The southernmost territories of the Commonwealth were inhabited by a large population of Zaporozhian Cossacks — a free folk whose legal status was partly regulated. In danger of being invaded by Crimean Tatars, they lived in constant military readiness, which made them excellent soldiers. The entire 16th century and the first half of the 17th… Continue reading Treaty of Hadiach
From the early days, the reign of Jan Kazimierz was plagued by wars that beset the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, starting with a Cossack revolt supported by Tatar forces in 1648, through wars with Muscovy (1654-1667), Sweden (1655-1660), Brandenburg (1656-1657) and Transylvania (1657), to fighting the Cossacks and Tatars in 1667. The Swedish invasion of 1655 proved… Continue reading Lwów vows of Jan Kazimierz
The year 1655 was one of the most tragic moments in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The civil war with the Cossacks had been waged for seven years with changing fortune, and beginning with 1654 it was also waged against Russia, which was on the Cossacks’ side. The war ruined the eastern provinces of… Continue reading Act of the Tyszowce Confederation
