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by the end of the sixteenth century
Sweden and the polish-lithuanian
Commonwealth formed into two powerful
empires their interests inevitably
clashed in the Baltics as two empires
acquired lands in the region and became
each other's neighbours the war of 1602
1611 between the two states was
inconclusive but it opened the way to
more complex it was full of brilliant
tactical maneuvers and even contained
the glorious battle of Kirk Homer that
symbolized the change in European
warfare welcome to the new edition of
kings and Generals the documentary
series
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Poland and Lithuania entered an alliance
in 1385 to thwart the last attempt of
the Teutonic order to take over the
Baltics and it succeeded during the
Battle of Grunwald and so together they
fought until in 1561 they were able to
force the remaining Teutons the livonian
order to sign the treaty of Vilnius and
through it their allies now controlled
most of the Baltics the union of Lublin
United the allies into one singular
state this new entity was called the
Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and it
was an elective monarchy becoming one of
the strongest states in Europe
Sweden was a part of the Kalmar Union
but the Swedish aristocracy led by
Gustav Vasa
tried to break free and they were able
to win the Swedish war of liberation
against denmark in norway between 1521
and 1523 gustav the first became king
and established his new dynasty he also
led a reformation of the church allowing
sweden to become lutheran through
struggle with the Hanseatic traders and
the catholic church he was able to
strengthen the economy of the state and
build a modern army in 1561 sweden
acquired their first lands beyond sweden
and finland as northern estonia became
its vassal having lands in the Baltics
put it on collision course with the
Commonwealth and the Russian czar 'dom
in 1587 the heir to the Swedish throne
Sigismund Vasa became the new ruler of
the Commonwealth as Sigismund was a
classic him being elected was not a
surprise the Polish aristocracy
considered him a good dynastic bet as a
war against Russia was a distinct
possibility in 1592 King John the third
passed away and sieges Mun became
coronated as the new king of Sweden only
two years later such as manure that he
is going to respect the Lutheran's and
rule with the parliaments approval but
unfortunately he would fail to keep this
promise Swedish aristocrats led by the
Kings uncle Charles rebelled against him
in 1597 and the King failed to gain the
help of the Polish Parliament and was
forced to recruit a private mercenary
army in 1598 he landed in Sweden with
Polish German and Hungarian mercenaries
despite early successes such as Minh
lost a battle of linking and had to flee
to Poland eventually Charles was elected
to the Swedish throne in 1600 from this
point on all policies of citizen
revolved around his attempts to reclaim
Sweden he was eager to gain the full
assistance of the Polish aristocracy and
promised to make northern Estonia part
of the Commonwealth this would begin a
war between the two states
Charles landed in Estonia with 15,000
men as Polish forces were busy fighting
in the Moldavian magnate Wars at the
time Estonia was defended by less than
5,000 able-bodied men the swedes quickly
took control of the whole estonia and
entered Livonia sam had to recall
lithuanian headman gen Chaka wit and
polish chancellors Amoy ski from
Moldavia in June of 1601 chukka which
his army was able to win its first great
battle near coking Hassan the Swedes
lost 3,000 and the victory was achieved
on the curtails of the wing kazars the
moist Keys forces had more than 12,000
men and they also moved into the area to
push Charles forces
back soon most of the territory occupied
by the Swede was reconquered with only a
handful of cities remaining the biggest
problem for the Commonwealth was the
fact that they considered the conflict
in the South more pressing and neglected
the fact that Charles was recruiting a
new army back in Sweden to restart his
offensive the Moishe and his army were
sent back to moldova while child
Kuwait's his forces received no payment
or reinforcements a new Swedish
offensive began in 1605 as four
different armies landed in stony and
Livonia and threatened the central city
of the region Riga the Polish leader
chod kuitse tempted to disrupt the enemy
forces and not allow them to organize
but he eventually had to retreat under
the pressure Riga was now under siege
both from the land and the scene
capturing the strategic hub allowed the
enemy forces to cut Livonia from the
commonwealth losing it was not an option
so chod Kuwait's force marched his
troops towards riga to pressure the
swede to dedicate some of their forces
to face him he reached Kerch home on the
26th of September Charles was informed
of the Polish movement and decided to
surprise them by attacking them with all
of his troops during the night of the
27th he marched his army 17 kilometers
towards her home in Latvia
with the Sun rising the Swedes lined up
on the high ground facing the Polish
Lithuanian army on the opposing Hill
their army was ten thousand seven
hundred strong with eight thousand two
hundred infantry and 2,500 cavalry with
an additional 11 cannons King Charles
himself was in charge and he formed his
troops in four lines alternating
infantry and cavalry the first line had
seven infantry tercios and the third one
six the other two lines had an
additional six and five cavalry
squadrons in the second and fourth
cannons were positioned between the
second and the third line each tercio
had a few hundred men and was a mix of
pikemen and r-cube users all the
majority of the Swedish cavalry
consisted of raters Charles knew that
the Polish winged hussars could easily
break his tercios yet he hoped that this
would break their momentum thus allowing
him to then successfully counter-attack
with his cavalry in the second line the
third in the fourth lines were ordered
to move to reinforce the vanguard or
cover the flanking attempts chutki wits
had around 4,000 troops for 3,000
cavalry men mostly winged hussars and a
thousand infantrymen he recognized that
he needed to create numerical
superiority somewhere and therefore
positioned his troops in what was called
the old polish order with a concentrated
left flank here he had 1300 cavalry with
400s R's 200 Raiders and 700 Cossacks
with extreme left covered by 352 tars
and tube cannons right next to the
duenna river his Center consisted of one
thousand infantrymen the Hadoop's with
300 hasar 300 Raiders and five guns
supporting them and on the right 600 huh
czars and 100 Cossacks formed into four
lines 200 hasar stayed in reserves as
the battle will go on and superiority
was achieved on the left the plan was to
push Swedish forces away from the river
and find drier terrain more suitable for
the hasar charges it would seem that
neither side was keen to attack
the polls were numerically inferior
while the Swedes were tired from their
march and didn't enjoy the idea of
defending against the hasar onslaught on
the flatlands jhatka wits needed Charles
to attack so he ordered his Center to
feint a retreat Charles didn't want to
lose the opportunity to finish off the
Commonwealth's army and he commanded his
forces to attack the Swedes wanted to
push the enemy towards the river
so most of their cavalry in the second
line moved to the right flank when the
Swedish infantry in the center reached
the slope just left by the poles they
were attacked by artillery and then
charged down by cavalry Charles's right
side seemingly was unaware of the forces
to their left and when the hussars and
Raiders engaged each other the Swedes
were attacked by the Tatar from behind
there was a disconnect between their
Vanguard and rearguard so the later was
not able to help their comrade and the
artillery was unable to shoot and fear
that volleys would kill their own troops
still the Swedish left was urged for
bites commander while the Polish right
eagerly waited to allow the enemy to
move to dry ground as all foes were tied
down
chod Kuwait's ordered his reserve to
move to the right and outflank from
behind the maneuver was executed
perfectly and the Swedish left was
broken completely in the center the
Swedes were slowly retreating in order
but their own left flank rushed into
tercios during the withdrawal and they
lost their formation half of Charles's
infantry was surrounding Commonwealth
forces chased their opponents all the
way to the camp uriga it was a crushing
complete victory for Chadwicks whose
casualties were 100 lost in 200 wounded
while his troops had killed and captured
over 8,000 Swedes the remaining Swedes
abandoned the siege of riga and either
escaped on their ships or retreated to
their fortresses and despite this
success the general failed to capitalize
on his victory as his unpaid troops
mutiny and left him he had to recruit a
tiny force of mercenaries and paid them
himself finally the war ended
inconclusively in 1611 with the death of
the Swede
King Charles neither side gained new
lands and this war gave way to even
bigger conflicts but that's a tale for
another documentary thank you for
watching our documentary on the polish
Swedish war of sixteen hundred and
sixteen eleven we worked hard on
improving all facets of our video so
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catch you on the next one
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