Hmmm, Polish talent to choose wrong kings is a material for additional thread, Pawian. Your ancestors had wrong bid on mad Valuis dynasty, and what is more, they elected monarch from another deranged dynasty, Vasa.
I think you cherish a bit distorted view on Polish kings. Most of them were not worse than in other countries. Valoise mentioned by you was hundredfold surpassed by the next king, Stefan Batory, the one who made Russians beg for mercy on their knees. :):)
The problem is that kings were constrained by aristocrats and gentry and couldn`t do much to introduce reforms. In fact the state was ruled not by kings but by magnats.
Anyway Russians had never devastated Poland during partitions as your Swedish relatives had done it during deluge.
There wasn`t direct devastation, it`s true, except for risings and rebellions suppressed by Russians. :)
The problem is somewhere else: the general backwardness of the Russian state promoted the same backwardness in its Polish partition zone. The statistics is merciless, e.g., Russian partition had the biggest number of illiterate people. etc etc etc and the situation didn`t change for decades.
