The Last Frontier of Fire and Sword

To put it simply, the Polish kings' policy towards the Cossacks was to "care for the strong and support the weak", or to pull one faction against one faction.

King Jan Kazimierz or his previous Polish kings all showed a pro-Cossack style, and they all regarded the Cossacks as a force that could be used to suppress the power of the nobility and strengthen the royal power.

Therefore, it is inevitable that this pro-Cossack attitude of the kings will inevitably be undermined by the parliamentarians who wish to restrict the royal power and turn the Cossacks into serfs and the great nobles behind them.

This in turn will make the Cossacks increasingly resent and hate the nobles.

For example, at the Battle of Hordin in 1621, one of the conditions for participation by the then Cossack leader Pedro was to require Poland to recognize the restored rank of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. But afterwards, some great aristocrats struggled with it, and the Polish government did not keep its promise. Not only that, Poland’s Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church (that is, the Eastern Orthodox sect that merged with the Catholic Church) has been ostracizing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

And after the peace between Poland and Turkey, the Polish government no longer wanted the Cossacks. The parliament ignored the livelihoods of the 40,000 Cossacks that had been withdrawn from the battlefield, and did not provide any compensation to the disabled (any funds provided by the king). Must be approved and approved by the Parliament). However, the quota of more than 1,000 people cannot solve the problem of more than 40,000 Cossacks. The hope of non-booked Cossacks for being included in the book is shattered, and they will not be willing to go back after they are used to the life of licking blood. Be a serf.

As a result, some of the non-registered Cossacks turned to the Zaporozhye camp, some went to the wasteland in the lower reaches to make a living, and most returned to towns or villages. These unregistered Cossacks have once again become a restless and disobedient mob in Ukrainian society in the Republic of Poland and Lithuania. Naturally, they have to find ways to change their situation. They repeatedly violated the contract between the Republic and Turkey, and started to attack the suburbs of Constantinople, Turkey from the sea again and again. They were also invited to intervene in Crimean affairs and support forces in the Crimean Khanate that were not reconciled to being a Turkish state. What's more, some Cossacks actually supported a man who claimed to be Crown Prince Alexander in an attempt to obtain the Turkish throne. The more and more courageous Cossacks even wanted to unite Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks and Albanians to revive the Eastern Empire that believed in the Orthodox Church.

Externally, it also severely damaged the interests of the Polish nobles to the internal Cossacks. In a document analyzing the situation in Ukraine written to the king and parliament by the great crown of Poland at the time, Gatman Mikovaj Potocki wrote: The phenomenon of doing whatever you want in the country has the upper hand, and the result is not only for us. Many difficulties, and make us hostile to powerful neighboring countries. They completely forgot about their beliefs and their affiliation, and created a special country for themselves. Endanger the lives and property of innocent people. The whole Ukraine is obedient to them. The little nobles are like slaves in their homeland. In the king’s cities and towns, the Cossacks dominate everything, all power is in their hands, they have the right to judge, and they also promulgate laws.

The great nobles, of course, were not willing to lose their power. They summoned the private armies of the nobles and the regular Polish army to brutally suppress the Cossacks. But every time, when the Polish army was about to wipe out the Cossacks, the successive Polish kings would accept the surrender of the Cossacks in a timely manner, hang the leader of the rebellion and pardon most of the followers, and then support some of them. Moderates came to power. This allowed the Cossacks to always resurrect and regard the king as their protector and benefactor. Over time, the Cossacks developed a concept of "anti-nobility, not anti-king", and they directed all their hatred on the Polish aristocrats.

And even Bogdan Khmelnitsky, when he first instigated the Cossacks of Zaporozhye to rebel against the Republic, he directed the uprising at the Ukrainians such as Vishnevsky. The Polish nobleman, not the king.

Precisely because of this, since Jan Kazimierz became king, he has been the largest prophet in the Republic from beginning to end. He advocated treating the Cossacks with tenderness, just like before, in order to achieve the purpose of quelling the uprising and weakening the nobility and expanding the royal power.

As soon as King Jan Kazimierz came to the throne, he sent a letter to Bogdan Khmelnitsky, telling him that he had been elected king, and at the same time assured him that he would give Cossack Gateman and improve all the Orthodox believers. treatment. In February 1649, King Jan Kazimierz sent a Polish delegation represented by Adam Kischel to Pereaslav to meet with Bogdan Khmelnytsky~www.wuxiaspot .com~ As a meeting ceremony and sincerity, Kihir came up and gave the rod that symbolizes Gateman's power to the former, indicating that the Polish government has recognized him as the chief of the Zaporizhia Cossack. It’s just that Khmelnitsky, who had been victorious at that time, had no intention of permanent peace. He conducted the talks in a very rude and inefficient manner. At the end of the negotiations, the two sides signed a contract for less than 4 months. Armistice agreement.

In this way, King Jan Kazimierz's first goodwill did not get the response he hoped. After that, because of the victory of the Battle of Zbarazh and the Battle of Berestečko, as well as the subsequent events that changed the course of history in Eastern Europe, the king and the Cossack chiefs finally drifted away.

At this time Stanislaw Potocki finally understood why King Jan Kazimierz left Ugowski and kept himself. Because the king had heard from Ugowski’s words that he, the servant, was the main combatant who advocated paying a tooth for a tooth and blood for blood to the Cossacks. As for the king himself, he actually wanted to take advantage of Bogdan Khmelnitsky’s short-lived opportunity to try again to solve the Ukrainian problem through bloodless means. After all, relying on force to recapture Ukraine, the land and the city belong to the nobles, and the king can’t get any benefits. When the Zaporozhye Cossacks are re-incorporated under his command, Jan Kazimierz will not only get tens of thousands of fighting Cossacks. Infantry, can also place their own people to control Ukraine.

Unlike King Jan Kazimierz who wore an extremely obvious label of the Lord and Piety, few people know that Stanislaw Potocki, who has always shown a tough attitude towards the Cossacks, actually holds the same as the king. Proposition.

Stanislaw Potocki is also a master and faction.