Encyclopedia
Stefan Batory, King of Poland, Prince of Transylvania, Grand Duke of Lithuania was
Prince of
Transylvania , then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania . Born
István Báthory to a powerful
Hungarian noble, likewise named István Báthory, younger Batory succeeded John II Zapolya as Prince of Transylvania in 1571 and held this position until 1575, afterwards turning it over to his elder brother Christopher Bathory. That year Batory became the ruler of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, reigning as Stefan Batory.
Biography
Stefan Batory was born September 27, 1533, in Somlyo,
Transylvania, to the local branch of the ancient Bathory family, now extinct, but originally almost coeval with the Hungarian monarchy. Istvan Bathory spent his early years at the court of the emperor
Ferdinand I, subsequently attached himself to John Zapolya, and won equal renown as a valiant lord-marcher, and as a skillful diplomat at the imperial court. Zapolya rewarded him with the
voivodeship of Transylvania, and as the loyal defender of the rights of his patrons' son, John Sigismund, he incurred the animosity of the emperor
Maximilian II of Austria, who kept him in prison for two years. On May 25 of 1571, on the death of John Sigismund, Bathory was elected prince of Transylvania by the Hungarian estates, despite the opposition of the court of
Vienna and contrary to the wishes of the late prince, who had appointed Gaspar Bekesy his successor. Bekesy insisting on his claims, a civil war ensued in which Bathory ultimately won by driving his rival out of the country the following year.
After the heirless death of King Sigismund II of Poland in 1572, his spinster sister Anna Jagiellonka became the sole heir to the
Crown of Poland. Due to the conflict with her late brother , she remained single and became one of the most influential personalities in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the
Sejm of April of 1573, she strongly supported the election of a French candidate. She convinced almost 50,000 members of the
szlachta and finally
Henri de Valois was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, under the name of Henryk III Walezy. The couple was to become married, which was to further strengthen the legitimisation of Henry's rule. However, in less than a year after his coronation, Henry fled to Paris where he was crowned
king of France.
The period of interregnum lasted for roughly one and a half years. It was not until December 12, 1575 that the
Sejm, convinced by the
Papal nuncio agreed to elect a new monarch. Although at first
Maximilian Habsburg was elected, mostly due to strong support of the Catholic church and the Pope himself, after three days the
szlachta threatened the senate with civil war and demanded a
Piast king, that is a king of Polish ethnicity. After a heated discussion, it was decided that Anna Jagiellonka be elected king of Poland. The same day the Sejm chose Stefan Batory as her husband and
de facto successor of Henry III. Among the strongest supporters of his candidacy were the Protestants , who feared that an ultra-Catholic monarch like a
Habsburg could overthrow the principles of the Warsaw Confederation and support
Counter-Reformation. On the other hand, Bathory had the merit of being a ruler of Transylvania, a state where freedom of religion was introduced already in 1568. On May 1, 1576 Batory married Anna Jagiellonka and became the ruler of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the time the largest and one of the most populous states in Europe. Upon coronation, his official titles were
Stefan, by the grace of God King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Kiev Land, Volhynia, Podlachia and Livonia, as well as Prince of Transylvania.
Stefan Batory proved to be a wise king, despite the fact that the country he became a ruler of was badly damaged by the troubles of the interregnum. At first his position was extremely difficult mostly because of internal opposition, financed by Maximilian Habsburg and
Muscovy. However, the sudden death of the emperor Maximilian at the very moment when that potentate, in league with Muscovy, was about to invade the Commomwealth, completely changed the face of things, and though Stefan's distrust of the Habsburgs remained invincible, he consented at last to enter into a defensive alliance with the
Holy Roman Empire which was carried through by the papal nuncio on his return to
Rome in 1578.
All armed opposition collapsed with the surrender of the
hanseatic city of
Gdansk . The city, encouraged by its immense wealth and almost impregnable fortifications, as well as by the secret support of
Denmark and the emperor, had backed Emperor
Maximilian II and shut her gates against the new monarch. The opposition of the city was reduced only after a six months siege and a fierce battle of December 16, 1577, in which its army of 5,000 mercenaries was utterly defeated in open field. Nevertheless, Batory's armies were too weak to take the city by force and a compromise was reached. Bathory had to accept that Gdansk continued to hold some of its privileges and the city recognised him as ruler of Poland and paid an enormous sum of 200,000 guldens in gold as an "apology". Báthory confirmed the privileges of Gdansk in 1577. Gdansk later was loyally serving the Kingdom during the war with Sweden and Muscovy, providing help when requested.
This victory gave Batory a chance to devote himself to foreign affairs and a strong position at home. With the help of his chancellor
Jan Zamoyski, Stefan Batory managed to completely reorganise the Polish Army. Among his genuine inventions was the
piechota wybraniecka semi-professional infantry formation, composed of peasants trained in both infantry warfare and engineering. Batory also reorganised the judiciary branch of power by formation of legal tribunals and also founded the
Academy of Vilna, the third
university in the Commonwealth and a predecessor of the modern Vilnius University. Both Batory and Zamoyski were skilled politicians who were able to win several factions of the
Polish gentry for strengthening of the royal authority. This was done mostly by means of better taxation of crown lands and royal property leased to the gentry. He was also notable as the monarch to order Samuel Zborowski to be executed for treason and murder, a verdict that could not be carried out for roughly a decade.
In external relations, Batory sought peace through strong alliances. The difficulties with the
Ottoman Empire were temporarily adjusted by a truce signed on November 5, 1577. The
Sejm gathered in
Warsaw was persuaded to grant Stefan subsidies for the inevitable war against Muscovy. Two campaigns of wearing marches, and still more exhausting sieges ensued, in which Batory, although repeatedly hampered by the parsimony of the Sejm, was uniformly successful, his skilful diplomacy at the same time allaying the suspicions of the Ottomans and the emperor.
Batory, with his chancellor Jan Zamoyski, led the army of the Commonwealth in a brilliant decisive campaign against the invading forces of
Ivan the Terrible during the Livonian War. The Russians had invaded Livonia and took
Dorpat from the vassal of the Commonwealth,
Duchy of Courland. The Commonwealth army under Bathory routed the Russian force at Velikiye Luki. In 1581 Stefan penetrated to the very heart of Muscovy and, on August 22,
laid siege to the city of Pskov, whose vast size and imposing fortifications filled the little Commonwealth army with dismay. But the king, despite the murmurs of his own officers, and the protestations of the papal nuncio, Possevino, whom the curia, deluded by the mirage of a union of the churches, had sent expressly from Rome to mediate between the
tsar and the king of Poland, closely besieged the city throughout a winter of arctic severity, till, on the December 13, 1581, Ivan the Terrible, alarmed for the safety of the third city in his empire, concluded peace treaty in Jam Zapolski , thereby ceding
Polatsk and the whole of
Livonia back to the Commonwealth.
With the problems at the eastern borders settled, Stefan Batory planned a Christian alliance against the
Ottomans. He proposed an anti-Ottoman alliance with Muscovy, which he considered a necessary step for his anti-Ottoman crusade. However, Russia was on its way to the
Time of Troubles, so he could not find a partner there. The project of a Polish-Lithuanian-Muscovite Commonwealth was dissipated by his sudden death, on December 12, 1586 in
Hrodna .
When Stefan Batory died, there was a one year interregnum. Emperor Maximilian's brother
Maximilian III tried to claim the Polish-Lithuanian throne but was defeated at Byczyna, and Batory was succeeded by
Sigismund III Vasa.
Notes
Reference
See also
