Stephen Báthory

This article is about Stefan Batory, King of Poland. For information on his father, also named Stephen (István), see: István Báthory.

Stefan Batory (1533-1586) was Prince of Transylvania (1571-1575), then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1575-1586). 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 of Austria, subsequently attached himself to Janos Zapolya, and won equal renown as a valiant lord-marcher, and as a skilful 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, in spite of 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 I 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 (over his marriage with Barbara Radziwiłłówna), 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 nuntio 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 (Socinians, Arians, Lutherans and Calvinists alike), 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^[1].

Polish coin with likeness of Stefan Batory.

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 Poland, 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.

Batory at Pskov. Painting by Jan Matejko.

All armed opposition collapsed with the surrender of the hanseatic city of Gdańsk (German Danzig). 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 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 Gdańsk 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 Gdańsk in 1577. Gdańsk later was loyally serving the Kingdom during the war with Sweden and Muscovy, providing help when requested.

Zęby Coat-of-arms of Stefan Batory.

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 Wilno, 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.

Stefan Batory's armour.

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. 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 Stephen 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 Polish 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 (January 15, 1582), thereby ceding Polotsk and the whole of Livonia back to Poland.

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.

When Stefan Báthory 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

1. ^ Stephanus Dei gratia rex Poloniae et magnus dux Lithuaniae, Russiae, Prussiae, Masoviae, Samogitiae, Kiioviae, Voliniae, Podlachiae, Livoniaeque, necnon. princeps Transylvaniae. in Latin.

Reference

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

See also

• History of Poland (1569-1795)