The prophecy of John Casimir. A Prophetic imagination for the Fall of Poland
The Republic will be divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria. This imagination was presented by King John Casimir over a 100 years before the partition. The ruler aptly predicted the tragic destiny of the state, although it was just a rhetorical trick to convince the opposition to refrain from resisting royal reforms.
2025-09-16, 13:00
The king's dissection prophecy was given twice. For the first time a dramatic imagination of the future of the Republic was presented by the monarch during the Sejm in 1661. The prophecy was connected with the political conflict that the court had fought with the opposition.
Election vivente rege
Jan Kazimierz attempted to introduce systemic changes in the Polish-Lithuanian state inactive at the end of the Swedish flood (1655-1660). There were then improvement projects that would improve Parliament's work. At the same time, however, the ruler, under the influence of French wife Louisa Maria Gonzaga, attempted to push through the resolution on the election of the vivente rege, or election of the fresh king inactive during the monarch's lifetime.
The royal couple, making up their partisans for French money, wanted to supply the throne in the Republic to a candidate from France. shortly the court focused mainly on the vivente rege project, forgetting reforms crucial for the functioning of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
"Moscow Lithuania will be destined for itself..."
Elections in the King's life were discussed at the Parliament in the summertime of 1661. During a joint session of the Chamber of Members and the Senate, the king gave a fiery speech to convince the opposition to accept his proposal. In this speech Jan Kazimierz besides presented a imagination of the collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
So they heard that if the proposed improvement did not come into force, then "Moscow and Russia will appeal to the peoples of 1 of their own language and Lithuania for themselves; the borders of Wielkopolska will be an beginning for Brandeburczyk, and it should be assumed that the full of Prussia will want to certify [...], and yet the Austrajack House, looking lasciviously at Kraków, will not leave the convenient chance for itself and will not refrain from taking part in the widespread demolition of the state".
Two words of explanation for this prophetic imagination of the monarch. Russia is most likely Cossacks who accepted the Tsar's protection and fought against the Republic. The territory of Lithuania, or Grand Duchy of Lithuania, consisted mainly of lands inhabited by the Orthodox Russian population. Brandenburg, on the another hand, remained in a individual union with Prussia. Already in the next century, the full state adopted the name Prussia.
Abdication of Jan Kazimierz
As noted by Duke Boguslaw Radziwił, the king was so anxious to talk that he first fell off his hat, then a scepter fell out of his hand, and at the end, erstwhile he stood up from the chair, he tripped over a dog. All these blunders were perceived as a bad sign.
It's hard to tell how much it affected the audience. Anyway, the dramatic visions presented by the monarch did not impress the opposition. The task was rejected, but the royal couple did not intend to let go.
In subsequent years, the fight against the opposition represented by the magnate Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski led to the outbreak of civilian war. The defeats in confrontation with the subjects, as well as Gonzaga's death in 1667 discouraged Jan Kazimierz from continuing to regulation over the Vistula River. He made a decision to abdicate.
This occurred on September 16, 1668, during the last day of the Sejm meeting. The Lord gave a farewell speech, in which he released the subjects from the oath, apologized for the mistakes and... repeated the prophetic imagination of the fall of the Republic.
Jan Kazimierz died of emigration in France in 1672. precisely a 100 years later, the first demolition of the Polish-Lithuanian state took place. In 1795 due to Russia, Prussia and Austria, according to the king's prophecy, The Republic ceased to exist.
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The article was created in the series "Minhistory", in which we fish from chronicles, books, old newspapers or from radio recordings short stories: intriguing, surprising, unique.
Sources: Polish Radio/th
T. Vasilewski, Last Vase on the Polish Throne, 1984.
polskieradio24.pl/article/3580217, prophecy-jana-kazimiera-prophet-vision-fall-Polish
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