From resistance to counteroffensive

There was no single instant when a Swedish victory became a Commonwealth victory. Opponents of occupation organised and fought in different parts of the state, while troops and nobles reconsidered their allegiance. The sources show several places and dates in the growth of resistance¹².

Winter 1655: several centres of resistance

The siege of Jasna Góra ended with a Swedish withdrawal. It mattered, but the change in the war cannot be reduced to the defence of one monastery. Nobles of the Kraków province formed a confederation at Nowy Sącz on 21 December. Commanders, troops and nobles swore the Tyszowce Confederation on 29 December. Its act named plundering and the siege of Częstochowa among the grounds for turning against Charles X Gustav³.

In Lithuania, opponents of the Kėdainiai agreement and Swedish power also fought back. The Museum of the Polish Army describes opposition spreading through much of the Grand Duchy by the end of 1655. The story cannot be told only from the Crown's perspective⁴⁵.

Warka: a victory, not the end of the war

On 7 April 1656 Commonwealth forces defeated a Swedish detachment at Warka. The Museum of Polish History and the Museum of the Polish Army describe the battle as an important success of the counteroffensive. It neither ended the war nor immediately restored all occupied lands. It showed that Swedish forces could be beaten in open combat⁶⁷.

The conflict was no longer a war of only two states. The next chapter follows its wider alliances and diplomacy.