Jan Sobieski: The King Who Saved Europe

By Miltiades Varvounis

Jan Sobieski was one of the most extraordinary and visionary monarchs of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1674 until his death. He was a man of letters, an artistic person, a dedicated ruler but above all the greatest soldier of his time. Popular among his subjects, he won considerable fame for his decisive victory over the Ottomans at the walls of Vienna (1683). For defeating the Muslim invaders, Pope Innocent XI hailed Sobieski as the saviour of Christendom.

REVIEWS

"Miltiades Varvounis describes Sobieski's personality and lasting accomplishments in an exciting and illuminating way that will captivate the imagination of every reader of History books, while, at the same time, bringing back to life a period of relentless struggles between Christianity and Islam that formed the 'last chapter' of European chivalry."
DR NICOLAOS NICOLOUDIS, King’s College London

"This masterpiece by Miltiades Varvounis not only brings to light a forgotten genius but also sheds light onto an important part of the long turbulent Turkish history."
CUMA BARAK, University of Gaziantep

"The author masterfully brings to light one of the most prominent personalities of the seventeenth century who was not only a great ruler and an astute military leader but who also changed the course of history by saving Europe from the Islamic onslaught."
LITHUANIAN HERITAGE magazine

"A fascinating, thorough and very much needed biography of a leader whose name is virtually unknown outside of Eastern Europe. Varvounis describes Sobieski with just the right dose of historical detail and imagination - this is a work of history that reads like a work of fiction."
EWA BRONOWICZ, The Post Eagle

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Feb 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462880829

Miltiades Varvounis

Miltiades Varvounis is a Greek-Polish historian and biographer. He is the author of the best-selling book Jan Sobieski: The King Who Saved Europe, as well as several other works on key figures of European history. His articles have appeared in numerous periodicals.

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Copyright © 2012 by Miltiades Varvounis.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

Illustrations

Chronological Table

Brief Biographies

Historical Gazetteer

Selected Bibliography

To those who consider themselves part of the Polish world.

Foreword

The late seventeenth century has had much in common with our early twentieth first century. Both periods could be seen as times in which governments with weak, self centered ideologies had little or no moral compass to guide them. Today, as then, we look to our leaders for action, integrity and truth but the problem is that we have few real leaders today. After reading this book you might ask yourself this question: ‘why can’t we have courageous leaders and heroes today as Poland did centuries ago in her great king, Jan III Sobieski?’

Despite being surrounded by a host of political, religious and ideological enemies, Sobieski could not be contained and was not limited by the challenges of his time. Well educated, loyal to those who placed their trust on him, a romantic, a chivalric knight and a devoted family man, Sobieski also had the skills and bravery of a Polish winged hussar.

As you read this well researched book, I hope that you will be captivated by Sobieski’s Poland, an exotic and little known quarter of Europe (a quarter in the sense that few realise that this once powerful and religiously tolerant kingdom ruled benevolently a quarter of Europe). Jan Sobieski: The King Who Saved Europe, is not only a fascinating biography, but also an insight to a little known experiment in Polish democracy, in which kings were elected! This experiment was not without its failures, but also presented positive examples for future governments to learn from. Sobieski’s time, like ours, was a world with major villains of regional proportions terrorising Europe, Western Asia and the whole of Christendom. Many of Sobieski’s seventeenth century challenges are also present in our world today. The main difference is that he was brave, intelligent and faithful enough to stand against his enemies. What our world certainly needs today is true leaders like King Jan III Sobieski.

Miltiades Varvounis demonstrates in an eloquent way just what made this man tick. What were his strengths and what truths did he base them on? They were principles and ideals which are often frowned upon today like family, faith, knowing right from wrong and not making excuses for them.

Sobieski was the son of a wealthy and noble landowner with an impressive family tree including some of Poland’s finest statesmen and warriors. He made use of the finest European education which served him well, not only in his political career but also as a patron of the arts and commander of over half a dozen languages. Sobieski was baptised in battle at a young age and knew the horrors of war, losing his brother to the Tatars during the Cossack revolt of 1648. The young and successful Sobieski was trusted by his king and promoted to commander of troops; he was victorious in many famous battles during the ‘Deluge’ period in Polish history. Soon afterwards, he became a royal envoy to the the Ottoman Empire and to the Crimean Tatars, learning their language and tactics.

Sobieski was blessed in life to have the love and devotion of a beautiful French princess, Marie Casimire Louise, who would become his queen and mother of his eight children. While away on campaigns, the King would have frequent contact with Marie, his most trusted and closest confidant and the love of his life.

Throughout his 22 year reign, Sobieski united his nation during wars and invasions. He gained international fame through spectacular victories over the Swedes, Muscovites, Cossacks, Tatars and the powerful Ottoman Empire. These victories earned him the title ‘Lion of Lechistan.’ His fame and skills as commander spread across Europe and Western Asia.

As the Western world’s arch enemy was laying siege to one of Europe’s major capitals, who did the Pope, the German and Austrian emperors plead with for military assistance to save Christendom? Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania! At the gates of Vienna, his skills as Christian allied army commander was equaled only by the reputation of his brave winged hussar knights. For a time, his stunning victory (which saved Christendom) stabilised his kingdom and regained prestige for Poland, weakened by a century of almost constant warfare. Today, as in the past, King Jan III Sobieski is considered one of Poland’s most popular and beloved kings.

It is truly an honour to present you with this fascinating book about a true hero. As a Polish-American, I have always had a heartfelt connection with Jan III Sobieski. I am one of a few Americans who is actually involved in Polish history, in fact my work is deeply rooted in seventeenth century Poland. Many people today work with a cell phone, palm pilot or computer; my tools are the anvil, fire, hammers and files. I am a traditional armourer. I create historically accurate replica suites of Polish winged hussar armour, the type of armour worn by knights like Jan III Sobieski and his legendary cavalry four hundred years ago.

And now, let Varvounis take you on an exciting journey back into a time of one of the world’s greatest heroes, King Jan III Sobieski of Poland. Enjoy!

Eryk S. Jadaszewski

Author of Polish Re-Enactors Handbook—

Owner of Polish Hussar Supply Plus

Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA

Preface

Jan Sobieski! Poland! Lithuania! Magical words, quickening the imagination and filling the mind with vivid memories of a glorious past; such glory and happiness would have been eclipsed if not for the stately bands of valiant warriors, who with gleaming lances and floating pennons, mounted upon noble steeds, whose glittering caparisons almost outshined the gorgeous costumes of their riders, composed of luxurious furs, oriental fabrics and rich jewels, mingled with the metallic panoply of war, dyed with the bloodshed in numerable combats, lost and won in the cause of liberty and Christendom, as opposed to Asian despotism and the dominion of Islam. Surrendered to the fascination of Polish history and particularly to Poland’s most illustrious ruler, Jan Sobieski, when I searched a few years ago about works on him in the world’s lingua franca, English, I was certain that I would find at least one. To my surprise, I found out that during the last decades no English-speaking author had brought Jan Sobieski to life. Some old biographies of him did exist, among them Sobieski: King of Poland by John B. Morton (1932) and John Sobieski of Edward H. R. Tatham (1881), but both of them were outdated, out of print, and godforsaken. As a civis Orbis Poloniae (citizen of the Polish world), I could not accept the idea that one of the most notable historical figures was totally absent from the modern American and British bibliography.

Anyone today can find recent biographies of Ivan the Terrible, Frederick the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent, William III of England, Charles XII of Sweden, even those of the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, the infamous Spanish King Phillip IV and the first Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro. Of course, I don’t want to underestimate the personalities mentioned above or to compare them with Jan Sobieski. Besides, it is always encouraging to see at the bookshelves of bookstores, biographies of rulers and commanders, even lesser known, who were immortalized by their actions, thus presenting us with the unique opportunity to learn about their exciting lives. But why, until now, hasn’t there been published beyond the boundaries of Poland a work about the king who saved Europe from the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna (1683); a battle which was the inspiration for J. R. R, Tolkien’s cavalry charge of the Rohirrim that lifted the siege of Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings? Some will notice that the lack of knowledge in Polish is the major reason for a non-Pole to be unable to write a complete biography of this extraordinary monarch. To this I partly agree, but again, how come you can see works in English of other famous Polish personalities such as Mikolaj Kopernik, Marie Curie, Chopin, John Paul II, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Stanislaw August Poniatowski and even Ignacy Paderewski? Works that require access on Polish sources, therefore good knowledge in Polish by their authors. Although a great deal of literature has been published on Polish history since the 1990s, still, the ‘Lion of Lechistan (Poland)’ as was called by the Ottomans, remains forgotten and ignored. Now, imagine a similar situation with notable Greeks presented in various works, but without a single biography on the most famous Greek historical figure, Alexander the Great.

This is the need that urged me to present to the English-speaking reader, as also to the Polish diaspora around the world, the achievements of one of the most fascinating men ever to sit on a throne or command an army. A king that lived in an era when the heroic age of warrior kings had almost gone, but not for him, the last European of his kind, personally exercised in war after war the supreme military command he had gained; and exercised it with such skill and won with his sword such renown, that he was acclaimed as the greatest soldier of his time. Despite his preference for the arts of peace, it was for war that he made such a singular mark on his country’s history—a country which he found devastated by the enemies but which he made again formidable and, for a little while, secure. It is not an exaggeration to claim that Jan Sobieski had a great record of victories, like those of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hannibal and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden—warrior leaders in their time, moulders of societies, makers of myth. His ability certainly exceeded Albrecht von Wallenstein, Marlborough of England, Frederick the Great and other notable commanders, for he was never defeated in any great battle. Of course, Sobieski was not just a tactical genius, who led Poland to eternal glory, but a dedicated ruler and artistic person. He was a man of letters, corresponding with his lovely wife, Marysienka, while he was away in the battlefields, where he spent the most of his turbulent life.

My aim is to present a definite biography to explore every aspect of Jan Sobieski’s life and career with complete thoroughness, thus, to create an unforgettable portrait of a man who was destined to protect Christianity from the worst terror humanity ever saw. Some readers may be surprised to find no references to sources in the text. This is not a strictly academic monograph and since I have used mainly Polish sources, inaccessible to the non-Polish reader, I see no reason to clutter the text with numbers, which by the way many readers find off-putting. Of course, I will provide a necessary minimum of factual information, such as historical gazetteer, brief biographies, chronological table and selected bibliography, so as to satisfy the reader’s appetite.

Regarding the pronunciation of names, the multi-ethnical character of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth has resulted in vexing linguistic problems likely to baffle the reader. For instance, which form should one use throughout this book in order not to be accused of anachronism or partiality? Is the Polish Gdansk or German Danzig more appropriate? Lithuanian Vilnius or Polish Wilno? My attempt is to follow at least certain rules. If an anglicised or English form exists, it is used. Thus, we have Warsaw, not Warszawa; Cracow, not Krakow. The fact that the lingua franca and the official language of the state were Polish, allows me to call the towns of the Commonwealth by their Polish name. So it will be Wilno and not Vilnius, Zolkiew instead of Zhovkva, Torun instead of Thorn, etc. Polish form will also be used regarding the names of Polish, Lithuanian and Ruthenian individuals; thus, Jan not John, Jakub not James, Radziwill not Radvila and Chmielnicki not Khmelnytsky. First names of all other individuals are written in their native form and spelling. It must be also noted that the term ‘Ottomans’ will be used instead of ‘Turks.’ The Ottomans (literally the tribe of Osman) called themselves just that, or simply Muslims. ‘Turk’ was a largely pejorative term applied by the nations of the West and by 1536, the word was in use in English to mean, in the words of the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘anyone behaving as a barbarian or savage.’ In addition, the reader should be aware that Polish words and their pronunciation look complicated. Most of the consonants behave in the same way as in English, except for c, which is pronounced ‘ts;’ w, which is equivalent to English v and j, which is soft, as in ‘yes.’

Lastly, this book would not have been produced without the encouragement of my parents and my friends Aneta, Despoina, Ghely, Junior, Sophie and Stelios to name but a few. Their comments, suggestions and advice have improved this work in ways great and small. But above all, I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr Nicolaos Nicoloudis, an outstanding historian and one of Europe’s leading experts on Byzantine history, for reading and commenting on the final draft. His words of wisdom have been invaluable because, like other writers, I looked for critical evaluation and an analytical perspective that he gave willingly. I thank him also for his intellectual inspiration over the last ten years and for introducing me to the discipline of historical narrative. Special thanks are due to Polish Winged Hussar re-enactor Eryk S. Jadaszewski, as he is not only the author of the exciting book, Polish Re-Enactors Handbook, but also the man who kindly wrote the foreward for this book. I am grateful to Magdalena Kelnerowska from the Laski Dom Kultury (The Community Centre of Lask, Poland) for a huge amount of help in Polish sourcing books and I also profited from the knowledgeable staff of the National Library of Greece and Jan Laski the Younger Public Library in Lask. Books are more than a structured collection of prose. Though unnoticed by the reader, the work of editors, graphic designers and typographers has contributed immeasurably to the work you now hold.

Finally, I owe the sincerest appreciation to my wife, Saiva, whose love, patience and counsel was a great support for me. Te valde amo ac semper amabo!

Miltiades Varvounis—Athens, February 2012

Introduction

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Referred by the English political philosopher Edmund Burke as ‘a country on the moon,’ Poland is a major European country with almost forty million inhabitants and a land area comparable to Italy and the United Kingdom. It has played a crucial role in European History, yet its history and culture are almost unknown and obscure in the English-speaking world. The birthplace of vodka and scientific revolution is located at the geographic centre of Europe, but usually is referred as being in ‘Eastern Europe.’ That is not correct since it has been part of the Latin, Christian West, for more than a millennium. Throughout its long and diverse history, Poland has been culturally a bridge between the East and the West and has given the world the literature of Henryk Sienkiewicz, the scientific discoveries of Mikolaj Kopernik and Marie Curie Sklodowska, the music of Chopin, to name but a few. However, the readers will be surprised to know that the history of Poland in the Baroque era was so exotic and fascinating. In fact, the country that was wiped off the map by Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795 had been one of the largest and most richly varied in Europe, embracing a wide variety of cultural and religious traditions, accommodated within one of the boldest constitutional experiments ever attempted.

The origins of the Kingdom of Poland go back to the introduction of Christianity in the year 966 under Prince Mieszko I. Over the centuries, it was a fairly typical Christian feudal state on the fringes of Europe. In 1349, Poland was already a powerful kingdom and annexed the Ruthenian principalities of Wladimir and Halicz in what is now western Ukraine. From that time, Poland had to take an increased interest in her eastern frontier and, in 1386, joined her fate to the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Jagiello (Jogaila), the Lithuanian Grand Duke, was baptised Christian and took over the throne of Poland, thus founding a dynasty that reigned until 1572. This brought the result of a loose confederation of two nations that would control enormous possessions in the present Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Moldavia, Belarus and even part of Russia. On the condition that Ukraine was ceded to Poland, the two states were formally united in 1569 at Lublin, forming the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita/Republic). Each country had its own government, army, treasury and judiciary but a joint Sejm (parliament), king and foreign policy. The Kingdom of Poland was usually referred as the Crown, as opposed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Their territories were divided into palatinates, each governed by a palatine, who enforced laws and standards in their jurisdictions and led provincial military forces. Districts, fortresses and towns were governed by a castellan or by a starosta (local sheriff). The Commonwealth was governed in accordance with an independently developed unique system of democracy of the nobility, with a ruler—a king—who gained power through election. The king had royal ministers; the most important of these was the chancellor, who was the king’s main representative and intermediary with the Sejm and his subjects. The marshal guarded the king’s person and the treasurer handled the government’s finances. Unusual was the fact that the nobility consisted 10 percent of the total population, compared with 2 to 3 percent in the rest of Europe. The Polish-Lithuanian state was set up to serve the Polish nobleman: within it, he had all the freedom he could wish for, so that visitors such as English doctor Bernard Connor remarked, ‘Had we in England but the third part of their Liberty, we could not live together without cutting one another’s throats.’

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest state in Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from the German lands to the gates of Asia. The population of the Commonwealth was nearly eleven million, equal to that of Spain and Italy, twice that of England and two-thirds that of Ottoman Empire and France. Only about 50 percent were Poles and Lithuanians. The other half of the Commonwealth’s population consisted of Ruthenians (Ukrainian, Belarusian), Jews, Germans, Latvians, Russians, Tatars and Slovaks. Famous French writer Jean Bodin in his work Les six livres de la Republique described the Poles as of the northern type. According to him, their most important features were bellicosity; seek of a liberty and hate of the absolutism. Unlike the Poles, the Lithuanians were described as more arrogant, rude and boastful, less civilised and crueler and their country as more savage compared with Poland. But the Papal Legate Claudio Rangoni who visited the Commonwealth in 1607 seemed to disagree with this opinion, claiming that Lithuania was neither savage nor woody but had a wonderful nature, landscape and forests full of beautiful flowers.

Commonwealth cities were very cosmopolitan and relatively small, largely populated by merchants and craftsmen of various nationalities. The city of Gdansk was the wealthiest city in the Commonwealth and held the title of the Regia Civitas Polonica Gedanensis (Royal Polish City of Gdansk), enjoying special rights unknown to other Polish cities. In the early seventeenth century, Gdansk had grown to almost 80,000 inhabitants, most of whom both spoke Polish and German. The town was the most important port on the Baltic as ships from around the world came calling, but England, Holland, Sweden and Germany were the city’s biggest trading partners. Cracow was the capital and seat of royal power until 1596. The city’s magnificent Cloth Hall and its huge Main Market as well as the splendid chapels of the Wawel Castle and the Gothic buildings of the Jagiellonian University are among the best evidence of the city’s beauty. Among other Commonwealth cities, Lwow, a city with a highly individual outlook, was made up of Poles, Ruthenians, Italians, Germans and even Armenians. Warsaw, the Commonwealth’s official capital since 1596, grew quickly in size. Nobles built palaces and magnificent townhouses to stay near the royal court. Unlike commercial Gdansk and cultural Cracow, Warsaw was by nature an overly political city. Poznan, the largest city of western Poland, was an important trade route and famous for its fine municipal building. Lublin was the home of one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland. The Jewish University (yeshiva) attracted Hebrew scholars from throughout Europe and in the late sixteenth century, Lublin was known as the ‘Jewish Oxford.’ Wilno, the capital of Lithuania, was a cultural bridge between East and West, and it was the most easternmost town of the Western civilisation. Torun was renowned for its architecture and the birthplace of the famous Polish astronomer Mikolaj Kopernik. Finally, Zamosc was founded in 1589—thanks to the initiative of Chancellor Jan Zamoyski. It was one of the first European cities to be planned and built from scratch according to Italian concept of the ideal town.

If the Poles wanted to rule their huge country, they had to create a myth, ideologically justifying their standpoint. And they did. The myth of Sarmatism. There was a belief among the Polish nobility that they were descended from the ancient Sarmatians, a nomadic Iranian people, closely related to the Scythians, who until the third century BC inhabited the territories between the Volga and Don Rivers. The Sarmatians were fearless fighting horsemen and waged wars on the distant borders of the Roman Empire. This fantastic theory assured the nobility a privileged position and justified its dominance in state government. And it was because of Sarmatism that a passion for things oriental spread throughout the Poles. Unlike Western Europe, the Poles had a feeling for the beauty of Islamic art. They prized the art and the luxury of Ottoman and Persian textiles more than the Flemish tapestries. The Sarmatian dress was neither French nor German in look, rather oriental. It thus became a symbol of healthy, straightforward patriotic Polishness. Of course, the Catholic Church made good use of the Sarmatian myth to fuel religious zeal and even fanaticism. Religion was important to the Poles, but the subsequent expansion of Poland’s frontiers meant that its population was by no means homogenous from the religious point of view. Most of Lithuanians had converted in word only and still practiced paganism. The Ruthenians adhered to Orthodox rite while Armenians practiced their own liturgy independent from Constantinople. The German inhabitants of the northern cities embraced Lutheranism, while some Poles opted for Calvinism. And of course, there were the non-Christians such as the Jews and Tatars of Islamic faith. Unlike the other kingdoms where they often involved in bloody religious conflicts, the Commonwealth was a land that enjoyed religious freedom.

The Polish-Lithuanian state was an important European centre for the development of modern social and political ideas. With its political system praised by great thinkers such as Erasmus, the Commonwealth gave birth to political philosophers such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki and Piotr Skarga. Crakow’s Jagiellonian University—one of the oldest universities in the world (established in 1364)—together with Wilno University (established in 1579) were the major scientific centres in Poland and Lithuania. Commonwealth prominent scientists included Michal Sedziwoj, alchemist who discovered the air is not a single substance and contains oxygen; Jan Heweliuz, astronomer and founder of lunar topography; Krzysztof Arciszewski, engineer and admiral of the Dutch West Indies Company, who conquered Pernambuco and Recife of Brazil; Michal Boym, orientalist, who first described the ecosystem of the Far East; and Kazimierz Siemienowicz, artillery specialist and founder of rocketry. The works of many Commonwealth authors are considered classics, including those of Jan Kochanowski, Szymon Szymonowic and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski. The latter was known in his lifetime as the Christian Horace and was nominated Poet Laureate by Pope Urban VIII. His Latin poetry was read, translated and imitated in England, especially from 1646 until the first half of the nineteenth century. Thanks to Sarbiewski, English poets started to imitate Horace, which was an important factor in overcoming the Pindaric tradition. Also many nobility members wrote memoirs and diaries. The most famous are the Memoirs of Polish History by Albrycht Stanislaw Radziwill and the Memoirs of Jan Chryzostom Pasek, who lived during Jan Sobieski’s reign.

Regarding the geopolitical situation, the Commonwealth was a state of significance on the international arena and, together with France and Ottoman Empire, dominated the world during the seventeenth century. One of the chief instruments of Commonwealth’s success was undoubtedly her small army but of great quality, which had major successes during that time. For instance, few know that a Polish army once took Moscow (1610) and placed a Polish tsar on the Muscovite throne. Or that one of the world’s greatest commanders, the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus, spent most of his military career fighting with limited success the Poles. The Polish army was an important channel for the passing of Eastern military science to the West while the Polish winged hussar was certainly one of the most spectacular soldiers of all time. Like in the other kingdoms, the command of the armed forces of the Commonwealth was ultimately in the hands of the king. He appointed for life the commanders of the army: the Grand Hetman of the Crown, the Field Hetman of the Crown and similar posts in the Lithuanian army. The Field Hetman was inferior to the Grand Hetman, acting usually as second in command.

From the mid-sixteenth century till the early eighteenth century, the Commonwealth was heavily engaged in wars with Muscovy, Sweden, Brandenburg, the Crimea, Transylvania and the Ottoman Empire. Regarding the latter, it was this Islamic power that struggled to achieve dominion in Central and Western Europe. For three centuries, step by step, this very incarnation of the Antichrist moved inexorably against the Christian world. After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Balkan lands were snuffed out by the Ottomans one after another: Greece, Albania, Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bosnia, Dalmatia and Hungary. No wonder why the warriors of Islam, continually threatened the southeastern Polish borderland, which was known as the ‘Wild East,’ likened to American’s ‘Wild West.’ So, feeling the hot breath of Islam on its collar, the Commonwealth gained the name of Antemurale Christianitatis (bulwark of Christianity) since the Poles came to see themselves as defenders of Europe in the name of Christ against the Muslim hordes. And such defender would prove to be, King Jan Sobieski, a model warrior of his time. Spiritually sharp with a strong Catholic faith and a decisive and vigorous man, in 1683 at Vienna against the onslaught of the Ottomans, he led his formidable winged hussars to the greatest victory of all time. The Ottoman defeat was so final that it was the very end of the Muslim dream of supremacy in Europe, forcing the Pope Innocent XI and the foreign dignitaries to hail Jan Sobieski, the king who saved Europe, as the ‘saviour of Christendom.’

I

Childhood and the Grand Tour

Constantinople, 17 August 1629. The tempest rages and thunders roar. Lightnings cleave the clouds and play upon the Ottoman capital. The city trembles to its very foundations; the numerous lights gleaming from the casements fail to penetrate the thick darkness, while their beams throw a melancholy and ghastly glare upon the houses. Soon, a violent storm beats down upon the whole city while the Sea of Marmara, suddenly swollen, overflows its banks, smashing the boats, flooding the nearby houses. In Topkapi Palace, Mayhpeyker Kosem Sultan, the most powerful woman in the whole Ottoman Empire, is looking out of the window watching God’s wrath towards the city. Suddenly a lightning strikes the Blue Mosque, the most prestigious building in the city and turns the crescent on top of the minaret into ashes. Kosem is terrified and wonders if it isn’t a bad omen. But what exactly could that incident mean? The scared court soothsayers concluded that a great disaster on Ottoman’s military power was in prospect. At the same time, thousand miles far away, somewhere in the beautiful countryside of eastern Poland, the blue colour dominates the sky. The sun is at its highest and in its golden flow the tremendous castle of Olesko is seen, overtopping imposingly in front of the landscape, revealed by million little flowers, gold and blue and red and bright yellow, all smiling at the sun and the passers-by. Its owner, Jakub Sobieski, is waiting impatiently