Mission to Podolia

Warsaw, January 23, 1696

Wilanow palace, Warsaw

Crown Prince Jakub was outside his fathers quarters, waiting for Doctor O'Connor to leave. His father had been unwell these last years and lately had been receiving intensive treatment from the Irish physician.

The door opened and the physician steppe out. To the anxious questions of the prince he could just give a chagrined smile and said to him, "Your father is waiting for you."

Jakub Sobieski

Jakub entered the king's chambers. The king was in his bed. Far from being the impressive hero figure the king has since his victory in Vienna retired from active campaigning due to health problems.

"Fanfanikiem,  come here." The ruler called his son over to his bedside.  "You know i have been ill for a while now, but things are coming to an end..."

"But father, the doctors have been predicting your iminent death for the last 2 years!!!" cried the Prince

"Shhh, quiet son. I won't leave today, nor tomorrow, but my health is also not improving. In fact it is getting worse" 

"You know we have been trying everything to improve your chances of getting the crown after I am gone, but as things stand, you will still need to get elected for this honor."

"As you know there are factions at court that still clai you have no right to the throne, being the son of a Hetman, not born when I was king."

"There are many pretenders to the throne. Lubomirski and Potoki are already with Hetman Jablonowski.  And they know just as much as we do, how a good military victory can improve ones chances to being elected King" said the King with a gleam in his eye.

" I have just received a report from Podolia, showing that the Emir of Lehistan, Kemik Kiran, is readying his forces for a spring or summer campaign. He is amassing troops from Crimea, Rumelia and the desert Nations. Rumours have it he is even recruiting chinese archers... at least he is bringing chinsese arrows!?!"

Kemik Kirans Horde amassing with Delis, Tartars, Janissarys, Bazi-bazouhs, and the mysterious Chinese Arrows...

"Son, I am asking you to take our troops and those loyal to us down there, assist the Hetman, but make sure that when the crushing blow falls, it is your hand that is guiding the mace! Crush them before they can crush us! And if you can win back Podolia, the crown will be yours for sure.

Go to Oleska. Rotamaster Krefeldski is already training and assembling some banners of Haidjuks and Dragoons, that will come in usefull in the hilly region you will be operating in."

The King gave his son a parting embrace.

"Good Luck!"

Banners of the Republic

Quietly, behind the scenes , things are moving.

No great cavalry charge, but it's inspiring me to keep painting even more none the less :)

Flags

I have been busy organizing little details of my campaign, not wanting to show too much till it is a little more advanced. but i have been having a wee dilema about the flags for my nascent Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth Flags.

I have come up with these flags, with the royal eagle on one side and the province embedded on the other, in a way symbolizing the two entities of the commonwealth, the separate provinces or vovoides, and the whole of the country. In the corners i placed the Polish, Lithuanian, Ruthenian and Kings personal crests.

Inwroclaw Regiment

Kalisz Regiment

Sandomiersz Regiment

on the other hand i also developed these simpler private army flags, of the separate magnates, who with too much money to burn, had private armies sometimes rivaling the size of the Commonwealth's own army.

Rawicz Regiment

Podlachia Levy

But is the difference too great? Do the two sets of flags still feel like they are part of the same country?

Looking forward to comments and opinions.

Cheers.

Commonwealth Armed forces 1700

Polish troops 1697-1795

The Line infantry, dragoons and artillery

The guards. i wonder if these are already in the saxon red, or in the more expensive crimson to denote nobility in the guards? As in the colour difference between the "common" red of the soldiers and and the noble magenta of the officers.

Guard cavalry dragoons and arquebusiers from 1717 (saxon)

More arquebusiers and dragoons!

On the Commonwealth forces

In 1696 the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided into:

• mercenary "Germans" army 
• Infantry wybraniecka - Troops from Royal lands
• expedition fiefs and smoke - troopsrecruited from every 50 houses (smokes)
• Zaporozhian Cossack troops,
• noble cavalry consisting of four major types: heavily armored hussars , Cossacks (from the seventies called pancerny ),  Tartar and Wallachian light cavalry and organized according to Western models - arkabuzerii and Reiters ;

Non-state armed forces

• units contracted by the province and the lands
• The royal guards - paid by the king (kind of a magnate army)
• armed forces of the royal cities
• Private armies -Magnate forces
• Ordynacka army - Garrison troops

At the end of Jan II Sobieski's reign (ended 1696) the army of the commonwealth consited of:

1690

3430 hussars,
10670 pancerni,
3310 light cavalry,
1600 western style cuirassiers,
4640 dragoons,
14000 infantry,
1200 'hungarian' infantry,

a very cavalry heavy army of which the most famous element are Polish Winged Hussars, winners of the Battle of Viena, and proportionally one of  the smaller elements of the Polish Army.

The bulk of the Cavalry arm were provided by the Pancerny - or Armoured ones, who were armed with bows, lances and carbines, and would not look out of place on a medieval battlefield.

on the Commonwealth's Politcal System

The political doctrine of the Commonwealth was: our state is a republic under the presidency of the King. Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that Rex regnat et non gubernat ("The King reigns but does not govern").

The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the "Golden Liberties" (Polish: Złota Wolność, a term used from 1573 on), included:

• election of the king by all nobles wishing to participate, known as wolna elekcja (free election);;
• Sejm, the Commonwealth parliament which the king was required to hold every two yearsIn the Kingdom of Poland "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber parliament of Poland, comprising the lower house (Chamber of Envoys), the upper house(Senate; Polish: Senat) and the King. It was thus a three-estate parliament.;
• Pacta conventa, "agreed-to agreements" negotiated with the king-elect, including a bill of rights, binding on the king, derived from the earlier Henrician Articles.
• religious freedom guaranted by Warsaw Confederation Act 1573,^[14]
• rokosz (insurrection), the right of szlachta to form a legal rebellion against a king who violated their guaranteed freedoms;
• liberum veto (Latin), the right of an individual Sejm deputy to oppose a decision by the majority in a Sejm session; the voicing of such a "free veto" nullified all the legislation that had been passed at that session; during the crisis of the second half of the 17th century, Polish nobles could also use the liberum veto in provincial sejmiks;
• konfederacja , the right to form an organization to force through a common political aim.

This political system unusual for its time stemmed from the ascendance of the szlachta noble class over other social classes and over the political system of monarchy. In time, the szlachta accumulated enough privileges that no monarch could hope to break the szlachta's grip on power. However this grip became concentrated in a few magnate families, who these bought the votes of the minor szlachta through money and privileges. The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but it can be tentatively described as a mixture of:

• confederation and federation, with regard to the broad autonomy of its regions. It is, however, difficult to decisively call the Commonwealth either confederation or federation, as it had some qualities of both of them;
• oligarchy, as only the szlachta—around 15% of the population—had political rights;
• democracy, since all the szlachta were equal in rights and privileges, and the Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation , foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones). Also, the 15% of Commonwealth population who enjoyed those political rights (the szlachta) was a substantially larger percentage than in majority European countries; note that in 1789 in France only about 1% of the population had the right to vote, and in 1867 in the United Kingdom, only about 3%.
• elective monarchy, since the monarch, elected by the szlachta, was Head of State;
• constitutional monarchy, since the monarch was bound by pacta conventa and other laws, and the szlachta could disobey any king's decrees they deemed illegal.

However since the Zebrzydowski's rokosz (1606–07) marked a substantial increase in the power of the magnates, and the transformation of szlachta democracy into magnate oligarchy. The Commonwealth's political system was vulnerable to outside interference, as Sejm deputies bribed by foreign powers might use their liberum veto to block attempted reforms. This sapped the Commonwealth and plunged it into political paralysis and anarchy for over a century, from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th, while its neighbors stabilized their internal affairs and increased their military might.

Lessons learned in the Deluge and the Khmelnytsky (Chmielnicki) Uprising of 1648, (caused by a magnates overreach of power) taught Prince Jakob of the urgent need for reform. In this case Jakob would, with support of the minor szlachta propose a reform of the constitution: 

The new constitution would look something like this, based alot on the later 3rd of May Constitution:

• abolished the liberum veto ;
• provided for a separation of powers among legislative, executive and judicial branches of government;
• established "popular sovereignty" and extended political rights to include not only the nobility but the bourgeoisie;
• increased the rights of the peasantry;
• better state control of finances and taxation
• preserved religious tolerance 

Poland 1700: strategic situation

What and where is "Poland":

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Serene Republic of Both Nations, is a dual state consisting of the kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.  

The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but we will talk about this later.

In the west it borders upon various German Speaking nations of the Holy Roman Empire. Most of the 360¡ states have no great interest in Poland, but some of  the most eastern states have a vested interest in Poland. Brandenburg Prussia is split in two by Poland. the area named the Danzig Corridor, is one the the economically potent of the Republic and also sports a sizable German minority.

Saxony, and Augustus in particular sees Poland as a means to achieve Great Power Status and seeks election as the next Polish king. Union between the resources of Poland and Saxon know-how, would make Saxony Poland into a Great Power in Europe.
Austria-Hungary is at the moment an ally of Poland in it's struggle against the Ottoman Empire, yet at the same time jealous of it's influence in Moldavia and Wallachia.

 In the east, it is facing the rapidly expanding Tsardom of Muscovy, which recently has proclaimed itself the Ruler of all Rus and guardian of the Orthodox Christian Faith. The Rus is an ancient name for a number of slavic kingdoms based around Kiev. About half of this territory is now part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, causing a "slight" conflict of interests. Also the Lithuanian part of the commonwealth is predominantly Orthodox. It's Tsar, Peter the Great is marching the country inexorably towards modernism, absolutism and to it's "rightful status" of great power, and for this looks to gain trade ports on the Baltic and Black Seas.

Also in the east as well and claimed by both sides is the Cossack Hetmanate, a Cossack nation that would prefer to stay independent and keep its very democratic if very anarchic democracy. Religiously they lean to Muscovy, but politically they prefer the democratic Commonwealth, if these would allow them equal status.  In the past there was talk of a Commonwealth of Three Nations, including the Cossack as the Ruthenian Duchy within the Commonwealth.

To the South of the Commonwealth, lies the Ottoman Empire, a vast and exotic conglomeration of Nations of Muslims (be it believing or forced to believe)

In the North, it is faced with the mighty beyond it's population Kingdom of Sweden, who has claimed the Baltic as it's own mare Nostrum.

Historically, the early years of the eighteenth century were a time of great, and long lasting, changes in Eastern Europe. It saw two former ‘Great’ powers decline; for Sweden it was a cataclysmic experience as they were reduced to a small or medium power. While Poland-Lithuania started on the path that would lead to extinction later in the century. It saw two medium sized powers, Denmark and Saxony, fail in their bid to gain, or regain, ‘Great’ powers status. It saw two powers rise; for Brandenburg-Prussia it was an important stepping stone to Great power status later in the century. While for Russia went from being ‘an obscure barbarous nation’ to a Great power thanks to its victories.

Lets see what will come to be in my own imagi-nation.

A most fortuitous messenger...

Dresden 21 May 1696
"Sire, Master Patkul has arrived with news from Warsaw. "
"Bring him in quickly"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johann Patkul, nobleman  and agitator for Livonian freedom from Sweden, had authored the alliance of Russia Saxony and Denmark against Sweden's Baltic posessions.
He had come directly from Warsaw where his mission was to convince (better said bribe") Polish szlachta to vote for his patron Augustus II of Saxony.
"Your Majesty, the throne of Poland is yours! I have just returned from a meeting with the last of the great magnate families of the Commonwealth. After breaking news of  the "incestuous" situation of the Prince of Conti they were most outraged. The letters of credit provided by Berend Lehmann helped immensily in demonstrating your Majesty's...ehm, generosity.
We have obtained the support of the Szlachta Magnates. They have convened again in the Middle of June for the last and final vote."
"Most Excellent my dear Paktul, I could be more pleased. Mr Behrend has been keeping me informed of the prodigious cost we have been running. I shall order the Master of Ceremonies to be ready to leave as soon as we receive news of the result."
" Sire, the Poles love a bold king, who takes charge. They are a volatile people, and need a strong hand to guide them. I suggest to leave as soon as possible and be there when the results are given, to accept the crown, or if necessary take it!!"
"You are a rascal Patkul, but I like the way you think! Besides we cannot afford to have somebody else win the crown now. Have a rest.  We will get the troops together and shall set of forthwith!! "

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Meanwhile in a Palace in Poland.
"And you are sure they will not find out who fooled them?"
"Sire, The letters of credit he used are not forged, just that the account they were drawing on is of long defunct. Shall we say,  Monsieur Paktul Polish is most abysmal."
"And where are the funds now?"
"In a safe place, Sire."
"You play a dangerous game." said the prince with a smile.
"The games worth playing are all dangerous" replied the banker, "but I admit even I could not have thought of or executed such an ingenious scheme without the most skillful help of Mademoiselle de Granville."

To win a crown

Prince Jakub paced the room in a state of marked agitation.

"This Granville of yours, by what means do you know him? I should not need to remind you, my dear Rittmeister, what is at stake?"

"No your Majesty, I am per..."

"Don't call me that!!! I am at the moment more distant of gaining my fathers crown than any crown prince in history. And it all depends on this ghost of a Granville. Curse your machinations Krefeld!!
If it weren't for you I could have sold my votes long ago. God knows I have received some fine offers recently, to allow me to live nobly in Vienna or Paris."

"If the prince so desires..."

"No,no, I am but in distress to find a way out of this mess. Poland needs and deserves a Polish king, and stay clear of being a pawn in the hands of foreign powers... and who else but a Pole could control the exuberance of our own nobles? But with the way things stand, how am I to convince the nobles to stand behind me. We both know, they only vote for gold!!!"

The princes companion keep quiet. What was there to say, after all the Prince was right. All they could do is wait. Looking out the great windows to the bustling the streets below, he saw a 4 horse coach pull into the prince's palace. it seem visitors were about to arrive.


True enough, the House servant entered shortly afterwards:


" Sire, 2 visitors have presented themselves atthe door, saying you are expecting them?"


The prince shot his compnion an enquiring look. The latter just raised an eyebrow.
"Well who are they?"


" The gentleman is a jew, goes by the name of Mordechai Goldfeder." the lackey mentioned, not even in religiously tolerant Poland has this persecuted people been free of prejudice.
"The lady accompanying him, presented herself as Krystyna Skarbek,  Countess of Granville."


"GRANVILLE!!!" exclaimed the prince, "Countess... so Granville is ..."

"... a Woman" a decidedly feminine voice said from the doorway.
"Your Highness, I hope you will excuse the intrusion, but as I am sure you understand, I have important news to share with you." said the Countess, entering the room completely, closely followed by a very well dressed gentleman, the banker Mordechai Goldfeder.

Election day in Warsaw!

The "Convocation sejm' (Polish: sejm konwokacyjny) was a special sejm in pre-partition Poland that, upon vacancy of the throne, was summoned to Warsaw by the Primate of Poland, acting as interrex. The convocation sejm fixed the date for the election sejm that would elect a new king, restated the rules, reviewed the candidacies, and set the terms on which the king-elect would be permitted to take the throne. The convocation sejm could not be broken off or annulled.

The convocation sejm was followed by the election sejm, meeting at Wola, outside Warsaw. Any hereditary nobleman could vote in the Election Parliament, if present.[1] Often close to 100,000 nobles came to those sejms.

The nobles from classes voted, following their beliefs, weighing up the options and more often than not, weighing the size of the purse given to them by the various Parties.

After frenetic activity, especially by Augustus, whose banker Berend Lehman allowed him to liberally spend the money on his noble cause, the votes were cast.

The Honourable Interrex, Michał Stefan Radziejowski, called for order from the crowds.

"All the votes have been counted and the opinion of the people remains divided!
After counting and recounting the ballots the outcome of today's vote remains inconclusive!
Augustus of Saxony   13 votes
Prince of Conti           13 votes
Jakub Sobieki            10 votes


The electoral laws dictate that in absence of a clear leader, the vote will be repeated. There will be a week of further deliberation before the next voting day."

The crowd stirred, unhappy for the extension to they stay in Wola, but happy that now a new round of bribes would have to start! They would be going home all the richer due to the new King!

Election Process

After a bit of research I found that the point of infletion for the Polish Commonwealth, the point where everything just got worse, was the election of August the Strong as Polish King. of course there were possibilities before and after to change things around, but i decided on this for various reasons.

1. The victory of Viena left the Commonwealth in a stronger position with it's army rebounding after he Deluge and Cossack Crisis of 1640's
2. Historically it was the first time that the son of a King was not elected to succeed, showing that this was the first time that foreign influence carried the day in Poland.
3. According to Wikipedia, Agustus never won the election!!!
   "It is sometimes incorrectly stated that Augustus "defeated" the other leading candidates, Jakub Ludwik Sobieski, son of the previous king, and the French candidate, François Louis, Prince of Conti. Augustus actually received fewer votes than Conti (despite a massive bribery campaign), but he rushed to Poland and had himself crowned before the French candidate could set foot in the Commonwealth. Some Poles questioned the legality of Augustus's elevation."
   
   A second quote, which I think is slightly wrong but reinforced the point that anything could really have happened during this time:
   
   "The Polish Commonwealth entered the critical stage and the decline was on the way. Following election was one of the most dismal episodes in Polish parliamentary history. The three principal candidates were king’s Jan III son Jakub, German Elector of Saxony and French Prince – de Conti. Jakub Sobieski was seized by Saxon troops, Prince de Conti was elected but a small group of malcontents 'elected' separately Friedrich Augustus, who marched into Poland at the head of a Saxon army. He was crowned in Krakow as Augustus II of Poland. It was the first time that a deceased monarch's son had not been elected to succeed him; that the rightful candidate had been debarred from the throne by military force; and that the Poles had acquired a German king, which went against a long tradition of keeping German hegemony at arm's length." full text here
   

Hence my interest at replaying this election and seeing who really could win and se the reactions of this thereafter.
The 3 main contenders (in fact there were 18!!!) would be:
- Augustus of Saxony
- François Louis, Prince of Conti
- Jakub Ludwik Henryk Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland

To do this I decided to give each of  the 34 Vovoides (Polish province) 1 vote, by 6 sided dice. the outcome would decided by 1-3 for Augustus (due to strong Russian Support) 4-5 To Prince Conti (French Support) and last but no least a 6 for poor Prince Jakob.

Would seem that the cards were stacked up against our local Prince!
Let the dice Roll!

The search for uniforms

One of the biggest problems for the Polish period I am dealing with is the lack of information regarding Uniforms.
Most uniforms are either from the Glory days of the Winged Hussars 15-16th Century, or from the last desperate attempts to hold the Commonwealth together in the 1790's. From the 1700- 1790's it seems dificult to find reliable information. A lo of this probably has to do with the deplorable state of the Commonwealth at this time.

However today I found some lovely examples of Polish uniforms of around 1717, just before they seem to have been completely saxonized.

Infantry and guards

oficers and men
1717 top
1720 bottom

Dragoons

So finally Things can get Started!!

I have been looking at some election scenarios for 1696 after the death of King Jan III Sobieski, but thats another story!