The Battle For Lithuania 1617-1626 | Polish-Swedish War (Pt. 2)
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In 1617, again war broke out between Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The fickle truce of 1611 failed, and a conflict ensued that lastingly changed the balance of power in Europe. In this war, the famous Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus pitched his newly reformed army against the yet to be defeated forces of Poland-Lithuania.
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Chapters:
00:00-00:41 Intro & Recap
00:47-01:57 Nord VPN
01:57-18:58 Battle for Royal Livonia
Bibliography:
Frost, R., Northern Wars, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558-1721, 2000.
Roberts, M., Gustav Adolf and the Art of War (first printed 1955), in: Essays on Swedish History, 1967.
Stone, Daniel, The Polish-Lithuanian State 1386-1795 (History of East Central Europe), Washington 2001.
Oakley, Steward P., War and Peace in the Baltic. 1560-1790, Oxford 1993.
Grzegorz Jasiński, Wojciech Włodarkiewicz, Polish Battles and Campaigns in 13th-19th centuries, 2016.
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Great video as always!
Thanks guys!
Homie I got to know is the man that narrates your videos a machine making that voice is is a human? I’ve been watching your videos so much throughout the work day I started un ironically speaking with a British accent
Agreed Kings and Generals.
@@SandRhomanHistory please do on the sikh empire
this is the moment of one legend salutes another...
I've never seen a video about this conflict that was even remotely close to this level of research. Oh, and your pronunciation of Polish names is getting even better. Great job.
Thanks again. I'm trying but man, that language is hard.
Yeah, but pronunciation of the names of some Livonian (Latvian) cities are wrong.
@Redsand Which ones?
@Redsand I guess SandRhoman could go for the Polish version "Birże". Not sure if he would find it easier, but at least Google Translate offers Polish audio.
It's very interesting to hear where these different groups of soldiers actually came from (in terms of geography and ethnicity). It tells you a lot about recruitment practices and relationships between regions.
As someone born and living in Riga, did not expect one of my favorite history channels to make video on it, what a treat!
I was surprised about Daugavgrīva, didn't think it was so old. Only criticism I have is that map of Riga doesn't correspond exactly with maps of 17th century maps of Riga I've seen before.
I love history, especially covered in interesting way. Your videos feel like I get to take a class with a great teacher in my 30s
Gustavus Adolphus, a worthy opponent.
With an extremely unfortunate name in retrospect lol
nobody: Gustavus Adolphus: let's fight everybody.
(And win)
his first war with Denmark did not end well
It's interesting to see this, because Gustav Adolph's deeds in his war with Poland-Lithuania tend to be overlooked or skimmed in favour of his deeds during the Thirty Years' War. And this is despite the fact that he fought the Poles for far longer than he fought the Imperials, the Spanish, and the Holy League, and the fact that his war with the Poles was where he first put his new army to the test, which in turn meant that by the time he entered the fighting in the Holy Roman Empire his army already consisted of veterans.
Probaly because the swedish intervention in the 30 years war changed the overall balance pretty heavily, up til that point the protestants had all but been wiped out, the swedish intervention, and the later french intervention would change the state of the war and eventually lead to a protestant victory.
@@alexanderrose1556 True that. The Swedish intervention was decisive for the outcome of the Thirty Years War. But it's still weird that this conflict is so rarely talked about. Gustav Adolph's military reforms and skills as a general were decisive in both wars. And, as I stated above, this war allowed the Swedish army to, in a similar way to the Luftwaffe after the Spanish Civil War, enter the following war with experienced soldiers who used field-tested methods.
Amazing as usual. I cannot tell you how greatful I am to have a KZheadr cover this era in such detail!
Thanks again!
Hello from Riga! 🇱🇻 It is nice to have, finally, some story about military past of our city. We still have the Swedish Gates and some other buildings in Old town, reminding about the "Swedish era" in XVII - XVIII cnt.
Greetings from a swede, thats actually an interesting fact. Sometime in the future ill make sure to take the boat over to see the gates and buildings!
@@Nick_Goblin You are welcome! But the Old city of Riga is quite small. Sadly, it has only a few medieval fortifications left. Even in a smallest Tallin has left many more later medieval houses and fortfications.
Suggestion for a future video. Ive always been curious of army sizes. Starting from say, the fall of Rome or 1600's or whatever start date. Cover what an average sized army looked like throughout the century's, some of the smallest raiders to largest. Any unique situations like 100 pike men took over a city of 30,000 or what have you. Also curious around how large of an army was raised for say a small siege vrs large. Same with campaign length.
Interesting suggestion. Well, one thing I can say is that army size tended to increase sharply in the early modern period. Military historians talk a lot about "revolutions" (like the infantry revolution or artillery revolution), same goes for the so-called "army revolution" which refers to the numeric increase of armies. Speaking off the top of my head I think an army in the Italian Wars at Pavia was around 40k while the Swedes in 1630s managed to bring in armies of about 70- 100k. However, it is important to note that these numbers refer to all men in a variety of garrisons, so this 40k / 70-100k is not one army that fight in one battle but many forces across Germany. So this would certainly be interesting to dig into. In any case if we just pick two random battles, Pavia 1525 and Breitenfeld 1631 (both the biggest or at least big battles of their respective wars) then the difference in army size becomes apparent (at least anecdotally): At Pavia both sides put around 20k men into the field while at Breitenfeld both Tilly and Gustavus commanded around 35-40k-ish men.
Love these style videos they're my favourite History content on youtube
Thanks man. Considering that there are so many history channels that's a pretty big compliment!
love your content, keep up the good work :)
"History shows that there are no invincible armies" -Stalin Davout's III Corps: "hold my outnumbered two to one at Auerstedt"
Another great video. Thank you. I'm hoping you go on to cover the Deluge, as that is a period of history that is almost completely unknown in Britain. Our history teaching just never covers it and yet it was of crucial importance to greater European history.
That sponsorship transition was the most unexpected one I've seen in a while. Bravo.
Really appreciate your work and Im very thankful for this series!
Thank you for making these, they're always interesting!
I hope that you will cover the battle of Trzciana 1629. It was (as far as I know) the only battle which were Gustavus Adolphus was defeated.
These are excellent, didn't think I'd be so hyped for the next one, but the ending made me really look forward to the continuation of this story! :)
I've aways loved the art on this channel. But it just keeps getting better, even in your advertisement. Well done. Great film
Very well researched & entertaining video. Thank you!!
I think this video was fantastic and amazing the nord ad was actually funny with that starting bit which was fun as well.
This was just... staggering. Wouldn't you say? 😉🤔 Great video as always!
Love your content, i allways listen to It while i work on my guns :)
Well done!
This is excellent stuff! Subscribed!
I like your videos a lot! You are making a lot of history nerds like myself happy :) Keep up the good work.
Sweet merch. Excited for the Landsknecht shirt to arrive.
As a guy from Riga, this was very interesting to watch!
I'm still waiting for you to continue with the hour-by-hour battle video format; especially since the next one would have to be the battle of Nördliguen, in which we see in action the two best military units of that time, which are: the Swedish reformed armies, against the Spanish Tercio (which at that time was far from the classic squads of pikes of the previous century, using a greater number of muskets and arquebuses, shows its constant evolution). Honestly for me, the best battle of the war, because they represented the champions of each side.
Great video once again! 👍👍 Your choice of subjects and your executions of those subjects are always fantastic! I could recommend doing a video on the De la Gardie campaign, it is really interesting. (And up until Klushino, it gives me a Swedish ego boost 🇸🇪)
Great suggestion! We already have a few pages written on the Ingrian war but we delayed it for now. We might do it sometime in 2022.
I lke Gustavus in a winter cap going on solo spy mission :) Nice touch
I love your videos and I love your content Could you please make a video on the siege of Moscow when a Polish garrison held out in Moscow for two years against Russian rebels. I hope you could make this video it would be a sort of follow up to your battle of klushino episode. Also you could add some context to the Polish muscovite war
We have an unfinished video script somewhere about that. Maybe we get to produce sometime next year. It depends on other projects and how busy we're going to be in January / February.
@@SandRhomanHistory that sounds really cool I will definitely watch the video when it come out keep up the good work guys I’m a massive fan
@@SandRhomanHistory Oh, this is great news! Can't wait!
Birth of Russia from Alexander Nevsky to Ivan the Terifying would be an interesting series of videos :-)
@@martinan22 I agree and Poland would definetly get mentioned and as would the winged hussars
The 17th century was truly a messy time.
Arguably, it was still more peaceful in Europe than when you were around :P
@@SandRhomanHistory not really or is that true . I thought 30 years was the most bloody pre 20 th century war in Europe??
@@SandRhomanHistory *laughs in WW2*
@@sagagis ww2 was nothing compared to the 17th century lol, literally almost every country or state was in constant wars at this time.
Well done
i love your videos
Its interesting that Gustavus Adolphus is known by that name in todays english but in most other european langueages he is known as Gustav II Adolf, Gustave II Adolphe and even in swedish he is Gustav II (den andra) Adolf. Why isnt the "II (the second)" written out in english?
Hi from Riga. Loving this!
Whats so good about Riga being sieged?
Our capital or anything our country related being mentioned ANYWHERE is a cause to be happy
The Baltics was the crownjewel in the Swedish empire. The breadbasket of the empire. The biggest city of it was not Stockholm as one could expect, but instead it was Reval (Tallin). And it was militarity important as a landbridge for invasions into Poland, and for denying Poland closer access to Stockholm and Finland. And the area provided some of the oak trees for the Swedish navy. Some of Swedens oldest military marches played on flutes on drums is named after a nobleman from Livonia: Wolmar von Schlippenbach kzhead.info/sun/ZbCpo8ltjIqiip8/bejne.html
Latvia was also the Silicon valley of the Eastern bloc during the Cold war. It was there that the Russian's laid their high tech computer industry and its automotive industry. But thanks to failed neoliberal policies have the Latvian government destroyed much of the headstart the country had compared to many other East European countries. And robbery by Swedish banks and the idiotic monetary policies forced upon Latvia by the EU have destroyed its economy. It would have been interesting to see what could have happened if those 3 plagues never happened. Perhaps the country would have been the high tech Mecka of Europe then.
Excellent!
Thank you! Cheers!
Starting with Stalin's quote? Well I don't think anybody expected that on channel with focus about early modern warfare.
Well, the quote fits the video. It's not meant to support anything he did!
@@SandRhomanHistory Oh it fits perfectly. And I didn't mean in the slightests to imply you support what he did. I was just surprised that's all.
Paldies par šo video esmu no Latvijas, Sveicieni 🇱🇻❤!!
A small correction: It was not Lew Sapieha who was the commander of the Commonwealth's forces in the Battle of Walmojza (Wallhof), but his son, Jan Stanisław Sapieha what, as i can see, is marked correctly on the map. Jan Sapieha was given command as an aristocrat, although he had no military talent and this battle is a perfect example of the importance of commander quality. Sapieha as an ambitious man he could not stand the burden of defeat, and his life gradually plunged into the madness for which he was famous for the rest of his life. Great video anyway, as usually.
Great video, small spelling error at 18:30, should be relieve Livonia
Amazing video as always, but I’m intrigued, what did you use to make the map at 14:18?
as a polish american it makes me happy our, perhaps most famous, war was fought in the time period when I personally think war was the coolest, hellish battlefields tho i think
Cant wait for Deluge!
Sieging Riga in Mount and Blade flashbacks
History would have been radically different if Sigismund had gotten the Swedish throne.
Maybe. But the pattern is that the further away from the Muslim world, the more likely a country is to become protestant. Meaning the state take over the church and use it as the propaganda machine of the state. Meaning, bigger armies, better bureaucracy, more consistent policy. Its hardly likely that Sigismund could have changed that. Its big man theory of history vs marxist systemic theory of history.
@@martinan22 Digging deeper you will find the reason that Poland didn't became Protestant, was some idiot who started arguing with a priest and a monstrance was damaged during this row. Quite a big issue for that time. This guy just had to pay for a broken glass, however rapid Protestant expansion was stopped and counter-reformation had a time to form.
Well, he had himself to blame - promising same land to two different groups to gain their support. Plus, considering how "nice" Catholic Commonwealth was to Orthodox subjects, you think a union of Catholic and Protestant countries under one throne would work?
@@demilung What do you mean? Many of the most powerful nobles in the Commonwealth were Orthodox.
Very interesting. Nothing happens in isolation & the Swedish army reforms are starting to get results.
The greatest armies are often created under pressure. When there is a real, life-threatening necessity it often creates the best ground for reforms. Just like the menace of Muscovy, Teutonic Order and especially Mongols/Tatars caused Commonwealth to create a great cavalry-based military then Sweden under the pressure of Danemark, Muscovy and Commonwealth created even greater military force and efficient state apparatus. Kind of reminds me of WW2 and how the Red Army became an unstoppable force at the end of this conflict.
I guess innovation is needed when you cannot beat an enemy just with the brute force of sheer numbers. Germany in World War knew that they was going to lose a long war of attrition, so they therefore had to experiment with new types of weapons (flame throwers, poison gas, uboats, zeppelins), new types of tactics (stosstruppen, auftragstaktik).. the new ideas would make the German army a formidable foe in WWII, but it wasn't enough to win WW1.
Ah one exciting desert after sunday roast 👌🏼
This channel is quickly becoming my favorite in the battle history genre. Historymarche is great but they release content too slowly. I don't like Kings and generals.
Great history
Mītava is the old name Jelgava is the modern name, stress is on the first letter and there are no pauses anywhere.
You know I haven’t been staggered in the recent sieges, it was cool at first but now it’s concerning.
8:31 there was no such huge long island in Daugava right in fron of Riga ( modern Vecriga ) and still there isnt one....
forgot "Staggering" in the title !
It would be great if you could get someone to dub these videos into Spanish, greetings from Argentina!!.
A whole staggering 19 minutes.
Gustavus Adolphus one of the mans that change 1600 forever.
Sieges are back on the Menu!
So . That's what the got up to in the olden days .
Yoo that ending, build up is real
yeeeeah!
17:04 "And set the nearby village on fire." I have only one question: why?
So Swedes couldn't capture it and threaten the Polish flank.
Username indeed checks out ;)
So the King of PLC wants to continue the war and refuses favourable peace offers while the PLC's nobility is apathetic and only gives half-arsed contribution to the war effort? A truly terrible combo that prolonged the war and would have disastrous consequences for the PLC.
7:18 Every time this channel mentions "historian Robert Frost", I can't help but think of little old ladies in the 1930s reading childishly saccharine and cloying poems in the Saturday Evening Post. 🤣🤣🤣
I wonder how Gustavus would have dealt with chodkiewicz
You can improve your Polish pronounciation if you use the ggl trnslt service. The speaker button plays it. "Sapieha" was pronounced wrong. Just remember Polish usually puts emphasis on the penultimate syllabe. Why are my comments disappearing?
"Why are my comments disappearing?" I dunno. There's nothing for my under "held for review". I only see this comment by you (last four hours). Pronunciation: thanks, I used a variety of translation services but sometimes I remember them incorrectly. During the process of researching and writing wrong pronunciations get stuck in my head.
Får jag höra klacken!!!!
I'm just here fornthe Sabbaton comments.
Valle not Vale and Wallhof not Walhof, there is a reason for the ll its too times longer than a single l.
👍👍👍
In the Battle of Wallhof, why did the Lithuanians set fire to the village?
Does anyone else find the idea of a 2 year truce pretty odd? I understand that in the modern world we have weird things like North and South Korea technically still at war after agreeing to a ceasefire almost 70 years ago. But a 2 year truce is like if I start a fight and see my enemy has a knife so I call time out and tell him I need a 30 day truce to save a paycheck pick out a gun and pass a background check to actually have the gun. I for one wouldn't let my enemy call time out in the middle of a war. If they want a time out it means I'm doing something right
No one can deny that Gustav Adolf (I seriously don't get why use the Latin version of his name) was a great commander and a good king. A bit too rash sometimes but still great. This conflict is also a great example of how more authoritarian states are always more efficient in supporting the war effort and accomplishing long-term goals than democracies. Just like we can observe in the modern-day world *laughs nervously while looking at Ukrainian-Russian and Polish-Belarusian borders* Still, I wonder what would have happened if Gustav would have to face Commonwealth's army the size that was present at Khotyn.
He didn`t have the numbers to face that army and it was his equal or better in terms of quality. If authoritarian states are ¨always more efficient`in supporting the war effort¨ than how do you explain the lack of efficiency in German, Italian and Japanese war production in WW2? The Western democracies were lazy in preparing before the war but once the war was on, they organized their economies for maximum output very quickly and efficiently. It took the Germans until 1944 to properly get their war production going. Generalization is difficult. Authoritarian governments are able to be more ruthless but their mistakes are not as easily criticized or corrected.
@@somewhere6 Yeah it's a pervasive myth. Nazi germany was incredibly inefficient.
@@somewhere6 " than how do you explain the lack of efficiency in German, Italian and Japanese war production in WW2? " --- The main problem of Germany was lack of resources. They still managed to steamroll through most of Europe and give Allies a tough fight despite them having about 10 times fewer resources than all Allies combined. It also took another authoritarian state to take them down. Soviets caused about 80% of all German casualties. Japan's initial successes in China were also quite staggering not to mention Philipines and Singapur so easily. "The Western democracies were lazy in preparing before the war" --- Which literally proves my point. "but once the war was on, they organized their economies for maximum output very quickly and efficiently. " --- By enacting wartime law, restricting civil liberties and effectively becoming more authoritarian for the duration of the war. "Authoritarian governments are able to be more ruthless but their mistakes are not as easily criticized or corrected." --- Mistakes, in general, are not easily corrected. I don't think democracies are any bit better at doing it. I mean, how often in democracy reform is needed but is not enacted by any consecutive government because the topic is controversial?
@@plaparen That is true. Many of their decisions regarding production were just terrible. The decision to build Tiger II is a prime example.
*"He didn`t have the numbers to face that army and it was his equal or better in terms of quality."* Wrong his army defeated Austria and Poland. *"Authoritarian governments are able to be more ruthless"* I think there is a difference between being authoritarian and being centralized. They are not the same thing. Sweden was not a Hitlerite dictatorship under Gustavus. The country was still having remains left from its time as old feudal state. The King had to make concessions to the nobility before he could become King. Otherwise would they not accept to vote in favor of letting him become the new King at his young age. When wars were fought in Germany and more money was needed, did the King need to negotiate with the peasant class and beg them kindly to accept extra war taxes. The King also realized his own limitations and did delegate out responsability of economic matters to his advisor Axel Oxenstierna. The King was a passionate man with strong feelings, temper, energy, impatience and big dreams... while Oxenstierna was a pragmatic realist, a man with a big brain, and a very cynical and macchiavellian view of the world. The two was close friends and in combination were those two men invinceable. The King laid out bold plans and invested his energy to make them work. While Oxenstierna made the King calm down and abandon his most wild and unrealistic ideas, but keeping most ot the rest of the plan and fixed all money and logistics to make it work. He always found out ways to get money, he was an expert negoatiator and he was a clever player in diplomacy that could lure Denmark into playing their cards wrong and lose despite a strong hand. If I could make a clone out of one brain to rule Sweden - then I would pick Axel Oxenstiernas. So Sweden was never authoritarian in that sense that the King had unlimited powers. The Swedish King was in fact pretty weak compared to the absolutist Kings of the 1700s, like Carolus Rex who did not have to listen anyone except God. But Sweden was a centralized state. The King, his advisors, the nobility and the peasants all stood unified to win the war in Germany. The nobility did not try to stab the King in the back and use dire times to expand their own powers at the expense of the King - like what often happened in other countries. Instead did the nobility realize that they had a common interest with that the King and country was doing well. If the nobles did their duty and fought the war and did it well, then they would get rich from plundering cities, and they would get more power and status by showing strong capabilities as a General on the battlefield. By making themselves useful for the state would they help the country, and in return would the country help them get rich and promote their career. It was a system of win - win for everyone involved. So one can say that Sweden was an extremely centralized state. And extensive documentation was done to make best use of limited resources like money and manpower. Churches did document how many locals lived in their area so the state would know how much taxes that could be collected, and the newly born male children were put into the system so the state would know how many potential future soldiers it had available. Its perhaps no coincidence that Sweden with this obsession also became the first country in the world to get a Central Bank, and in 1749 also first in the world to regulary count population numbers on an annual basis. This institution responsible for all statistics gathering already existed back in the 1600s so even long before 1749 was government control without equals. But even with such a massive "surveillance state" I would not call Sweden opressive. The tax burden was more equal and fairly distributed than in most other countries - like France, Austria, Denmark, Russia. A peasant back in those days would probably have been most free if had been born in the Netherlands, Britain or Sweden.
Fairly annoying when wars like this are abbreviated "Polish" when tons of conflicts and soldiers assisting were Lithuanian. It's the equivalent of saying only Austrian when talking about Austria Hungary
Sigismund should've just made peace with his nephew when he had the chance.
Many members of the Polish parliament thought the same.
@@kamilszadkowski8864---That is hardly a surprise to me.
I take it this siege wasn't staggering then?
How about Swedish siege of Brno in Moravia during 30year war? If they have captured it they would have free path to Viena. There is even funny legend about how the siege ended
Riga then proceeds to conquer the entirety of The Teutonic Order and eventually become a world power
By the way, Khotyn was already described here: kzhead.info/sun/q7ltpqiPaatsrGg/bejne.html
Leaving a comment to appease our Algorithmic Overlords
Gustavus Adolphus sounds silly. His name was Gustav Adolf. And what do you call his famous grandfather?
The only winners in the Swedish-Poliah wars were Russia and Brandenburg.
Nie tylko.Szwedzi za skarby wywiezione z Rzeczpospolitej prowadzili wojnę na zachodzie europy.
Wrong. At the end of the day, Sigismund's rights to the Swedish Throne were forfeit, do the new dynasty was legitimate now.
James VI King of Scots seems to have lost his Scottish lands.
Why is this one not a STAGGERING siege?
I guess because the Swedish forces were still combat effective after this one.
Why sejm so not willing to give money for king campaign?
"The enemy approaches. Better set fire to my own village." ???
Factual errors: 1) Daugavgrīva was not a town, but a fortification protecting entry to Daugava river/Riga; 2) there has never been an internal lake/bay in the city as shown in siege pictures.
3) Kokenhausen = Koknese
An island in front of a medieval city also is showing wrong. It's located a little bit upper by the river (or to the south in a scheme).
I got randomly unsubscribed just a heads up.
Daugava is a much preferable name because russians have many Dvinas.
Not many historians seem to notice that Swedish invasion of Commonwealth was inspired and payed for by British crown.
Why did the Polish burn that village when the Swedes attacked?
Most likely prevent Swedish forces from capturing the village and threatening the Polish flank. Since most of the Polish-Lithuanian troops were cavalry I imagine it could be dangerous if Swedes would manage to put their infantry in there.
Scorched earth tactic basically
Wdym Polish-Swedish war?? It is Polish and Lithuanian war against Swedish bruh
It‘s known by that name. From academics to history buffs, everybody uses it, so it’s np.
Its not Koknēze. Its Koknese and my people use o to symbolize ua.
Id like to see a hacker be abel to hack my accounts when my personal guard of winged huzzar charges him!
So, looks like Swedish army has always invaded its neighbour through out the history.
Those swedes just couldn't leave the Commonwealth alone