 He subsequently attempted to play the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Empire against one another in an attempt to strengthen the Transylvania position.In 1572, the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the time the largest and one of the most populous states in Europe, was vacated when King Sigismund II Augustus died without heirs.The Sejm was given the power to elect a new king, and in the 1573 Polish–Lithuanian royal election chose Henry of France; Henry soon ascended the French throne and forfeited the Polish one by returning to France.