After the hands of Elizabeth of England, Mary of Scotland and Renata of Lorraine had successively been sought for him, the council of state grew anxious about the succession, but he finally married his cousin, Sophia of Mecklenburg, on the 10th of July 1572.
A few days later he was appointed ambassador extraordinary, and despatched to Lorraine to resume the negotiations for Eric's marriage with the princess Renata.
For some years after this humiliation, Wladislaus became indifferent to affairs and sank into a sort of apathy; but the birth of his son Sigismund (by his first wife, Cecilia Renata of Austria, in 1640) gave him fresh hopes, and he began with renewed energy to labour for the dynasty as well as for the nation.
His long-term relationship with Viviana ends after his affair with Renata goes public.