262 ANARCHIA
Armed conflict ensued. After the Battle of Janowiec, the confederates
announced the king's dethronement, and in the name of all the people withdrew
their obedience. The Regalists, having called a Sejm at Wisnica, made all possi-
ble concessions to the stated grievances, but could not calm the mood of out-
rage. Though heavily outnumbered, they were led by the hardened
professionalism of the two Hetmans, Stanislaw Zolkiewski, Zebrzydowski's
brother-in-law, and Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. At Guzow near Radom on 6 July
1607, the confederates were cut to pieces. The King's cause triumphed. Yet the
political result was far from clear. The leaders of the Rokosz were not punished.
Zebrzydowski, having humbled himself before the King and Senate, was
allowed to retain his lands and offices; Radziwill kept his forces in tact in
Lithuania. The Sejm of 1609 granted a general amnesty. It was decided that the
nobility's right of non praestanda obedientia could only be exercised after the
King had been formally warned three times by the Sejm. The King reaffirmed his
adherence to the Henrician Articles. The whole affair was treated as an unfor-
tunate misunderstanding. The real issues were ignored. The malcontents were
allowed to rouse the entire nobility into a bloody adventure, which divided the
state and distracted the government from important foreign engagements in
Muscovy and Livonia. And no one was so much as reprimanded. As Korzon
remarked, 'this marks the beginning of the Polish anarchy. The nobleman, who
inculcated rigour, virtue, and the fear of God, in his family life, hardened his
heart in his public life by constant disputes with the king and by refractoriness
towards every command.'^15
Sixty years later, the Rokosz of Jerzy Lubomirski revealed complications of a
still more dangerous nature. Lubomirski was one of the most popular figures of
his day. He had distinguished himself in the Swedish and Muscovite wars, and
his campaign to defeat royal plans for an election vivente rege was fully in line
with the feelings of the mass of the nobility. But in the Sejm of 1664, on evidence
of dealings with the Habsburgs in Vienna, he was convicted by his peers on a
charge of treason, and sentenced to confiscation and banishment. After that, his
followers found themselves in the invidious position of protesting the legality of
their actions, whilst promoting the cause of a convicted criminal. Even so, they
joined his standard in considerable numbers. In the Sejms of 1665 and 1666, they
repeatedly disrupted proceedings, before withdrawing to form their
Confederation. In 1667, they confronted the Royal Army in battle in several
skirmishes, until, on 13 July, on the shores of Lake Gopto, they won a decisive
victory. The confusion of that occasion was observed at first hand by Jan Pasek:
The armies clashed at Montwy, and the distance between them was more than a mile
across the ford. The next day, the King ordered us to cross to the other side. The dra-
goons crossed, and part of the cavalry. The Lithuanians too were about to cross, when
suddenly a detachment from Lubomirsky's army arrived at the gallop, not in closed
ranks or squadrons, but spread out in Tartar fashion. The first made contact with us,
thinking us to be Lithuanians, when suddenly we recognized each other ... So they lay
off, and with their entire force lunge at our right flank, where the dragoons were stood