Treaty of Altmark
The Treaty of Altmark ( Swedish Stillståndet i Altmark , Polish Rozejm w Altmarku ) was a six-year armistice from September 25, 1629 between the Republic of Poland-Lithuania and the Kingdom of Sweden . The armistice ended the acts of war in the years 1600–1629 .
background
This was preceded by battles in Livonia and in the final phase of the wars on Prussian soil between King Gustav Adolf on the Swedish side and Polish troops under Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski together with imperial auxiliary troops under Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg . The imperial troops had mutated or had sided with Gustav Adolf because, among other things, the Polish crown had not paid their wages, and peace proposals came from various countries. After eventful battles in which troops on both sides suffered from hunger and epidemics, King Sigismund of Poland finally found himself compelled to agree to armistice negotiations.
The contract was signed in Altmark , a small town of Royal Prussia near Danzig .
consequences
Sweden was confirmed in possession of Swedish Livonia with Riga , the mouth of the Vistula with Elbing and the Prussian ports of Frauenburg , Tolkemit , Braunsberg , Pillau , Fischhausen , Lochstädt and Memel (excluding Danzig, Königsberg and Putzig ) under the administration of Axel Oxenstierna . The Swedish krona also got the right to tariff the Polish trade in goods via the Baltic port of Gdansk with 3.5% . Through the conquests and the income from the Prussian ports, it was possible for King Gustav Adolf to finance Sweden's entry into the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire on the side of the Protestants . Elector of Brandenburg, who in personal union as Duke of Prussia formally or vassal was the Polish crown, had his country, declared contrary to the demands of Gustavus Adolphus, to go to the anti-imperial page as neutral. He was a brother-in-law of the Swedish king and as compensation he received the cities of Marienburg , Stuhm , the Danziger Hauptwerder and the Große Werder or Marienburger Werder (in Polish Żuława Wielka ) in the Vistula Delta in Sequestration , as compensation for the loss of the region around Pillau, however he undertook to hand over these towns and lands to the Swedes after the armistice had expired, while the Courland Duke Mitau got back.
The Altmarker treatise came about largely through the mediation of French diplomacy with Baron Hercule de Charnacé and was supported by the Kingdom of England with Sir Thomas Roe , the Netherlands , the Electorate of Brandenburg and in the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf , 1635, with the abandonment of customs duties and the Swedish conquests in Prussia, extended for several decades.
Web links
- Svenskt Militärhistoriskt Bibliotek: Stilleståndet i Altmark 1629 (Swedish)