Our coverage of the complex and juicy diplomacy continues! While the main event is the examination at last of the Habsburg-Polish treaty of alliance, the events leading up to such an event are also something to behold. The French threat remained strong and Louis XIV's presence across the Rhine remained a menace to those German potentates who otherwise would have jumped at the chance to crusade against the Turk. This, as we've by now learned, was no accident. By keeping the Habsburgs and their German allies divided, Louis could ensure that he had more security and influence to lord over his weaker German neighbours.

As the episode progresses, you'll notice the sense of re-arming that seemed to characterise much of what the Germans in particular were doing. Everyone seemed either to be grouping themselves into an alliance bloc or preparing for some kind of conflict. At the top of this alliance building we find the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, led of course by King Jan Sobieski, and the subject of our very special biography if you weren't aware! 

It would prove a battle in itself not merely negotiating, but also ratifying this treaty in the Polish Sejm, as the vested interests of the foreign powers culminated, not for the last time, in heated scenes at such a weighted time in Polish history. In the event, Sobieski would agree to march, but the campaign would be nothing like what he expected...

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