The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Union of Lublin 1 July treaty

Before the act is signed, Podlasie, Volhynia, Bracław and Kyiv pass from Lithuania to the Crown. A dynastic union becomes one state: a shared parliament, an elected shared king, a shared foreign policy, separate law and treasuries. The Commonwealth of Two Nations covers about 800,000 square kilometres.

The Warsaw Confederation 28 January constitution

In the year of the first free royal election the nobility writes religious peace into law — in a Europe that had just staged the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Tolerance becomes a statute rather than a royal favour.

The first free election 11 May constitution

Outside Warsaw some forty thousand nobles vote in person and elect Henry of Valois king. The king-elect must swear to the Henrician Articles — free election, the sejm’s consent to war and taxes, a sejm every two years and the right to refuse obedience to a king who breaks them — and to pacta conventa of his own. Every king after him will swear the same.

The Truce of Jam Zapolski 15 January treaty

After Stephen Báthory’s three campaigns and the siege of Pskov, Ivan the Terrible gives up Livonia and Polotsk. A quarter-century of war for Livonia ends; Velikiye Luki goes back to Muscovy.

The capital moves to Warsaw turning point

Sigismund III moves the court from Kraków to Warsaw, nearer the geographic centre of the state after the union with Lithuania. Kraków keeps the coronations and the funerals; the governing happens in Warsaw.

The Union of Brest 18 October turning point

A synod at Brest accepts the Pope’s authority while keeping the Eastern rite, and the Uniate Church is born. Some of the bishops and most of the Orthodox faithful reject it, and the quarrel divides the Commonwealth’s Ruthenia for half a century.

The Battle of Kircholm 27 September battle

Chodkiewicz, with under four thousand men, destroys a Swedish army three times that size in under an hour. The high point of the winged hussars and of Polish control in Livonia.

The Battle of Klushino 4 July battle

Żółkiewski defeats a far larger Russian and Swedish force and shortly afterwards installs a Polish garrison in the Kremlin. The only time in history that Moscow was in Polish hands.

The Truce of Deulino 11 December treaty

The truce ends the war with Muscovy: the Commonwealth keeps the lands of Smolensk, Chernihiv and Seversk for fourteen and a half years. It is the state’s furthest reach east — though Prince Władysław, once elected tsar, never takes the Moscow throne.

The Truce of Altmark 26 September loss

A six-year truce ends the war for Livonia and the mouth of the Vistula: Sweden keeps most of Livonia with Riga, and for the length of the truce the Prussian ports and a share of the tolls on Gdańsk’s trade as well. The Commonwealth never recovers Livonia north of the Daugava.

The Truce of Stuhmsdorf 12 September treaty

Sweden gives back the Prussian ports it has held since 1626 — Elbląg, Braniewo, Pillau, Memel — and its tolls on the Vistula trade; Livonia with Riga stays Swedish. The truce is for 26 years, and Sweden will break it in 1655.

Zhovti Vody, Korsun and Pyliavtsi 16 May, 26 May, 23 September uprising

Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars, destroy the Crown armies at Zhovti Vody and Korsun, both hetmans are taken captive by the Tatars, and in the autumn the noble levy flees the field at Pyliavtsi. So begins the Khmelnytsky Uprising.

The first liberum veto 9 March turning point

Władysław Siciński, envoy for Upytė, objects to extending the session and the sejm disperses without passing anything — the first left without resolutions by a single voice. In the next century the liberum veto breaks almost every sejm and paralyses the state.

The Pereiaslav Council 18 January loss

A Cossack council at Pereiaslav accepts the tsar’s overlordship. Muscovy declares a war on the Commonwealth that will take Smolensk, Kyiv and left-bank Ukraine from it.

The capitulation at Ujście 25 July loss

The Greater Poland levy surrenders to the Swedes at Ujście without a fight and places its provinces under Charles X Gustav’s protection; within months Lithuania does the same at Kėdainiai, and so does the Crown army. Sweden overruns almost the whole country. So begins the Deluge.

The Treaties of Wehlau and Bromberg 19 September, 6 November loss

In return for the Elector of Brandenburg abandoning his Swedish alliance, John Casimir releases him from his fealty: Ducal Prussia becomes fully sovereign. That breach grew into the Prussian kingdom that partitioned the Commonwealth more than a century later.

The Peace of Oliva 3 May treaty

Peace with Sweden ends the Deluge. John Casimir gives up his claim to the Swedish throne, and the Commonwealth recognises Swedish Livonia north of the Daugava and the sovereignty of Ducal Prussia, granted to the Hohenzollerns three years earlier.

The Truce of Andrusovo 9 February loss

The truce ends thirteen years of war with Muscovy: the Commonwealth gives up the lands of Smolensk and Chernihiv, Ukraine east of the Dnieper, and Kyiv — that one for two years on paper, for good in practice. The balance of power in the east tips towards Russia.

The Treaty of Buchach 18 October loss

After the fall of Kamianets-Podilskyi, King Michael’s envoys cede Podolia to the Ottomans, hand the southern right-bank Ukraine to Doroshenko’s Cossacks under the sultan’s overlordship, and agree to pay the sultan a yearly tribute. The sejm refuses to ratify and the war resumes, but Podolia stays Ottoman for twenty-seven years.

The Relief of Vienna 12 September battle

John III Sobieski commands the combined Christian armies and breaks the Ottoman siege of Vienna. The Commonwealth’s last great victory — and the last time it acted in Europe as a great power.

The Eternal Peace with Russia 6 May loss

Krzysztof Grzymułtowski, voivode of Poznań, signs a peace in Moscow that gives Russia Kyiv, Smolensk and left-bank Ukraine for good, in return for 146,000 roubles and the tsar joining the war against the Ottomans. What Andrusovo ceded for a term is now ceded permanently.

The Treaty of Karlowitz 26 January treaty

The peace that ends the Holy League’s war with the Ottomans gives Podolia, with Kamianets, and right-bank Ukraine back to the Commonwealth. The war that began at Vienna ends, for Poland, with the recovery of what was lost in 1672 — and for the Ottomans with the start of a long retreat from Europe.

The Silent Sejm 1 February loss

With Russian troops in the country, the sejm ratifies without debate the king’s settlement with the Tarnogród confederates, brokered by the tsar: an establishment of 24,000 rations, in practice an army of at most about 12,000. Russia becomes the arbiter of the Commonwealth’s affairs.

The Cardinal Laws under Russian guarantee 26 February loss

A sejm whose opposition leaders the ambassador Repnin has had carried off to Russia passes the Cardinal Laws — the liberum veto and the free election as unalterable law — under Catherine II’s guarantee, and grants rights to the dissenters. From now on any reform of the constitution needs Russia’s consent: the Commonwealth becomes its protectorate.

The Bar Confederation is formed 29 February uprising

Nobles meet at Bar in Podolia to form a confederation against the king and against Russia’s tutelage over the Commonwealth. Four years of civil war end in defeat — and give the neighbours their pretext for the First Partition.

The Livonian War war

Ivan the Terrible invades Livonia, and the last master of the Livonian Order places the country under Sigismund Augustus. Lithuania, which loses Polotsk in 1563, looks for safety in union with the Crown. Stephen Báthory retakes Polotsk, captures Velikiye Luki and besieges Pskov; the truce of Yam-Zapolsky in 1582 ends the Commonwealth’s war and leaves it Livonia. A year later Muscovy makes peace with Sweden too.

The war with Sweden over Livonia war

Sigismund III, King of Poland and deposed King of Sweden, joins Estonia to the Commonwealth, and his uncle Charles of Södermanland answers by invading Livonia. Kircholm (1605) does not end the war. It is the first of the wars over the Vasas’ Swedish crown that the Commonwealth will fight for sixty years.

Zebrzydowski’s rebellion civil war

Nobles led by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski take up arms against Sigismund III, suspected of wanting to strengthen the crown’s power. The king wins at Guzów (1607) but drops his reforms, and an amnesty in 1609 closes the affair.

The war with Muscovy in the Time of Troubles war

Sigismund III besieges Smolensk, and after Klushino Hetman Żółkiewski enters Moscow, where the boyars elect Prince Władysław tsar. The Polish garrison in the Kremlin surrenders in 1612, but Smolensk, taken the year before, stays with the Commonwealth — and the Truce of Deulino gives it the Chernihiv and Seversk lands as well.

The Ottoman war: Cecora and Khotyn war

An expedition to defend the hospodar of Moldavia ends in defeat at Cecora, where Hetman Żółkiewski is killed. A year later Osman II’s army storms the camp at Khotyn for a month and leaves with nothing; the peace keeps the border on the Dniester.

The war for the mouth of the Vistula war

Gustavus Adolphus, who took Riga from the Commonwealth in 1621, lands in Prussia and cuts off the grain trade on the Vistula. Gdańsk holds out and Koniecpolski wins at Trzciana, but the Truce of Altmark leaves Sweden most of Livonia and the Prussian ports with their tolls.

The Smolensk War war

Muscovy uses the interregnum after Sigismund III’s death to besiege Smolensk. Władysław IV surrounds the besiegers and forces them to surrender; at the Peace of Polyanovka he gives up the title of tsar and the Commonwealth keeps Smolensk.

The Khmelnytsky Uprising uprising

A Cossack revolt turns into a war for Ukraine in which the Tatars change sides, the rebels massacre nobles and Jews, and the Crown’s armies answer with terror. Berestechko (1651) does not end it; in 1654 at Pereiaslav the Cossacks put themselves under the tsar and bring a war with Muscovy down on the Commonwealth. Khmelnytsky dies in 1657.

The war with Muscovy war

Tsar Alexis, coming to the Cossacks’ aid, takes Smolensk, Vilnius and almost the whole Grand Duchy of Lithuania in two years. The Commonwealth wins much of it back after the victories of 1660, but the Truce of Andrusovo leaves Muscovy Smolensk, Ukraine east of the Dnieper, and Kyiv besides — nominally for two years, though it was never given back.

The Deluge war

Charles X Gustav invades a Commonwealth already bled by the Cossacks and Muscovy; magnates and army go over to him, and John Casimir flees to Silesia. The defence of Jasna Góra, the Tyszowce confederation and Czarniecki’s guerrilla war turn it round, but Swedes, Brandenburgers and Transylvanians plunder the country as nobody had before. The Peace of Oliva changes little on the map — yet the years 1648–67 cost the Commonwealth close to a third of its people.

Lubomirski’s rebellion civil war

Grand Marshal Jerzy Lubomirski, sentenced to banishment by the sejm court, leads the nobility against John Casimir’s plan to have a successor elected in his lifetime. At Mątwy the rebels destroy the royal army, veterans of the Swedish wars among them; the king gives way, and two years later abdicates.

The Ottoman war over Podolia war

Mehmed IV takes Kamianets-Podilskyi and imposes the Treaty of Buchach on the Commonwealth. The sejm refuses to ratify it, Sobieski routs the Turks at Khotyn (1673) and is soon king, but the truce of Żurawno leaves Podolia Ottoman for more than twenty years.

The Great Turkish War war

The relief of Vienna opens sixteen years of war between the Holy League — Austria, the Commonwealth, Venice and, from 1686, Russia — and the Ottoman Empire. Sobieski’s campaigns against Kamianets and into Moldavia win no lasting ground, but the Treaty of Karlowitz gives Podolia back to the Commonwealth.

The Great Northern War war

Augustus II, as Elector of Saxony, attacks Swedish Livonia, and Charles XII strikes back into the Commonwealth, deposes him and puts Stanisław Leszczyński on the throne. After Poltava (1709) Augustus returns, but with the tsar’s backing: Russian armies cross the country as if it were their own, and the Commonwealth comes out of the war ruined and dependent on Russia.

The War of the Polish Succession war

The nobility elects Stanisław Leszczyński a second time, but Russian troops put Augustus III on the throne, and Gdańsk, which stood by Leszczyński, surrenders after a long siege. The war moves to the Rhine and Italy, and Leszczyński is given Lorraine instead.

The Bar Confederation uprising

Four years of fighting between bands of nobles and the Russian and royal armies, from Podolia to Greater Poland. The confederates were united by opposition to Russian tutelage and to equal rights for Protestants and Orthodox; in 1770 they declare the king deposed. Jasna Góra, the confederates’ last great fortress, surrenders in August 1772, the month the powers sign the First Partition.