19 July in military history: Battle of Kliszów, 1702

19 July 1702 · 324 years ago

A king hunting a king

According to Waldemar Kowalski of the Polish Press Agency, Augustus II, King of Poland, fought Sweden in the Great Northern War as Elector of Saxony, alongside Russia, Brandenburg and Denmark, while the Commonwealth itself stayed formally neutral until 1704. Charles had called for Augustus to be dethroned as early as 1701, in Kowalski's account, and again on the march, in Korzon's. In May 1702 the Swedes entered Warsaw without a fight, and there, Bain writes, Charles demanded that a Diet be convened to depose Augustus.¹

In R. Nisbet Bain's account, Augustus's best general, Flemming, saw a chance in Charles's small army and urged the king to strike before it could be reinforced; the Saxon army marched out of Kraków and camped at Kliszów, where a Polish army under Grand Hetman Lubomirski joined it. Mörner's tired troops reached the Swedish camp only on the evening before the battle.²

The numbers vary. Tadeusz Korzon gives Augustus 21,000 men, about 11,000 of them Saxons, with Poles, Tatars and Wallachians. Bain gives 19,000 Saxons and about 6,000 Poles. Kowalski gives Augustus's army as 18,000 to 20,000, including 3,000 Poles under Lubomirski, or 6,500 by other estimates. The Swedish relation given in the history by Charles's chamberlain, Gustavus Adlerfeld, puts the crown army alone at 12,000. For the Swedes, Adlerfeld and Kowalski give 12,000 and Bain about 10,000.³

Across the marshes

Korzon, Kowalski and the German biographer of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp date the battle 19 July 1702. The relation in Adlerfeld and the catalogue of the Swedish Army Museum date it 9 July. The two dates are ten days apart: according to the historian Jürgen Beyer, the calendar used in Sweden from 1700 to 1712 ran one day ahead of the Julian calendar and ten days behind the Gregorian.⁴

The Swedish army was under arms by about six in the morning and passed through woods toward the allied camp. The position was strong: marshes covered its front, a morass curved in a half circle behind the camp, and guns on a rise commanded the approaches. Rather than attack it head-on, Charles turned his army to the left, toward higher ground clear of the morass, and the allies had to shift their own line.⁵

The fighting began at about two in the afternoon. The relation in Adlerfeld says that the duke was hit in the body by a falconet shot as he prepared to advance, was carried to a cottage nearby and died a few hours later. Bain has him mortally wounded at the moment Charles gave the signal. Korzon writes that he fell dead from the first cannon shot, aimed by M. Kątski.⁶

Lubomirski's horse stood on the allied right. Kowalski describes two failed charges by hussars and pancerni; the second, by four hussar and six pancerni banners, 380 to 580 men depending on the estimate, met heavy Swedish fire, and several dozen Poles fell, among them Lieutenant Jan Krosnowski, who led it. In the Swedish relation the Poles withstood two shocks but not a third. Bain writes that pikemen placed between the Swedish squadrons stopped the lancers, who stood one volley and galloped off. Korzon has Lubomirski charging at the head of one hussar banner and then ordering the retreat. The relation has the Poles fleeing through the village of Kije, Kowalski has them withdrawing to it.⁷

Korzon writes that Lubomirski quit the field "treacherously" with the whole Polish army, to oblige the Sapiehas, his in-laws (our translation). Bain says Lubomirski later explained that he had heard a rumor that Charles and Augustus were plotting to ruin Poland. According to Kowalski, the hetman blamed the Swedish obstacles, poor reconnaissance and the enemy's fire, and the historian Radosław Sikora argues that wooden chevaux-de-frise, not musketry, turned the hussars back.⁸

With the Poles gone, the Swedes attacked the Saxon right, where Augustus's general Flemming was wounded twice. On the other flank the Saxon left wing fell on the Swedish right in front, flank and rear, but the Swedish cavalry held and finally drove the Saxon horse into the morass behind the camp. The relation in Adlerfeld says that many drowned there and that the rest escaped only because the season was very dry. In the relation, the Swedish foot broke the Saxon infantry in the center. Bain writes that Charles sent cavalry squadrons to help his hard-pressed infantry there and that the battle was over by half past four; the relation speaks of four hours of fighting, after which Charles entered the allied camp at six in the evening to kettledrums and trumpets.⁹

Voices from the field

One Polish account of the second charge, quoted by Kowalski, complains: "na samą piechotę skoczyć kazano, prowadząc z gołymi brzuchami kawalerię naszą, jak na jatki" ("they ordered us to charge the infantry itself, leading our cavalry with bare bellies, as into a slaughterhouse", our translation). Kowalski adds that the name of Kije was later used in satire: "Woleli swój grzbiet uchylić pod Kije/ Niżeli kruszyć o Szwedów kopije" ("They preferred to bend their backs under the sticks of Kije / Than to break their lances on the Swedes", our translation).¹⁰

Charles wrote to his younger sister some days after the battle, as Bain gives it in English: "I hope that our Lord may comfort you all in this exceeding great sorrow of ours, and especially sister Hedwig [the widow], that she may not fret herself too sorely over this calamity". According to the relation in Adlerfeld, a Te Deum was sung in the camp that evening, and the duke's body was embalmed and later carried to Holstein.¹¹

Counting the cost

The Swedish relation in Adlerfeld gives 300 Swedes killed and 800 wounded, with the foot guards suffering most. It puts the enemy's loss at nearly 2,000 killed and wounded besides 1,700 prisoners, and a footnote in the English edition adds that Pufendorf counted 4,000 Saxons killed and 2,000 taken prisoner, not reckoning the Poles. Bain writes that the enemy lost 3,300 killed and wounded, "the Swedes about 2000".¹²

The Saxons lost their artillery and baggage. The relation lists 48 cannon found in the camp, and Kowalski 48 guns and 36 banners and royal standards. In the mud behind the camp, the relation says, the Swedes found Augustus's equipage with his mules, plate and military chest. Sweden's Army Museum still holds a percussion instrument, a puka, whose catalogue entry reads "Erövrad i slaget vid Klissow 1702" ("Captured at the battle of Klissow 1702", our translation).¹³

The road to Kraków

According to the relation, Augustus fell back by Pińczów onto the road to Kraków, while the Poles made for Sandomierz. Korzon writes that Augustus fled to Kraków but did not dare defend it and went on to Sandomierz. According to Korzon, Charles took Kraków on 10 August with a bold ruse; Bain has Charles before the city three weeks after the battle.¹⁴

In Bain, Charles and Stenbock came to the gate with 300 men, and while the commandant parleyed Charles cried "Ouvrez la porte!"; the Swedes then rushed the gate and the garrison surrendered. In Adlerfeld's account, Charles, unrecognized, ordered the governor in French to open, "Ouvre la porte", and when he got no answer had the gates attacked and forced.¹⁵

Bain judged that "The honour of the victory of Klissov belongs entirely to Charles XII", because the tactics were the king's own. Kowalski writes that Kliszów is generally taken to be the last time the hussars were used in battle. Their great victories are told in the winged hussars' greatest battles.¹⁶