Livonian War
gigatos | April 6, 2022
Summary
The First Northern War or Livonian War (1558 – 1583) saw the Russian troops invade Livonia: it was a conflict fought by the Russian Kingdom against the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation, allied to the Kingdom of Denmark and the Swedish Empire, whose purpose was to obtain the supremacy in the Baltic Sea. The coasts of Livonia (mostly the current Latvia) had for the Russians a strategic value for trade with Eastern Europe because of the Baltic islands.
The Polish-Lithuanian army was able to field more than 30,000 soldiers. In 1581 it numbered 9,000 cavalry (mainly hussars) and 12,000 infantrymen, as well as 10,000 Lithuanians.
The war ended unsuccessfully for Russia despite its initial victories against the Livonian Order, as a result of economic and domestic political difficulties caused by the revolt of the boyars from 1565 and the invasion of the Crimean Tatars, who set fire to Moscow on May 24, 1571. In the armistice of Jam Zapolski of January 15, 1582 with the Polish-Lithuanians, Tsar Ivan IV (known as The Terrible) renounced Livonia, but he regained between 1579 and 1581 from King Stephen Báthory some territories occupied by the enemy, after they had given up the siege, which lasted unsuccessfully for several months, of the city of Pskov.
With the peace of Pljussa of August 10, 1583 between Russia and Sweden, the latter was recognized some territories overlooking the Gulf of Finland, namely the provinces of Estonia, Ingria and Livonia Sweden.
Also read, biographies – Leif Erikson
Pre-war Livonia
By the middle of the 16th century, the economically prosperous Mariana Land had been administratively reorganized and converted into the Livonian Confederation. The territories were administered by the Knights of Livonia, a branch of the Teutonic Order, the bishopric of Dorpat, Ösel – Wiek, as well as, in Courland, the Archdiocese of Riga and the city of Riga. Together with it, the cities of Dorpat and Reval (Tallinn), along with some fortresses, enjoyed a special status, which allowed them to act almost independently. The main institutions, over time, became common assemblies that were held regularly and were known as landtags. Power was to be shared equally between the clergy and the Order: however, disputes often arose, particularly over the management of Riga, a prosperous and geographically favorable settlement. After two centuries of warlike disputes, in 1500 a new issue emerged, related to Lutheranism: the Reformation spread rapidly in today”s Baltic countries: from 1520 to 1550 the position taken by the Order (in the meantime detached from the Teutonic and became autonomous) was essentially liberal, remaining faithful to Catholicism. Because of the many wars and internal strife for power, Livonia became administratively weak, lacking adequate defenses and foreign allies that could support it in case of attack. To trouble a picture that seemed already compromised, were added the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, who wanted to pursue expansionist policies. The English historian Robert I. Frost on the unstable situation: “Displaced by internal disputes and threatened by political machinations of neighboring states, Livonia was absolutely unable to withstand an attack.”
The Landmeister and the Gebietiger of the Order, together with the feudal lords who resided in the Livonian fortresses, formed a noble class who jealously guarded their privileges and prevented the formation of a bourgeoisie that would constitute a third pole besides the clergy. William of Brandenburg was appointed archbishop of Riga and Christopher of Mecklenburg his coadjutor, with the help of his brother Albert of Hohenzollern, the former Prussian Hochmeister who had secularized the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights and in 1525 proclaimed himself Duke of Prussia. William and Christopher intended to pursue Albert”s interests in Livonia, including the establishment of a hereditary Livonian duchy inspired by the Prussian model. At the same time, the Order strove for its re-establishment in Prussia (Rekuperation), opposed secularization, and the creation of a hereditary duchy.
Also read, biographies – Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
Aspirations of neighboring powers
When the Livonian War began, the Hanseatic League had already lost its monopoly on the profitable and prosperous trade in the Baltic Sea. What caused its decline was the entry into the market of European mercenary fleets, in particular from the Seventeen Dutch provinces and France. Hanseatic ships could not compete with the warships of Western Europeans: since the league was not able to set up an adequate fleet because of the negative trend of trade, the Livonian cities that were part of it (Riga, Reval and Narva) remained without sufficient protection. The Dano-Norwegian navy, the most powerful in the Baltic, controlled the entrance to the waters of the sea, and held possession of strategically important islands, such as Bornholm and Gotland.
The array of Danish territories in the south and the almost total lack of ports that did not freeze during the cold months severely limited the possibility of Sweden (former member of the Kalmar Union) to aspire to trade in the area. However, the country prospered thanks to exports of timber, iron and especially copper: this allowed to slowly build combat vessels and it was understood that, across the Gulf of Finland, the distance from the ports of Livonia was not so limiting. A few years before the outbreak of the conflict, Sweden had tried to expand in Livonia (which it did for the first time during the Livonian crusade), but the intervention of Tsar Ivan IV temporarily blocked this attempt at expansion by triggering the Russo-Swedish war (1554-1557), culminating in the Treaty of Novgorod.
Thanks to the absorption of the principalities of Novgorod (1478) and Pskov (1510), Muscovy had come to touch the eastern borders of the Livonian Confederation and was further strengthened after the annexation of the khanates of Kazan” (1552) and Astrakhan” (1556). Conflict between Russia and the Western powers seemed to become further inevitable because the latter did not benefit from maritime trade. The new port of Ivangorod built by Ivan IV on the eastern bank of the Narva River in 1550 was soon rejected because of shallow waters. A few years later, the Tsar asked to the Livonian Confederation the payment of about 6,000 marks to continue to administer the bishopric of Dorpat: this request was proposed in the wake of what centuries before Pskov, as an independent state, imposed to the religious to avoid unpleasant consequences. The Livonians eventually promised to pay this sum to Ivan by 1557, but they were invited by Moscow when this agreement was not respected: this put an end to the negotiations. Ivan bluntly argued that the existence of the Order would depend on the acceptance or rejection of his proposal: taxation in exchange for military support to repel possible attacks from foreign powers or direct confrontation with Moscow. It was clear that in any case the troops would march westward. Russian intentions were to establish a corridor between the Baltic and the newly conquered territories on the Caspian Sea. If Russia had (and had) aims towards European trade, it was necessary to access the Livonian ports.
Meanwhile, far to the southwest of Moscow, the Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Sigismund II Augustus took a special interest in Russian military campaigns. The intended expansion into Livonia would have meant not only a political strengthening of his rival, but also the loss of profitable trade routes. Therefore, Sigismund supported his cousin William of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Riga, in his conflicts with William of Fürstenberg, Grand Master of the Order of Livonia. Sigismund hoped that Livonia, much like the Duchy of Prussia under Duke Albert, would in time propose to become a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Union. Receiving little support in Livonia, William of Brandenburg had to rely largely on outside allies. Among his few Livonian supporters was the landmarschall Jasper von Munster, with whom he planned an attack in April 1556 on his opponents that would have involved military aid from both Sigismund and Albert. However, the former hesitated in participating in the skirmish, fearing that by moving troops north the Kievan Voivodeship would remain exposed to a Russian attack. When Fürstenberg learned of the plan, he led troops into the archbishopric of Riga and in June 1556 captured the main strongholds of Kokenhusen and Ronneburg. Jasper von Munster fled to Lithuania, but William of Brandenburg and Christopher of Mecklenburg were captured and held in Adsel and Treiden. This triggered a diplomatic mission to move the Scandinavian, German and Polish leaders (Dukes of Pomerania, Danish king, Emperor Ferdinand I and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire) to take action to free the prisoners. A meeting initially convened in Lübeck to resolve the conflict was scheduled for April 1, 1557 and later cancelled due to squabbles that arose between Sigismund and the Danish guests. Sigismund used the killing of his herald Lancki by as requested by the Grandmaster”s son as a pretext to invade the southern part of Livonia with an army of about 80,000. He forced the internally contending factions in Livonia to reconcile in his camp of Pozvol in September 1557. There the treaty of the same name was signed, which inaugurated a mutual defensive and offensive alliance in an anti-Russian key and triggered the First Northern War.
Also read, biographies – Lucrezia Borgia
Russian invasion of Livonia
Ivan IV considered the mutual assistance agreement between Livonians and Poland-Lithuania born of the Treaty of Pozvol as a threat that justified a clear stance by the newly formed Russian Kingdom. In 1554, Livonia and Muscovy had signed a fifteen-year truce in which Livonia agreed as a condition not to form an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On January 22, 1558, Russian troops started the invasion of Livonia. These were welcomed by the local peasants as liberators from the German yoke on Livonia. Many Livonian fortresses surrendered without resistance while Russian troops took Dorpat in May, Narva in July. Supported by 1,200 lansquenets, 100 cannoneers, and numerous munitions arrived from Germany, Livonian forces regained command of Wesenberg (Rakvere) and other previously lost strongholds. The Germans also had several successes in Russian territory, but Dorpat, Narva and other minor fortresses were not conquered. The first Russian advance was led by the Khan of Qasim Shahghali, assisted by two other Tatar princes at the head of a force that included Russian boyars, Tatars, Pomest”e knights and Cossacks, who at that time were mostly members of the infantry. Ivan gained further ground in campaigns launched during the years 1559 and 1560. In January 1559, Russian forces again invaded Livonia. A six-month truce was signed between May and November between Russia and Livonia as the former was engaged in the Russo-Crimean War.
Galvanized by the invaded Russian lands, Livonia looked for support: it turned first, without success, to Emperor Ferdinand I, then to Poland and Lithuania. The Grand Master von Fürstenburg was dismissed from his position because he was accused of incompetence and was replaced by Gotthard Kettler. In June 1559, the Livonian possessions came under Polish-Lithuanian jurisdiction following the first Treaty of Vilnius. The Polish sejm refused to ratify it, believing that it concerned only the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In January 1560, Sigismund sent the ambassador Martin Volodkov to Ivan”s court in Moscow in an attempt to stop the Russian cavalry that began to rage again in the Livonian countryside.
The Russian successes were the result of a well thought-out strategy: attacks and raids in different rural areas: the musketeers played a key role in destroying the fragile defenses, often made of wood, thanks to an effective artillery support. The Tsar”s forces acquired important fortresses such as Fellin (Viljandi), but lacked the means to conquer the main cities of Riga, Reval or Pernau. The Livonian knights suffered a bitter defeat by facing the Russians at the Battle of Ergeme in August 1560. The way to invade Livonia seemed to be cleared, but no one pushed on to the innermost parts of Lithuania: some historians believe that this procrastination was due to the fact that the Russian nobility was divided on when to carry out the invasion.
Erik XIV, the new king of Sweden, rejected Kettler”s and Poland”s requests for assistance. The Landmeister turned to Sigismund for help. The Livonian order, now hopelessly weakened and left to its own devices, was dissolved by the second Treaty of Vilnius in 1561. The lands owned by the former sword-bearing knights were secularized into the Duchy of Livonia and the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and assigned to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Kettler became the first duke of Courland and Semigallia, also converting to Lutheranism. The treaty included the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti by which Sigismund guaranteed the privileges previously held by the Livonian fortresses and their feudal lords (whose “set” of titles and powers was called Indygenat), including religious freedom with respect to the Augustan confession, and the continuation of the traditional German administration. Accepting religious freedom also prohibited any regulation of the Protestant order at the hands of clerical authorities.
Some members of the Lithuanian nobility opposed the growing authority of the former Kingdom of Poland over the Baltic country and offered the Lithuanian crown to Ivan IV. The tsar publicized this news as much as possible, both because he took the offer seriously and because he needed time to strengthen his Livonian troops and the proposal allowed him to shift general attentions elsewhere. Throughout 1561, the Russo-Lithuanian truce (with an expected termination date of 1562) was respected by both sides.
Also read, biographies – Emil von Behring
Roars between Danes and Swedes
In exchange for a loan and the protection of the Danish crown, Bishop Johann von Münchhausen signed a document on September 26, 1559, giving Frederick II of Denmark the right to appoint the bishop of Ösel – Wiek: in addition, the possessions of the diocese were purchased at a cost of 30,000 thalers. Frederick II appointed his brother, Duke Magnus of Holstein as bishop, who took office in April 1560. Aware that Magnus” actions created issues with Sweden, Denmark attempted to broker peace in the region. Magnus continued to pursue his interests strong with military support from the crown, acquiring the Diocese of Courland (but without Frederick”s consent) and sought to expand into Harrien and Wierland (Harjumaa and Virumaa). These actions brought him into direct conflict with Erik.
In 1561 Swedish forces arrived and the noble guilds of Harrien – Wierland and Jerwen (Järva) ceded to Sweden to form the Duchy of Estonia. Reval also accepted the yellow-blue rule. Denmark had secured for centuries the dominion over a large part of the Baltic and the policy put in place by Sweden was a threat to the Danes, also because they would be cut off all trade relations with Russia. In 1561 Frederick II publicly opposed the presence of Swedes in Reval, pointing out that the region, for historical reasons, belonged to Denmark. After Swedish forces entered Pernau in June 1562, Erik XIV and his diplomats tried to study moves to subjugate Riga: it was clear that Sigismund, now ruler of Livonia, would not approve.
Sigismund maintained close relations with Erik XIV”s brother, John, Duke of Finland (later John III): in October 1562 John married Sigismund”s sister, Catherine, thus averting any possibility of her marrying Ivan IV. Just when Erik XIV sealed the marriage, he was shocked to learn that John had lent Sigismund 120,000 riksdaler becoming the owner of seven castles in Livonia to guarantee the debt. The result was a diplomatic incident that led to the capture and imprisonment of John in August 1563 by order of Erik XIV. Therefore, Sigismund allied himself with Denmark and Lübeck against Erik XIV in October of the same year. The resulting conflict went down in history as the War of the Three Crowns.
The intervention of Denmark, Sweden, and the Polish-Lithuanian Union in Livonia started a period of struggle for the control of the Baltic (at that time it was called dominium maris baltici). While the first 12-24 months of the war were characterized by intense fighting, there was a less lively period from the war point of view from 1562 to 1570, when the fighting, once again, resumed with great frequency. Denmark, Sweden and, although not congruently, the Union were simultaneously occupied in the Seven Years” War (1563-1570) which took place in the western Baltic: Livonia remained strategically important. In 1562, Denmark and Russia entered into the Treaty of Mozhaysk, in which they acknowledged their mutual claims to Livonia without, however, compromising peaceful relations between the two countries. In 1564, Sweden and Russia concluded a seven-year truce. Both Ivan IV and Eric XIV showed signs of mental disorder: the former rebelled against part of the Tsardom nobility and the inhabitants of Opričnina (established in 1565), leaving Russia in a state of political chaos and civil war.
Also read, biographies – Rogier van der Weyden
Russian-Lithuanian War
When the Russo-Lithuanian truce ended in 1562, Ivan IV rejected Sigismund”s offer of an extension. The tsar had used the period of the truce to invade Livonia on a large scale, but he crept into Lithuania first. His army scampered through Vicebsk and, after a series of border skirmishes, conquered Polack in 1563. Two important Lithuanian victories came at the Battle of Ula in 1564 and at Čašniki (Chashniki) in 1567. Ivan tried to regain ground by crossing towns and villages in central Livonia, but was stopped before he reached the coast by Lithuania. The defeats at Ula and Czasniki, combined with the rebellion engulfed by Andrei Kurbskij, prompted the tsar to move his capital to the Alexandrov Kremlin: the opposition was suppressed by his oprichniki.
A number of ambassadors left Lithuania for Moscow in May 1566. Lithuania was ready to partition Livonia with Russia, and then, in the event, drive Sweden out of the area. However, this move was perceived by the Tsar”s advisors as a sign of weakness, who suggested conquering the entire region, including Riga, by penetrating Courland, southern Livonia, and Polotsk. Conquering Riga and, consequently, access to the Daugava River, troubled the Lithuanians, since much of their trade depended on that passage, which was made more secure by the construction of several defensive fortifications. Ivan expanded his demands in July, coveting Ösel, Dorpat, and Narva. No agreement was reached, and a ten-day break was taken in the negotiations, during which several meetings were held in Muscovy (including the first meeting of the Zemsky sobor, the “assembly of the land”) to discuss outstanding external and internal issues. Within the assembly, the representative of the clergy emphasized the need “not to change” the status of Riga (thus not conquering it for the time being), while the boyars were less enthusiastic about the idea of reaching a peace with Lithuania, noting the danger represented by a united Poland and Lithuania that would surely be able to reorganize themselves and not lose the present Latvian capital. The talks were therefore interrupted and hostilities resumed when the ambassadors returned to Lithuania.
In 1569, the Treaty of Lublin unified Poland and Lithuania into a confederation. The Duchy of Livonia, bound to Lithuania in a royal union by the 1566 Union of Grodno, came under joint Polish-Lithuanian sovereignty. A three-year truce with Russia was signed in June 1570. Sigmund II, the first King and Grand Duke of the Confederation, died in 1572 leaving the Polish throne without a clear successor for the first time since 1382: thus began the first royal elections in Polish history. Some Lithuanian nobles, in an attempt to maintain Baltic autonomy, proposed a Russian candidate. Ivan, however, asked for the restitution of Kiev, the conversion to Orthodoxy of the people and a hereditary monarchy like the Russian one, whose first leader would be his son Fyodor. The electorate rejected these demands and instead chose Henry III of Valois (Henryk Walezy), brother of King Charles IX of France.
Also read, biographies – Hephaestion
Russian-Swedish War
In 1564, Sweden and Russia signed the Treaty of Dorpat, under which Russia recognized Sweden”s jurisdiction over Reval and other fortifications, while Sweden deemed legitimate the possessions already obtained and Russia”s claims to the rest of Livonia. A seven-year truce was also signed between Russia and Sweden in 1565. Erik XIV was dethroned in 1568 after ordering the execution of several nobles (Sturemorden) in 1567, and was replaced by his half-brother John III. Each of the two powers had more pressing issues to resolve and wished to avoid a costly and exhausting continuation of the war in Livonia. Ivan IV had requested that John”s wife, the Polish-Lithuanian princess Catherine Jagellona, be delivered to Muscovy, as the Swede had compromised the already combined union between the Tsar and the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation. In July 1569 John sent a delegation to Russia led by Paul Juusten, bishop of Åbo, who arrived in Novgorod in September. Before arriving in Moscow, the ambassadors previously sent by Ivan to Sweden to resolve the Catherine question in 1567 were expected to return there. Ivan refused to meet with the delegation, forcing them to negotiate instead with the Governor of Novgorod. The tsar demanded that the Swedish envoys greet the governor as if he were “the brother of their king,” but Juusten refused to do so. The governor then ordered that the Stockholm delegation be attacked, that their clothes and money be taken, and that they be deprived of food and drink and be forced to parade naked through the streets. Although the Swedes intended to travel to Moscow anyway, fortunately for them at the same time Ivan and his oprichniki left to assault the boyars of Novgorod, but were unable to meet him.
Upon his return to the Kremlin in May 1570, Ivan again refused to discuss the matter with the Swedes: moreover, with the signing of a three-year truce in June 1570 with the Confederation, he no longer feared a conflict with Poland and Lithuania. Russia regarded Catherine”s surrender as a precondition for any agreement, and the Swedes, who had meanwhile moved back to Novgorod, agreed to meet to debate the issue. According to Juusten, during the meeting the Swedes were asked to abandon their claims on Reval, provide 200
Also read, biographies – Kurt Schwitters
Impact of the Seven Years War in the North
Disputes between Denmark and Sweden led, as mentioned, to the Seven Years” Northern War in 1563, which ended in 1570 with the Treaty of Szczecin. Fought primarily in western and southern Scandinavia, the war featured major naval battles fought in the Baltic. When the fortress of Varberg, flying the Danish flag, surrendered to the Swedes in 1565, 150 Danish mercenaries escaped the subsequent massacre of the garrison deserted and passed into the ranks of Sweden. Among them was Pontus de la Gardie, who later became an important yellow-blue commander in the Livonian War. The latter region was also affected by the naval campaign of Danish Admiral Per Munck, who bombarded Swedish Tallinn from the sea in July 1569.
The Treaty of Szczecin made Denmark very powerful in Northern Europe, although it failed to restore the Kalmar Union. The series of unfavorable conditions that arose for Sweden led to a series of conflicts that would end with the subsequent Great Northern War of 1720. Sweden agreed to give up its holdings in Livonia in exchange for a payment from Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Maximilian failed, after agreeing, to pay the promised compensation and lost his influence over Baltic affairs. The terms of the proposed Livonian understanding were ignored and thus the Livonian War continued. If one wanted to analyze the issue from a Russocentric point of view, the document would have allowed the powers involved to forge an alliance against Tsar Ivan, being appeased the disputes that had affected the western states.
During the early 1570s, King John III of Sweden faced a Russian offensive aimed at attacking his possessions in Estonia. Reval withstood a Russian siege and in 1570 and 1571, but several smaller towns fell into enemy hands. On January 23, a Swedish army of 700 infantry and 600 cavalry commanded by Clas Åkesson Tott (called the Old Man) clashed with a Russian and Tatar army of 16,000 men under the command of Khan Sain-Bulat in the Battle of Lode near Koluvere. The Russian advance ended with the sack of Weissenstein (Paide) in 1573, at which, after conquering the settlement, the troops roasted alive some leaders of the Swedish garrison, including the commander. This triggered a campaign of reprisals by John III based on Wesenberg as a starting point, from which the army departed in November 1573 with Klas Åkesson Tott in general command and Pontus de la Gardie as field commander. There were also Russian incursions into Finland, including one that happened at Helsingfors (Helsinki) in 1572. Subsequently, a two-year truce was signed on this front in 1575.
John III”s counteroffensive stopped at the siege of Wesenberg in 1574, when some Scottish and German mercenaries turned on each other. The cause of these quarrels was due, according to historians, to the hardships that had exasperated the men in fighting during very harsh winters, with particular suffering arising for the infantry. The war in Livonia represented a huge financial outlay for the coffers of Stockholm and at the end of 1573 the German mercenaries in the pay of the Swedes had a credit equal to about 200,000 riksdaler. John III gave them the castles of Hapsal, Leal and Lode as security, but when he realized that despite his efforts he was not able to pay, he decided to sell them to Denmark.
Meanwhile, the efforts of Magnus to besiege Reval, in Swedish hands, were encountering difficulties: without the support of Magnus” brother and Ivan IV, Frederick II of Denmark decided to sail to the Baltic countries. The czar”s attention was focused elsewhere, while Frederick”s reluctance, perhaps, was due to the choice of a peaceful policy that made him feel no need to devise a plan to invade Livonia on behalf of Magnus, whose state was a vassal of Russia. The siege was abandoned in March 1561, resulting in an intensification of Swedish action in the Baltic, with the passive support of Sigismund, John”s brother-in-law.
At the same time, the Crimean Tatars devastated Russian territories, even going so far as to burn and loot the capital during the Russo-Crimean Wars. Drought and epidemics had severely affected the Moscow economy, while the opričnina had completely disrupted political-administrative management. Following the defeat of the Crimean and Nogai forces in 1572, the opričnina was abolished, and with it also changed the way the Russian armies would be composed from then on. Ivan IV had introduced a new draft under which tens of thousands of native troops, Cossacks and Tatars, were relied upon, dispensing with mercenaries, who sometimes proved to be better trained, as was customary in Europe.
The campaign set in motion by Ivan reached a climax in 1576 when another 30,000 Russian soldiers crossed into Livonia in 1577 and ravaged Danish areas in retaliation for the red-and-white takeover of Hapsal, Leal, and Lode. Danish influence in Livonia ceased as Frederick agreed to agreements with Swedes and Poles to end all jurisdictional ties over it. The forces sent by Sweden were besieged in Reval and also desisted central Livonia up to Dünaburg (Daugavpils), formally under Polish-Lithuanian control as a statute in the Treaty of Vilnius of 1561. The conquered territories submitted to Ivan or his vassal, Magnus, who was declared monarch of the Kingdom of Livonia in 1570. Magnus distanced himself from Ivan IV during the same year, having begun appropriating castles on his own initiative, without consulting the tsar. Nevertheless, Ivan IV was tolerant when Kokenhusen (Koknese) submitted to Magnus and, to avoid new clashes with the Russian army, the city was sacked and the German commanders executed. The campaign then focused on Wenden (Cēsis, Võnnu), “the heart of Livonia,” which as the former capital of the religious order of knighthood was not only strategically important: conquering its castle would also have taken on a strong symbolic impact within Latvian borders and beyond.
Also read, history – Nathuram Godse
Swedish and Polish-Lithuanian alliance and counter-offensive
In 1576 the Prince of Transylvania Stephen I Báthory became King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania after a hotly contested election with the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian II. Both Batory”s consort Anna Jagellona and Maximilian II had been proclaimed as elected to the same throne in December 1575, three days apart before Stephen. Maximilian”s untimely death in October 1576 prevented the political situation from evolving into something worse. Batory, eager to expel Ivan IV from Livonia, was thwarted by opposition from Danzig (Gdańsk), which denied Batory”s legitimacy on the strength of Danish support. The ensuing Gdańsk War of 1577 ended only when Batory granted additional autonomy rights to the city in exchange for a huge payment of 200,000 złoty. With a further payment of 200,000 zlotys, Stephen I appointed George Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach as regent in Prussia and secured the military support that the latter was to offer in the planned campaign against Russia.
However, Batory received only a few soldiers from his Polish vassals and was forced to recruit mercenaries, mainly Poles, Hungarians, Bohemians, Germans, and Wallachians. He also fought a separate Szekler brigade in Livonia.
The Swedish king John III and Stephen Batory allied themselves against Ivan IV in December 1577, despite the problems caused by the death of Sigismund: this event in fact left unresolved the question of the division of the hereditary dowry of John”s wife, Catherine. Poland also claimed the whole Livonia, without recognizing any Swedish territorial claim on it. The 120,000 riksdaler loaned in 1562 had not yet been repaid, despite Sigismund”s best intentions to resolve the obligation.
In November, Lithuanian forces pushed north had captured Dünaburg, while a (almost paradoxical given the political rust) joint Polish-Swedish force had captured the town and castle of Wenden in early 1578. The Russian forces did not succeed in reconquering the city in February: this ineffective attempt was then followed by a Swedish offensive that struck, among the main centers, Pernau (Pärnu), Dorpat and Novgorod. In September, Ivan responded by sending an army of 18,000 men who recaptured Oberpahlen (Põltsamaa) at the expense of Sweden and then marched on Wenden. Arrived there, the Russian army besieged the city, but was not able to beat the approximately 6,000 German, Polish and Swedish reinforcements that had arrived to garrison the walls. In the siege of Wenden, Russian losses were heavy: several armaments and horses were looted, leading to Ivan IV”s first brutal defeat on Livonian soil.
Batory accelerated the training and enlistment of the hussars: this move revolutionized the light cavalry, built on the basis of the Hungarian model in the deployment, but with heavy armor and long spears, as a compact mass to break through the enemy lines. Simultaneously, he improved an already effective artillery system and recruited Cossacks. Batory gathered 56,000 troops (including 30,000 from Lithuania) for his first assault on the Tsarate near Polack, as part of a larger campaign. As Ivan”s rearguard garrisoned Pskov and Novgorod to ward off a possible Swedish invasion, the city capitulated on August 30, 1579. Batory then appointed a trusted ally and powerful member of his court, Jan Zamoyski, as leader of a force of 48,000 units (of which 25,000 Lithuanians): these headed to the gates of the fortress of Velikie Luki and successfully penetrated on September 5, 1580. Without finding further resistance of a certain entity, the garrisons situated to Sokol, Veliž and Usvjaty surrendered quickly. In 1581, Zamoyski besieged Pskov, a well-fortified and strongly defended fortress. However, economic support from Polish coffers was waning, and Batory was unable to draw the Russian forces stationed in Livonia into the open field before the onset of winter. Fearing the worst and not realizing that the Polish-Lithuanian forces were now exhausted, Ivan signed the Armistice of Jam Zapolski.
The failed Swedish siege of Narva in 1579 led to the appointment of the commander in chief Pontus de la Gardie. Kexholm and Padise were conquered by Swedish forces in 1580: the following year, coinciding with the fall of Wesenberg, a mercenary army hired by the Scandinavians finally recaptured the strategic city of Narva (located on today”s border between Estonia and Russia). Among the objectives of John III”s campaigns, since he could be attacked from both land and sea, was to test the numerically considerable fleet at his disposal, but as a result of discussions about long-term control of the waters, a formal alliance with Poland never came into being. De La Gardie was guilty of avenging with reprisals the previous Russian massacres: 7000 men were killed according to the contemporary chronicle of Balthasar Russow. After Narva, Ivangorod, Jama and Kopor”e also gave up. Such conquests allowed the crown of Stockholm to obtain many lands in Livonia.
Also read, biographies – Martha Graham
Armistice of Jam Zapolski and peace of Pljussa
Subsequent negotiations, led by the Jesuit papal legate Antonio Possevino, led to the Jam Zapolski armistice of 1582 between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation. This truce was a half-humiliation for the Tsar, first of all because he asked for it. According to the agreement, Russia would have ceded all Livonian lands it still held and the city of Dorpat to the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation: in addition, it would have renounced any claim on Polotsk. Any captured Swedish territory (particularly Narva) would belong to the Russians, and Velike Luki would be returned by Batory to the Tsarate. Possevino tried with a titanic effort to take into consideration the claims of John III, but when this intention emerged from the Jesuit was immediately followed by the veto of Moscow, probably endorsed by Batory. The armistice, which was not a final peace agreement, was originally intended to last three years; it was later extended to 1590, made valid for a decade and renewed twice: in 1591 and 1601. Batory failed in his attempts to convince Sweden to give up its conquests in Livonia, particularly Narva.
John III decided to end the war with Russia when he and the Tsar made the Peace of Pljussa (in Swedish Stilleståndsfördrag vid Narva å och Plusa) on August 10, 1583. Russia ceded most of Ingria, Narva and Ivangorod to the Swedes. During the negotiations, Sweden had not inconsiderable claims on Russian territory, including Novgorod. Although these conditions were probably set in order to obtain the greatest possible result, it cannot be entirely ruled out that these were demands that actually reflected Swedish aspirations for western Russia.
The portion of the post-war Duchy of Courland and Semigallia located south of the Düna (Daugava) River experienced a period of political stability by virtue of the 1561 Treaty of Vilnius, later amended by the Formula regiminis and Statuta Curlandiae (both 1617), which granted local nobles additional rights at the expense of the duke. North of the Düna, Batory reduced the privileges that Sigismund had granted to the Duchy of Livonia, considering the regained territories as spoils of war. Riga”s privileges, recognized and attempted to be trampled on for centuries by Livonian knights and clergy, were reduced by the 1581 Treaty of Drohiczyn. Polish gradually replaced German as the administrative language, and the establishment of voivodeships reduced the influence still exerted by the Balto-Teutonic. Local clergy and Jesuits in Livonia embraced the Counter-Reformation in a process assisted by Batory, who returned revenues and property previously confiscated by Protestants to the Catholic Church and launched a largely unsuccessful recruitment campaign for Catholic settlers. Despite these measures, the population did not convert en masse, while in the meantime several local estates had been alienated.
In 1590, the peace of Pljussa ended and the fighting between the two signatory powers resumed with the Russo-Swedish war (according to it, Sweden had to cede again Ingria and Kexholm to the Russian Kingdom. The Swedish-Polish alliance began to crumble when the Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund III, who as the son of John III of Sweden (died 1592) and Catherine Jagellona was the legitimate claimant to the yellow-blue throne, met resistance from a faction led by his uncle, Charles of Södermanland (later Charles IX), claimed the crown of Sweden for himself. The nation became the scene of a civil war in 1597, followed by the war of 1598-1599 against Sigismund, which ended with the deposition of the latter by the Swedish riksdag.
Local nobles turned to Charles IX and invoked his protection in 1600, when the conflict shifted to Livonia, where Sigismund had sought to incorporate Swedish Estonia into the Duchy of Livonia. The ruler expelled Polish forces from Estonia and invaded the duchy of Livonia, beginning a series of Polish-Swedish wars. At the same time, Russia was involved in a civil war to sit on the vacant Russian throne (the so-called “turbid period”), when none of the many pretenders had managed to prevail. The conflict was interspersed when the Stockholm forces (who started the above mentioned clashes when the Peace of Pljussa ended) and the Polish-Lithuanian forces intervened from different geographical points, the latter causing the Polish-Moscow War. Charles IX”s forces were expelled from Livonia after the two major defeats respectively obtained in the Battle of Kircholm (1605) During the subsequent Ingrian War, Charles” successor Gustavus II Adolphus regained possession of Ingria and Kexholm, which were formally ceded to Sweden under the Peace of Stolbovo of 1617 along with most of the Duchy of Livonia. In 1617, when Sweden recovered after the Kalmar War against Denmark, several cities of Livonia were conquered, but only Pernau remained under Swedish control after a Polish-Lithuanian counter-offensive: a second campaign, triggered by the Swedes, brought to the latter, leading to the capture of Riga in 1621 and the removal of the Polish-Lithuanian army from most of Livonia, where the Swedish Livonia was established. Swedish forces then advanced further south through Royal Prussia, and the Confederation was forced to recognize Swedish merits in Livonia in the 1629 Treaty of Altmark.
The Danish province of Øsel was ceded to Sweden under the terms of the 1645 Peace of Brömsebro, which ended Torstenson”s War, part of the Thirty Years” War. A similar political situation was repeated after the Treaty of Oliva and the Treaty of Copenhagen, both of 1660. The situation remained unchanged until 1710, when Estonia and Livonia surrendered to Russia during the Great Northern War: this territorial change was then formalized in the Treaty of Nystad (1721).
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