Several Polish historians date to 9 October 1621 the peace that ended the Ottoman siege of the Polish-Lithuanian camp at Khotyn, on the Dniester. A Polish camp diary and the Ottoman chroniclers cited by Hammer put the agreement a few days earlier, and the peace was confirmed in Istanbul only in 1623. On 28 September 1708, by the date in Peter the Great's journal, which Russia's Presidential Library prints together with 9 October, Peter's troops attacked General Lewenhaupt's Swedish corps and its supply train at Lesnaya, in today's Belarus. Swedish accounts date the battle 29 September. Both sides claimed the field, but the Swedes lost their train, and Peter called Lesnaya the mother of Poltava.
One barrel of powder
In September 1621 Sultan Osman II besieged the Polish-Lithuanian army and its Zaporozhian Cossack allies in fortified camps by the castle of Khotyn, on the Dniester. Their commander, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, died on 24 September. The last general assault failed: Tretiak and the Museum of Polish History date it 28 September, the Ottoman chroniclers cited by Hammer 27 September. The defenders had a single barrel of powder left, Tretiak and the museum write. That evening, Tretiak writes, a council at Prince Władysław's quarters resolved to send envoys at once, while the repulse was fresh and could not be read as fear. They were Stanisław Żórawiński and Jakub Sobieski, father of the future King John III.1
Talks in four languages
Tretiak dates the envoys' first audience with the grand vizier, Dilaver Pasha, to 1 October. The go-betweens were Radu Mihnea, prince of Wallachia, and his envoy Constantin Vevelli. No one in the Polish camp knew Turkish, Tretiak writes, and the museum describes each article passing from Polish into Romanian, then Greek and only then Turkish.2
The envoys refused tribute. Gifts could be given in friendship, they said as Tretiak quotes them, "ale żeby o nich w paktach wzmianka nie była, boby się to już znaczyło poddaństwo" ("but there must be no mention of them in the pacts, for that would already mean subjection", our translation). On 3 October Dilaver opened "że kłaniać się ma mniejszy większemu" ("that the lesser must bow to the greater", our translation) and threatened that the Tatars would fight all winter and the sultan return in spring; Żórawiński answered that it was still in God's hands who was the lesser and who the greater, and the vizier changed his tone.3
Four dates for one peace
The sources print four dates. Hammer reports 6 October from the Ottoman chroniclers and 8 October from Tytlewski, whose treaty text he calls wholly apocryphal, and writes that their dates cannot be reconciled. A Polish camp diary printed by Tretiak has under 7 October: "Przed wieczorem przymierze stanęło" ("Before evening the treaty was concluded", our translation). Tretiak writes that the pacts were exchanged on 9 October, the date also given by Anusik, Kołodziejczyk and the museum. That evening, he writes, the Ottoman camp lit up with thousands of candles and the Zaporozhians answered with a salvo. The sultan or his army left on 9 October according to Hammer's Ottoman sources, Emecen and the museum, and on 10 October according to the diary and Tretiak.4
In the museum's account the Polish text called the presents for the Crimean khan customary gifts and the Ottoman text called them tribute, so each side could claim success; Krzywy, of the Wilanów Palace Museum, also writes of two divergent versions. Kołodziejczyk and the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine make the Dniester the border, and with Emecen they have Khotyn left to Moldavia, an Ottoman vassal. The campaign was proclaimed a great victory, Emecen writes; Sobieski, in Tretiak's account, counted the peace only half a victory.5
Confirmed in Istanbul
The treaty called for a grand envoy to confirm it in Constantinople. Before he went, the janissaries deposed and killed Osman II in May 1622. Krzysztof Zbaraski set out on 10 September 1622, Krzywy writes, with about 1,200 people, Anusik of more than a thousand. In Krzywy's account the Turks had lost their copy of the Khotyn text, and Zbaraski, sure of it, had the document altered, dropping the clause on a permanent ambassador in Istanbul; there was no question of tribute.6
Hammer writes that the peace, in 19 articles, was concluded only after Mere Hüseyin Pasha became grand vizier, chiefly through the mediation of the English ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe; the margin date 18 February 1623 stands beside the line that names both Mere Hüseyin's appointment and the peace. The museum writes that the peace was sworn in 1623 and that the Ottoman document was issued by Osman's younger brother, Murad IV. Zbaraski was home by 23 May 1623, when he wrote "żem się tu już z przymierzem wrócił" ("I have already come back here with the treaty", our translation).7
Battle of Lesnaya, 1708: the convoy that never reached Charles XII
9 October 1708 · 318 years ago
As Charles XII of Sweden invaded Russia, Tsar Peter I caught General Lewenhaupt's Swedish supply column at Lesnaya, in today's Belarus, during the Great Northern War. Fighting went on until dark, and Lewenhaupt reached the king with about half his men and little of the convoy.
Read the full story of Battle of Lesnaya, 1708: the convoy that never reached Charles XII ›Also on this day
Battle of Schleiz
9 October 1806 · 220 years ago
At Schleiz, a Prussian and Saxon division under Tauentzien ran into part of Bernadotte's French corps in the opening clash of the 1806 war against the Fourth Coalition. Tauentzien fell back, Murat pursued and cut off a Prussian battalion, and the allies retreated north to Auma.
