The election after Batory's death went to the grandson of Sigismund I, Sigismund Vasa of Sweden, the first king of the Vasa dynasty on the throne of Poland. The Vasas - Sigismund III, Vladislaus IV, and Ioannes Casimirus (John Casimir) - ruled until 1668; and although they maintained Poland's status as an esteemed European power, they also entangled the kingdom in a series of wars, failed to prevent a civil war in Ukraine and tolerated the growth of the magnates' power.
