Charging hussars. Turks fleeing in panic and one of the greatest victories of the Polish army. It is possible that all this would never have happened if the agents of Louis XIV had succeeded in dissuading King Jan III Sobieski from concluding an alliance with the Austrians.
France's rivalry with the Habsburgs was long and bloody, and wars were fought with varying degrees of luck. No wonder, then, that when Emperor Leopold's empire faced the Turkish invasion, Louis XIV tried to do his best to bring about the final oppression of his opponent. To this end, he tried to draw the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth away from the alliance with the Empire. He did not want the Poles to come to Vienna to the rescue.
Truly royal bribe
The implementation of the royal order was undertaken by the French envoy in Warsaw, Marquis Franz de Vitry. "He reaches for the wealthy» war fund «and begins to buy Polish envoys, persuading them to take the side of France," describes his actions by the Austrian historian Johannes Sachslehner in his book , which we have just published. the fate of Europe ” .
The diplomat was by no means content with bribing magnates. He decided to corrupt the king himself. He suggested - as Sachslehner writes - to Jan III Sobieski:
one hundred thousand livres, provided he gives up his alliance with the emperor , but the Polish ruler had no hesitation in rejecting the envoy's proposal, saying that money was incapable of persuading him to act which he would not be able to reconcile with his own sense of duty.
Undeterred by the fact that Lew Lechistan despised the equivalent of 62 kilograms of pure gold, de Vitry continued to build magnates persistently. His main support was the treasurer of the great Crown Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (the same one who went down in history with baroque poetry). But Sobieski was not idle either. His agents managed to bribe two French embassy employees, giving him full insight into the marquess's plots.
Louis XIV spared no money to win his side over to the Poles.
In order to obtain hard evidence, the Poles even went so far as to attack the couriers of the Duke of Brandenburg, whose services were used by de Vitry and Morsztyn. Sobieski's agents also checked letters sent to Paris by post via Gdańsk. As a result, compromising correspondence fell into their hands, which allowed them to deal once and for all with the Grand Treasurer of the Crown and his supporters.
Sobieski beats the French
The final confrontation took place on March 16, 1683 at a session of the Seym, which was to decide on an alliance with the Habsburgs. This is how it was described in the book "Vienna 1683" by Johannes Sachslehner:
During the meeting, members of the powerful "French party" distribute brochures and leaflets to thwart the alliance with Leopold, but Jan III Sobieski cleverly portrays them as traitors and enemies of the homeland.
The text is based on the book by Johannes Sachslehner entitled "Vienna 1683. The year that decided the fate of Europe" (Horizon 2018 sign).
First, the MPs are introduced to a report by Samuel Proski, in which a Polish resident in Istanbul reports on large-scale armaments Ports, and then, as a shocking counterpoint to these revelations, King has the intercepted, copied and decrypted letters of the French ambassador Franz de Vitry to Louis XIV read, in which sums paid to corrupt senators are listed, and the Polish nobility is described as completely corrupt.
( and Kazimierz Jan Sapieha, Grand Hetman of Lithuania.It was indignant to the nobility. Sobieski took advantage of the mood and forced an alliance with the emperor. Morsztyn was removed from office and stood before the parliamentary tribunal. Ultimately, he avoided punishment as his letters to the French could not be deciphered.
Jan Andrzej Morsztyn paid for plots with the French with a position. He also had to leave Poland. He settled in Paris, where he lived his days.
He owed it to his wife's thrift, who had burned the combination key in advance. However, he had to leave the country; he went with his family to Paris. De Vitry, whose appeal was demanded by Sobieski, also paid for his failure with the position. In this situation - as Sachslehner writes in his book:
Louis XIV puts an end to unsuccessful French politics in Poland:in a letter he orders de Vitry to put in Polish a farewell visit to the court. On this occasion, the ambassador must once again drop all accusations in the presence of a large audience.
Source:
Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on:
- Johannes Sachslehner, Vienna 1683. The year that decided the fate of Europe , Horizon 2018 sign.