became heavily involved in the political life of Poland–Lithuania. To increase state revenue, she implemented various economic and agricultural reforms, including the far-reaching Wallach Reform in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Her reforms made her the richest landowner in the Grand Duchy. In foreign policy, she opposed the Habsburgs and sought to secure her eldest daughter Isabella Jagiellon in the Kingdom of Hungary.
