Saturday 24 May 2014
23rd April 1660, Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, the Holy Roman Empire and Brandenburg signed the Treaty of Oliva, which was one of the treaties ending the Second Northern War (1655-1660).
Sweden was accepted as sovereign in Swedish Livonia, Brandenburg was accepted as sovereign in Ducal Prussia, Polish king Johan II Casimir Vasa (who had Swedish king Johan III as grandfather) withdrew his claims to the Swedish throne.
All occupied territories were restored to their pre-war sovereigns, and Catholics in Livonia and Prussia were granted religious freedom.
The Second Northern War was in actuality several wars taking place during the same time.
For example, the reason Sweden declared war upon, and invaded Poland-Lithuania in 1655, was because the Poles were already facing a Cossack rebellion in the Ukraine since 1648, and in 1654 the Cossacks signed a treaty with the Tsardom of Russia, triggering the Russo-Polish War, that lasted between 1654-1667, with some gaps.
In 1654 the Russians recaptured Smolensk, lost to them earlier in that century and in 1655 they advanced into Lithuania.
The Russian advance directly threatened Swedish interests around the Baltic.
With Sweden controlling Estonia, Livonia and Ingria, they were uneasy around the Russians, who were eager to get a port in the Baltics.
Of course, one logical step for Sweden to take at this point would be to support Poland-Lithuania.
Historical grievances aside, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
However, there was a real danger that such a move would lead to a settlement between Poland-Lithuania and an alliance against Sweden (which actually happened in the end of 1656).
There was also a personal reason for attacking Poland-Lithuania.
Karl X Gustav had only been king of Sweden since 1654, and he was the first king not coming from the House of Vasa since Gustav Vasa liberated Sweden from Denmark in 1523.
The Polish king however, had a very real claim to the Swedish throne.
Johan II Casimir was the grandson of Gustav Vasas' son Johan III.
The initial aim of Karl X Gustav was the conquest of Royal Prussia (which included the important city of Danzig).
In the summer of 1655, two Swedish armies, one from Swedish Livonia, and one from Swedish Pomerania invaded Royal Prussia in a two pronged attack.
At first, Polish resistance was virtually non-existent, an army of 14,000 local levies was raised, but proved unwilling to fight.
An army of nearly 9,000 regular troops was to be raised, but they were not ready in time.
The Swedish army from Pomerania consisted of 13,650 men and the Livonian army had 12,700.
Odds against the Poles were overwhelming and in July 25th, the palatinates of Poznán and Kalisz surrendered to Karl X Gustav and promised to obey him as if he were king of Poland.
On November 12th 1655, Johan II Casimir forced the Royal Prussian nobility to sign a treaty, in which Fredrik Wilhelm (Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia) agreed to garrison the towns in Prussia.
However, with the apperent collapse of resistance in the rest of Poland, the cities of Elbing and Thorn surrendered to Sweden, leaving Danzig as the only bastion against Swedish agression in Prussia.
Fredrik Wilhelm withdrew the rest of his garrisons and switched allegiance from Poland to Sweden.
However, by the spring of 1656, Johan II Casimir had raised an army of close to 30,000 leaving the Swedish troops in a deterioating state and attempts by Karl X Gustav to rectify this situation almost led to disaster.
After Sweden and Brandenburg defeated the Poles at the battle of Warsaw (28-30 July 1656) the international position began to turn in Poland's favour.
The Dutch sent a fleet to break the Swedish blockade of Danzig, and more seriously, Tsar Alexis of Russia declared war on Sweden, and then made peace and formed an anti-Swedish coalition with Poland-Lithuania.
After 4 more years of varying success for everyone involved, and with treaties dragging Transylvania, Denmark and even the Holy Roman Empire into the war, it ended in 1660.
Despite being bogged down in Poland, despite Russian troops threatening the Swedish Baltic provinces, and despite Danish troops threatening southern Sweden, the war ended much better for Sweden than it could have, and one of the treaties ending the war was the one we're remembering today, the Treaty of Oliva.
The pictures represent Poland-Lithuania with neighbouring countries after the Second Northern War, and an approximate map of Swedish and Russian controlled parts of Poland in 1655.
- Tobbe
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