Sigismund will be occupied with internal problems…
March 1604 CE
Sigismund will be occupied with internal problems of his own, like the coming civil war in the Commonwealth and the ongoing wars with Sweden and in Moldavia, for most of the 1600s.
However, when the impostor appeared in Poland in 1603, he had soon found enough support among powerful magnates such as Michał Wiśniowiecki, Lew and Jan Piotr Sapieha, who are willing to provide him with funds for a campaign against Godunov.
Commonwealth magnates look forward to material gains from the campaign and control over Russia through False Dmitry.
In addition, both Polish magnates and Russian boyars are advancing new plans for a union between the Commonwealth and Russia, similar to the one Lew Sapieha had discussed in 1600 (when the idea had been dismissed by Godunov).
Finally, the proponents of Catholicism see in Dmitry a tool to spread the influence of their Church eastwards, and after promises of a united Catholic dominated Russo-Polish entity waging a war on the Ottoman Empire, Jesuits also provide him with funds and education.
Dmitry visits the royal court of Sigismund in Kraków in March 1604.
Although the Polish king declines to support Dmitry officially with the full might of the Commonwealth, Sigismund is always happy to support pro-Catholic initiatives and provides him with the sum of four thousand zlotys–enough for a few hundred soldiers.
Nonetheless, some of Dmitry’s supporters, especially among those who will soon be involved in the coming Zebrzydowsk rebellion, have begun working actively to have Dmitry replace Sigismund.
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