The Children of Adam and Eve

He raised the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. John Sobieski was the son of a high-ranking member of the Polish senate. He distinguished himself in the Polish-Swedish war of 1655-60 and against the cossacks and Tatars in 1667. In 1668 King JohnII Casimir made him commander in chief of the Polish army. Sobieski's wife was French, and he assumed leadership of a pro-French faction among the nobility during the reign (1669-73) of John Casimir's successor, Michael Wi´niowiecki (1638-73).After Winning a brilliant victory over the Ottoman Turks in 1673 at Khotin (now in Ukraine), Sobieski was elected king to succeed Michael the following year. He concluded a truce with the Turks in 1676, but, regarding them as Poland's mostdangerous enemies, he abandoned his alliance with Louis XIV of France (who was friendly to the Turks) and made a pact with Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I in 1683 . When a Turkish army laid siege to Vienna, Leopold's capital, later the same year,Sobieski led a force to the city's rescue, defeating the besiegers at the Battle of the KahlenBerg in September. During the next few years he participated in the campaigns that drove the Turks from Hungarian soil, but failed in his attempt towin control of the Romanian principalities on the shore of the Black Sea. He was the last great king of Poland; after his Death the country fell increasingly under Russian influence.