Battle of Klissow

Battle of Klissow

Part of: Great Northern War

date	July 8th jul. / July 19, Greg. / 9 July 1702 swed.
place	Kliszów , Poland
output	Victory of the Swedes

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Saxony Poland Lithuania
Commander
Charles XII. Carl Rehnskiöld Friedrich IV. †	/ August II. Adam von Steinau Johann von der Schulenburg Jakob von Flemming Hieronim Lubomirski
Troop strength
13,000 men	28,000 men
losses
300 dead 800 wounded	2,000 dead and wounded 1,700 prisoners

In the battle of Klissow on July 8th, ^July / July 19, ^Greg. / July 9, 1702 ^swedish the armies of Karl XII. and August II opposite. Klissow (Polish: Kliszów) is a place south of Kielce . The Nida , a tributary of the Vistula, flows nearby .

prehistory

Battle of Klissow

Location of the battlefield

At the end of 1700 Charles XII. Sweden successfully defended and all enemy troops driven from Swedish territory. Instead of pursuing the defeated Russian army in order to destroy it completely and forcing his opponent Tsar Peter I also to make peace, the king now turned to his third opponent, the Saxon Elector and King of Poland, to give him the Polish royal throne to snatch. In the Battle of the Daugava in July 1701, the Swedes succeeded again in inflicting a severe defeat on the Saxon-Polish-Russian army and penetrated deep into Courland.

In January 1702, Karl moved his army from Courland to Lithuania. On March 23, 1702 the Swedes left their winter quarters and invaded Poland. Without waiting for the planned reinforcements from Pomerania , Karl marched with his army directly against Warsaw , which surrendered on May 14, 1702 without a fight. The Polish capital was forced to pay a large contribution before Charles continued his march to Krakow . The fear that Sweden would seek territorial gains in Poland in a possible peace treaty prompted the Polish nobility to take part in the war.

Before Charles XII. Occupied Warsaw, August II had moved to Cracow with the Polish Crown Army, some 8,000 men strong, in order to unite there with the 22,000 strong Saxon army that had been newly established in Saxony. The Polish crown army under Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski was poorly equipped, poorly cared for and little motivated to fight for the cause of the Saxon king. The 24,000–30,000 strong Polish-Saxon army finally opposed the 12,000-strong Swedes south of Kielce.

• 

  Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg

• 

  Prince Lubomirski could not do anything against the Swedes with 10,000 riders.

Course of the battle

Initial phase of the battle

Final stage of the battle

The Saxon troops had withdrawn across the Nida. Its left wing and its center under the command of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg were covered by a swamp. The right wing, the cavalry under the command of Jakob Heinrich Graf von Flemming, was hidden in a forest. The Polish cavalry was on the right wing and was under the command of Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski.

The Swedish right wing was under the command of Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld , the first line of the center under Hans Henrik von Liewen and the second line under Knut Göransson Posse , the left wing was commanded by Otto Vellingk .

Charles XII. decided to bypass the enemy positions to the left. The Swedes took the initiative at two in the afternoon and launched an attack on the Polish flank. The commander of the attack, Friedrich IV , Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, was killed early and the Swedish advance was stopped.

At the same time, the Saxons had prepared crossings over the swamp and attacked the withdrawing Swedes on their right wing. The Saxons gave away the victory they believed to be certain by trying to force a gun battle on the Swedes. The Swedish troops, battle-hardened elite regiments, formed and stormed off. The Saxons were overridden, cut down and taken prisoner. Only a few soldiers were able to escape via the Nida. At the same time as the Saxon attack, the left wing of the Swedes was attacked by the Polish Crown Army. Karl hastily gathered infantry from the center against the Polish troops. He formed three rows of attacks (first row: pikes - second and third rows: muskets) and thus achieved a devastating effect among the Polish riders. After a short battle, Prince Lubomirski, pursued by the Swedish cavalry, withdrew with the rest of his army to the village of Kije.

After the Swedish troops withstood the Polish and Saxon charges, Charles XII concentrated. the bulk of his army on the left flank, where the Poles had previously stood, and quickly moved into the Saxon camp. He then took control of the Saxon artillery and used it against the Saxons. The Swedish troops then turned around and tried to capture the crossing over the Nida. This would have surrounded the Saxons . But General von der Schulenburg ordered his infantry regiments from the center, which had hardly been attacked so far, to reach the crossing at their own risk. A bitter hand-to-hand combat broke out. Most of the Saxon units were able to withdraw via the Nida. At five in the afternoon the battle was over.

Lineup

consequences

Charles XII. was victor of the battle. However, due to the wise decision by von der Schulenburg , the Saxon army was not forced to capitulate, but was able to withdraw with losses. The Swedes captured the artillery and the war chest of the Saxons, as well as the entire baggage of the king. However, Charles' brother-in-law, Duke Friedrich IV, fell.

“The enemy camp of the Allies was covered on three sides by a quagmire, and the enemy suspected that we would pass it; The King Karl XII. but took a different route and left the left wing, which was commanded by Duke Frederick IV, as far as it was possible to move the right wing of the enemy into the flanqve, which was happily carried out regardless of the enemy canonizing, so that few people were killed and would not have caused any particular loss if the Hertzog von Holstein had not been hit by an enemy bullet before and before we got into a scuffle with the enemy. He was so mortally wounded that a little time afterwards he gave up his spirit with great steadfastness. "

- Livonica or some of the pieces and actorum publicorum that served to explain the restlessness that arose in Lieffland at the beginning of the 1700th year.

The low troop strength of the Swedes, however, did not allow the defeated Polish-Saxon army to be pursued, and so August was able to regroup the remaining units of his army in the eastern parts of Poland. His quick retreat via Sandomierz to Thorn allowed Karl to occupy Krakow on July 31, 1702. Sweden now controlled the royal seat of Warsaw and the coronation city of Krakow. However, over half of the Polish Empire remained in the hands of August II.

literature

• Georg Piltz : August the Strong. Dreams and deeds of a German prince. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-355-00012-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ According to the Swedish calendar , the battle took place on July 9, 1702.
2. ↑ Klissov . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 14 : Kikarskten – Kroman . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1911, Sp. 303 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
3. ↑ Published: OO without publisher, undated, approx. 1700–1703. Part 11, p. 22.