Acceptance of Swedish Protection by J. Radziwill in 1655: Contemporaries’ Assessments and Hetman’ Motives

Abstract

The article highlights the perception and assessments of contemporaries of the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Janusz Radziwill's acceptance of Swedish protection in 1655 and examines the reasons for such a step by the Hetman through the prism of his own vision and understanding of the then difficult situation of the principality and ways out. It is determined that after the attack of Swedish troops on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the summer of 1655, the situation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania deteriorated sharply, as its territory became the epicenter of military confrontation (at the same time the war with the Moscow state). In such a situation, J. Radziwill and part of the political elite considered the adoption of Swedish protection to be an effective means of saving the principality. It is established that his step provoked the accusation of contemporaries of betraying the Commonwealth and King Jan Casimir. It was found that the important reason for J. Radziwill's acceptance of Swedish protection was the lack of support from Warsaw in the face of a military threat to the principality from Sweden and Muscovy, and thus the impossibility of fighting them at the same time. The factor that prompted the hetman to take such a step was the capture of Vilna by Russian troops and the capitulation of the crown army near Uyscem in late July 1655. On the one hand, Lithuania's acceptance of the protection of the Swedish monarch threatened the integrity of the Commonwealth, which according to the results of the Union of Lublin in 1569 was proclaimed a state of two components – the Crown and Lithuania. However, on the other hand, given the fact that Lithuania was left alone with the military aggression of Muscovy and Sweden, it was an attempt to save the principality and strengthen its political influence.