Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory

Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory
Part of Livonian War
Map of the Duchy of Livonia.
Date 1577–1582 Location Duchy of Livonia, Polish-Russian borderlands Result Polish-Lithuanian victory, Truce of Jam Zapolski
Belligerents
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Principality of Transylvania	Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders
Stephen Báthory Jan Zamoyski	Ivan IV of Russia

The Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory (referred to as the Russo-Polish War among Polish historians

Background

In the second half of the 16th century, several powers, including

In 1575 Ivan ordered another attack on Poland, and succeeded in taking parts of Livonia (notably, Salacgrīva and Pärnu). In 1577 Russian forces besieged Reval (Revel, Tallinn) and a strong army was concentrating near Pskov. At the same time Polish forces were tied down on the western side of the Baltic Sea, dealing with the Danzig rebellion. In July the main Muscovite army of about 30,000 advanced from Pskov, taking Viļaka, Rēzekne, Daugavpils, Koknese, Gulbene, and surrounding areas.^[3] A Polish counter-offensive—known as the First Campaign of Bathory—begun in the fall, and succeeded in taking back some of the territories.^[3]

1578

Negotiations took part in that year, and a three-year truce was signed, although it was rejected by King Bathory who was preparing for a larger counteroffensive. At the same time, Polish and Swedish forces managed to stop further progress of the Muscovite forces in the Battles of Wenden (1577–1578).^[3]

1579–1580

Prelude

A large army was gathered prior to the campaign. In preparation to the campaign, some 7,311 cavalry and 6,519 infantry

Mózes Székely.^[6]

Bathory was the supreme commander[7] of the main army (over 40,000 strong), however, he appointed commanders to lead different parts of it:

• Lithuanian nobility was led by Mikalojus Radvila Rudasis,
• Lithuanian-hired mercenaries were commanded by
  Kristupas Radvila Perkūnas
  ,
• German mercenaries were under the command of Krzysztof Rozdrażewski,
• Hungarian mercenaries were led by Gáspár Bekes,
• The Royal Household Guard was led by Janusz Zbaraski,
• The rest were placed under command of Mikolaj Mielecki.^[4]

The Lithuanian soldiers were reluctant to follow any orders given by Polish commanders and set up their own military camps apart from the Poles, took military decisions autonomously, in addition to many other actions, sometimes to the detriment of the war effort.^[4] In other words, the army did not have a centralised command system.

During the fighting known as the Second Campaign of Bathory, the army advanced on Polotsk.

1581–1582

The last phase of the war centered around the siege of Pskov by the Polish forces. Báthory did not succeed in taking the town, but the Russians, facing growing threat from Sweden (who took Narva in the battle of Narva (1581) [sv]), decided to sign a truce treaty favorable to Poland.^[3][9]

Truce of Jam Zapolski

The truce, signed in 1582 for 10 years, was favorable to Poland, which regained Duchy of Livonia, kept Velizh and Polotsk. Russia regained Velikiye Luki.^[3][10] Notably, Russia failed in her bid to regain access to the Baltic Sea.^[9]

The next stage of the Polish-Russian wars begun in the early 1600s, when

Notes