Sigismund III Vasa Killed in Siege of Smolensk: What Happens to the PLC?

[MarshalBraginsky]

Lately I've been pondering on the scenario of "What if Wladyslaw IV Vasa becomes Tsar of Russa?" and there were several factors that made this impossible, namely:

- Sigismund's Catholic stance and his ambition to become the Catholic Tsar of Russia, which made the idea of making his son Wladyslaw Tsar pointless.

- There were several other potential candidates like the False Dmitrys, even the Swedes threw in Charles Philip Vasa as their own candidate before Mikhail Romanov became the founding leader of the Romanov dynasty.

Now Wladyslaw took the Russian crown on July 19, 1610 while the Siege of Smolensk was still happening and did not end until 1611. So within this time period between Wladyslaw's selection and the end of the Siege of Smolensk, Sigismund gets killed, say by a stray shot, falls off his horse or suffers a fatal wound while in close quarters combat. Because Wladyslaw might be too young to rule by himself, who would be the regent for him and who gets to succeed Sigismund if his children are too young?

 

[seraphim74]

First of all, Władysław still needs to be elected. Polish throne is not hereditary. True, Władysław had no serious competition IOTL, but here he is very young; would Polish and Lithuanian noblemen elect a teenager?
OTOH he was popular even as a child, so perhaps there is a chance for him to get the crown, assuming he will swear to listen to his advisors - most probably Wawrzyniec Gembicki (Chancellor of the Crown), although non-Catholic noblemen might be against it and demand a protestant member in the council.

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

First of all, Władysław still needs to be elected. Polish throne is not hereditary. True, Władysław had no serious competition IOTL, but here he is very young; would Polish and Lithuanian noblemen elect a teenager?
OTOH he was popular even as a child, so perhaps there is a chance for him to get the crown, assuming he will swear to listen to his advisors - most probably Wawrzyniec Gembicki (Chancellor of the Crown), although non-Catholic noblemen might be against it and demand a protestant member in the council.

As in Wladyslaw is elected for the Polish crown, right? It's just that it was a fluke that he was elected for the Russian crown though after having the second False Dmitry take the Russian crown and dying in the process.