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Raid in Livonia of Ivan the Terrible in 1577
In 1570–1577, the Russian-Polish-Lithuanian front in the war over Livonia was relatively calm. Rus' was at war with Sweden, and the truce was maintained with the Polish and Lithuanian troops in 1570–1573. Besides, there was no active warfare in 1573–1576 in Livonia, because Tsar Ivan the Terrible took part in the election of the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The election took place twice and the tsar lost both times: in 1573 to the French prince Henry de Valois, and in 1575–1576 first to Maximilian, Holy Roman Emperor, and then to the Hungarian prince Stephen Bathory. Bathory arrived in the Polish capital of Krakow for the coronation. The tsar was particularly annoyed at losing the throne to a prince who was not even of royal lineage.
Krakow, Vavel
Fighting in the Baltics did not really cease in 1570–1576, despite the truce in force. The truce agreed upon by the monarchs did not prevent the local voivodes and commandants from attacking each other at their own risk. Moreover, nothing prevented Lithuanians, Poles, Swedes and Danes, subjects of Duke Magnus, from fighting each other. Those clashes were, as a rule, of a depredatory nature. In March 1571, the Russians attacked Lel farmstead near Pernov (58° 23′ 05″ N , 24° 31′ 07″ E ) and burned four villages. Near Tarvast (58° 14′ 59″ N, 25° 53′ 11″ E), a Lithuanian detachment was defeated. On March 14, many inhabitants of the Swedish settlements in northern Estonia were driven into captivity through Novgorod under guard of Tatars. In December 1572 Russian troops stormed the Trojden county. In early 1576, Magnus’ troops took Lemsal castle (57° 30′ 53″ N , 24° 42′ 47″ E ). In January-March 1577, Moscow regiments under the command of I. V. Sheremetev Junior besieged Reval (59° 26′ N , 24° 45′ E ).
However, the town survived, and Sheremetev Junior perished in the battle at the town walls (for details follow the link). Having decided that there was no more need to keep peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the tsar led the campaign himself. On July 13, a force of 30,000 men set out for Livonia, headed by Ivan the Terrible, his son Ivan and the Tartar troops of Simeon Bekbulatovich. At the same time, the regiments of the Danish ‘Livonian king’ Magnus launched an attack from the north. The garrisons of the Livonian fortresses numbered from a few dozen to at best a few hundred soldiers. Obviously, they could withstand neither sieges nor assaults. And they did not take the risk: the fortresses opened their gates one after another, preferring captivity to inevitable death in the battle. On July 16, Marienhausen (57° 25′ 45″ N, 27° 03′ 08″ E, modern Alūksne ) surrendered, having been defended by only... 25 people.
Marienhausen, ruins
On July 24, seeing Muscovite troops at the walls of his fortress, the commandant of Ludsen town (56° 32′ 38″ N , 27° 43′ 16″ E , modern Ludza) expressed his eager desire to immediately become the Russian servant and ordered to open the gates. Dinaburg (55° 54′ 45″ N , 26° 43′ 30″ E ), Kreutzburg (56° 30′ 42″ N , 25° 51′ 32″ E , modern Krustpils), Chestvin (Seßwegen) (56° 58′ 08″ N , 26° 18′ 45″ E , modern Cesvaine) and other castles were captured. If a fortress surrendered without a fight, Ivan IV ‘kindly’ accepted its soldiers into Russian service.
On 8 August 1577, Aleksandr Polubinski, the commandant of Wolmar, informed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of a military crisis in Livonia: the castles were not prepared for defence, garrisons were few in number, the Livonians and the troops of Duke Kettler of Courland fought poorly. Without the help of the king’s army, Livonia was going to fall. Yet, no help came. In his letter to the fugitive prince Andrey Kurbsky from the occupied Wolmar (57° 32′ 17″ N , 25° 25′ 23″ E ), the Russian tsar wrote that God must have been on his side, since he could conquer the whole of Livonia.
Wolmar, ruins
Wolmar, ruins
On August 12, the tsar arrived at the bank of the Western Dvina. Courland on the opposite bank was a vassal duchy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The last to fall of the Livonian castles was Trikat (57° 32′ 48″ N, 25° 42′ 32″ E) on September 10. Livonia was conquered, only the major towns (Reval and Riga) and the holdings of the Danes and Swedes remained of it, as well as the Polish territories beyond the Western Dvina.
Trikat, ruins
Trikat, ruins
Russia was thus inevitably coming into conflict not only with the Livonians, who were no longer seriously considered by anybody, but with the new masters of the Baltics – the Swedes, the Poles, the Lithuanians and even the recent allies – the Danes. Russian militaries took reprisals against the citizens who tilted towards the Swedes and the Danes, which led to the conflict escalation. Massacres took place in 1577 in Kokenhausen, Dinaburg, Wenden and Asheraden (56° 36′ 03″ N , 25° 15′ 18″ E , modern Aizkraukle). In 1577, the conflict arose between Ivan the Terrible and Duke Magnus, who consequently betrayed the Russian tsar and sided with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1578.
The victory of the Swedes and the Poles at Wenden in 1578 started the string of defeats suffered by the Russian army in the struggle over Livonia.
Alexander Filjushkin