Chapter 12: War Exhaustion
Many students incorrectly assume Lithuania to have been at peace following the wars with Brandenburg and Nogai. The fault lies purley with myself and my methods of organizing course readings, but one should remember that in the years from 1522-33, remembered as "The Turbulent Decade" by all historically-conscious Lithuanians, Lithuania was involved in no less than 5 wars, only 2 of which we have so far described. It is to these other 3 conflicts that we will now turn our attention.
In 1521, Zygimantas ordered his Foregin Office to sound out other nation's attitudes towards Lithuania in the wake of the Grand Duke's sweeping eastern conquests. This enterprise, starved systematically of cash like many of the Grand Duke's undertakings, had an operating budget so low than only a few drops of ink could be afforded. This resulted in one of the shortest documents in the history of bureaucracy, a single sheet of paper reading, "We have a somehwat tarnished reputation." Hoping to win a measure of good-will among the fellow princes of Europe, the Grand Duke reorganized the province of Tver as a semi-independent principality within the Lithuanian orbit (Tver released as a vassal).
No sooner had Zygimantas announced this plan to the outside world than the Grand Prince of Muscovy, now styling himself Tsar of all the Russians, declared war upon Tver, which of course had not yet had time to organize an army. Zygimantas was most protective of his vassals however and answered with a declaration of war against Russia. The war with Nogai was still raging elsewhere, but the war with Brandenburg was over, so that Juiry Radivil was free to march against Russia. The Russians headed straight for Tver and laid siege, rather putting a damper on the independence celebrations. Radivil was outnumbered more than 2-to-1 by the Russians but there was neither time nor money with which to raise reinforcements. Here Radivil's considerable skills as a military strategist were put to use once more. Radivil's army entered Tver and engaged the enemy, drawing them backwards into a copse of trees where the thickness of the vegetation prevented the Russians from using their numerical edge to the full and allowed the Lithuanians to emerge victorious. Radivil and his men then set off in hot pursuit of the Russians, inflicting several additional defeats on the retreating army. After a year or so, Tsar Vasily III had had enough, and paid a small indemnity to end the war.
The King of Poland, meanwhile, still awed by his miraculous deliverance from Brandenburg, had come to view himself as a crusader in the name of Virgin. Inspired by his holy mission, he declared war upon the schismatic nation of Moldavia and requested his Lithuanian to join him in glorious conquest. The Grand Duke, wishing not to antagonize his powerful western neighbor, dutifully joined the war. As to whether or not Zygimantas shared his ally's desire to launch holy war in the Balkans we can only speculate, for by the end of the 1520s, schismatics in Moldavia were the least of the Grand Duke's problems. By this time the peasants, many of the younger ones having lived their entire lives under war conditions, had had more than enough of the Grand Duke's war taxes and recruitment drives. One town after another rose in revolt, the rebels frequently killed the local baliffs and on several occasions mangaed to capture fortresses of the Lithuanian army. Zygimantas knew he would be forced to call out the troops to suppress the revolt, but the troops were occupied with foregin enemies and the Grand Duke had no choice to recall Radivil's troops from Russia to crush the rebels. He hoped to recruit the Hussars for anti-rebel duty as well, but the Golden Horde had recently declared war and sent the largest army it had assmebled in recent memory against Astrakhan. The hussar regiments were sent post-haste to the Horde's capital in Kouban, for if Astrakhan were to fall, all the effort of the past 20 years would be for naught.
Astrakhan was breifly occupied by the Horde, but Kouban fell not long afterwards, which gave Zygimantas enough leverage to force the Khan into signing a 5-year truce (WP). Shortly afterwards, the Moldavian war would end with Poland capturing Bujak and dedicating the territory to the care of the Holy Virgin. This left only the rebels, and the Lithuanian army preceded to retake the lost cities amid much bloodshed. Rebel troops were ultimately vanquished throughout the Ukraine and the steppe-land, allowing Radivil to head north to the Baltic coastline. The rebels of Livland, who had captured the city some time ago, met in a panic to discuss their options. Knowing they could not holdout against a siege by goverment-troops indefinitely, they threw themselves upon the mercy of Tsar Vasily in Moscow. Vasily, still smarting from his recent defeat at Lithuanian hands, was quick to take advantage of the rebel predicament to embarrass his nemesis the Grand Duke. Vasily offered support if the rebels would pledge allegiance to him, after they did so, he announced that Livland was now a part of Russia (rebels defect
). The Grand Duke was furious at this news, not only because of the loss of Livland, but also because Estland had become well-nigh indefensible. Zygimantas now announced that Estland was for sale to the highest bidder. This turned out to be the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, who had been living in Vienna ever since the Swedes had conquered Riga and annexed the last of the Order's Baltic possessions. Thrilled to give the Russians their new neighbor, Zygimantas handed over Estland to the Order's goverance in 1533 (TO released as vassal in Estland).
PS--Sorry this update was so long, but I had a lot of action to pack into it.
