Defeat of the Livonians in the Battle of Tirzene
460 years ago, 17 January 1559, the Russian forces led by commander Vasily Serebryanny-Obolensky in the battle of Tirzene destroyed the squad of the Livonian Order under the command of von Voelkersam.
prehistory
In the fall of 1558 of the year, taking advantage of the departure of the main forces of the Russian army to the “winter quarters”, the Livonian command organized a counter-offensive in order to repel Derpt-Yuryev. The moment was well chosen: the Russian command, after the previous victories and pogrom of Livonia, did not expect an enemy attack, the main Russian forces retreated to their limits, leaving small garrisons in the occupied cities and castles; Livonians were able to secretly prepare a fairly strong army, supported by mercenaries.
However, the Livonian campaign on Yuriev was frustrated by the heroic defense of Ringen fortress (Heroic defense of Ringen), which was defended by a small garrison under the command of the governor Rusin-Ignatieff. For five weeks the Russians fought heroically and repelled enemy attacks. Castle Livonians, pulling up reinforcements and siege park, took. But the march to Dorpat was foiled. The Germans were planning to take Ringe on the move and take Yuryev with a sudden blow, but got bogged down at Ringen. As a result, the Livonian commander G. Kettler (Kettler) and the commander of the Archbishop of Riga F. von Völkersz were forced to stop the offensive and withdraw the troops to Riga.
Prepare
The actions of the Livonian army caused the ire of the Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich. The answer came immediately. Moscow has prepared a new large-scale operation. The Tatar cavalry of Tsarevich Tokhtamysh, the boyars and the governor were instructed to prepare for a new campaign in Livonia. With the end of the autumn thaw of 1558, the troops began to rally to the gathering sites and the end of November - the beginning of December the campaign was prepared. Rat under the authority of Prince S.I. Mikulinsky was deployed near Pskov and other nearby cities.
True, Ivan the Terrible was not in a hurry from the beginning of the march and, at the suggestion of the Danish ambassadors, once again proposed Livonia to resolve the crisis with peace. The Tsar governor in Yuriev (Dorpat), Prince D. Kurlyatev, was instructed to begin negotiations with the Livonian Master. However, the master did not give an answer, and then the Russian tsar to the commanders with the army "it was a war to Riga."
According to the Livonian chroniclers, a huge army came out against Riga in 130 thou. Fierce and savage warriors, the Danes reported on 40-thou. rati Obviously, the numbers are greatly exaggerated. Russian chronicles and digit books do not report the number of boyar children, archers and Cossacks in submission by the governor. However, the ranks report voivods, shelves, and centesimal heads under the authority of each governor. In total, the Russian rati had 5 regiments. The large regiment under the command of Prince S. Mikulinsky and the boyar P. Morozov, reinforced by the court of Tsarevich Tokhtamysh (2 - 3 hundreds of warriors), by the military governors M. Repnin, S. Narmattsky and light attire (artillery) under the command of G. Zabolotsky. The Russian command during this campaign was not going to besiege heavily fortified castles and fortresses, so the artillery was only light - small cannons on the sled. In total under the leadership of the governor of the Big regiment there were 16 centesimal heads. In the Advanced Regiment under the command of Governor Prince V. Serebryan and N. Yuriev there were 9 centesimal heads. Also in the Advanced Regiment were soldiers from the garrison of the Island with voivod F. Sheremetyev, prince A. Teleatevsky with the court of the former Kazan tsar Shah Ali (Shigaley) and B. Sukin "with Kazan mountain and meadow people" (mountain and meadow people - mountain and meadow Mari, Mari).
Also in the Russian army was a regiment of the Right hand under the leadership of the governor Prince Y. Kashin and I. Menshiy Sheremetev, in which there were 8 centesimal heads and the Yuryev voivode Prince P. Shchepin, R. Alferov with the serving Tatars and A. Mikhalkov with the Tatars-new baptized . The regiment of the Left hand was commanded by voivods P. Serebryany and I. Buturlin, 7 subordinate to the hundredth head and another part of the Yuriev garrison. The fifth regiment was the Watchdog regiment under the command of the governor M. Morozov and F. Saltykov - 7 heads.
Thus, in the five Russian regiments there were 47 centesimal heads, 5 district governors with their own people, Tatar auxiliary cavalry and light artillery (attire). In every hundred, there was usually from 90 to 200 children of boyars, each son of the boyars was accompanied by at least one soldier. As a result, the local cavalry was about 9 - 10 thousand fighters, plus depot service - 4 - 5 thousand people. In the Tatar cavalry (including other aliens - Mordovians, Mari, etc.) there were about 2 - 4 thousand people. Also in the army included infantry - archers and Cossacks, mounted on a horse or sleigh for speed of movement. As a result, the Russian army could count 18 - 20 thousand people. For Western Europe at that time it was a huge army.
Therefore, Russian troops entered Livonia with wide lava - 7 columns. With a horse force in 18 - 20 thousand fighters (the infantry was mobile) it had 40 - 50 thousand horses and it was difficult to provide them with forage even in a rather densely populated Livonia. Therefore, the army was not on one - two roads, but on a broad front. This made it possible to solve the problem of self-supply of troops and the destruction of a large area of territory — the punitive aspect of the operation. As a result, the Russian army was solving the strategic task of further reducing the military-economic potential of both the Livonian Order and the Riga Archdiocese. In addition, this tactic allowed the children of the boyars and service Tatars to profit from the seizure of the fullness and "stomachs" (property), which was common practice in the era of medieval wars. Successful campaigns, when the warriors could capture a lot of booty, contributed to raising the morale of the troops and their zeal for the state service. On the contrary, defeats, failures, small prey and high losses led to a drop in the motivation of the soldiers, the fighting capacity of the local cavalry.
It is worth noting that winter trips were not something special for the Russian army. For Russian and Tatar warriors it was a common thing. Actively used skis, sleds. For example, even the father of Ivan the Terrible, Vasily III in the winter of 1512 - 1513, undertook a large-scale military operation to return Smolensk. In the winter of 1534 - 1535 n troops undertook a great campaign in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Ivan IV himself went to Kazan twice in the winter before taking it in the fall of 1552 of the year.
The timing was good. Livonians, like a year ago, and despite the inevitability of the Russian offensive in response to Kettler’s autumn offensive (the siege of Ringen) and the failure of negotiations, were not ready to fight back. The few forces of the Livonian Master were scattered in individual castles and cities at a considerable distance from each other, and the mercenaries dispersed and quickly could not assemble.
Winter trekking
At the beginning of January 1559, the advanced Russian detachments crossed the frontiers that separated the previously occupied possessions of the Bishop of Dorpat from the lands of the order and the Archbishop of Riga. Behind them began the movement of the main forces of the Russian army. The offensive went wide front - 7 columns. The main forces marched along the left bank of the river Aa (Gauja) to Wenden and further to Riga. The advanced regiment invaded the lands of the Order to the east, from the direction of Neuhausen, and moved southward to Marienburg and further to Schwanenburg.
The tactics of the Russian-Tatar troops was traditional. The main forces of the governor were kept in a fist in case they met with serious enemy forces. At the same time, the governors with the border crossing “dissolved the war” - small cavalry detachments (20 - 100 riders) quickly moved in different directions, got food and fodder, took full, various property, burned and plundered villages without any restrictions. They did not take heavy artillery, the Russian command was not going to linger, besiege and storm the numerous castles and fortresses of Livonia. Thus, there was a total devastation of the area, which weakened the military and economic potential of the enemy. As a result, the Russian army rather calmly raided the lands of the order right up to Riga itself.
Kettler, Völkersz and the Riga archbishop, who were then in Riga, could not oppose anything to the Russians, as they disbanded the army. They even had to evacuate some castles and cities without being able to protect them. And all attempts to repel the enemy, mercilessly ruining the possessions of the order and the archbishop of Riga, did not lead to success. The biggest battle of Russians and Livonians took place on 17 on January 1559 of the year near Tirzen. The warriors of the Advanced Regiment encountered a detachment of the Knights of the Order and Knights of the Archbishop of Riga under the command of Friedrich von Voelkerszam (near 400 soldiers), coming out of Seswegen-Cestine.
Obviously, the Livonians were planning to attack and destroy the Russian and Tatar units scattered around the district. However, the Germans from the attackers themselves became a victim, falling under the blow of the main forces of the Advanced Regiment governor Serebryanny and Yuriev. Livonian detachment was completely destroyed, many Germans were captured. Volkersum himself died, according to other sources - taken prisoner. Prisoners were taken to Pskov, and then to Moscow.
Thus, fulfilling the royal order, the Russian army walked through Livonia with a rampart of fire, and at the end of January 1559 reached Riga, in the vicinity of which it continued the pogrom for another three days. Along the way, burned part of the Livonian fleetbound by ice. Riga residents were in a panic, the city had weak and old fortifications. They themselves burned the suburbs, because they could not protect it. Having ravaged the surroundings of Riga, the Russian troops turned east, moving on both sides of the Dvina, while separate detachments marched south, reaching the Prussian and Lithuanian borders. Along the way, the Russian regiments burned and smashed 11 German "towns" that were abandoned by residents. In February, the Russian army returned to the borders of the Russian kingdom with huge booty and full.
Ivan the Terrible decided that the proper lesson of Livonia was given, the matter is done, now you can start negotiations and recalled the troops. The objectives of the campaign were fully accomplished: it was undertaken not to seize territories and cities, but to intimidate the enemy, ruin Livonia, its economic centers, weaken military force, disrupt the work of the local administration. That is, the planned general devastation and ruin of Livonia. Livonian command could not oppose this strategy. As a result, Livonia pushed towards Lithuania, Denmark and Sweden. Moscow, on the other hand, expected a military “suggestion” to lead to a profitable world with Livonia. In April, 1559, Ivan IV gave Livonia a truce for the term of 6 months - from 1 in May to 1 in November of 1559.
Meanwhile, the conflict between the Russian state and Livonia began to expand. Already in March, the 1559 year, the Danish ambassadors on behalf of the new king Frederick II declared their claims to Revel and Northern Livonia. Then the embassy of Sigismund II Augustus demanded that Moscow leave the relative of the King of the Archbishop of Riga alone, hinting at the possibility of intervention in the conflict. And at the end of August - September 1559, Sigismund signed an agreement, under which he took under his protection both the Livonian Order and the Archbishop of Riga, receiving as payment the south-eastern part of Livonia, where Lithuanian troops immediately entered. Sweden also began to stand up for the "poor Livonians".
prehistory
In the fall of 1558 of the year, taking advantage of the departure of the main forces of the Russian army to the “winter quarters”, the Livonian command organized a counter-offensive in order to repel Derpt-Yuryev. The moment was well chosen: the Russian command, after the previous victories and pogrom of Livonia, did not expect an enemy attack, the main Russian forces retreated to their limits, leaving small garrisons in the occupied cities and castles; Livonians were able to secretly prepare a fairly strong army, supported by mercenaries.
However, the Livonian campaign on Yuriev was frustrated by the heroic defense of Ringen fortress (Heroic defense of Ringen), which was defended by a small garrison under the command of the governor Rusin-Ignatieff. For five weeks the Russians fought heroically and repelled enemy attacks. Castle Livonians, pulling up reinforcements and siege park, took. But the march to Dorpat was foiled. The Germans were planning to take Ringe on the move and take Yuryev with a sudden blow, but got bogged down at Ringen. As a result, the Livonian commander G. Kettler (Kettler) and the commander of the Archbishop of Riga F. von Völkersz were forced to stop the offensive and withdraw the troops to Riga.
Prepare
The actions of the Livonian army caused the ire of the Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich. The answer came immediately. Moscow has prepared a new large-scale operation. The Tatar cavalry of Tsarevich Tokhtamysh, the boyars and the governor were instructed to prepare for a new campaign in Livonia. With the end of the autumn thaw of 1558, the troops began to rally to the gathering sites and the end of November - the beginning of December the campaign was prepared. Rat under the authority of Prince S.I. Mikulinsky was deployed near Pskov and other nearby cities.
True, Ivan the Terrible was not in a hurry from the beginning of the march and, at the suggestion of the Danish ambassadors, once again proposed Livonia to resolve the crisis with peace. The Tsar governor in Yuriev (Dorpat), Prince D. Kurlyatev, was instructed to begin negotiations with the Livonian Master. However, the master did not give an answer, and then the Russian tsar to the commanders with the army "it was a war to Riga."
According to the Livonian chroniclers, a huge army came out against Riga in 130 thou. Fierce and savage warriors, the Danes reported on 40-thou. rati Obviously, the numbers are greatly exaggerated. Russian chronicles and digit books do not report the number of boyar children, archers and Cossacks in submission by the governor. However, the ranks report voivods, shelves, and centesimal heads under the authority of each governor. In total, the Russian rati had 5 regiments. The large regiment under the command of Prince S. Mikulinsky and the boyar P. Morozov, reinforced by the court of Tsarevich Tokhtamysh (2 - 3 hundreds of warriors), by the military governors M. Repnin, S. Narmattsky and light attire (artillery) under the command of G. Zabolotsky. The Russian command during this campaign was not going to besiege heavily fortified castles and fortresses, so the artillery was only light - small cannons on the sled. In total under the leadership of the governor of the Big regiment there were 16 centesimal heads. In the Advanced Regiment under the command of Governor Prince V. Serebryan and N. Yuriev there were 9 centesimal heads. Also in the Advanced Regiment were soldiers from the garrison of the Island with voivod F. Sheremetyev, prince A. Teleatevsky with the court of the former Kazan tsar Shah Ali (Shigaley) and B. Sukin "with Kazan mountain and meadow people" (mountain and meadow people - mountain and meadow Mari, Mari).
Also in the Russian army was a regiment of the Right hand under the leadership of the governor Prince Y. Kashin and I. Menshiy Sheremetev, in which there were 8 centesimal heads and the Yuryev voivode Prince P. Shchepin, R. Alferov with the serving Tatars and A. Mikhalkov with the Tatars-new baptized . The regiment of the Left hand was commanded by voivods P. Serebryany and I. Buturlin, 7 subordinate to the hundredth head and another part of the Yuriev garrison. The fifth regiment was the Watchdog regiment under the command of the governor M. Morozov and F. Saltykov - 7 heads.
Thus, in the five Russian regiments there were 47 centesimal heads, 5 district governors with their own people, Tatar auxiliary cavalry and light artillery (attire). In every hundred, there was usually from 90 to 200 children of boyars, each son of the boyars was accompanied by at least one soldier. As a result, the local cavalry was about 9 - 10 thousand fighters, plus depot service - 4 - 5 thousand people. In the Tatar cavalry (including other aliens - Mordovians, Mari, etc.) there were about 2 - 4 thousand people. Also in the army included infantry - archers and Cossacks, mounted on a horse or sleigh for speed of movement. As a result, the Russian army could count 18 - 20 thousand people. For Western Europe at that time it was a huge army.
Therefore, Russian troops entered Livonia with wide lava - 7 columns. With a horse force in 18 - 20 thousand fighters (the infantry was mobile) it had 40 - 50 thousand horses and it was difficult to provide them with forage even in a rather densely populated Livonia. Therefore, the army was not on one - two roads, but on a broad front. This made it possible to solve the problem of self-supply of troops and the destruction of a large area of territory — the punitive aspect of the operation. As a result, the Russian army was solving the strategic task of further reducing the military-economic potential of both the Livonian Order and the Riga Archdiocese. In addition, this tactic allowed the children of the boyars and service Tatars to profit from the seizure of the fullness and "stomachs" (property), which was common practice in the era of medieval wars. Successful campaigns, when the warriors could capture a lot of booty, contributed to raising the morale of the troops and their zeal for the state service. On the contrary, defeats, failures, small prey and high losses led to a drop in the motivation of the soldiers, the fighting capacity of the local cavalry.
It is worth noting that winter trips were not something special for the Russian army. For Russian and Tatar warriors it was a common thing. Actively used skis, sleds. For example, even the father of Ivan the Terrible, Vasily III in the winter of 1512 - 1513, undertook a large-scale military operation to return Smolensk. In the winter of 1534 - 1535 n troops undertook a great campaign in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Ivan IV himself went to Kazan twice in the winter before taking it in the fall of 1552 of the year.
The timing was good. Livonians, like a year ago, and despite the inevitability of the Russian offensive in response to Kettler’s autumn offensive (the siege of Ringen) and the failure of negotiations, were not ready to fight back. The few forces of the Livonian Master were scattered in individual castles and cities at a considerable distance from each other, and the mercenaries dispersed and quickly could not assemble.
Winter trekking
At the beginning of January 1559, the advanced Russian detachments crossed the frontiers that separated the previously occupied possessions of the Bishop of Dorpat from the lands of the order and the Archbishop of Riga. Behind them began the movement of the main forces of the Russian army. The offensive went wide front - 7 columns. The main forces marched along the left bank of the river Aa (Gauja) to Wenden and further to Riga. The advanced regiment invaded the lands of the Order to the east, from the direction of Neuhausen, and moved southward to Marienburg and further to Schwanenburg.
The tactics of the Russian-Tatar troops was traditional. The main forces of the governor were kept in a fist in case they met with serious enemy forces. At the same time, the governors with the border crossing “dissolved the war” - small cavalry detachments (20 - 100 riders) quickly moved in different directions, got food and fodder, took full, various property, burned and plundered villages without any restrictions. They did not take heavy artillery, the Russian command was not going to linger, besiege and storm the numerous castles and fortresses of Livonia. Thus, there was a total devastation of the area, which weakened the military and economic potential of the enemy. As a result, the Russian army rather calmly raided the lands of the order right up to Riga itself.
Kettler, Völkersz and the Riga archbishop, who were then in Riga, could not oppose anything to the Russians, as they disbanded the army. They even had to evacuate some castles and cities without being able to protect them. And all attempts to repel the enemy, mercilessly ruining the possessions of the order and the archbishop of Riga, did not lead to success. The biggest battle of Russians and Livonians took place on 17 on January 1559 of the year near Tirzen. The warriors of the Advanced Regiment encountered a detachment of the Knights of the Order and Knights of the Archbishop of Riga under the command of Friedrich von Voelkerszam (near 400 soldiers), coming out of Seswegen-Cestine.
Obviously, the Livonians were planning to attack and destroy the Russian and Tatar units scattered around the district. However, the Germans from the attackers themselves became a victim, falling under the blow of the main forces of the Advanced Regiment governor Serebryanny and Yuriev. Livonian detachment was completely destroyed, many Germans were captured. Volkersum himself died, according to other sources - taken prisoner. Prisoners were taken to Pskov, and then to Moscow.
Thus, fulfilling the royal order, the Russian army walked through Livonia with a rampart of fire, and at the end of January 1559 reached Riga, in the vicinity of which it continued the pogrom for another three days. Along the way, burned part of the Livonian fleetbound by ice. Riga residents were in a panic, the city had weak and old fortifications. They themselves burned the suburbs, because they could not protect it. Having ravaged the surroundings of Riga, the Russian troops turned east, moving on both sides of the Dvina, while separate detachments marched south, reaching the Prussian and Lithuanian borders. Along the way, the Russian regiments burned and smashed 11 German "towns" that were abandoned by residents. In February, the Russian army returned to the borders of the Russian kingdom with huge booty and full.
Ivan the Terrible decided that the proper lesson of Livonia was given, the matter is done, now you can start negotiations and recalled the troops. The objectives of the campaign were fully accomplished: it was undertaken not to seize territories and cities, but to intimidate the enemy, ruin Livonia, its economic centers, weaken military force, disrupt the work of the local administration. That is, the planned general devastation and ruin of Livonia. Livonian command could not oppose this strategy. As a result, Livonia pushed towards Lithuania, Denmark and Sweden. Moscow, on the other hand, expected a military “suggestion” to lead to a profitable world with Livonia. In April, 1559, Ivan IV gave Livonia a truce for the term of 6 months - from 1 in May to 1 in November of 1559.
Meanwhile, the conflict between the Russian state and Livonia began to expand. Already in March, the 1559 year, the Danish ambassadors on behalf of the new king Frederick II declared their claims to Revel and Northern Livonia. Then the embassy of Sigismund II Augustus demanded that Moscow leave the relative of the King of the Archbishop of Riga alone, hinting at the possibility of intervention in the conflict. And at the end of August - September 1559, Sigismund signed an agreement, under which he took under his protection both the Livonian Order and the Archbishop of Riga, receiving as payment the south-eastern part of Livonia, where Lithuanian troops immediately entered. Sweden also began to stand up for the "poor Livonians".
- Alexander Samsonov
- Livonian war
460 years ago the Livonian War began
Russian victories in the Livonian War
Winter Pogrom of Livonia
Storm of Narva
Siege of Dorpat
Heroic defense of Ringen
Information