to the Ottoman Empire and consequently had no reason to participate in a Christian league. The situation changed when Poland lost Podolia to the Ottoman Empire in the 1670s. Now there was a lobby of Polish nobles in the Diet who had lost their estates. Polish pride was hurt by being defeated by the Ottomans after previous defeats by the Swedes and Muscovites. Jan Sobieski had been elected King with the help of the King of France. At the beginning of his reign he had cooperated with France and supported the rebellious Hungarians against Ernperor Leopold. But co-operation with France did not give any of the expected advantages, and could not help to gain back territory lost to the Ottomans. French and Polish help was insufficient to enable the Hungarian nobility to defeat Leopold decisively. They had to look for stronger support -- and this could only be given by the Turks. The more the Hungarians openly co-operated with the Ottoman Empire, the more critical the situation became for Poland. That is one of the reasons why Sobieski stopped helping the rebels and joined with Emperor Leopold. A Hungarian king Thokoly who was a vassal of the Sultan was most surely an uncomfortable neighbour for Poland. Sobieski was more active in foreign policy than his predecessors, though a8 his attempts to strengthen Poland's position in international affairs were unsuccessful. One of the reasons for this was that Poland had almost no standing at all as a military power: its political