Stefan Batory (born September 27, 1533 - d. December 12, 1586) - King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (December 14, 1575 (crowned May 1, 1576) - December 12, 1586)
Stefan Batory is the only Polish ruler who won the war with Russia. He also laid the foundation for the border confrontation between these two countries.
The 16th century is the period of the formation of national identity, statehood and a noticeable strengthening of Muscovy, as it was called in Central and Western Europe. This is the time of the formation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - the Union of 1569, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. Formally, Stefan Batory is the prince of Transylvania, the king of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania. A talented commander, a strong leader of a strong army, which, in truth, consisted of the least of all Poles. And he himself is not a Pole.
We know about the life of Stefan Batory from many sources. Those who took part in his second campaign against Russia in 1580, Jan Zborovsky, castellan, and Luka Dzyalinsky, chief of the vanguard army, kept diaries. There is also the "Tale of the coming of Stefan Batory to the city of Pskov", created in Russia. A touching piece written by a certain eyewitness. There is, after all, "The Diary of the Siege of Pskov by Stefan Bathory", which, apparently, was written by the secretary of the royal chancellery Stanislav Piotrovsky.
Stefan Batory was born on September 27, 1533 in a small town on the territory of modern Romania. His parents are Istvan Batory, governor of Transylvania, and Katalina Telegdi. Both are ethnic Hungarians. The boy's name should have sounded like this - Istvan Bathory, and we know him in Polish transcription. The famous strong army of Stefan Batory consisted mainly of Hungarians and Germans.
It is believed that the famous Vlad III Tepes (Dracula), the ruler of Wallachia, was born in Transylvania, with whom many dark legends are associated. Horrible stories were told about the relative of King Stephen Elizabeth Bathory: she seemed to bathe in the blood of murdered girls - in order to preserve her youth.
Stephen's youth passed at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. This is a Central European figure who does not strictly belong to any national history. In 1555, after the abdication of Charles V, Ferdinand became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Together with him, Stefan Batory ended up in Italy, where he entered the University of Padua. Not the most typical behavior for a prince's son in the 16th century. It is clear that he had a strong desire for education. Studying at the university, Stefan was able to brilliantly master Latin. Later, as the ruler of various regions, he communicated with the local elite in Latin. It was the international language of that time, completely incomprehensible to the people, but accessible to educated people.
Promotional video:
We don't know for sure whether Stefan Batory graduated from the University. But it is known for sure that he passed from the German emperor to the service of the governor of Transylvania, John Sigismund Zapolsky, or Janos Zapolyan, as he was called in his homeland. He was an opponent of Ferdinand I and headed the part of Hungary that did not submit to the empire. One can only assume what made Stefan Batory so decisively change his position.
In his new service, he gained military experience, became an enemy of the Germans, and even spent three years in German captivity. He also used this time outside the box for a medieval aristocrat - he persisted in self-education. Read Roman historians.
In the 16th century, the European elite in many respects lived according to the laws of the chivalrous time. Stephen stood out for his excellent birth, court and military experience, and brilliant education. Polish historian of the 17th century I. Pastorius writes about him:
“Batory was in the church more than a priest, in the republic more than a senator, in court more than a lawyer, in the army more than a hetman, in battle more than a soldier, and in enduring troubles, in patience, kindness and in forgiving personal insults - more than man . This enthusiastic review gives off court flattery, but, usually, such characteristics still have some real basis.
The fact that Stefan Bathory evoked respect for himself is also noted by Montaigne in Experiments. According to him, Stefan Batory is a ruler who never wears gloves, although he lives in a country with a rather harsh climate. The West Europeans considered Poland to be such. Batory was remembered by contemporaries in a small cap with a feather - this is both a Hungarian tradition and partly a Polish one. By the way, many considered his facial features to be very beautiful. In other words, he was a person who was prominent from all points of view.
1572 - when the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus died, Stefan Batory was the prince of Transylvania. At the same time, he became the first prince in this territory: earlier there were governors. Now the status of the ruler has increased.
There was no king in Poland for 2 years. 1574 - Prince Henry of Valois of France was elected to the throne. Why elected? By the 16th century, Poland was largely different in its structure from other Central European and even more so Western European countries. When Poland entered into a union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Commonwealth was formed, which was a literal translation into Polish of the Latin word "republic". It was, as modern historians say, a gentry republic. The feudal elite, the gentry, occupied a special position in it: it could participate in the election of the king, and also had great powers in the Diet. The gentry had a veto right.
Of course, such a state structure also has noticeable disadvantages. While it is long and difficult to make a decision, whom to elect the king, in the country - the intertime, the cruel enmity of the clans.
Heinrich of Valois, the son of Catherine de Medici, the future Henry III of France, who eventually became king of Poland, stayed on the Polish throne for about six months. Having received the news of the death of his brother, Charles IX, he secretly, leaving Poland to fend for themselves, left Krakow.
The election of a new king could not be expected to be easy. Part of the Lithuanian nobility was determined to secede from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Many did not want a Pole to take the throne. Among the applicants, they even named the name of the Moscow Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible.
The difficult political situation prompted Stefan Batory to put forward his candidacy. He was supported by the middle and small Polish gentry. The highest nobility was against, the Diet was in favor of the German emperor Maximilian. And yet Stefan Batory was elected, but with an important condition. He was to marry Anna Jagiellonka, sister of the last Jagiellon Sigismund II Augustus.
The bride was ten years older than the groom. The condition was categorical, and Stefan gave his consent.
When Stephen was crowned in Krakow, he was 43 years old. A few days later, his wedding took place. This marriage meant that in a sense the Polish-Lithuanian national Jagiellonian dynasty continued. For the 16th century - the time of strengthening of the national identity of many peoples - this was extremely important.
Even before Stephen's accession to the throne, in 1558, the Livonian War began. But if the first stage of the war was successful for the Russians, then after the ascension to the throne of Stephen Batory the balance of forces changed. At first, the battles went on with varying success. But at the last stage of the war - in 1579-1583, when the experienced commander Stefan Batory led the united army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, it began to win in alliance with Sweden.
In 1579, Stefan Batory made a campaign against the Russian lands and captured Polotsk and Velikiye Luki. The price was very high. On the way to Polotsk there was a small fortress Sokol. The defenders burned it down and themselves perished in the fire along with their families, so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy - the resistance was so powerful.
The war was distinguished by exceptional cruelty. It was a feudal strife, a struggle for booty. Ivan the Terrible needed funds. His successful Kazan and Astrakhan campaigns at first yielded huge booty, but the funds were wasted, and the army needed to be borrowed. The same is true from the side of Stefan Batory.
Some of the historians believe that the Livonian War had a religious basis, a clash between Catholics and Orthodox. Most likely, it was still a shell for solving political problems. In the Middle Ages, discourse about confession was one of the most important forms of the political game. It is known that Ivan the Terrible for some time "pondered" whether to accept the Catholic faith.
Peace was concluded in Yama Zapolsky on January 15, 1582. Stefan Batory was not a complete winner in this war, although in Poland he was considered a triumphant king. Indeed, as a result of the war, Livonia went to him. But we must not forget that the city of Pskov was also the winner.
Being religiously tolerant, Stephen Batory at the same time patronized Catholicism in every possible way and supported the Catholic clergy. Because the priests in every possible way preached among the people the origin of royal power from God, and this appealed to the king, who strove for an absolute monarchy. The Jesuits enjoyed special patronage. 1579 - the Vilnius Academy was organized for them, which later turned into a famous university, one of the oldest in Europe. Through the efforts of the Jesuits, the aristocratic families of the Chodkevichs and the Radziwills converted to Catholicism.
When the people of Riga opposed the creation of a Jesuit house in Riga and the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, their revolt was suppressed by force of arms. At the same time, complaints from Orthodox Christians about the new calendar were heard. The king ordered them to be left alone and not to be prosecuted for holding church holidays according to the Julian calendar.
Batory also had far-reaching military plans: he wanted to renew the war with Moscow, and after the victory, move to Turkey. To this end, he negotiated with Pope Sixtus V and King Philip II of Spain. The question of increasing taxes on the war was considered at the Diet. For the Moscow state, where the weak and indecisive Fyodor Ioannovich sat on the throne after the death of Ivan the Terrible, this could have ended very badly. But on December 12, 1586, in his capital Grodno in the 54th year, Stefan Batory died suddenly. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a new "rootless" began.
Of the internal reforms introduced by Bathory in Poland, the device of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, to whom he gave the correct organization, endowed them with lands, allowed himself to choose the hetman and all military leaders, leaving the king with the right to endow the hetman with a banner, "mace" and a seal and approval him after taking the oath of allegiance. For this he was installed as a "patron", formally the first hetman of the Zaporozhye Cossacks.
The king ruled the country without knowing the languages of his subjects (as mentioned above, he used Latin), regularly declared his personal commitment to Catholicism, and all the time needed competent performers to implement numerous reforms. Only an efficiently working school system could give him such people. He saw her at the Jesuits.
In the last years of his life, Stefan Batory carried out significant transformations within his state. So, he was able to improve the judicial system, meeting the aspirations of the Polish gentry. He encouraged the development of school education. In this connection he supported the Jesuits, in whom, however, later became disillusioned.
Bathory was a significant ruler. He made many plans. His endeavors were interrupted by a sudden death. In 1586, a year after the death of Ivan the Terrible, Stefan Batory suddenly fell ill and soon died. There were rumors about the poisoning, but they were not confirmed. But, one way or another, with the death of Stefan Batory one of the pages in the difficult relations between the countries of Central Europe and Russia was turned.
Stefan Bathory was an extraordinary person. Suffice it to mention his friendship with Kaspar Bekisch (1520-1579). Earlier, Stephen fought with him for the princely throne of Transylvania, but then the rivals became friends. After the election of Batory as king of the Commonwealth, K. Bekish commanded the Hungarian infantry of the royal army in the battles of Danzig (in 1578) and Polotsk (in 1519). Then Batory appointed him governor of Grodno. Here he died. Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches refused to bury Bekish in their cemeteries, since they considered him an atheist! The fact is almost incredible for that time. By order of Batory, Bekish's body was buried in Vilna, on the high right bank of the river of the same name …
Recommended for viewing: The Riddle of the Death of Stefan Batory