| Battle of Vilnius | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Great Northern War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Swedish Empire |  Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Carl Gustav Mörner | Ludwik Pociej | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2,500–3,000 men | 3,000 men | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| around 50 killed | around 100 killed and two artillery pieces lost | ||||||
The Battle of Vilnius took place on 16 April 1702 in Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, during the Great Northern War.
After having seen the city early seized by the Swedish army, the Grand Notary of Lithuania, Ludwik Konstanty Pociej launched a surprise attack with 3,000 men, although some sources state as few as 2,000 and others 4,000 men. They were equally matched by the Swedes with 3,000 men under Carl Gustav Mörner stationed inside the city, [1] although due to intense sickness it was realistically closer to 2,500. The Dala regiment alone had only 740 men prior to the battle in comparison to its original strength of 1,200. [2]
The attack was repulsed and the Polish-Lithuanian army had to withdraw with a loss of 100 men killed and two cannons lost while the Swedes lost 50 men killed in the action. [3] The battle is known for a legend, that near the Gate of Dawn the Virgin Mary came to the people's rescue and the Polish–Lithuanian forces counterattacked killing four Swedish soldiers having no losses of their own. [4]
The city remained in Swedish control until Mörner left it with his army in order to reinforce Charles XII in his battle against Augustus. It was later recaptured by the Swedish general Carl Gustaf Dücker in 1706.
The Battle of Lesnaya was one of the major battles of the Great Northern War. It took place on October 9 [O.S. September 28] 1708 between a Russian army of between 26,500 and 29,000 men commanded by Peter I of Russia, Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn, Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Christian Felix Bauer and Nikolai Grigorovitj von Werden and a Swedish army of about 12,500 men commanded by Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt and Berndt Otto Stackelberg, at the village of Lesnaya, located close to the border between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. The Swedes were escorting a supply column of more than 4,500 wagons for their main army in Ukraine.
The Deluge was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense, it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, comprising the Polish theatres of the Russo-Polish and Second Northern Wars. In a stricter sense, the term refers to the Swedish invasion and occupation of the Commonwealth as a theatre of the Second Northern War (1655–1660) only; in Poland and Lithuania this period is called the Swedish Deluge, or less commonly the Russo–Swedish Deluge due to the simultaneous Russo-Polish War. The term "deluge" was popularized by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel The Deluge (1886).
Prince Janusz Radziwiłł, also known as Janusz the Second or Janusz the Younger was a noble and magnate in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Throughout his life he occupied a number of posts in the state administration, including that of Court Chamberlain of Lithuania, Field Hetman of Lithuania and Grand Hetman of Lithuania. He was also a voivode of Vilna Voivodeship, as well as a starost of Samogitia, Kamieniec, Kazimierz and Sejwy. He was a protector of the Protestant religion in Lithuania and sponsor of many Protestant schools and churches.
The Battle of Warsaw took place near Warsaw on July 28–July 30 [O.S. July 18–20] 1656, between the armies of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden and Brandenburg. It was a major battle in the Second Northern War between Poland and Sweden in the period 1655–1660, also known as The Deluge. According to Hajo Holborn, it marked "the beginning of Prussian military history".
The Battle of Kliszów took place on July 19, 1702, near the village of Kliszów in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Great Northern War. A Swedish army under the command of King Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Polish–Saxon army twice the size that was led by King Augustus II the Strong of Saxony.
The Polish–Swedish War of 1621 to 1625 was a war in a long-running series of conflicts between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire. It began with a Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian fiefdom Livonia. Swedish forces succeeded in taking the city of Riga after a siege. The Commonwealth, focused on a war with the Ottoman Empire, was unable to send significant forces to stop Gustav Adolf, and signed a truce favorable to Sweden. The Commonwealth ceded Livonia north of the Dvina (Düna) river, and retained only nominal control over Riga. The new truce in Mitau was signed and lasted from November 1622 to March 1625.
The Battle of Kłecko was fought on May 7, 1656, between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth commanded by Regimentarz Stefan Czarniecki and Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and a Swedish force commanded by prince Adolf Johan av Pfalz-Zweibrücken. The Polish–Lithuanian force was more than 12,000 strong and consisted mostly of cavalry, while the Swedes numbered around 7,000 artillery, infantry and cavalry. The Swedes achieved a tactical victory in that they escaped destruction by the Poles, who were unable to get to the Swedish army entrenched behind the Welnianka River, and various ditches and swamps. Swedish army lost 428 dead, while the Polish army sustained 70 dead and wounded, 2,000 dead or 3,000 dead, including 40 companions dead.
The Lithuanian Civil War of 1697–1702 refers to the conflict between the powerful Sapieha family, which dominated the internal affairs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the anti-Sapieha coalition, so-called Republicans or Confederates. The latter were composed of opposing noble families that disliked Sapieha family's hegemony in the country. The szlachta was mostly on the side of the Republicans as they were angry at Sapieha's abuse and the taxes imposed on them to finance the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, which was mostly loyal to the Sapiehas.
The Battle of Warsaw was fought on 31 July 1705 near Warsaw, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, during the Great Northern War and Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706). The battle was part of a power struggle for the Polish–Lithuanian throne. It was fought between Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński and their allies. Augustus II entered the Northern war as elector of Saxony and king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and had formed an alliance with Denmark–Norway and Russia. Stanisław Leszczyński had seized the Polish throne in 1704, with the support of the Swedish army of Charles XII of Sweden. The struggle for the throne forced the Polish nobility to pick sides; the Warsaw Confederation supported Leszczyński and Sweden, and the Sandomierz Confederation supported Augustus II and his allies. The conflict resulted in the Polish civil war of 1704–1706.
The Battle of Kletsk took place on 30 April 1706, in- and outside the city of Kletsk, Belarus during Charles XII's Polish campaign of 1701–1706, in the Great Northern War. The Swedish forces were led by Carl Gustaf Creutz who defeated a larger Russian–Cossack force under the command of Semjon Nepljujev and Danylo Apostol. Many of the Russian and Cossack regiments participating in the battle were wiped out and ceased to exist as fighting units.
The Battle of Gniew or the Battle of Mewe was fought during the Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629), between Sweden and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 22 September with initial skirmishes, to the main battle of 1 October 1626. Both the Swedish and Polish army were commanded by their kings – Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and Sigismund III Vasa. The battle ended in indecisively. However, Polish and Swedish armies had different objectives. Sigismund Vasa wanted to protect Gdańsk from besieging. Gustav had to protect Gniew, which was important for the prestige of his army.
The Battle of Wenden took place on 7 January 1601, during the Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611). Polish–Lithuanian forces were led by Jürgen von Farensbach and Maciej Dębiński. The Swedes were under Hans Bengtsson. The battle is significant as the first encounter between Swedish reiters and Polish hussars.
The Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706), also known as Charles XII's invasion of Poland or the Polish front of the Great Northern War, was a conflict in eastern Europe overshadowed by the ongoing Great Northern War fought between the Swedish Empire against the Russian Empire, Denmark-Norway, Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish front was a major part of the greater conflict, and it included some decisive battles in favor of the Swedes that contributed to the length of the war.
The Battle of Grodno (1708) was the first battle of the Swedish invasion of Russia on 26 January 1708, during the Great Northern War. Grodno was a city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at this time.
The Battle of Darsūniškis took place on March 24, 1702 near the town of Darsūniškis during the Swedish invasion of Poland in the Great Northern War. The Swedish army of about 240 men under the command of Alexander Hummerhielm was defeated by the Polish–Saxon army of 6,000 men under Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki.
The Battle of Praga took place on October 25, 1705, near the town of Warsaw, Poland during the fifth year of the Great Northern War. The Swedish army of more than 270 men assisted by approximately 140 soldiers from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth under the command of Valentin Dahldorf defeated a combined Polish–Saxon–Russian force of about 5,000 men under Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki and Aleksandr Menshikov.
The Campaign of Grodno was a plan developed by Johann Patkul and Otto Arnold von Paykull during the Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a part of the Great Northern War. Its purpose was to crush Charles XII's army with overwhelming force in a combined offensive of Russian and Saxon troops. The campaign, executed by Peter I of Russia and Augustus II of Saxony, began in July 1705 and lasted almost a year. In divided areas the allies would jointly strike the Swedish troops occupied in Poland, in order to neutralize the influence the Swedes had in the Polish politics. However, the Swedish forces under Charles XII successfully outmaneuvered the allies, installed a Polish king in favor of their own and finally won two decisive victories at Grodno and Fraustadt in 1706. This resulted in the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706) in which Augustus renounced his claims to the Polish throne, broke off his alliance with Russia, and established peace between Sweden and Saxony.
The Battle of Valkininkai took place at 6 March 1706 close to the town of Valkininkai in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Great Northern War.
The Battle of Tryškiai, (Tryszki or Triski), on 4–5/5–6/15–16 December 1701, was a small engagement between the Swedish forces under the command of the Swedish King Charles XII and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s forces under the command of the Polish–Lithuanian Field Hetman Grzegorz Antoni Ogiński, in the town of Tryškiai of the Duchy of Samogitia. After the Crossing of the Düna Charles XII went into an alliance with the Sapieha family to gain his support in dethroning Augustus II the Strong from the Polish–Lithuanian throne, in exchange for protection from rival families in Samogitia, such as the Ogiński family. After initial engagements between the Swedish forces and those loyal to Grzegorz, the Swedish King personally takes command of the troops and engages Grzegorz at the town of Tryškiai; after a brief encounter, Grzegorz is forced on the run and, with Charles XII being hot on his heels, eventually retreats out of Samogitia altogether. A Swedish detachment is established at Kaunas in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as a sort of forward operating base before the inevitable Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706); further engagements, foremost the Battle of Darsūniškis, confirms the Swedish invasion. Although only a small action in a major war, the battle quickly sparked false rumours to be spread around Europe; one spoke of Charles XII’s death somewhere in Lithuania, while the other mentioned a major defeat for Grzegorz, involving many thousands of participants.
The Infantry Company of the Lithuanian Tribunal also known as the Hungarian Banner of the Lithuanian Tribunal was an infantry company of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania charged with protecting the Lithuanian Tribunal, as well as guarding detainees. It was not part of the Lithuanian Grand Ducal Army's establishment. It was called "Hungarian", because its infantry was of the Hungarian-type.
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