Jacob Pontusson Delagardie and his role in the Troubles
Jacob Delagardie
The Swedish commander Jacob Pontusson Delagardie played a prominent role in both Swedish and Russian stories beginning of the XNUMXth century. He was not only a major commander, but also a diplomat and the de facto ruler of a vast territory controlled by his troops. And yet, despite this, his personality is not widely known and still remains in the shadow of the more famous figures of the era. Who was this man and what role did he play in the events of the Time of Troubles, we will tell.
Youth and campaign in Russia as an ally
The future commander was born in 1583 in the family of Pontus Delagardi, a military leader, a participant in the Livonian War, and later the governor of Livonia and Estonia. Jacob's mother was the illegitimate daughter of the Swedish king Johan III. Thus, Jacob Delagardie was the grandson of Johan, the nephew of the next king, Charles IX, and the half-brother of the Polish king, Sigismund III.
At the age of 18, Delagardie joined the army, took part in the war with the Poles, but was soon captured by them. He spent four years in Polish captivity. All this time he was supported at his own expense, so at the time of his release he was heavily in debt.
In 1605, Delagardie entered the service of the ruler of the Netherlands, Moritz of Orange. Subsequently, returning to Sweden, he adopted the Dutch tactics of warfare and the system of training troops. This system will be used by him a few years later when training Russian recruits.
In March 1609, Delagardie was appointed commander of a 10-strong detachment of mercenaries who went to Russia to help Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who fought against the Poles and the impostor False Dmitry II. Actually, there were no more than half of the Swedes in the Delagardie detachment, the rest were mercenaries from different European countries: the French, Germans, British, Scots and others.
The use of mercenaries had both positive and negative sides. The positive ones include the fact that they were military professionals, it was not necessary to spend a lot of time on their training. On the negative side, the fact that their main motivation for participating in the war was money. And in the absence of payment, they could either go home, or start robbing the local population, or even go over to the side of the enemy if he offered more.
Meeting of Skopin-Shuisky and Delagardie
At the same time, Delagardi met and became friends with Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, who led the united troops. The two commanders had a lot in common: both were related to the rulers (Skopin-Shuisky - the nephew of Vasily Shuisky), both possessed military leadership abilities and were almost the same age (Delagardi was 26 years old, Skopin - 23 years old).
The campaign began at the beginning of May. The first major clash with the Poles took place on June 17 at Torzhok and ended in an easy victory for the Russian-Swedish troops. The next battle was near Tver on July 11-13 and it became much more fierce. As a result, at the cost of heavy losses, Skopin and Delagardi nevertheless forced the enemy to retreat, but soon after that a new problem made itself felt. The mercenaries, who had not been paid for more than a month, refused to continue the campaign and retreated towards Novgorod. Delagardie was forced to follow them, demanding to continue the campaign. Only Russian troops and 1 Swedes under the command of K. Somme remained with Skopin.
Only in early September, when funds were found to pay salaries, the retreating mercenaries rejoined Skopin's army.
On October 19-24, the general battle of the troops of Skopin and Delagardi with the main forces of the Poles under the command of Hetman Rozhinsky took place on the Karinsky field. Numerous attacks by the Polish troops were unsuccessful, and Rozhinsky, having suffered losses, was forced to retreat.
Soon the Tushino camp broke up, False Dmitry II fled to Kaluga, the Poles - to Smolensk, which was besieged by the troops of King Sigzmund III. And the troops of Delagardie and Skopin-Shuisky on March 12, 1610 solemnly entered Moscow. On March 18, a solemn dinner was given in honor of Delagardie by the tsar himself.
However, victory in the war was still far away. In April, Skopin-Shuisky was poisoned, probably by the tsar's relatives, who feared that he would take the throne bypassing them. Having lost a talented leader, the troops were in a depressed mood, and Delagardie no longer saw the point of further participation in this war.
On June 24, the Russian-Swedish troops suffered a crushing defeat from the Poles in the Battle of Klushino. Part of the mercenaries, who were again delayed in paying money, went over to the side of the Poles, the other part rebelled and decided to return home.
Enemy
Delagardie, with only 400 soldiers left under his control, also retreated north. Meanwhile, the Moscow boyars overthrew the unfortunate Vasily Shuisky and recognized the Polish prince Vladislav as the new tsar. The Polish army entered the capital. For Delagardie, this meant that the Muscovite state had now gone over to the side of the Poles, the enemies of Sweden.
In 1611, having reassembled his regiments and received reinforcements, Delagardie stormed Novgorod and a number of fortresses in its vicinity. An agreement was concluded with the Novgorod boyars, according to which the alliance against Poland was confirmed, and the Novgorodians agreed in the future to recognize the Swedish prince Karl-Philip as the Russian tsar and not to recognize the Polish prince Vladislav proclaimed by the Moscow boyars.
Since that time, Delagardie actually became the ruler of a vast territory. Since ruling a foreign country is clearly not an easy task, Delagardie relied in everything on the Novgorod boyars, governors and officials, who retained their posts. A number of Russian nobles received large land holdings.
Laws, traditions, the system of taxation remained the same, even the portrait of the long-deposed Vasily Shuisky was preserved on the minted coins.
However, the campaign against Moscow occupied by the Poles, under which the troops of the First Militia were then stationed, Delagardie did not begin. Probably the reason for this should be considered that he had too few troops for such a campaign. In this regard, the historian N. M. Karamzin wrote:
“Delagardie preferred the city to the state ... If he had rigorously joined our army near the capital in order to strengthen Lyapunov, share with him the glory of success, repel Khodkevich, restore Russia, then the crown of Monomakh, wrested from the hands of the Lithuanians, would probably return to posterity Varangian, and the brother of Gustav Adolf or Adolf himself in liberated Moscow, legally elected, legally approved by the Great Zemsky Duma, would include Russia in the system of powers that, in a few years, founded the balance of Europe until modern times.
The Swedish king Gustav II Adolf was slow to send Prince Karl-Philip to Russia. Meanwhile, over time, it became increasingly difficult for Jacob Delagardie to manage such a vast territory. Periodically, anti-Swedish uprisings broke out in different places. So, in June 1613, the Swedish garrison of the Tikhvin Monastery was killed, followed by a three-month siege, which ended in vain.
Fortifications of the Tikhvin Monastery
In 1614, Dmitry Trubetskoy undertook a campaign against Novgorod on the orders of the new Tsar Mikhail Romanov, but his troops were defeated by Delagardie near Bronnitsa. Only at the cost of heavy losses was Trubetskoy able to break out of the encirclement.
The following year, King Gustav Adolf made an attempt to take Pskov, but the more than two-month siege of the city ended for the Swedes to no avail, the inhabitants of the city repelled all assaults.
Delagardie himself at this time urged his king to start peace negotiations with the new Moscow government. Negotiations began only in 1616, and the final peace treaty was signed in the village of Stolbovo in February 1617. According to him, the Swedes left Novgorod and other cities they occupied, but retained Ivangorod, Oreshek, Korela, Yam and Koporye, that is, the entire outlet to the Baltic Sea.
Elderly Delagardie
After returning home, Delagardie had a successful career. He became a marshal, a member of the State Council, and the governor-general of Livonia. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, Delagardie became a member of the regency council under the infant queen Christina and thus took a direct part in the government of the country.
Career heights also awaited his sons: Magnus, who was the chancellor of Sweden, and Axel Julius, who became the governor-general of Estonia.
Jacob Delagardie died in 1652 in Stockholm.
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