On 30 December 1658 the Swedish garrison marched out of Toruń, ending a siege begun in July by the armies of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Emperor. Toruń had been one of Sweden's strongest fortresses on the Vistula, and on 1 January 1659 King John Casimir rode into the city.1
A Swedish fortress on the Vistula
By 1658 Toruń was one of the strongest Swedish fortresses on the Vistula. Its garrison numbered more than 2,500 men according to Bogusław Dybaś, 2,400 according to Jerzy Ronikier and 2,300 to 2,500 according to Aleksander Baczkowski.2
The siege began in July 1658, when Imperial troops under General Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches arrived before the city, and Polish forces followed. In September and October more Polish troops came up, including the division of Field Hetman Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, and the besieging army grew to about 23,000 men; Ronikier counts 18,700 Polish and 4,600 Imperial soldiers. King John Casimir was nominally in command, but Lubomirski held the real command.3
The assault and the capitulation
Lubomirski pressed for an assault, and Dybaś, who studied the archive plans of the siege, places it on the night of 16 to 17 November. The Toruń museum dates a night attack, which it describes as a bombardment, to the same night, while Ronikier's lexicon entry gives the night of 16 to 17 September. The city was not taken, but the attackers seized bastions on its western side, and both Dybaś and Ronikier write that this decided the fortress's fate.4
On 22 December the terms of surrender were agreed, and they were mild for the Swedes, who were allowed to leave the city with honor. On 30 December the garrison marched out and the siege was over. On 1 January 1659 John Casimir made his ceremonial entry into Toruń, and a Polish garrison of 1,300 men took over the city.5
What it meant
Aleksander Baczkowski, writing on the campaign of 1659, says the capture of Toruń was of key importance for the allied plans for an offensive northward, weakened the Swedish position in Prussia and opened the way toward Prussia and the Vistula delta. The war ended with the Peace of Oliva in 1660. Dates here follow the Gregorian calendar used in Poland.6
