What wars did the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth fight?
Poland-Lithuania, which became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, fought four great rivals: the Teutonic Order, Sweden, Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire with its Tatar allies, and from 1648 it also faced the great Cossack uprising in Ukraine. Key moments include Grunwald in 1410, before the Commonwealth was formed, Kircholm in 1605 and the Swedish Deluge, Klushino in 1610, and the southern front from Khotyn in 1621 to the relief of Vienna on 12 September 1683.
For three centuries Poland-Lithuania, for a time one of the largest states in Europe, fought on every frontier in turn, against the Teutonic Order in the north, Sweden on the Baltic, Muscovy in the east and the Ottoman Empire in the south. These are the great wars that shaped it, each told through the battles and the commanders who fought them.
For the wider story, from the Piast kingdom to World War II, with every Polish battle on this site grouped by era, see our guide to the military history of Poland.
War with the Teutonic Order. The long struggle with the crusading Order in the north, decided at Grunwald in 1410, one of the largest battles of medieval Europe, where the Polish-Lithuanian union shattered the Order's army and began its long decline.1
Wars with Sweden. From the hussar triumph at Kircholm in 1605 to the catastrophe of the Deluge in the 1650s, decades of war with Sweden over the Baltic coast and the Polish crown itself. At sea, the young Commonwealth navy broke a Swedish blockade at Oliwa in 1627. The Peace of Oliwa, signed on 3 May 1660, ended the war of the Deluge, and King John II Casimir gave up his claim to the Swedish throne.2
Wars with Muscovy. The long struggle with Muscovy for the east, when the victory at Klushino in 1610 briefly carried a Polish-Lithuanian garrison into the Moscow Kremlin. The tide later turned: under the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667 the Commonwealth gave up Smolensk and the Ukrainian lands east of the Dnieper to Muscovy and let it hold Kyiv for two years; Muscovy never returned the city, and the Eternal Peace of 1686 made the loss permanent.3
Wars with the Ottomans and Tatars. The southern front against the Ottoman Empire and its Tatar allies, from the great stand at Khotyn in 1621 to the relief of Vienna in 1683.4
Four fronts at once
The Commonwealth's size and its position between rival powers meant it was rarely at peace. War also came from within: the Cossack uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky broke out in 1648, and even after the royal victory at Berestechko in 1651 the struggle for Ukraine went on and drew Muscovy into a new war against the Commonwealth in 1654. Its armies leaned on one of the most feared formations in Europe, the winged hussars, whose charge decided battles from Kircholm to Vienna. Its wars produced a line of remarkable commanders: Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, victor of Kircholm; Stanisław Żółkiewski, who marched on Moscow; Stefan Czarniecki, who fought back the Swedish Deluge; and King Jan III Sobieski, who led a Polish, imperial and German relief army to break the siege of Vienna on 12 September 1683.5
See where each war was decided in the greatest battles in Polish history, or meet the men who led them in the greatest Polish commanders.
