Polish-Lithuanian Mercenaries in the Service of Jacob de la Gardie

Abstract

In the early 17th century during Swedish-Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth war there were very few soldiers of the Swedish army that were originally subjects to Sigmund III. This uncommon situation occurred because of various reasons, most notably, the core character of the conflict which was caused not only by the dynastic quarrel between the Polish and Swedish line of Vasas but also by cultural, political and religious differences. As the war in Livonia continued, Polish public finance system proved itself more and more inadequate. That caused unpaid Polish-Lithuanian soldiers to form confederations in order to make the authorities pay overdue wages. This rouge soldiers’ crisis was exacerbated by a new war between the Commonwealth of Poland and Russia (1609–1619), which increased the crime and banditry in the Commonwealth of Poland. The authorities were forced to form military units — partly from the soldiers participating in the confederates — that were sent across the eastern border. Interestingly, at the same time a number of Zaporozhian Cossacks and Polish cavalrymen joined the army of Jacob de la Gardie, which occupied the area of Great Novgorod. Troops led by Henryk Dembinski, Jaromir Plecki and Stanislaw Wolski were a part of Swedish fighting force but — as the author remarks — might also have been involved in a larger false flag operation planned by Lithuanian intelligence in order to undermine financial potential of Sweden. It is very possible that this operation was supervised by the Lithuanian hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and/or by the starosta wieliski Aleksander Gosiewski.