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A war-ravaged country
From the early 17th century, Poland was in a constant state of war with one or other of its neighbours. Military successes (victory over Sweden at Kircholm in 1605, Russia at Kłuszyn in 1610, and Turkey at Chocim in 1621) were intertwined with disasters (failed intervention in Russia in 1612, disastrous defeat at the hands of the Turks in the Battle of Cecora in 1620, a series of setbacks during the Khmelnytsky (Chmielnicki) Cossack uprising in Ukraine in 1648).
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Polish hussars (regiments with "plumed" armour ) |
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| The outcome at home was inevitable: the country was devastated, the treasury emptied, the nobility in ever-growing opposition to the royal prerogatives. As of 1652 several sejms were stopped by obstructionists. The nadir of disaster came with the Swedish Deluge (1655-1660), when the country had to face a simultaneous invasion by Swedish, Russian, Cossack, Prussian and Transylvanian armies. Although this war ended in victory, Poland emerged from it devastated and weakened internally. Religious toleration waned in a climate of the Counter-Reformation and the wars with heterodox neighbours (Orthodox Russia and Protestant Sweden). On several occasions the nobility withdrew fealty to the Crown. Finally, a civil war broke out in 1665, resulting in the abdication of Jan Kazimierz (1668).
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