The szlachta, in its periodic opportunities to fill the throne, exhibits a preference for foreign candidates who will not found another strong dynasty.

This policy produces monarchs who are either totally ineffective or in constant debilitating conflict with the nobility.

Furthermore, aside from notable exceptions such as the able Transylvanian Stefan Batory (r. 1576-86), the kings of alien origin are inclined to subordinate the interests of the commonwealth to those of their own country and ruling house.

This tendency is most obvious in the prolonged military adventures waged by Sigismund III Vasa (r. 1587-1632) against Russia and his native Sweden.

On occasion, these campaigns bring Poland near to conquest of Muscovy and the Baltic coast, but they compound the military burden imposed by the ongoing rivalry with the Turks, and the Swedes and Russians will extract heavy repayment a few decades later.

The word hajduk, which had entered the Polish language from Hungarian in the late sixteenth century, was initially a colloquial term for a style of foot soldier, Hungarian or Turco-Balkan in inspiration, that has formed the backbone of the Polish infantry arm from the 1570s.

Unusually for this period, Polish-Lithuanian hajduks wear uniforms, typically of grey-blue woolen cloth, with red collar and cuffs.

Their principal weapon is a small caliber matchlock firearm, known as an arquebus.

For close combat they also carry a heavy variety of saber, capable of hacking off the heads of enemy pikes and polearms.

Contrary to popular opinion, the small axe they often wear tucked in their belt (not to be confused with the huge half-moon shaped berdysz axe, which is seldom carried by hajduks) is not a combat weapon but a tool for cutting wood.

Poland has since 1614 encouraged rebellions in the Ottoman vassal principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, its Ukrainian Cossacks having skirmished with the Ottoman Empire’s Crimean Tatars, and Poland’s King Sigismund III Vasa having stealthily supported the Habsburgs.

General Stanislaus Zolkiewski—who, despite his advanced age (he is over seventy), has continued his active service as a military commander—advances with some ten thousand Polish troops into Moldavia and on September 20, 1620, joined by some Cossacks and Moldavians, defeats a superior Turkish-Tatar army at the battle of Jassy (Iasi).

Osman, ambitious and courageous at sixteen, undertakes a military campaign against the Poles.

Gathering a huge army, ...

...Osman leads it to the Dniester River, compelling Zolkiewski to retreat in the face of much greater numbers, but the Ottoman army on October 6, 1620, annihilates Zolkiewski and his men at Cecora.

The war continues nonetheless.