Why the Polish king Vladislav IV refused to conquer Russia and what he received in return for the Russian throne

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the centuries-old history of the Russian monarchy, there were more than enough applicants for the throne, including self-appointed tsars and unrecognized heirs. The “new Russian king”, Vladislav Zhigimontovich, who was invited to reign after Vasily Shuisky was removed from power, could have left a mark in it. However, the Polish prince, the son of Sigismund III, did not become the real ruler of Russia, remaining for more than a quarter of a century only formally "the Grand Duke of Moscow."

Why the candidacy of the Polish prince Vladislav was the most suitable for the Russian throne

The period of the Time of Troubles was marked by the most difficult socio-economic and state-political crisis in Russia. Popular uprisings, the emergence of impostors with claims to the throne, the Russian-Polish war and, most importantly, the confrontation between the boyars and the tsarist government, which prevented the election of a supreme ruler to restore order in the state.

In the summer of 1610, as a result of a palace coup, Vasily Shuisky, the last representative of the Rurik family to occupy the Russian throne, was overthrown and sent to the monastery. Power in Moscow ended up in the hands of representatives of the seven boyar families, who were the most influential in the Boyar Duma. To end the war with Poland and restore order in the country, the boyars decided to invite the son of the Polish king Sigismund III, the hereditary prince Vladislav, to reign.

There was nothing unusual in such a decision then: many European countries acted in a similar way, being in a dynastic crisis against the backdrop of growing chaos in the state. In addition, there was a similar experience in Russia, when the Varangian Rurik became the prince of Novgorod at the request of several East Slavic tribes.

What provided for the agreement that the representatives of the Russian government concluded with the Polish king

Secret negotiations of the boyars with the Polish side on the accession of the prince to the Russian throne began in February - before the overthrow and capture of Shuisky. However, the official agreement with the vocation of Vladislav was drawn up by the representatives of the Semboyarshchyna in August 1610, when Moscow was without a ruler for more than a month.

The agreement stated: to preserve the territorial autonomy of the Russian state, not to change the Orthodox faith in the country to the Catholic one, not to encroach on property and personal immunity of the sovereign's people, lift the two-year siege of Smolensk and withdraw troops to Poland, leave all high positions - present and future - for Muscovites.

In addition, the new Russian tsar was obliged to convert to Orthodoxy and marry an Orthodox girl of a noble family chosen for him.

Soon after that, minting of coins with the profile of "Tsar Vladislav" began, and the swearing of allegiance to the supporters of the new Russian monarch began. The treaty itself was sent to Poland with a delegation of 1,000 representatives of various classes: it was expected that the "great embassy" would return to Moscow with the sovereign of all Russia Vladislav Zhigimontovich.

Moscow campaign and Deulinskoe truce

However, the 15-year-old tsar, limited in his expression of will by age, never arrived in Moscow due to Sigismund III's disagreement with the clauses of the treaty important for the Russians. First, the Polish monarch announced that Russia must become a Catholic country; secondly, he designated only Polish nobles for responsible state positions; and, thirdly, he announced that he would become the sole regent of the underage Vladislav, with all the power due to the full-fledged king.

The boyars rejected such conditions, and until 1613 the capital was under the rule of the Seven Boyars, until in March another Tsar, Mikhail Romanov, took the Moscow throne, who became the first representative of a new dynastic family.

However, the Commonwealth did not accept the loss of the Russian throne, and 7 years after the failed accession, the matured Vladislav went with an army to Moscow - to force him to conquer the crown that had once been promised to him. The Poles managed to approach the capital, but they could not capture it: the desperate resistance of the militia with soldiers and the cold weather that came in time forced the prince to lift the siege.

And yet, having an advantage in strength, Vladislav managed to impose his own conditions on Moscow to end the military confrontation. The Deulinskoe truce, concluded in December 1618, postponed the entry of the Polish pretender to the Russian throne by 14.5 years. In return for such a "respite", the Moscow side undertook to transfer to the Rzecz Pospolita part of the Russian territories, among which were the cities of Smolensk, Chernigov, Roslavl, Dorogobuzh.

How much did Vladislav IV sell the Russian throne?

In 1632, after the death of his father Sigismund III and a few months before the end of the Deulin Agreement, Vladislav received the Polish crown and an official title. In the latter, in addition to listing that Vladislav IV is "the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Prussian, Mazovian, Samogitian, Livonian, as well as the hereditary king of the Goths, Swedes, Wends", there was a mention of the fact that he was "the chosen Grand Duke of Moscow."

Mikhail Romanov, who sat on the Russian throne for 19 years, clearly did not like this circumstance. Deciding to take advantage of the discontent of the Polish elites, which began after the death of the old king, the Russian tsar decided on a military campaign against Poland. The war, exhausting both sides, lasted for two years and ended with another, this time Polyanovsky peace. This agreement from 1634 was not much different from the Deulinsky armistice, except for one thing - Vladislav IV renounced his claims to the Russian crown in exchange for 20,000 silver rubles. The territories given to the Poles in 1618 remained under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for the next 20 years.

This was the end of the epic with the division of the Russian throne: in 1634, Mikhail Romanov became the only tsar who had the legal right to be called the sovereign of all Russia. Since then, Vladislav IV no longer showed interest in the throne of his neighbors, successfully managing the affairs of his country and successfully solving problems with the Turks and Swedes that threatened Poland.

But in general, during the siege of Moscow, the Polish interventionists even had to engage in cannibalism.