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| When Prince Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki {{...}} rode to the royal election field at Wola outside Warsaw, he was accompanied, not only by a numerous retinue, but also by a mighty swarm of bees, all the way to the place where the Primate of Poland proclaimed him king. It was seen as a propitious portent, which would later come true.

So, as you may have guessed by now, "Michael Wiscionsky's" actual name was Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki (pronounced ''kaw-{{small|RIH}}-boot veesh-nyaw-{{small|VYET}}-skee''). His election to the Polish throne 350 years ago was quite a surprise to pretty much everyone – not least to Prince Michael himself. His father, Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Palatine of Ruthenia, owned vast swaths of land in Ukraine and became a national hero by ruthlessly quelling a Cossack rebellion, but Michael had neither his father's leadership skills nor his wealth. He wasn't even considered a candidate right up to the point when he got elected.

Let's go back 20 years, to the time after King Vladislav IV's death. Both his throne and his wife went to his half-brother (and maternal cousin), John Casimir Vasa. John Casimir never had enough patience to keep any job for long (his CV included stints as a commander of cuirassiers, a viceroy of Portugal, a Jesuit and a cardinal), but hung on relatively long on the Polish throne and under his former sister-in-law's thumb. Until finally, grieved by Marie-Louise's death and disenchanted by the nobility's opposition to his policies, he quit and moved to France, where he holed up in a Benedictine monastery until his death.

The Polish political scene at the time was divided into two main factions, with different ideas for Poland's foreign policy and its relations with Europe's two major powers – the Habsburg Monarchy and France. The pro-French party initially supported two candidates for the throne vacated by John Casimir's abdication – Prince Louis Bourbon, better known as the Grand Condé, and Prince Philip William Wittelsbach, Count Palatine of Neuburg. The pro-Habsburg faction, on the other hand, endorsed Duke Charles Leopold of Lorraine and Bar. The Grand Condé, famous for his skills as a an accomplished military commander, was perhaps best suited for the job; which is probably why he was also the first to drop out of the race. As always in Polish politics, negative selection prevailed. It was now down to two contenders, neither of whom spared the expenses needed to bribe the senators (promises to the nobility could be made for free).

And this is when, according to the legend, a swarm of honey bees arrived in the election field and sat on the Polish-born Prince Michael and the nobles concluded that if the bees had already made their pick, then then rest was just formality. All the senators could do was to agree with the choice made by the insects and the nobility, and thus a completely astonished Michael was proclaimed a king.

It wasn't just Michael, though, who was totally taken by surprise. The senators and many of the nobles were shocked as well. No wonder his unexpected election was soon being explained away with divine intervention by means of insects and birds (other legends talk of a dove which perched atop the Senatorial Shed and an eagle soaring above the Circle of Knights). Interestingly, I've been able to find to two eyewitness accounts which actually confirm the presence of a bee swarm in the election field. In details, though, not only do they contradict the legend; they also contradict each other. Let's start with the point of view of Wespazjan Kochowski:

| There was one more event, which was taken as to foretell a propitious future; during the vote, a swarm of spring bees arrived from the east and settled among the nobles of Łęczyca Palatinate. And they were so gentle that when they dispersed, they bit no one and they soon flew out of sight. It was something to congratulate the king for, an incitement to hope for a felicitous fate.

But that would mean that the bees did not pick any specific candidate; they just just flew into the field, sat down to rest for a while and then flew away. And it was already after Michael had been elected, so all the bees could do was, at best, to approve the choice made by the nobility's choice. You can see exactly this interpretation of the event in an anonymous poem cited by Kochowski:

The other account belongs to Count de Chavagnac, who in the name of the Habsburg court promoted the Duke of Lorraine as a candidate. In his version, the bees didn't join Prince Michael's retinue, but pestered the Palatine of Podolia on his way to the election field. His report is particularly fascinating, as it reveals large-scale corruption and the shady deals arrangements made behind the scenes – in which Michael's would-be successor, John Sobieski, and his wife, Marie-Casimire Sobieska ''née'' d'Arquien, played a crucial role. As it turns out, de Chavagnac and the Sobieskis, who belonged to the pro-French faction, agreed struck a deal with de Chavagnac that , in return for allowing Charles Leopold to take the Polish throne, Lorraine would ally itself to France against the Habsburgs, Lord Sobieski would receive tracts of land in Ruthenia and 100 thousand francs in cash, Lady Sobieska would get a large diamond and the count would become a marshal of France…

| I spent the entire following day, the eve of the election, meeting with senators. I talked with the confessor of chaplain to Grand Crown Marshal John Sobieski, who told me that his master hadn't written down the treaty yet, but he would trust my word; the . The real reason for the delay was that Lady Sobieska had forgotten to include her brother, Lord d'Arquien, in the treaty, and as the election would fall on the feast of Corpus Christi, she wanted to postpone it by one day, so that she had would have more time to haggle something out for her brother. The Palatine of Podolia [Aleksander Stanisław Bełżecki], whom she had enlisted into her service, could think of no other way to delay the election than to propose a Piast, that is, a native-born king. He imagined that the Crowners would never agree to a king from Lithuania, nor would the Lithuanians vote for a Crowner king [the Crown and Lithuania were the two constituent nations of the Polish Commonwealth]; that it would cause mayhem and put off the election, giving Sobieski's wife the time to make me accept her conditions. Confident of this scheme, he left her and went to [meet the [nobles of ] his] palatinate, whom he told that on his way he was had been harassed by swarms of bees, which led him here, and that it surely meant that a Piast should be elected king, as these were the bees from Piast's own apiary.