God’s Playground. A History of Poland, Vol. 1. The Origins to 1795

THE SWEDISH CONNECTION 331

Map 17. The Vasa Realm, (c. 1600)

'Ordinations' which began in 1589. The pattern was repeated through almost all
the provinces of the Republic. After the death of Zamoyski in 1605, and the
Zebrzydowski Rokosz of 1606—9 which the Great Chancellor's intrigues had so
helped to foment, the internal political scene settled down. But the Sejm, the
dietines, and the lawcourts were increasingly controlled by magnatial patron-
age. The voices of the independent nobleman and of the burgher were choked;
and the groans of the peasantry were suppressed. Social legislation, which had
been so lively in the sixteenth century, virtually disappeared.
Economic prosperity was accompanied by several incurable disorders.
Although the first half of the seventeenth century witnessed the zenith of the
Baltic Trade, and of urban and commercial life in general, the rewards of
affluence were spread ever more unevenly. The luxury of the nobles contrasted