The situation in Lithuania becomes inflamed again in early 1700 when an anti-Sapieha noble, Sebastian Cedrowski, fires a pistol at the carriage of Hetman Sapieha in February.

Karol Radziwill is chosen soon after, as the Marshall of the 1700 Lithuanian Tribunal, which the Sapiehas take as a personal affront.

Members of the Sapieha family had gained control of many offices of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late seventeenth century; in 1700, Jan Kazimierz Sapieha the Younger is the Lithuanian Grand Hetman, Aleksander Paweł Sapieha the Lithuanian Grand Marshal and Benedykt Paweł Sapieha, the Lithuanian Deputy Treasurer (podskarbi).

The Sapieha family has much influence at the royal court, and is able to issue and execute decrees damaging the other families.

This has led to the formation of anti-Sapieha coalition among the lesser magnates and the common nobles (szlachta).

Jan Kazimierz Sapieha, instead of paying his soldiers their wages in 1694, had quartered them in the estates of the Bishop of Wilno, Brzostowski, who had excommunicated him in response.

The Sapiehas in 1697 had supported François Louis, Prince of Conti, for the Polish throne while most of the Lithuanian nobility and the Oginski family had supported Augustus II the Strong.

The Oginskis, together with the Kociell family, had convinced the nobility to rebel against the Sapiehas, but their forces had been defeated in the battles of Brzesc and Jurbork.

A compromise had been signed in Warsaw but none of the parties are satisfied with it, which had been Augustus' intention.

Further rebellions occur, ended by a treaty signed at Puzenice and the presence of Saxon troops in the Grand Duchy.

The Sapiehas are defeated in the Battle of Olkieniki (near Valkininkai in modern Lithuania) on November 18, and permanently lose their dominant position in the Duchy.

In the aftermath of the civil war, the unrest in the Grand Duchy continues, as the lesser magnates vie for control of the offices and lands of the defeated Sapieha family.

This leads to the Grand Duchy’s weak position in the Great Northern War.

The successful Swedish invasion of Poland enables Charles XII to dethrone Augustus II and coerce the Polish sejm to replace him with Stanisław Leszczyński in 1704.

Leszczyński, born in Lwów in 1677, was the son of Rafał Leszczyński, voivode of Poznań Voivodeship, and Anna Katarzyna Jabłonowska.

He had married Katarzyna Opalińska, by whom he has a daughter, Maria, who had become Queen-Consort of France as wife of Louis XV.

As Cupbearer of Poland in 1697, he had signed the confirmation of the articles of election of August II the Strong.

He had in 1703 joined the Lithuanian Confederation, which the Sapiehas with the aid of Sweden have formed against August.

Selected by Charles XII to supersede Augustus II, who is hostile towards the Swedes, Leszczyński is a young man of blameless antecedents, respectable talents, and comes from an ancient family, but certainly without sufficient force of character or political influence to sustain himself on so unstable a throne.

Nevertheless, with the assistance of a bribing fund and an army corps, the Swedes succeed in procuring his election by a scratch assembly of half a dozen castellans and a few score of gentlemen on July 12, 1704.

Stanisław is a few months later forced by a sudden inroad of Augustus to seek refuge in the Swedish camp, but finally on September 24, 1705, he is crowned king with great splendor.

Charles himself supplies his nominee with a new crown and scepter in lieu of the ancient Polish regalia, which had been carried off to Saxony by August.

The King of Sweden sends Peter Estenberg to King Stanislaw to act as an ambassador and correspondence secretary.

The Polish king's first act is to cement an alliance with Charles XII whereby the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth will engage to assist Sweden against the Russian tsar.