Orsza 1514 -2022

 Salvete Omnes,

 

and as every year on this day we commemorate the 2nd battle of Orsza 1514AD.

King Zygmunt I Stary (Sigismund I the Old) and his army commanded by prince Konstanty Ostrogski, Ostrogski coat of arms, and hetman Janusz Swierczowski, Traby coat of arms,  won resounding victory over grand prince Vasili III and his  Muscovite army(augmented with the Tatar allied and converted recently into Orthodox Christianity).

 Our king lost Smolensk, his largest and most needed fortress, to Vasili III and his commander Lithuanian Michal Glinski in July 1514- perhaps a 80 thousand strong Muscovy army , with camp followers, servants and retainers, invaded our king's eastern realms in the Spring of 1514Ad.
Polish historian and prolific researcher of this period  prof. Marek Plewczynski puts some blame on the Lithuanian commander prince Ostrogski, who perhaps like the ancient Cuncator tried the tactic of  hanging on  awaiting for the expected large number of Polish Crown troops, but before they could have come to the rescue the fortress of Smolensk fell to mighty charm or magic spelled by prince Glinski. The stronghold at Orsza, however,  defended by Jan Spargeld with resolve and under much less assault than Smolensk withstood perhaps a weaker Muscovite siege and repelled their assaults until king's army came in August.

Having gathered his nobles, retainer, mercenaries and volunteers it was at Minsk in Grand Duchy of Lithuania where our king reviewed his armies before seeing them go east: 

 - 15 thousand Duchy horse - commanded by prince Ostrogski and prince Jerzy Hercules Radziwill.

 - 14 thousand crown horse (heavy lancers, early hussars and light horse armed with crossbows and bows and some early firearms perhaps, and 3 thousand crown  infantry -  this Crown contingent was commanded by Swierzowski, 

 -2,5 thousand court horse, and several thousand of Polish lords private volunteer retinues- commanded by Wojciech Sempolinski, Nalecz coat of arms.

Perhaps as many as 38 thousand horse and men including unknown number of guns, plus many thousands of camp followers and retainers had gathered at Minsk to march onto river and seek a return of captured Smolensk to our lord king's domain.

King decided to stay with 4 thousand soldiers at the fortified camp at Borysow, on the Berezina River, while the combined king's army marched having forded Berezina and forced, with artillery fire,  the vanguard of the Muscovite army to quit the vicinity of Berysow on August 27 and then the royal army marched after the enemy toward Orsza and Dnieper. On the 28 of August Polish vanguard led by Jan Pilecki defeated a Muscovite rearguard ambush, and our royal army continued on the Orsza Road to the Bobr River crossing where at this ford another action was fought, where starost of Rohatyn Jan Boratynski defeated 2000 strong Muscovite command and took their commander, voivode Kiselich(?), prisoner.  During another action by the royal vanguard rotmaister (Captain) Jan Sapieha's command defeated  another Muscovy command.
Voivode Ivan Chelyadnin, who now commanded the entire Muscovy grand prince's field army in this area of war, aided in his command by prince Mikhail Golitza and prince Dymitr Bulgakov withdrew across the Dnieper keen on attacking royal army during their fording of the big river, always a difficult and dangerous maneuver in warfare  for the fording command.

  and so the opposite armies stood, then during the night of 7-8th of September our royal army engineers built two wooden pontoon bridges, on top of wooden large kegs,  the whole royal army crossed fast and the battle joined and the men with lances, bows and arrows, swords, matchlocks and halberds, pikes and axes in hand went to achieve victory.

Ostrogski has become the field victor of this battle  - being supposedly the commander of the combined echelons of the royal army - and here we see this brave Ruthenian as he was seen in this 1540s? Radziwill family painting - now at the Polish National Museum at Warsaw.

Polish heavy lance cavalry and their commander 

early hussars

so let us celebrate with some imagery from the period or near in time period, with some caveat  - our king was unable to recover hie lost city of Smolensk, the most important fortress in that part of  the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian Ukrainian (borderland) zone with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. It took   circa100 years and a decisive action by our king's namesake Zygmunt, but the III (and his grandson), who campaigned in Grand Duchy of Muscovy and captured Smolensk. 

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Valete

500 Years of the Battle of Orsza AD 1514 - a woodcut from Bielski's Chronicle of Poland

Salve,
Marcin Bielski, Prawdzic coat of arms (1405-1575) who was a Polish nobleman, soldier and prolific XVI century author in Jagellonian Poland (union of Crown of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania under a king from the Jagiellonian Dynasty),  wrote and then published the first history of Poland entirely in Polish language, titled ''Kronika Polska Marcina Bielskiego'' (Marcin Bielski's Chronicle of Poland) (part of the 'Kronika Świata' - Chronicle of the Universe).
 The book was published with some woodcuts within the text. Joachim Bielski, son of Marcin, continued his father's work and published updated version in 1597 - eg a digital version from the Jagiellonian University library.

One woodcut illustration shows the battle of Orsza(Orsha), a pitched battle fought between the forces of Jagiellonian Poland and Grand Duchy of Muscovy,  And today, Septemeber 8 2014,  is the 500 years anniversary of that famous battle, however the official media in the Republic of Poland (Rzeczypospolita) are quite silent on the subject - how sad ! Perhaps there is more in the Lithuanian, Ukrainian or Belorussian media?
We all share a common history with one another, albeit the Lithuanian government, member and signatory of EU treaties on minorities etc) has been discriminating against the Polish minority in Lithuania in breach of international law, EU laws and agreements with the Republic of Poland. 

 Ruthenian prince and hetman Konstanty Ostrogski, Ostrogski coat of arms, was the victor of this engagement, worth noting that the  was one of the most important and successful Jagiellonian Poland commanders.
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Polish National Museum holds a famous painting showing the very battle.
This Northern Renaissance painting is a veritable mine of information on the early XVI century Polish and presumably Grand Duchy  of Lithuania military - including the early winged hussars who played not a small role in this decisive engagement on the Dnieper River (interestingly there were all together 3 battles fought in the Orsza vicinity and all victories of Polish-Lithuanian forces.

Enjoy
ps
Orsza battle AD 1514 has not been a subject of many works of art in the past, for some reason the battle was forgotten, and it was not a subject of literary works of fiction, sadly and generally speaking our Polish Jagiellonian XVI century, the great Golden Age in Poland's history, has not been subject of novels nor films (but for a handful of TV films on the famous international figures like Mikołaj (Nicolas) Kopernik and queen Bona Sforza).
Portal Kresy.plkresy.pl has an article on the painting by Józef Męcina-Krzesz, painted circa 1884, on the subject of Orsza battle. The original painting can be found in Równe in Wolyń (Volhynia), today's Ukraine.  The painting was published in a form of woodcut in old Polish art magazine Kłosy in 1885. A detail  of the woodcut here.

ps'
Gaited Horses in Fiore's Manuals - very interesting take on the fighting manual's various illustrations showing mounted combat and use of gaited horses in Medieval combat - very worth your while.
And an intro to ambling horse in history - here . By the way I really love riding amblers/pacers like Paso Finos or various American breeds.

Orsza 1514-2014

Salve,
this year we will be celebrating yet another historical battle - 500 years anniversary of the battle of Orsza (Orsha, in  Belarus) - actually the 2nd battle of Orsza, as there were all together 3 battles fought there during the XVI century (all victories tof the Polish-Lithuanian side), where Polish and Grand Duchy of Lithuania forces defeated Drand Duchy of Muscovy forces. Polish-Lithuanian forces were commanded by a veteran of border wars Ruthenian prince and ducal hetman Konstanty Ostrogski. It is also famous as the first big battle where early husaria lancers fighting in Polish service participated. There were also Lithuanian Tatars, Ruthenian banners, Silesian infantry units and Bohemian volunteers (Kingdom of Bohemia or today's Czech and Polish voivodeships of Lower and Upper Silesia were within the Jagiellonian dynasty realms). I will write more about this battle in the future.

Sadly in Poland the XVI century Jagiellonian era wars are not celebrated in film nor novels nor comix, perhaps all fault goes to Henryk Sienkiewicz and his 'Trylogy.' There was another prolific and quite interesting historical writer who wrote about the Jagiellonian period, but he was a spy  and traitor for the foreign and occupying powers during the XIX century Partition of Poland period, and his works were forgotten. But there are several chronicles written by the participants of the historical events and these books can be read in Latin and Polish via digital libraries.

There is a Facebook page devoted to the battle anniversary and reenactment

here you have the link to it

We are blessed with a historicla painting painted some time after the battle, and this painting, a bit trimmed, survived the wars and destruction, and it is to be found at the National Museum in Warsaw.
some detailed images from the painting, the armoured knights are Polish cavalry under   - courtesy of my friend Bartek Siedlar

So if you in Poland in the end of June do not miss this event