In the last years of his life, Jan III Sobieski fell ill more and more. The court doctors spread their hands helplessly as they watched the monarch's slow agony. Even after he died, they disagreed on the diagnosis. Among the possible causes of death, the rulers mentioned heart attack, kidney disease, syphilis, and even ... murder.
When he loved, it was murder, when he was angry ... it was also murder. Jan III Sobieski was definitely not famous for his ability to control emotions. For this reason, the court medics predicted his death from a hemorrhage in the brain (apoplexy) and ordered him to drain the excess blood from the king's body prophylactically.
However, when on June 17, 1696, Lew Lechistan actually said goodbye to the world, it turned out that the bloody temperament was his least of concern. When it came to determining the cause of death, the numerous illnesses from which he suffered at the end of his life put doctors into quite a consternation. Disputes continue to this day about what actually killed the monarch, who is considered to be one of the greatest rulers in Polish history.
The specimen is unhealthy
Although at first glance Sobieski seemed indestructible - a strong man, bursting with health, endowed with military strength and impressive physical strength, in fact he was seriously ill. His extensive correspondence shows that he suffered from various ailments most of the time. And even if you take these letters with a pinch of salt, as an expression of the monarch's baroque exaltation and slight hypochondria, there must be more than a grain of truth in them. Karolina Stojek-Sawicka lists:
He did not enjoy good health from his childhood and already then he developed ailments that were to bother him for many years to come. (...) The future king, at the age of only ten, already suffered from severe nosebleeds and persistent runny nose (...). The second ailment that affected Sobieski quite early was migraines.
The ruler's health problems did not end there. He often complained of toothache, runny nose or fever. He also struggled - like many of his contemporaries - with gout . In addition, he was suffering from sinusitis and hypertension (the latter condition was probably a "side effect" of Sobieski's obesity), as well as rheumatism, nephrolithiasis, aquatic ascites and recurrent throat ulcers.
To this day, disputes continue about what actually killed the monarch
And since he was treated mainly with bloodletting, rubbing with vodka and drinking water (the foreign ones were best to work!), it is hardly surprising that the ruler's condition only worsened over time. In the late spring of 1696, his life was hanging in the balance. And although after the visit of a village healer who treated the sick with herbs, Sobieski improved somewhat, the improvement turned out to be temporary and soon Jan III suffered even more health. Bishop Jędrzej Załuski described the symptoms occurring in the king in a letter to the doctor Bernard O'Connor:
His Majesty's feet, shins, thighs and the lower abdomen are swollen. It started this summer, the swelling is getting bigger every day. The progress of the disease is not counteracted by even the strongest agents, applied orally and externally, and what is special, if you press your finger on the swelling, it does not give up, because it is hard as iron and heavy as lead.
Sick from head to toe
This Irish doctor, who once stayed at the Polish court for a short time as one of the court doctors and treated Sobieski for ascites, was surprised by this turn of events. He even asked his London colleagues for consultation, but he did not have time to come to any solution, because in the meantime he received information about the death of the ruler. Interestingly, posthumously - and at a distance - the medic managed to diagnose the former patient. As Stanisław Szpilczyński reports:
O'Connor continued his deliberations and finally came to the conclusion that a "natural" thing had happened, namely that a good deal of "earthy parts" had begun to settle in the king's legs and hence the weight; on the other hand, this sedimentation prevented the "floaters" (blood cells) from circulating in the blood towards the heart (...).
According to O'Connor, the hard swelling, obstructing blood circulation, caused the liquid to move towards the head. With the ebb and pressure on the brain, a stroke (apoplexia) occurred, which was fatal.
The problem was that O'Connor's diagnosis was inconsistent with the autopsy results. According to the protocol signed by three doctors:H. Mahien, P. Buini and J. Minasowicz, uremia, that is acute renal failure, led to Sobieski's death. As the medics conducting the autopsy stated, "although there was hardly any organ without fault, either one for nutrition or for breathing, we believe that it was primarily the changes in the kidneys that caused the catastrophe." So how was it really?
Cure worse than disease
Perhaps none of the above theories was true. Today, many historians believe that syphilis led Lev Lechistan to that world, which probably infected him with his beloved Marysieńka (although it is possible that he received syphilis spirochetes "as a gift" from one of his many mistresses; the ruler was famous for his unrestrained sexual appetite.
Dr hab. Aleksandra Skrzypietz confirms that:“Syphilis was the indirect cause of Jan III Sobieski's death. The accompanying complications could have caused other diseases in the king, incl. ascites and attacks of apoplexy. In addition, syphilis was then treated with mercury, which could destroy the kidneys. "
Currently, many historians believe that syphilis led Lev Lechistan to that world, probably infected by his beloved Marysieńka
Interestingly, according to one version, it was the therapy used by the court physician Sobieski, Symcha Menachem from Jona, that finally drove the king to the grave. According to some researchers, the doctor was not very skilful in trying to heal the ruler from syphilis and accidentally "overdid it", poisoning Jan III with mercury. There is also an alternative - much more sensational - hypothesis that the doctor was acting deliberately. As Isak Gath writes:
An anonymous letter sent on June 30, 1696 informed about the death of Jan III Sobieski and was probably the first source of accusations by a Jewish doctor of poisoning the king. Thus, shortly after the death of Jan Sobieski, the world was swept by a false accusation of the royal physician of poisoning him with a medicine containing mercury.
The court medic was even imprisoned on suspicions of murdering the king but soon, due to lack of evidence, he had to be released. Apart from this episode, the whole thing spread over the bones, and Symcha Menachem continued his medical practice in Lviv until the end of his life.
Therefore, Sobieski was not a victim of murder. It is also difficult to talk about a medical error, since mercury therapy - however toxic - was widely used at that time. Besides, for those times Jan III lived quite a long time - at the time of his death he was already well over sixty).
After more than 300 years, it is impossible to decide unequivocally which of the many diseases led Lev Lechistan to that world. Probably a bit of each. Most likely, however, the ruler simply ... died of love - or because of its "complications" in the form of a venereal disease.