SENDING MILITARY UNITS RECRUITED IN THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA TO RIGA IN 1700

Summary

GINTAUTAS SLIESORIŪNAS

       The year 1700 is marked in the history of Lithuania by two significant events – the beginning of the Great Northern War and the battle of Valkininkai (on 18 November), which marked the culmination of the internal war in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the GDL), which started at the end of 1697 and which destroyed the fundamentals of the hegemony of the Sapieha family in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. These events are linked by recruitment of new military units and mobilisation of noblemen reservists in the GDL districts carried out in public by declaring the desire to protect the country from the danger of the invasion of the Swedes and to assist King Augustus II in his military campaign near Riga. Officially only one of the states ruled by Augustus II – Saxony – fought against Sweden. Therefore the GDL army could not take part in an attack on Riga. However, Polish and GDL noblemen, encouraged by the King, started recruiting auxiliary units and sending them to Riga. The King hoped to receive support from both antagonistic groups of the GDL – the noblemen Sapieha who dominated in the country for several decades and the “republicans” who fought against them. However, either group first of all saw a danger for itself in military preparedness of the opponent. Therefore the situation inside the GDL became complicated indeed.
       The Great Hetman of the GDL Casimir Sapieha sent the first units – light cavalry (the Tartars) – to Riga in March. At the beginning of April these units already participated in fights. In the spring and summer Casimir Sapieha also sent infantrymen of the Hungarian formation there. Till August it was only the Sapiega who provided the Saxonian Army with real military support. Meetings of the “republicans” that were organised by noblemen and held in the districts of the GDL at that time only declared their desire to assist the King, and real military preparations were sooner directed towards renewing military confrontation with the Sapieha.
       On 3 July 1700 in Warsaw Augustus II agreed with the Hetman of the GDL that the latter, upon receiving 30 thousand thalers from the King, would send 3660 soldiers to Riga by the end of August. The group of the “Republicans” saw in it breach of earlier agreements and laws of the Republic, as well as a threat to themselves. Hetmans of the GDL, having faced violent opposition, were unable to fulfil their obligations to the King. It is probable that Augustus II himself, pressed by the “Republicans”, annulled the agreement. The Sapieha went on recruiting auxiliary units all the same and sent them to the King. However, these were different units from those agreed upon in the agreement, for example, the Hungarian infantrymen. The Polish noblemen who provided military assistance to the King were the Lubomirski and the Sieniawski families who closely co-operated with the Sapieha. In August-September, neutral noblemen of the GDL and those who belonged to the group of the “Republicans” also sent the units that they recruited to Riga but these forces were not abundant, most of them arrived some weeks before the end of the military campaign.
       When Augustus II terminated the military campaign, some part of the units sent by Casimir Sapieha (4 Hungarian infantrymen squds) arrived in Livonia following the cessation of the attack on Riga. Four more of such squods were getting ready for the march to Riga, but Augustus II refused them. The King sent the majority of auxiliary units provided by the Hetman back to the GDL and instructed that they, as well as the units that had been prepared but not sent to Livonia yet, should be stationed on the Sapiehas’ private estates and kept there till the next military campaign. The King included a small part of the infantrymen sent by Casimir Sapieha in the composition of the Saxonian army. Units that had been sent by other noblemen were also returned to the GDL. The instruction of August II to Casimir Sapieha to keep the auxiliary units till another military campaign made the agreement between the Sapieha and the “Republicans”, who demanded that these units should be released, impossible. After the units recruited by the noblemen had returned from Livonia, the antagonistic groups in the GDL concentrated large military forces. The nobility mobilised in the districts of the GDL replenished them. On 18 November 1700, in the vicinity of Valkininkai, the forces of opposing camps of the GDL fought one another, which determined the Sapieha’ defeat in the internal war. The number of the Sapieha’ soldiers totalled 1500 and more than half of them were units that had returned from Livonia and the units that marched to Livonia in October – 500 Tartars and 300 infantrymen of the Hungarian formation.