Who was Stefan Batory?
Stefan Batory (István Báthory, 1533 to 1586) was a Hungarian noble who became Prince of Transylvania in 1571 and King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1576. He brought Danzig to terms in 1577, took Połock in 1579 and Velikiye Luki in 1580, besieged Pskov and in 1582 made Ivan the Terrible give up Livonia.1
Batory's war record runs from the battle with Danzig's troops at Lubiszewo in 1577 to three campaigns against Muscovy: Połock in 1579, Velikiye Luki in 1580 and the siege of Pskov from 1581. They were part of the long struggle for Livonia covered in our guide to the wars of the Polish Commonwealth.2
Early life: a Transylvanian noble
István Báthory was born on 27 September 1533 at Szilágysomlyó (today Șimleu Silvaniei in Romania), the son of István Báthory, voivode of Transylvania, and Katarzyna Telegdi; the Lithuanian encyclopedia VLE gives 28 September. His elder brother was Krzysztof (Kristóf). He spent his youth at the Vienna court of Ferdinand I of Habsburg and studied at the University of Padua.3
Back in Hungary he went over from the Habsburg camp to Queen Isabella Jagiellon and her son John Sigismund Zápolya, and was made commander of the fortress of Várad (in 1559 according to dzieje.pl, in 1564 according to the Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon). Sent to the emperor as an envoy, he was detained in 1565 on Maximilian II's orders and held for two years.4
After John Sigismund died in 1571, Báthory won the backing of the Ottoman sultan, and on 25 May 1571 the Transylvanian diet elected him prince.5
How did a Transylvanian prince become King of Poland?
He won a disputed election. After Henry of Valois fled Poland, the primate and the senators named Emperor Maximilian II king in December 1575, but the gathered nobility, led by Jan Zamoyski, refused and proclaimed Báthory instead, on condition that he marry Anna Jagiellonka, sister of the last Jagiellonian king, Sigismund Augustus.6
The sources differ on the day: dzieje.pl dates the nobles' proclamation to 15 December 1575, the Lithuanian encyclopedia VLE to 14 December. Báthory moved faster than the emperor. In February 1576 he swore to the Henrician Articles and the pacta conventa in Transylvania, then hurried to Kraków, where on 1 May 1576 he married Anna and was crowned.7
Anna was 52 and ten years older than her husband. The marriage was cold: Batory avoided his wife and kept her out of political decisions. After Maximilian II died in October 1576, only Danzig still refused to recognize the new king.8
What was Stefan Batory famous for?
Stefan Batory is best known for his war against Ivan the Terrible. In three campaigns from 1579 to 1581 he took Połock and Velikiye Luki and besieged Pskov, and the Truce of Jam Zapolski of 1582 returned Livonia and the Połock land to Poland-Lithuania. He also created the Crown Tribunal and founded the Vilnius Academy.9
Campaigns
Danzig, 1577
Danzig (Gdańsk), which had close trade ties with the Habsburgs, refused to recognize the new king. Batory first tried negotiation, then imposed sanctions on the city and finally used force. His troops beat the city's forces at Lubiszewo in 1577, but the city itself was not taken.10
Batory needed peace quickly, because in the summer of 1577 Ivan the Terrible's armies overran Livonia. In December 1577 he settled with Danzig: the city kept its autonomy, swore loyalty to the king and paid a contribution.11
Preparing the war with Muscovy
Batory planned the war with Jan Zamoyski. Instead of fighting for every castle in Livonia, they struck at the Muscovite lands next to it, to cut Ivan's armies there off from Muscovy. The king strengthened the artillery and the infantry and hired soldiers abroad, Germans and Hungarians among them, and the Sejm voted taxes for the war.12
In 1578 he created the piechota wybraniecka, a foot militia raised from peasants on the royal estates. In the same year he took the Dnieper Cossacks into paid service on the southern frontier, enlarged the number of registered Cossacks and gave them privileges.13
Połock and Velikiye Luki, 1579 to 1580
The first campaign, in 1579, retook Połock (Polotsk), which Ivan the Terrible had captured in 1563. In 1580 the army marched into Muscovite territory and took Velizh, Usvyat, Nevel and the fortress of Velikiye Luki.14
Pskov, 1581 to 1582
In 1581 Batory laid siege to the great fortress city of Pskov. The garrison and the townspeople held out, and in October hard frosts set in. Meanwhile raiders under Krzysztof Radziwiłł and Filon Kmita rode deep into Muscovy, as far as the upper Volga.15
With the Swedes taking Narva in the north, Ivan agreed to talk. Under the ten-year Truce of Jam Zapolski, signed on 15 January 1582, he gave up Livonia and returned Połock with the neighboring lands, Velizh among them, while Batory gave back the Muscovite castles he had taken.16
Stefan Batory's greatest victories
His greatest successes were the capture of Połock in 1579 and of Velikiye Luki in 1580, and the Truce of Jam Zapolski that followed the siege of Pskov. Against Danzig he won the battle of Lubiszewo in 1577 but did not take the city. Under the truce, Połock and its land stayed with Lithuania.17
Did Stefan Batory capture Pskov?
No. The siege of Pskov began in 1581 and lasted into the winter, but the fortress held out. Ivan the Terrible still agreed to a truce, because Batory's raiders were ravaging his lands and the Swedes had taken Narva. Historian Michał Kopczyński counts the 1582 truce as a success even though Pskov did not fall.18
Reforms and the Vilnius Academy
To win money for the war from the nobility, Batory gave up much of his role as supreme judge. Appeals went to the Crown Tribunal, created in 1578, and the Lithuanian Tribunal, created in 1581. He pushed aside Anna and the Zborowski family, who had helped him to the throne, and relied on Jan Zamoyski, whom he made chancellor and Grand Hetman of the Crown.19
He was a Catholic who backed the Catholic Church, especially in Lithuania, yet sought to keep religious peace. On 1 April 1579 he granted the privilege that raised the Jesuit college in Vilnius to an academy and university, today's Vilnius University; dzieje.pl dates the foundation to 1578.20
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine calls him one of the most forceful and ambitious monarchs in Polish history, who tried to form a great state from Poland, Muscovy and Transylvania. The Hungarian Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon describes the plan as a union of Poland, Hungary and Transylvania against the Habsburgs and the Ottomans.21
How did Stefan Batory die?
Batory died suddenly at Grodno on 12 December 1586, aged 53, while preparing a new war against Muscovy. Poisoning was suspected, but the autopsy did not confirm it. The likeliest cause was an old wound from a dog bite in his youth that had never healed. He was buried in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.22
The Hungarian Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon gives the date of death as 22 December. Grodno had served as the king's residence during the wars with Muscovy. In 1585 and 1586 he had won the nobility's support for a plan to conquer Muscovy, and he had talked with the Habsburgs and the papacy about a league against the Ottomans, hoping to free Hungary.23
His reign was short, but it won back Livonia and the Połock land and stopped Muscovy's drive to the Baltic.24 › Jan Zamoyski
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, “Stephen Báthory”. ↩
- Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990, “Báthori István, somlyói”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990, “Báthori István, somlyói”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990, “Báthori István, somlyói”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990, “Báthori István, somlyói”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Janusz Kubicki, “Życie małżeńskie króla Stefana I Batorego (1533-1586)”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Vilnius University, “Facts and history”. ↩
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, “Stephen Báthory”. ↩
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Livonijos karas”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”. ↩
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Wojny Stefana Batorego z Moskwą”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Livonijos karas”; dzieje.pl, “Październikowe Mówią wieki”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”. ↩
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Zapolskij Jamo paliaubos”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Zapolskij Jamo paliaubos”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Październikowe Mówią wieki”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Livonijos karas”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”. ↩
- Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Burzliwa elekcja”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Vilnius University, “Facts and history”. ↩
- Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, “Stephen Báthory”; Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990, “Báthori István, somlyói”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, “Stephen Báthory”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Wojny Stefana Batorego z Moskwą”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”; Janusz Kubicki, “Życie małżeńskie króla Stefana I Batorego (1533-1586)”. ↩
- Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990, “Báthori István, somlyói”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Wojny Stefana Batorego z Moskwą”; Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Steponas Batoras”; dzieje.pl, “Stefan Batory”. ↩
- Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, “Zapolskij Jamo paliaubos”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego”; Artur Białek, “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji”. ↩
Sources
- dzieje.pl (Muzeum Historii Polski), “Stefan Batory” (in Polish)
- Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (VLE), “Steponas Batoras” (in Lithuanian)
- Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies), “Stephen Báthory”
- Artur Białek, National Geographic Polska (2024), “Stefan Batory był jednym z najlepszych władców Polski. Znał się i na wojnie, i na dyplomacji” (in Polish)
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna (ZPE), Polish Ministry of Education, “Burzliwa elekcja” (in Polish)
- Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990 (Hungarian Electronic Library, MEK), “Báthori István, somlyói” (in Hungarian)
- Janusz Kubicki, Ginekologia Praktyczna (2007), no. 2, “Życie małżeńskie króla Stefana I Batorego (1533-1586)” (in Polish)
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna (ZPE), Polish Ministry of Education, “Ruś wchodzi do gry. Wojny w czasach Stefana Batorego” (in Polish)
- Vilnius University, “Facts and history”
- Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (VLE), “Livonijos karas” (in Lithuanian)
- Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna (ZPE), Polish Ministry of Education, “Wojny Stefana Batorego z Moskwą” (in Polish)
- dzieje.pl (Muzeum Historii Polski), “Październikowe Mówią wieki: Psków, miasto niezdobyte” (in Polish; report on the Pskov issue of the journal Mówią Wieki, quoting Michał Kopczyński)
- Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (VLE), “Zapolskij Jamo paliaubos” (in Lithuanian)
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