Zygmunt started a war with Sweden which led to the loss of Livonia. The Poles regained it in 1601, but four years later Zygmunt’s uncle, now Charles IX, invaded once again. The province would have fallen to Sweden had it not been for the Hetman of Lithuania Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, who took on Charles at Kircholm and worsted him. He went on to recapture the whole of Livonia, retaking Riga in 1609. The Swedish defeat was compounded by the death in 1611 of Charles IX. But he was succeeded by the under-age Gustavus Adolphus, who was to prove an immeasurably superior general, while the man appointed to rule during his minority was Axel Oxenstierna, one of the most brilliant statesmen of seventeenth-century Europe.
He would exploit Sweden’s peripheral situation during the Thirty Years’ War, which broke out in 1618, by joining in against the Catholic-Habsburg camp when there was something tangible to be gained, and keeping out when there was not. Although Poland had declared its neutrality in this conflict, King Zygmunt considered himself a member of the Catholic League ranged against the Protestant Union. He sent the Habsburgs a reinforcement of 10,000 cavalry, which contributed to their victory at the Battle of the White Mountain against the ‘Winter King’ of Bohemia. This allowed Sweden to disregard Poland’s neutrality and invade not only Livonia but Pomerania as well. In 1627 Hetman Koniecpolski defeated the army of Gustavus Adolphus on land and the Polish navy defeated the Swedish fleet at sea. Peace was eventually signed at Stumsdorf in 1635, but the Vasas’ claim to the Swedish throne would cause more bloodshed yet.
The Commonwealth itself had no part in these wars, and no reason for fighting them. The Sejm had lost control over the King’s conduct of foreign affairs, but did retain a negative influence on its outcome, since it could refuse funds for troops. Once the King’s actions had provoked foreign invasion, however, the Commonwealth had no choice but to defend itself. Thus Polish foreign policy under the three Vasa kings, Zygmunt III (1587-1632) and his sons Władysław IV (1632-48) and Jan Kazimierz (1648-68), often took the form of ambitious plans which foundered either before or shortly after being put into effect, as they enjoyed little support in the Sejm.
Notwithstanding his apologies to the Sejm of 1592, Zygmunt continued on his own course, breaking the pledges he had made in the
The appeal went unheeded, and when the Chancellor had been laid in his grave that summer, Zygmunt called a second Sejm in the hope of having a freer hand. Another vociferous leader of the opposition, Mikołaj Zebrzydowski, Palatine of Kraków, called a rival assembly of the szlachta which threatened the King with dire consequences if he did not abide by the constitution. The Sejm sitting at Warsaw tried to hammer out a compromise, but this was scuppered by the King, who demanded the repeal of the Act of the Confederation of Warsaw which guaranteed religious freedom. More and more szlachta and some magnates such as Janusz Radziwiłł joined Zebrzydowski at Sandomierz, and with the King persisting in his demands, they voted for his dethronement in accordance with the final clause of the
Their case was constitutionally watertight, but it required a man of greater intelligence than Zebrzydowski to spell it out and one of greater authority to rally opinion to it. While few people sided with the King, most were reluctant to raise arms against him. After some hesitation, the two Hetmans Chodkiewicz icz and żółkiewski decided to stand by him. They assembled the royal troops and defeated, or rather dispersed, the rebellion at Guzów.