The Battle of Trzciana was fought on 27 June 16292 in Royal Prussia during the Polish-Swedish War. Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski's cavalry, including the winged hussars, and imperial troops under Hans Georg von Arnim caught the Swedish cavalry covering King Gustavus Adolphus's withdrawal and routed it in a running fight. The king himself was nearly killed or captured.2 The victory helped Poland hold Prussia, although the war ended a few months later with the Truce of Altmark, which favoured Sweden.
Gustavus Adolphus would become one of the greatest commanders of his age. But in the summer of 1629, in the fields of Royal Prussia, he met Polish hussars under Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, and came within a hair of being captured.
War for the Baltic
From 1626 King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden waged war on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Royal Prussia, seizing ports and taxing the trade of the Vistula3. Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, often outnumbered, fought a long campaign to stop him4 from taking the whole province.
Koniecpolski's chance
In 1629 the Holy Roman Emperor sent troops under1 Hans Georg von Arnim to help the Commonwealth. When the Swedish army began to withdraw near Sztum in June, Koniecpolski and Arnim moved to strike at its rearguard.
The hussars strike
On 27 June the Polish cavalry, led by the winged hussars, caught the Swedish cavalry near the village of Trzciana. In a series of charges and running fights across several villages, the Swedish horse was broken and pursued5.
A king in danger
Gustavus Adolphus led his cavalry in person. During the fighting he was nearly captured, losing his hat to a Polish rider according to one tradition, and was saved only when his men cut him free. A remark attributed to him afterwards, that he had never been in such a bath, has become part of the battle's legend.
Why Trzciana mattered
Trzciana showed that the Commonwealth's cavalry could still beat the best Swedish troops in the field, and it helped Poland keep its hold on Prussia. But the war was costly and the Commonwealth was exhausted; in September 1629 the Truce of Altmark left Sweden much of Livonia and the right to tolls6 on Prussian trade. Gustavus Adolphus took the lessons he had learned to Germany7, where he soon won fame in the Thirty Years' War.
