Lisowczycy
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Lisowczyk - painting by Juliusz Kossak, circa 1860-65, a copy of Rembrandt's famous painting. Art historians now believe this to be a portrait of a Polish nobleman Marcjan Aleksander Oginski, made in c.1655. It has little to do with the Lisowczycy, though much of the clothing and war gear would have been similar that worn by the real Lisowczyks of 30 years earlier. |
Lisowczycy (also known as
Straceńcy ('lost men' or '
forlorn hope') or
chorągiew elearska (company of elears); or in singular form:
Lisowczyk or
elear) - the name of the infamous early
17th century irregular unit of
light cavalry in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They were characterized as extremely agile, warlike, and bloodthirsty and took part in many battles across Europe. Their numbers varied with time, from a few hundreds to several thousands.
The origin of the group can be traced to
konfederacja (a form of semi-legal mutiny of royal forces, practiced in the Commonwealth), organized around
1604 by
Aleksander Józef Lisowski. They began to grow in strength and fame a few years later, when Lisowski's irregulars were incorporated into the forces fighting in
Muscovy. The Lisowczycy unit of
Polish cavalry (
chorągiew) received no formal wages; instead, they were allowed to loot and plunder as they pleased. They relied on their speed and fought without
tabors, foraging supplies from lands they moved through. The Lisowczycy were feared and despised by civilians wherever they passed and they gained dubious fame for the scores of atrocities they carried out (pillage, rape, murder and other outrages). However, they were also grudgingly respected by their opponents for their military skills. They did not hesitate to plunder even their homeland, where they sacked the
Akademia Rakowska university of the
Polish brethren. Such actions were among of the reasons Polish king
Sigismund III Vasa tried to keep them away from the Commonwealth as for as long as possible.
The Lisowczycy took part in many conflicts, including the
Dymitriads (where their actions help explain the text of the infamous placard in
Zagorsk:
three plagues: typhus, Tatars, Poles) and in the
Battle of White Mountain (where they were essential in lifting the
Transylvanian siege of
Vienna and
Bohemia's defeat). They were eventually disbanded in
1635.
An account of Lisowczycy's exploits was written by their
chaplain,
Wojciech Dembołęcki (or Wojciech Debolecki), in
Przewagi Elearów polskich co ich niegdy Lisowczykami zwano (1619-1623) (
Deeds of Polish Elears once known as Lisowczycy (1619-1623)).
In
1604, during the early stages of the
Polish-Swedish War, the
Sejm of the Commonwealth failed to gather the money to pay its soldiers fighting in
Livonia against the Swedes.
Aleksander Józef Lisowski became one of the leaders of the resulting
konfederacja - a section of the army that mutinied and decided to gather its outstanding wages by pillaging local civilians, not caring whether these owed their allegiance to Poland or to Sweden. Although this annoyed the Polish commander,
Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, and resulted in Lisowski being banished from Poland, little was done to stop the mutineers. Soon after, Lisowski with his followers joined the Sandomierz rebellion or
rokosz of Zebrzydowski, a revolt against the
absolutist tendencies of the Polish king
Sigismund III Vasa.
Eventually, after the rebel forces were defeated at the
Battle of Guzow, Lisowski's fortunes turned for the worse and he became
persona non grata in most of the Commonwealth, and was forced to seek refuge with the powerful
Radziwill family. In the meantime, Muscovy's
Time of Troubles were brewing, and Lisowski did not pass over the opportunity of profiting from this, as many other local
magnates and noblemen already had, by meddling in
Russian affairs. He soon decided he could profit best by lending his support to the Muscovite
pretender,
False Dmitry II.
In
1608, together with
Aleksander Kleczkowski, leading his forces - a band of few hundred ragtag
soldiers of fortune, mainly
Don Cossacks,
Ruthenians,
Tatars, Germans, Swedes, Poles, Lithuanians - he defeated the armies of
tsar Vasili Shuisky, led by
Zakhary Lyapunov and
Ivan Khovansky, near
Zaraysk and captured
Mikhailov and
Kolomna, moving on to
blockade Moscow. However, he was soon to be defeated at
Niedźwiedzi Bród, losing most of his loot. He reorganized the army and joined with
Jan Piotr Sapieha, but they failed to capture the
Troitse-Sergieva Lavra fortress and were forced to retreat to near
Rakhmantsevo. Then came successful pillages at
Kostroma,
Soligalich, and some other cities (those battles took place around
1608-
1609). He took
Pskov in
1610 and clashed with Swedes operating in Muscovy during the
Ingrian War. The Lisowczycy proved essential in the defence of
Smolensk in
1612, when most of Polish regular army, the (
wojsko kwarciane), mutined and joined the Rohatyn Confederation. For the next three years Lisowski's forces were of importance in the guarding of the Polish border against
Muscovy incursions. In
1615, Lisowski gathered many outlaws and invaded Muscovy with 6 companies of cavalry. He besieged
Bryansk and defeated the Muscovite relief force of a few thousand soldiers under
Kniaz Yuri Shakhovskoy near
Karachev. Lisowski moved on to defeat the Muscovite advance guard of a force (several times larger than his) under the command of Kniaz
Dmitry Pozharsky, who decided to not to attack and fortified his forces inside a camp. Lisowski's men broke contact with other forces, burned
Belyov and
Likhvin, took
Peremyshl, turned north, defeated a Muscovite army at
Rzhev, turned towards the
Kara Sea coast, then to
Kashin, burned
Torzhok, returned to Poland without any further contact with Muscovy forces. Until the autumn of
1616, Lisowski and his forces remained on the Polish-Muscovy border, when Lisowski suddenly fell ill and died on
October 11.
The name of
Lisowczycy was carried by the troops ever since Lisowski's passing. Despite his death, they remained a most sigificant threat: in 1616 they captured
Kursk and defeated Russian forces at
Bolkhov, in
1617 relieved Smolensk from a Muscovite siege - the invading troops retreated to
Biała as soon as they received news that the Lisowczycy, then under the command of
Stnaisław Czapiński, were in the neighbourhood. When Czapiński died at
Kaluga, Lisowczycy elected
Walenty Rogawski for the new commander. They accompanied Władysław's forces in
1617, and while he retreated, they are said to have moved inland as far as the
Ob River, where they were are shown to have been impressed by a giant golden statue (possibly a
Buddha, but also attachable to the
Zlota Baba myth).
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Lisowczyk. Another modern impression, after Rembrandt's famous picture. Painting by Dariusz T. Wielec. |
From
1619, the Lisowczycy, then stationed near
Kowno, were sent by Sigismund III Vasa to aid
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor against the
Protestants in the
Thirty Years' War. Under the command of
Walenty Rogowski, they defeated
Transylvanian forces under
George I Rákóczi at the
Battle of Zavada and/or
Battle of Humienne in November of that year. After the victory, they engaged in their traditional pastime, plundering nearby lands, 'killing even children and dogs', as contemporary chroniclers recorded. It was around that time that they gained their new nickane:
Riders of the Apocalypse.
Then Lisowczycy split: part of them, with Rogowski, decided to return to Poland, pillaging
Slovakia on their way. Others, under
Jarosz Kleczkowski, remained in the service of the Emperor for the next few years. After the death of Kleczkowski (
March 4 1620) at the
Battle of Krems,
Stanisław Rusinowski became the new commander of the Lisowczycy. Under Rusinski, the Lisowczycy took part in the Battle of White Mountain (
November 8) where they captured twenty
standards. On
May 7 1621, the Emperor payed them their outstanding wages and released them from service, due to numerous complains about their behaviour. Some of the Lisowczycy returned to Poland, others served under
Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria.
The Lisowczycy fought in the wars between Commonwealth and the
Ottoman Empire, not least in the last phase of the
Polish magnates' wars in Moldavia.
*
Battle of Cecora*
Battle of ChocimAfter the conflict with the Ottomans was settled, many Lisowczycy, then under the command of
Stanisław Stroynowski, were taken into German employment during the mayhem of the Thirty Year's War, mostly in support of the
Roman Catholic Emperor, against his Protestant enemies. Their indiscipline and pillaging became legendary, and they devastated the nearby German lands of the
Holy Roman Empire, especially
Silesia. The local population often believed it was being attacked by
Tatar hordes or non-European
barbarians. Eventually, after the French declined to employ Lisowczycy mercenaries, and other sides of the conflict turned them down as well, in
1622 Stroynowski decided to officially disband the unit and return to the Commonwealth.
However, the Lisowczycy proved to be a
pestilence wherever they went, and soon most of its members formed
bandit groups, pillaging the Polish and German countryside and burning down the town of
Radomsko. Condemned by the
szlachta and by many
sejmiks, they were increasingly hunted down by local government forces and militias. Stroynowski's group was destroyed in
1624, and he himself was executed two years later.
The last time that companies using the Lisowczycy name took part in a major war was during the late
1620s, when they were temporarily reformed to fight in Poland's continuing conflict against the Swedes in Polish
Prussia, yet another stage of the
Polish-Swedish War - the same conflict that set Aleksander Lisowski on the path to forming the unit that was to bear his name. These Lisowczycy were finally disbanded by an
act of the
Sejm, in
1636.
Even after the formation was disbanded, its members were respected (or at least, feared) even beyond the Polish Commonwealth. Soon, their atrocities were forgotten and their exploits as the defenders of the Commonwealth and faith against the
Orthodox,
Protestants and
Muslims turned them into a legend which lives on to this day.
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Offices in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
