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United in the Commonwealth. the Participation of Lithuanian Troops in the Zborów Battle in 16491

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United in the Commonwealth. the Participation of Lithuanian Troops in the Zborów Battle in 16491 Open Political Science, 2018; 1: 182–192 Research Article Mariusz Sawicki* United in the Commonwealth. The Participation of Lithuanian troops in the Zborów battle in 16491 https://doi.org/10.1515/openps-2018-0016 received December 19, 2018; accepted December 30, 2018. Abstract: In 1648, an uprising broke out in Ukraine that belonged to Poland at the time. The war was not successful for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Cossacks and Tartars, who were helping them during the war, surrounded Zbaraż, about whose defense everyone knew in the country. King Jan Kazimierz decided to set out to rescue the besieged fortress. It was decided that not only Polish troops, but also soldiers of Lithuania would set out for Ukraine. Not only state armies, but also private regiments set out to fight. The article discusses the problem of the reasons for the participation of Lithuanians in the war, which was not only due to the provisions of the union, but also to be in the king’s party. Therefore, only the branches of magnates who belong to the Jan Kazimierz party joined the Polish army. The king’s army reached Zborów, where the battle ended with treaties. The Polish nobility was not happy with them, but they caused a temporary suspension of the war. Important will also be the international echoes of the battle of Zborow with the greater strength of the Cossacks and Tartars. Keywords: expedition; Jan Kazimierz; Commonwealth.1 The year 1648 was one of the most tragic in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian state, and not only due to the period of the interregnum, but above all, from the events concerning the political and military situation on Ukraine, which was part of the Commonwealth. The problem of the origins and causes of the uprising led by Bohdan Chmielnicki is relatively well developed in the literature on the subject, which frees the author of this article from thoroughly discussing the course of events that led to the military confrontation mentioned in the title. However, it seems justified to sketch a short historical feature that will bring closer the circumstances of the expedition of Jan Kazimierz Waza to Zborów2. Already from the Convocation Sejm of 1648, the subject of events in Ukraine was of great interest to debating deputies and senators, and two concepts for solving the so-called Cossack problem were revealed. The great chancellor of the Crown, Jerzy Ossoliński, was a supporter of the negotiations, although it seems to that he did not exclude talks supported by appropriate military strength. On the other hand, Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, supported by a large number of noblemen and senators, represented a war camp, which assumed a solution to the conflict by armed force3. At the meeting of the Grand Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński, with Primate Maciej Łubieński, on May 24 in Łowicz, a proclamation act was published to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which convened local councils on June 25, and the Convocation Sejm on July 16. The local councils demanded that the army of the hetmans be strengthened by 1 This paper in part was created as a result of scientific research related to the implementation of the grant of the National Science Center in Krakow No. DEC 2017/01 / X / HS3 / 00482 for the implementation of a single scientific activity entitled „Socio-political elites of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the light of reports of French and English diplomats in the second half of the 17th century”. 2 The issues related to the expedition of Jan Kazimierz at Zborów in the context of the Crown Army’s activities were discussed by W. Kucharski in his two articles: Wyprawa zborowska króla Jana II Kazimierza, Studia z Dziejów Wojskowości, Vol. V, 2016 (in Polish) and Rzeczpospolita w obliczu wojny domowej 1648-1649 r. Zabiegi dyplomatyczne przygotowania wojskowe, Studia z Dziejów Wojskowości, Vol. 3, 2014, (in Polish). He treated in the marginally way the phenomenon of participation of Lithuanians in the struggle of both political and military 1648-1649. 3 T. Wasilewski, Ostatni Waza na polskim tronie, Wydawnictwo Śląsk, Katowice, 1984: 59, (in Polish). Translated by PhD Marcin Böhm from Instytut of History University of Opole. *Corresponding author: Mariusz Sawicki, History Institute, University of Opole, Opole, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] Open Access. © 2018 Mariusz Sawicki, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. Unauthenticated Download Date | 7/29/19 6:08 PM Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-26 United in the Commonwealth. The Participation of Lithuanian troops in the Zborów battle in 1649 183 enlisting the county banners or sending back money collected for this purpose. It was also urged that the voivodships pay the taxes passed at the last Sejm. At the end of June, news reached Warszawa about the defeat at Żółte Wody. News of this caused anxiety not only among the nobility but also Ossoliński. In this situation, he convened regional councils, which were to replace the usual local councils. In the evening of 5 June, more news came to Warszawa about the defeat of Polish forces, this time at Korsuń, where both Crown Hetmans were taken as a prisoner. In this atmosphere, the debates gathered for the regional councils nobles and senators. At the initiative of the Grand Chancellor of the Crown, the Convention of Mazowsze was transformed into a general convocation. Thanks to Ossoliński, the voivode of Sandomierz, Prince Dominik Zasławski was elected as the leader, as well as Aleksander Koniecpolski and the standard- bearer of the Crown Mikołaj Ostroróg and 31 commissars controlling the actions of the commanders. The appointment of the General Convocation and the nomination of the three Supreme Commanders caused widespread outrage among the nobility, who considered the situation to be a violation of the law in force4. In spite of the emergence of such a complicated and unmanageable army of the great chancellor, who at the same time was the head of the internal policy of the Commonwealth tried to neutralize the Cossacks by sending to them the voivode of Bracław and the only Orthodox senator, Adam Kisiel, who failed to make negotiations with Chmielnicki because of the strongly opposing position of the Cossack crowd5. In spite of these reconciliation actions, which ended in a fiasco, a war expedition was organized under the command of the senators and noblemen described above, who joined the forces of Jeremi Wiśniowiecki under Czołhański stone in Wołyń. From there, they moved to Krasnystaw and finally stopped under the castle in Piławce. On September 23, 1648, there was a dishonorable retreat of the Crown troops together with their commanders at the very news of the alleged approach of the Tartars. This defeat of the Commonwealth forces was not only a military defeat, especially to the quartered troops, but also to the camp supporting the candidacy of Karol Ferdynand Waza to the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth6. The massacre at Piławce also received comments from French diplomats, who during the considerations regarding the election in the Republic referred to the military struggles of the Polish-Lithuanian state. On October 23, 1648, Nicolas de Flécelles count de Brégy, in his correspondence to Jules Mazarin, mentioned the complete disintegration and ruin of the Polish army, thus referring to the situation in Ukraine. Observers from the Seine called escape from Piławce slightly extravagant and without an historical precedent7. Also, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania encountered problems related to the activities of Chmielnicki’s units in their area. During the Lithuanian convocation, news about the Cossack military operations in the Duchy was shaken. It was reported that the rebel troops occupied Homel, Czeczor and Starodubsk. Around 300 noble houses were also plundered while committing rape and engaging in cruelty to civilians8. With the Cossack units and the rebellious peasants, not only the Lithuanian hetman Janusz Radziwiłł fought with the regular army, but also his private units. Bohdan Chmielnicki’s troops marched in two directions - to the Słuck owned by Radziwiłłs and belonging to Sapiehas Stary Bychów. Cossacks under the command of the self-proclaimed hetman Jan Sokołowski first attacked Słuck. They came to Stary Bychów on August 22. The commander of the Słuck fortress, the Vilnius Master of the Pantry, Jan Sosnowski was forced, due to his small number of soldiers, to negotiations. However, he dragged them on long enough to have six reinforcements arrive, being led by Samuel Jurkiewicz. Strengthened Sosnowski crashed the retreating Cossack army at the crossing of Pohost on the Słuczka river. This did not eliminate the threat posed by the Cossack units. The following provinces: Brześć, Witebsk, Smoleńsk, Mińsk, Mścisław and 4 A. S. Radziwiłł, Pamiętniki o dziejach w Polsce, A. Przyboś i R. Żelewski (transl. and ed.), Vol. 3, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warsza- wa, 1980: 74-80, (in Polish); Pamiętnik Mikołaja Jemiołowskiego, towarzysza lekkiej chorągwi, ziemianina województwa bełskiego, A. Bielow- ski (transl. and ed.), Lwów, 1850; 3-6, (in Polish); L. Kubala, Jerzy Ossoliński, Księgarnia Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich, Lwów 1924: 267-300, (in Polish). 5 T. Wasilewski, Ostatni Waza na polskim tronie, Wydawnictwo Śląsk, Katowice, 1984: 61, (in Polish). 6 Ibidem: 62-63. 7 F. N. de Brégy (1648, october 23). Letter. [F. N. de Brégy to J. Mazarin in Warsaw]. Archival Material. Archives Ministère des Affaires Étrangères et du Développement International République Française à Paris, Correspondance politique, Vol. 10: 149-149v. A small copy of this report can be found at Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich in Wrocław, sec. Teki Lukasa, ms. 2975 / II: 377. 8 Diariusz konwokacji generalnej warszawskiej w 1648 roku.
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