Why did the Poles fight the Swedes for three hundred years and what does Westeros have to do with it?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Poland and Sweden seem to be countries from two different worlds. However, they have a lot in common. Basically - the history of many wars. From the sixteenth century to the nineteenth (inclusive!), These two countries now and then fought with each other. To do this, they just simply had to swim across the Baltic Sea.

What did you fight for?

All wars are waged for the same thing - to get more resources that are relevant in this era, sometimes also with distant political considerations. In the sixteenth century, Sweden initially fought with Denmark and the German city of Lubeck, while Poland annexed Denmark to control part of the Baltic Sea trade routes. Poland was especially interested in Russian-German trade - it went very briskly.

The next war in the same century was fought for the throne - the Polish king Sigismund, after the death of his father, King of Sweden Johan, claimed his place. At the same time, he relied on the Westeros law of succession to the throne. No, this is not a typo and we are not talking about the worlds of George Martin - Westeros, where this law was signed, a real city in Sweden. Its name translates as "Western part of the river mouth", and you can safely go there to visit in our time.

With the accession of the Catholic king to the Swedish throne, the country's Protestants did not agree, and they urgently, even before Sigismund's coronation, accepted a position at a general meeting, according to which Lutheranism was declared the state religion of Sweden. Sigismund announced his non-recognition of the collection decision - and his own uncle, Duke Karl, raised the nobility of Sweden against the legitimate, but too Catholic king. It all ended with the fact that Karl became king and, to celebrate, arranged a blood bath, killing all the nobles who had somehow supported Sigismund before.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Swedes competed with the Poles in attempts to establish control over Russia during the Time of Troubles, fought against the combined forces of Poles and Russians, fought for Livonia (the present Baltic states) and for some reason constantly tried to take over all of Poland, and not only its important coast for trade in the Baltic. Finally, the last Polish-Swedish war was the war with Napoleon - the Poles were his loyal allies, and the Swedes were part of the anti-Napoleonic coalition. As a result, as we remember, Napoleon lost, and Poland was part of Russia.

Steadfast Ebba

One of the strangest episodes of the Polish-Swedish wars for Sigismund's accession to the throne took place completely without the participation of the Poles and in Finland in general. The couple of Baron and Baroness Fleming openly sided with Sigismund, and thanks to the baron, who was the governor of Finland, the region came under the rule of the Polish king. However, Fleming died, and Karl immediately took advantage of this to bring in troops. The main task for holding the edge was to get Abo Castle, in which Fleming's widow, née Ebba Stenbock and, by the way, Karl's cousin and Sigismund's aunt were now located.

In relation to Karl, Ebba did not show any kindred feelings and took over the defense of the castle, instead of meeting her brother with curtsies. In parallel, she sent a call for help to the king's nephew. It seemed to her that all that was needed was to wait for the arrival of the Polish troops.

The steadfast Stenbock managed to hold the castle for so long that she entered the legends of both Sweden and Finland (she was even depicted in paintings in the nineteenth century), but when supplies ran out, she decided to surrender. Karl could not believe that all this time he was opposed by a woman, and the first thing he did was to show the body of Baron Fleming. He pulled the deceased by the beard and said, "If you were alive, your head would be in danger." The Baroness replied very sharply: "If my late husband were alive, Your Grace would never have been here."

After the victory, Charles killed a huge number of nobles who had previously sided with Sigismund, but spared his cousin. At first she was kept under house arrest in Stockholm, but Ebbe managed to turn over the officer who was supposed to protect her to her side and start an uprising. Of course, it was suppressed, but Ebba was again spared and sent to his sister, Queen Dowager Katarina. There the legendary rebel ended her life.

How it feels to fight under Wrath

The next war, in 1626, began for the Swedes, it seemed, very joyfully: for some unknown reason, the Polish troops surrendered the fortresses almost without a fight - and withdrew, withdrew. But somehow the constant retreat turned into resistance, and the troops under the leadership of Stanislav Konetspolsky began to torment the Swedish army from all sides.

Ultimately, the Swedes had to urgently announce mobilization in order to recruit 50,000 new soldiers (against half the Polish army), and also seek help from Transylvania, Russia, Ukrainian Cossacks, Crimean Tatars, the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant princes of Germany. Everyone refused him, and after another series of battles, the Swedes asked for peace.

I must say that for this very successful war for the Poles, one of the largest defeats of the Polish army in history happened - the battle of Wrath. I do not mean under the influence of feelings, but the city that covered the way to Danzig, one of the most important cities for trade on the Baltic Sea.

The Poles suffered a battle because of an attempt at a frontal attack by their famous hussars in armor and with wings. If they had cheated, as in the battle of Krigholm, where 4,000 Poles defeated 11,000 Swedes, and let the hussars out of the flank, pretending at first that the troops in the center were retreating, then the result could have been different.

Foot attack from the sea

Hungarians are often viewed as permanent friends of Poles, but they have not always shown themselves in a friendly way. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Swedish king Charles X, stating that he was doing this so that the Polish king Jan Casimir did not move to seize the throne of Sweden, brought his troops into Poland and rather quickly captured, if not the whole, then almost the entire country. When the Poles began to revolt, the Hungarian king sent his troops to the aid of the Swedes - naturally, not disinterestedly, but for the Polish lands. Fortunately, Poland managed to find allies, including again Denmark decided to side with her against the Swedes.

The Swedes, without thinking twice, attacked Copenhagen from the sea. Without a single king. Swedish soldiers approached the Danish capital on ice, and this seems to be one of the most amazing episodes of the Swedish-Danish wars. Later, the Danes tried to repeat it in the opposite direction, but the Swedes took action in time.

By the way, it was not the first time for the Poles to involve Denmark in the war. Back in the Middle Ages, Queen Sigrid, who, according to legends, was the Polish Svyatoslav and at the same time the mother of the Swedish king, married the King of Denmark on purpose so that he declared war on Norway and killed the Norwegian king, who had once hit Sigrid in the face. By the way, her plan was one hundred percent successful.

And in the eighteenth century, Russia already offered to make war with Sweden, Poland and Denmark. The idea belonged to Peter I. At some point, the Swedes, out of habit, focused on driving the Polish army across Poland, and this turned out to be in his hands - it allowed them to ruthlessly crush the Swedes from the east. In the end, Poland simply pulled out of the war and accepted the pro-Swedish king, Stanislaw Leszczynski. Only after the victory at Poltava did Poland again sign an alliance treaty with Russia, and the whole carnival began anew and … ended with an unprecedented alliance of Swedes and Poles.

Many peoples have been noted in Polish history. Indigenous Tatars of Poland: Why there was no Pan over the Uhlans, but there was a Muslim crescent.