The reign of John II Casimir, the last elected Vasa King of Poland, was unusually turbulent, even for Poland. There was a catastrophic war with Russia 1651-1654 and a final humiliation came when Poland was forced to cede the whole of the Ukraine and Smolensk to Russia, at the truce of Andrussov, in 1667. After his abdication in 1668, the King passed his exile in Paris, where he married Françoise Mignot in the last year of his life.

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