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Horsemen cross a river beneath an overcast sky.
AI illustration

Imagined river crossing; troop positions are interpretive.

Battle

Battle of Łowicz

25 VIII 1656

Documented

Stefan Czarniecki’s forces won an engagement at Łowicz. Operations against Swedish forces continued after the July defeat near Warsaw.

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Names and variants
pl Bitwa pod Łowiczem

The map shows the town or area of the event; it does not reconstruct troop positions.

Course of events

Stefan Czarniecki’s forces won an engagement at Łowicz. Operations against Swedish forces continued after the July defeat near Warsaw.1

A closer look

The museum estimates Czarniecki’s force at about 6,000 and Hans Böddeker’s defeated Swedish detachment at about 1,500 reiters. The victory came less than a month after the Polish-Lithuanian defeat in the three-day Battle of Warsaw.1

After the July defeat

The museum describes Łowicz as the Commonwealth’s first major success after the Warsaw battle of 28–30 July.1 This does not mean the first victory of the whole war: Warka had taken place in April.

What does the account say about the opponent?

The entry identifies Böddeker’s cavalry detachment, rather than the entire Swedish royal army. Its figures apply to this engagement. It gives neither successive battle phases nor losses, so the outcome alone cannot establish a reliable plan of the charges.1

Notes

  1. Bitwa pod Łowiczem, Oś czasu, Warszawa: Muzeum Wojska Polskiego w Warszawie

Campaign: 1656

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