Official titles in Latin: Ioannes Casimirus, Dei Gratia rex Poloniae, magnus dux Lithuaniae, Russie, Prussiae, Masoviae, Samogitiae, Livoniae, Smolenscie, Severiae, Czernichoviaeque; nec non Suecorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque haereditarius rex, etc.
His father Sigismund, grandson of Gustav I of Sweden, had succeded his father to the Swedish throne in 1592 only to be deposed from the by his uncle Charles IX of Sweden in 1599. This lead to a long standing feud where the Polish kings of the house of Vasa claimed the Swedish throne. Effects of this were the Swedish War (1600-1629). Poland and Sweden were also on opposite sides in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
In 1648 John Casimir II succeeded his half brother and cousin on the Polish throne. The reign of the last of Vasas in the Commonwealth would be dominated by the culumination in the war with Sweden (The Deluge), groundwork for which was laid down by the two previous Vasa kings of the Commonwealth.
In 1660 he would be forced to renounce his claims to the Swedish throne and acknowledge Swedish sovereignty over Livonia and city of Riga. John abdicated on September 16, 1668 and returned to France where he joined the Jesuit order and became an ordinary monk. He died in 1672.
It is bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) to the north.
Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, was baptized in 966, adopting Catholic Christianity as the country's new official religion, to which the bulk of the population converted in the course of the next century.
Poland has a large agricultural sector of private farms, that could be a leading producer of food in the European Union now that Poland is a member.
The Republic of Poland is a country located in Central Europe, between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) to the north.
Poland enjoys a temperate climate, with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters and mild summers with frequent showers and thunder showers.
The principal ports and harbours are: Port of GdaĆsk, Port of Gdynia, Port of Szczecin, Port of Swinoujscie, Port of Ustka, Port of Kolobrzeg, Gliwice, Warsaw, Wroclaw.