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Chapter 32: Northern Lights
Part 32: Northern Lights (1620-1622)
Sweden and Livonia's entrance into the conflict messed up Albertas Jogaila I's war plan. A second front had been opened, and one only a hundred miles away from Vilnius itself. Sure, the army of the Livonian Confederation was weak compared to he monstrous masses that Lithuania could project, but keep in mind - Lithuania had to fight both Sweden and Visegrad at the same time, and Livonia would be a great landing spot for Swedish troops aiming for Lithuania Propria. Both the King in Poland and the governors in Lithuania itself were quick to react. The campaign plans to cross the Carpathians and attack Budapest were abandoned, and the Lithuanian army in Poland went on the defensive and a sieging campaign across the region to not overstretch. The Russian voivodeship forces and nobility volunteers in Lithuania were mobilized, and command over the front was placed in the hands of Sergei Ostrogski (Sergejus Ostrogiškis), a Ruthenian general and one of Albertas Jogaila I's favorites. While not an any sort of genius or tactical mastermind, Ostrogski was nevertheless a capable general with a healthy amount of logical sense. In his opinion, the direct border between Sweden and Lithuania, that went through Karelia, was merely a secondary front - it was a narrow isthmus, full of forests and swamps, and only an insane idiot would think of sending an army through there. Livonia will have to be the primary objective of the northern campaign.
Some news from outside of Lithuania came up, too. The Volga Russians, hardy and determined as they are, successfully beat back an another attack by the Kazan Khanate, and even took the fight to them. The Kazan campaign took place from 1617 to 1622, and led to the final destruction of the Khanate. Most of it's southern and southeastern Tatar-populated territories along the river were annexed by the Volgaks directly, while the far northern lands - populated by local tribes like the Komi, Erzya and Moksha Mordvins, Mari and Chuvash - simply separated from the Khanate and began to live an independent life. Small feudal states began to crop up in the upper Volga and to the north, vying for the unification of their culture and sometimes even expanding beyond, which was worrying to the Voivode of Nizhny Novgorod, the most eastern region in Lithuania that now bordered these statelets directly. On the Catholic-Reformist War, news came from the West - French legions successfully pushed back Spanish forces from Savoy and Milan, occupying the two Italian principalities, albeit at a large human cost. Prince Charles of Austria, the Reformist claimant to the crown of the Archduchy, went back on the offensive, renewing the Austrian Civil War and fully entering the greater conflict on the side of the Munich League.
Lithuania, meanwhile, was now focused on Sweden. The Royal Lithuanian Navy left port for the first time in the war to lay down a sea blockade on Livonia and thus prevent them from receiving any Swedish reinforcements. A good strategy, but it was broken to pieces as soon as the Swedish moved their main fleet - a much bigger and more modern force - to the Baltic. In May of 1621, the Lithuanian and Swedish fleets clashed at the Irbe Strait Skirmish, a short engagement which nevertheless saw a decisive end to the blockade of Livonia. The Lithuanian fleet only had two galleons alongside the numerous small ships - the Princas Albertas and the Jūrų raitelis - both of which were sunk. The Swedes had six, and only one of them received any damage, that being to the mast. With the blockade defeated and the Lithuanian navy forced to stay in port for the rest of the war, the path was open for Swedish reinforcements in Livonia.
And they needed them more than ever.
The Livonian army - still for the most part organized under feudal ideas and not up to par to European standard - captured a few towns in Kurzeme, but was soon forced to retreat with the appearance of Sergei Ostrogski's 25 000 men army coming from the east. Crossing the Daugava at Polotsk, the army moved along the river with their primary target being Riga. Dynaburg, the southern fortress of the Livonian nation, was the first to fall, doing so after a siege during the fall of 1620. The first Swedish soldiers, a regiment of 3000 men, landed in Reval around that time as well - further reinforcements were prevented by a lengthy campaign in Norway and Denmark, however. Compared to most other armies across Europe at the time, the Swedish army was an oddity - due to the country's sparse population, it was unable to either field large armies en masse like Lithuania, nor could it spend lots of money on an efficient mercenary corps like the Netherlands. It's forces, however, relied on strict discipline, standing professional forces and keeping up to date with the most recent technological advancements - a module that was already being adopted by it's neighbours and even farther nations, to the point that one could say that Sweden sparked a "military revolution" of some sorts.
Swedish musket infantry
While Ostrogski's forces were slowly advancing north during winter, short engagements and skirmishes echoed across Karelia. The Novgorod voivodeship infantry clashed with Swedish levied troops from Finland in the Karelian Isthmus. Neither side was able to gain an advantage due to the small sizes of the forces and ineffective tactics in such an environment, plus, the freezing weather killed far more soldiers on both sides than they could themselves. The Baltic Sea was almost completely frozen in that winter, so the Swedes could not bring any more men to relieve Livonia - they did, however, prepare for a possible invasion of Lithuania through Karelia.
On the Visegrad front, the main Lithuanian army finally captured Krakow, spending over six months on the siege and losing a sizable portion of their army. Albertas Jogaila I was growing impatient. The Bear was being held back by two Westerner countries, and that didn't resonate well with him - additional armies were demanded to be raised over the next year for a "final blow to the West". On the first months of 1621, an army sent by Pomerania crossed the Vistula and defeated the Lithuanian troops in East Prussia, but were unable to advance any more forward due to heavy attrition and stiff opposition. In Livonia, things were heading to a far different direction. Bolstered by additional volunteers from Courland and Polotsk, the northern Lithuanian army began a second offensive. Throughout the spring, Ostrogski's army captured Kreutzburg, Ascheraden and Kircholm and were now on the doorstep of Riga, the largest city in the whole Confederation.
Swedish forces were too late to arrive, and the Livonian feudal army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Segewold (Sigulda) on June of 1621, in a battle that supposedly only took about 40 minutes. The Lithuanian Chronicle describes that the orderly Lithuanian musketeer troops only had to fire a few volleys before the Livonians were weakened enough for the cavalry to pick them apart, though the accuracy of the statement is still up for grabs. With Segewold lost, Riga was surrounded, and the castle was besieged. After two months of siege and bombardment, the city surrendered, and the heart of Livonia fell to the hands of the Lithuanians. Sergei Ostrogski began negotiations with the government of the city on their status after the end of Livonia, offering the city - without informing the King - autonomy status like what was given to cities in East Prussia after the final Teutonic-Lithuanian War.
Of course, the war was still not own. The Lithuanian forces occupied most of Latgale during the summer of 1621, destroying old Livonian government structures in preparation of ushering in a new Lithuanian administration. Albertas Jogaila I approved on the plan of a complete annexation of Livonia - to him, this German-dominated state was like a sharp blade stabbing his country towards the heart. The heart being Vilnius. However, over 10 000 Swedish soldiers were now in Livonia, too, based in Reval and the region of Estland around it. The Battle of Voru in September between a Swedish regiment and a Lithuanian cavalry raider party saw the slowdown of the Lithuanian advance into Livonia, and the Pernau Campaign in the fall and winter of 1621, where Ostrogski's army tried to break into Estland and capture Reval, proved to be a victory for the Catholics. The Lithuanians were pushed back from Reval, and while they held onto Pernau and eventually took Dorpat and Narva, the Livonia campaign was no longer a victorious ride over a weaker country.
The Swedes established a defensive perimeter in the Reval region, holding onto this heart of Estland as hard as possible. Food supplies and the freezing sea wouldn't let them stay here forever, but Albertas Jogaila I was impatient. And he had a reason to be impatient. Because if Livonia holds on despite being overrun and becomes a thorn in his war effort, then how will he be able to achieve his "victorious march to the West" that he always wanted?
Something had to be done about this situation...
Part 32: Northern Lights (1620-1622)
Some news from outside of Lithuania came up, too. The Volga Russians, hardy and determined as they are, successfully beat back an another attack by the Kazan Khanate, and even took the fight to them. The Kazan campaign took place from 1617 to 1622, and led to the final destruction of the Khanate. Most of it's southern and southeastern Tatar-populated territories along the river were annexed by the Volgaks directly, while the far northern lands - populated by local tribes like the Komi, Erzya and Moksha Mordvins, Mari and Chuvash - simply separated from the Khanate and began to live an independent life. Small feudal states began to crop up in the upper Volga and to the north, vying for the unification of their culture and sometimes even expanding beyond, which was worrying to the Voivode of Nizhny Novgorod, the most eastern region in Lithuania that now bordered these statelets directly. On the Catholic-Reformist War, news came from the West - French legions successfully pushed back Spanish forces from Savoy and Milan, occupying the two Italian principalities, albeit at a large human cost. Prince Charles of Austria, the Reformist claimant to the crown of the Archduchy, went back on the offensive, renewing the Austrian Civil War and fully entering the greater conflict on the side of the Munich League.
Lithuania, meanwhile, was now focused on Sweden. The Royal Lithuanian Navy left port for the first time in the war to lay down a sea blockade on Livonia and thus prevent them from receiving any Swedish reinforcements. A good strategy, but it was broken to pieces as soon as the Swedish moved their main fleet - a much bigger and more modern force - to the Baltic. In May of 1621, the Lithuanian and Swedish fleets clashed at the Irbe Strait Skirmish, a short engagement which nevertheless saw a decisive end to the blockade of Livonia. The Lithuanian fleet only had two galleons alongside the numerous small ships - the Princas Albertas and the Jūrų raitelis - both of which were sunk. The Swedes had six, and only one of them received any damage, that being to the mast. With the blockade defeated and the Lithuanian navy forced to stay in port for the rest of the war, the path was open for Swedish reinforcements in Livonia.
And they needed them more than ever.
The Livonian army - still for the most part organized under feudal ideas and not up to par to European standard - captured a few towns in Kurzeme, but was soon forced to retreat with the appearance of Sergei Ostrogski's 25 000 men army coming from the east. Crossing the Daugava at Polotsk, the army moved along the river with their primary target being Riga. Dynaburg, the southern fortress of the Livonian nation, was the first to fall, doing so after a siege during the fall of 1620. The first Swedish soldiers, a regiment of 3000 men, landed in Reval around that time as well - further reinforcements were prevented by a lengthy campaign in Norway and Denmark, however. Compared to most other armies across Europe at the time, the Swedish army was an oddity - due to the country's sparse population, it was unable to either field large armies en masse like Lithuania, nor could it spend lots of money on an efficient mercenary corps like the Netherlands. It's forces, however, relied on strict discipline, standing professional forces and keeping up to date with the most recent technological advancements - a module that was already being adopted by it's neighbours and even farther nations, to the point that one could say that Sweden sparked a "military revolution" of some sorts.
Swedish musket infantry
While Ostrogski's forces were slowly advancing north during winter, short engagements and skirmishes echoed across Karelia. The Novgorod voivodeship infantry clashed with Swedish levied troops from Finland in the Karelian Isthmus. Neither side was able to gain an advantage due to the small sizes of the forces and ineffective tactics in such an environment, plus, the freezing weather killed far more soldiers on both sides than they could themselves. The Baltic Sea was almost completely frozen in that winter, so the Swedes could not bring any more men to relieve Livonia - they did, however, prepare for a possible invasion of Lithuania through Karelia.
On the Visegrad front, the main Lithuanian army finally captured Krakow, spending over six months on the siege and losing a sizable portion of their army. Albertas Jogaila I was growing impatient. The Bear was being held back by two Westerner countries, and that didn't resonate well with him - additional armies were demanded to be raised over the next year for a "final blow to the West". On the first months of 1621, an army sent by Pomerania crossed the Vistula and defeated the Lithuanian troops in East Prussia, but were unable to advance any more forward due to heavy attrition and stiff opposition. In Livonia, things were heading to a far different direction. Bolstered by additional volunteers from Courland and Polotsk, the northern Lithuanian army began a second offensive. Throughout the spring, Ostrogski's army captured Kreutzburg, Ascheraden and Kircholm and were now on the doorstep of Riga, the largest city in the whole Confederation.
Swedish forces were too late to arrive, and the Livonian feudal army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Segewold (Sigulda) on June of 1621, in a battle that supposedly only took about 40 minutes. The Lithuanian Chronicle describes that the orderly Lithuanian musketeer troops only had to fire a few volleys before the Livonians were weakened enough for the cavalry to pick them apart, though the accuracy of the statement is still up for grabs. With Segewold lost, Riga was surrounded, and the castle was besieged. After two months of siege and bombardment, the city surrendered, and the heart of Livonia fell to the hands of the Lithuanians. Sergei Ostrogski began negotiations with the government of the city on their status after the end of Livonia, offering the city - without informing the King - autonomy status like what was given to cities in East Prussia after the final Teutonic-Lithuanian War.
Of course, the war was still not own. The Lithuanian forces occupied most of Latgale during the summer of 1621, destroying old Livonian government structures in preparation of ushering in a new Lithuanian administration. Albertas Jogaila I approved on the plan of a complete annexation of Livonia - to him, this German-dominated state was like a sharp blade stabbing his country towards the heart. The heart being Vilnius. However, over 10 000 Swedish soldiers were now in Livonia, too, based in Reval and the region of Estland around it. The Battle of Voru in September between a Swedish regiment and a Lithuanian cavalry raider party saw the slowdown of the Lithuanian advance into Livonia, and the Pernau Campaign in the fall and winter of 1621, where Ostrogski's army tried to break into Estland and capture Reval, proved to be a victory for the Catholics. The Lithuanians were pushed back from Reval, and while they held onto Pernau and eventually took Dorpat and Narva, the Livonia campaign was no longer a victorious ride over a weaker country.
The Swedes established a defensive perimeter in the Reval region, holding onto this heart of Estland as hard as possible. Food supplies and the freezing sea wouldn't let them stay here forever, but Albertas Jogaila I was impatient. And he had a reason to be impatient. Because if Livonia holds on despite being overrun and becomes a thorn in his war effort, then how will he be able to achieve his "victorious march to the West" that he always wanted?
Something had to be done about this situation...
- Augenis
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