The condition of the country at the beginning of his reign was indeed critical. A large portion of its territory was in the hands of the Swedes, at that time an important power in Europe under the sturdy old warrior Gustavus Adolphus, destined to pass the prime of his life in the long wars which for thirty years rent Europe, in the struggle between Protestantism and the Church of Rome.
The Poles were pressing the empire from the west and the villages of the country were plundered by wandering bands of Cossacks from the south. Ladislaus, the King of Poland, son of Sigismund, had not yet renounced the title of Czar, and, in 1617, four years after Michael was crowned, appeared with an invading army under the walls of Moscow, but was defeated on the first day of December, 1618, and consented to abandon his claims and conclude a limited peace which was to last fourteen years and six months.
In 1617, through the good offices of James I of England, a treaty was concluded with Gustavus Adolphus at Stolbovo, a town near Lake Ladoga, by which the Russians had been compelled to give up a large portion of territory, along the Baltic to the Swedes, including ancient Novgorod, but this peace with Sweden proved to be a most fortunate thing for Russia because Gustavus, feeling free to prosecute his wars in Germany, was content to maintain friendship with Russia and the Greek Church, against a common enemy hostile to both Protestantism and Russian Orthodoxy.
Previous article Next article
From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
