Anniversary of Polish-Lithuanian triumph at the conflict of Orsza.
Today, in our calendar, we will look at the first period of King Sigismund I's regulation called Old or Lenie.
Sigismund did not immediately become king of Poland. He first inherited from his dead brother, Alexander, the Lithuanian throne. As Grand Duke, he began his reign by grabbing arms, as the country was attacked by Moscow. From 1507 to 1508 he fought a war with her, which he won, but did not request in the treaty a peaceful return of all the lands plundered in fresh years. Only the city returned to Lithuania Lubecz with the surrounding area.
Meanwhile, there was a Moldovan invasion on Podole and Volyn. Starosta sanotki Mikołaj Kamieniecki carried out respective retaliatory expeditions, during which he repeatedly crushed overwhelming forces of Moldova and Tatar, creating an ethos of a fresh kind of riding – the rak banners called Hussarism. The utilized forces were very frequently combined, which forced a notorious deficiency of money on the military.
In specified conditions the alleged Old Polish war art was born, i.e. the economical way of playing battles utilizing a combination of a large amount of dense and light nobility driving, assisted by a fewer infantry and artillery. According to her assumptions, the infantry and cannons were only to halt the enemy's attack, while the destructive cavalry charge was breaking down its main forces. The fresh fighting kind proved unrivalled in clashes with Moscow, Moldova, Tatars as well as Turkey and Sweden and gave Poland 200 years of military supremacy over all its neighbours.
The above tactics, adapted perfectly to the battlefields of the 16th and 17th centuries, did not work only during sieges, whose conduct by the usually weak infantry and artillery, was the main (along with problems with pay) pain of the Polish army. Although almost all conflict in the field ended with a victory, it was impossible to conquer cities and defensive fortresses, and chronic military actions led to desertion and rebellion of the badly paid army.
The negative effect of the old Polish martial arts (or possibly more of its systemic conditions) was so the full inability to win the war overall. This paradox, combined with the typical superstition of pacifism, created a purely defensive attitude of political and command circles, which usually focused only on defending their own territory and rejecting the anticipation of offensive initiative.
Additionally, the deficiency of a permanent army and leaving the decision to mobilize troops in the hands of the Sejm and the Seymists frequently resulted in the fact that before the draft resolution was passed, the unguarded provinces were already on fire.
In the second decade of the 16th century, the Habsburg-Moscow alliance against the Jagillons was increasingly marked. Trying to strengthen his alliance with Hungary, Zygmunt married in 1512 the daughter of the local magnate, Barbara Zapoly. In 1514 a fresh Moscow invasion of Lithuania began.
After a fewer months of siege, a key fortress fell in the east – Smolensk. The defeat of Lithuanian forces has already resulted in a rather public signing of the anti-Polish alliance between Maximilian I, the German Emperor, Vasyl III, the Grand Duke of Moscow and Albrecht Hohenzollern, master of the Teutonic Order.
The aim of the alliance was to strike together the following year and to dismantle Poland and Lithuania. The clear-minded Polish elites led to 35,000 soldiers, mainly driving. On 8 September 1514, the Polish-Lithuanian army commanded by the excellent leader, the hetman Konstanty Ostrogski, met with nearly 80,000 Moscow troops at Orsza.
The climax of the clash was the order by the hetman, a staged retreat towards the close gorge. The scheming went well, and Moscow riding went after the Lithuanians in pursuit. shortly upon the amazed enemies, beaten in a narrow ravine, an avalanche of fire fell from gunsmiths and guns.
The demolition of the cavalry began the demolition of the full Moscow army. The Polish side moved to attack in the center and on flanks. shortly the forces of the enemy and his panic escape were broken. Poles and Lithuanians pursued Moscals as far as the Kropiwna River, 4 kilometres from the battlefield. Many enemy soldiers fell on this episode.
The winning conflict did not lead to Smolensk's recovery, but was exceptionally successfully utilized propaganda; the combined Habsburg-Crescent-Moscow attack failed, and the anti-Jagiello league was broken. At a convention in Vienna in 1515, Emperor Maximilian vowed to break off his alliance with Moscow and end with the support of the Teutonic Order.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
