Capitulation at Ujście (1655)

Course of events

Field Marshal Arvid Wittenberg crossed the Polish border near Heinrichsdorf on 21 July 1655 and encamped near Tempelburg¹. In his path stood the general levy of the nobility (pospolite ruszenie) of the Poznań and Kalisz voivodeships. From 27 June to the middle of July the nobles gathered in three camps on the Noteć: near Wieleń, Ujście and Piła¹. Command lay with the voivodes (provincial governors) of Poznań, Krzysztof Opaliński, and of Kalisz, Andrzej Karol Grudziński, and with other senators of Greater Poland². Kubala notes, however, that obedience was out of the question („nie było mowy”, "there was no question [of it]")². In the end the whole levy crossed to Ujście and began to dig in there³.

On 24 July Wittenberg sent a second letter to the senators from near Wałcz, and then attacked the earthworks defended by the voivode of Kalisz. After five hours of fire Grudziński abandoned his redoubt in the evening⁴. Meanwhile Marderfeld's detachment went round the position from the west and crossed the Noteć near Dziembowo, and at sunrise on 25 July the levy found itself trapped⁵.

That same morning the voivodes asked for talks. Hieronim Radziejowski, who had arrived with General Wirtz, gave them only four hours to consider⁶. The senators signed an act placing the Poznań and Kalisz voivodeships under the protection of Charles X Gustav. The King of Sweden was to receive the revenues of the Commonwealth, the towns of Poznań, Kalisz, Leszno and Międzyrzecz, and the right to dispose of the infantry of both voivodeships. Wittenberg, in his name, guaranteed freedom of religion and the ancient rights of the nobility⁷. The act was signed by Krzysztof Opaliński, Andrzej Karol Grudziński, Paweł Gębicki, Maksymilian Miaskowski and Andrzej Słupecki, and for the Swedish side by Wittenberg⁸. The voivode of Inowrocław, Jakub Rozdrażewski, declared that he would remain faithful to John II Casimir Vasa⁹, and later lodged a protest against the agreement in Poznań¹⁰.

Forces and losses

Significance

Kubala writes that in this way two voivodeships „oderwały się, wyparły się Ojczyzny i króla” ("broke away, renounced the Fatherland and the king"), and that the disgrace was universal¹¹. After the capitulation the Swedes occupied Poznań: Radziejowski set out for the city on 28 July, and Wittenberg entered it on 2 August¹².

In the novel

In The Deluge (Potop) the capitulation is recounted by Stanisław Skrzetuski, who gives the same figure as Kubala:

Staliśmy pod Ujściem, pospolite ruszenie i piechota łanowa, razem z piętnaście tysięcy ludzi, i zalegaliśmy pasy nad Notecią ab incursione hostili.

Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Deluge (Potop)¹³

(Our translation: "We stood at Ujście, the general levy and the łan infantry, some fifteen thousand men in all, and held the passes along the Noteć ab incursione hostili [against enemy incursion].")