John III Sobieski

John III Sobieski was born 1624/29 at Olesko, Ukraine and died 1696. He was elected king of Poland in 1674 after the death of Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki.

John Sobieski had won fame as outstanding military commander in a war against Turkey. Based on this he was elected as king of Poland. Due to his wife Maria De La Grange he first had close contact with France. Later he joint the emperor. His greatest success came in 1683 as defender of Vienna,with German and Polish troops, once more against the Turks under Kara Mustafa.

According to Oscar Halecki, noted Polish historical writer, John III planned to occupy East Prussia with Swedish cooperation and French support. This undertaking was doomed to failure, because of the skillful policy of the Hohenzollern Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia and the frequent shifts of alliances amongst the western powers.

His son James Sobieski had also fought bravely in the battle against the Turkish attempt of conquering Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.

It needs to be mentioned that John III came belated to the battlefield, but hurried to rush to Vienna in order to receive a hero's welcome, while the Elector of Saxony's German and Austrian troops were still busy on the battlefield attending to their dead and wounded. This fact put a litle damper on John Sobieski's hopes for imperial Habsburg marriages, though he became widely popular. His son James married Hedwig Elizabeth Amelia v. Pfalz-Neuburg and his daughter Maria Casimira Clementia married [[James Stuart, duke of Cornwall.

In a strange twist of events a statue of John III Sobieski was brought to the city of Danzig (since 1945 Gdansk) by people from his native land, when they were resettled in order to replace the Danzig burghers. Already his family had been famous guests in Danzig. Now the staue of horse and rider John III stands and overlooks the little park at the Gdansk ratusz (Rathaus).