fme_469873 - POLOGNE - ROYAUME DE POLOGNE - JEAN III SOBIESKI Médaille, Libération de Vienne

POLAND - KINGDOM OF POLAND - JOHN III SOBIESKI

(20/05/1674-17/06/1696)

Jean III (2/06/1624-17/06/1696), son of Jacques Sobieski, married in 1665 Marie Casimire de la Grange d'Arquien (1641-1716) who sometimes had a very bad influence on him. He was elected king of Poland following his brilliant victory over the Turks at Khotine and succeeded Michel Wisniowecki in 1674. His victory at Kahlenberg on September 12, 1683 freed Vienna, besieged by the Turks. Presented as the savior of Christianity and the new Godfrey of Bouillon, he continued the fight against the Turks in Moldavia and Bessarabia, but had to abandon his claims to a great kingdom in Central Europe, under Russian pressure, at the Treaty of Moscow (1686). He tried to ensure for his son Jacques-Louis (1667-1737), the succession of the throne of Poland. He failed in this last enterprise. It was Frederick Augustus II of Saxony who succeeded him on the throne, paving the way for a civil war which would only end with the partition of Poland..