[61a] PART THREE

The noteworthy events which took place

in Livonia, the Duchy of Courland, and elsewhere

between 1577 and 1590

during the reign of King Stephen until

the time of King Sigismund III

Above, at the end of the preceding Part Two, we noted and recorded the particulars of King Stephen's election.[1] He then held his first reichstag at Thorn in Prussia and was persuaded to wage war against Danzig. What took place during that war has been described by others and so it is unnecessary for me to burden my reader with a repetition of those events.[2] Nor is it my intent to range very far outside of Livonia unless it be that something important and imperative has to be included and introduced into my history.

And so, in God's name, we return to the history of events in Livonia. On January 23 of this year the Russian besieged the city of Reval for a second time, with 50,000 men. He bombarded it for six entire weeks, day and night, but he achieved no more than he had previously and he had to withdraw in disgrace and defeat, may God be rendered honor, glory and thanks. As for what took place in and around the city during the siege, the skirmishes and the other actions, this too has been described in detail elsewhere and the reader is thus referred to those accounts.[3]

After the monster and brutal tyrant once again failed against Reval, through God's grace and steadfast assistance, as has just been mentioned, and withdrew from there, he decided to try his luck against the remaining areas of Livonia to see if he might not gain control over them. [61b] He had an excellent opportunity and occasion to do so, since the King of Poland was burdened and encumbered with the Danzig war at this very time.[4] Thus he in person, along with his eldest son, countless soldiers, and all the war materiel and other supplies necessary to such an undertaking,[5] went to Pskov that same summer. He summoned King Magnus to appear there and on June 29 he had harsh words with him and criticized him soundly for having requested an escort even though he was under the protection of the Grand Duke as his sworn subject. He surmised that Magnus was up to no good or that he had something in mind that would be detrimental to him, the Grand Duke, especially since his counsellor Christian had not accompanied him, but had rather been dispatched elsewhere, to the King of Poland and the dukes of Prussia and Courland, so he had heard, to incite those rulers against him and set plans in motion. King Magnus explained that he had not dispatched Christian, but rather that he had deserted him, and matters rested there.[6] The king was invited to dine with the Grand Duke on several occasions and he and his men were shown honor and respect.[7] The two reached an agreement as to which castles in Livonia Magnus might lay claim to, all the others remaining the prerogative of the Grand Duke. Magnus was given the right to the city of Wenden and any other districts beyond the River Aa (Aah). If he should be unable to seize that city through peaceful means, then he was to inform the Grand Duke and he would send him the necessary artillery and soldiers. If other cities and castles wished to surrender to King Magnus, he was to inform the Grand Duke and await instructions before proceeding. After the Grand Duke marched from Pskov against Livonia, King Magnus also returned there and when he arrived at Ermes on August 1, Johann Ninegall came to him and told him that the city of Wenden had decided to surrender. The citizens seized the city and the castle on August 2, slaying a number of Poles, and on August 3 they jubilantly swore allegiance to King Magnus.[8]

The Grand Duke and his assembled forces marched from Pskov (Pleßkaw) against Livonia on July 11, first going to Ludsen (Liotzen) and Rositen. Those castles quickly surrendered to him and all the Germans, along with their wives and children, were taken prisoner and brought to Pskov. But as soon as the Grand Duke returned, [62a] they were all released, aside from those who voluntarily wished to remain in his service. There were no more than four or five of these, not counting their families.

Then he advanced to the Düna and captured the castle of New Dünaburg, allowing the Lithuanians to leave there unmolested. At Schwanenburg and Soßwegen he began to commit atrocities. At the latter castle he hung a number of Germans who were in the service of Baron Johann Taube from a very high gallows. He did this to repay them for their attempt to seize Dorpat, as mentioned above.[9] At Berson he allowed the von Tiesenhausens[10] and others who were in the castle to leave unharmed. But at Erlen he led the people off as prisoners and also had several sabered and piteously slain, among them a Tiesenhausen of Jemmedhal, a Fromholt, a Schwarzholt and Bertholt von Ölsen. While he was occupied with the above‑mentioned castles, the people of Kokenhausen were preparing for a assault, fearing it would soon be their turn, as was unfortunately the case. So they, along with the people of Wolmar, sent their legates to King Magnus with piteous entreaties, begging him to take them under his protection and to send some of his horsemen to their castles and cities, hoping in this way to be spared and saved. King Magnus, possibly concerned about the agreement which he and the Grand Duke had made at Pskov regarding the castles, immediately sent the interpreter Jasper Hoper with letters to the Grand Duke who was said to be at Rositen. But Jasper Hoper first went to Karx to visit his bride and thus he did not reach the Grand Duke in time. Nonetheless, Magnus was finally persuaded by the legates and he not only sent a number of his men to Kokenhausen, where they were joyfully received and taken in, but he also sent a general missive to a number of castles warning them of the enemy and promising them that whatever he did with them would be in the best interests of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to which said castles were subject through sworn oaths of fealty. And so those good people, who were totally abandoned in the face of direst peril and danger, perched on the razor's edge,[11] as one says, and who had nowhere else to turn for aid and reinforcements, [62b] trusted his assurances and allowed his troops to enter their castles and they then proceeded to go to Wenden to Duke Magnus himself. I would like to see how the cleverest fellows in the world would have handled matters differently had they been there, in such desperate circumstances with everything hanging by a silken thread.

This is the text of King Magnus' missive:

We, Magnus, by the grace of God chosen King of Livonia, heir to Norway, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen, Earl of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, etc., herewith make open proclamation to all who receive this our letter or are informed of its content, be they of whatever status, spiritual or secular, of high or low estate: the Grand Duke and his mighty army is now invading this poor, oppressed province of Livonia, hoping to finally bring it under his control. He has already captured a number of important fortresses and is at present ravaging and devastating various districts and their inhabitants. We, as a German, Christian prince, would like, with divine assistance, to take under our rule the remaining districts and inhabitants, along with their own and subject cities, castles and lands, now hard‑pressed and abandoned, and in this way save them from the great oppression, peril and destruction which threaten them. Before such action is undertaken, they shall be allowed to state their reservations and provisos and thus nothing will be done to the detriment of the Kingdom of Poland or the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, under whose protection and sovereignty they presently are. Rather, this action will be in the best interests of those two countries and will be directed, as mentioned above, toward the salvation of the districts and their inhabitants. We have signed this document with our own hand and have had our seal affixed below. Done at our castle of Wenden, August 24, 1577.

(Magnus' own signature)

[63a] Soon afterwards the Grand Duke arrived with his army before Kokenhausen and demanded entry into that town.[12] The situation was desperate and the good people were at a loss as to what to do.[13] But what other choice was left them but to yield to such a mighty force, reluctant though they were, because the footsteps terrify me.[14] They hoped to minimize their losses by granting him entry. As soon as the Lithuanians withdrew, he immediately made prisoners of the citizenry, but he piteously sabered, slew and slaughtered all those who were subjects of King Magnus, with the exception of a clerk. He spared his life and let him live so that he might bring his lord news of the tragic and bloody affair at Kokenhausen. King Magnus and his men at Wenden at first did not believe him, but rather regarded everything he said as fables and fairy tales, until finally they accepted what he said as true.

At Kokenhausen the Grand Duke went in person to a pastor and asked him what he preached and believed. The pastor answered that he preached what Luther had preached and when the Grand Duke asked what Luther had preached, the pastor said he had preached what Paul had preached. Once again the Grand Duke asked what Paul had preached and the pastor replied that man would find salvation before God not through good works, but rather through faith in Christ alone. The Grand Duke then hit him over the head with his whip and said, "You are a filthy, whoring devil, you with your Paul and Luther!"[15]

At this time Ascheraden was held by the former landmarshal, Jasper von Münster, and his cousin Johann von Münster, a canon. The King of Poland had graciously bestowed this castle upon him as a demesne for life. The Duke of Courland had done the same with a number of adjoining manors. After Ascheraden surrendered to the Russian, the Germans were seized, bound and led away, but the landmarshal was unable to go with them on account of his infirmities and advanced age and so the Russians struck him dead outside the walls and left him lying there. Thus his troubled life ended in a piteous death. Everyone, be he of high or low estate, would do well to regard and consider that whatever has happened to one person can happen to anyone.[16] In the time of the Order he had been a high official, second [63b] only to the master, and as he rode about for pleasure or on the business of his office he was accompanied by three hundred horsemen and a number of trumpeters. Then he later fell into such poverty that he appeared once at Kaunas plagued by lice and worms appealing to the good people for help. Once when the Lithuanian senate convened he appeared among them unannounced wearing on the front of his garment a paper sign with "Ecce homo" in large letters, to remind them of the human condition in which they might also conceivably find themselves and to encourage the lords to have compassion with him, to open up their generous hands and to extend him further aid.

During this Muscovite invasion and devastation King Magnus sent his men to Riga, doing everything he could to gain control of the city.[17] When news arrived in Riga of the atrocities committed at Kokenhausen and of how the Lithuanians had withdrawn across the border, the people of the city became quite cautious. The Duke of Courland travelled to the estates of Lithuania, not without danger from the Russians, and the Muscovite turned his march from Kokenhausen back toward Wenden and he did not so much as harm a chicken in the Duchy of Courland south of the Düna. Whether he desisted for some personal reason or whether some of the duke's subjects acting independently had an audience with him at Dünaburg and requested an armistice, promising that negotiators would be dispatched, is known to God alone.

Here mention should be made of a remarkable episode, one which should be preserved and not allowed to pass into oblivion. Once, in replying to a letter from the duke, the Grand Duke wrote back saying that this time he would spare "God's little country"[18] and would do no harm or damage to it. This so encouraged and comforted the duke in the midst of his great distress and sorrow that he jumped up for joy and said, "If this my poor duchy is 'God's little country' as I myself believe it to be, then I am now convinced that God looks after his own, that He has reined in the enemy, and that He will not allow him to further oppress me or my people." And, praise God in eternity, this is just what happened during this mighty campaign.[19]

[64a] During this entire period the duke was with his dear wife at the castle in Riga and he was in considerable danger of losing his lands, his subjects and his own life. It could have easily come about, through God's providence or some other chance, that he might have either fallen into the hands of the Muscovite or been forced to leave under a white flag, should he have been so lucky. And so it was considered advisable to send the duchess, along with the children they both dearly loved, both sons and daughters, farther inland to Goldingen to better insure their safety. But tongs could not tear her away from her lord. Rather, she stayed with him the entire time and was so confident and bold that she was also able to comfort and encourage the others. In a word, she was resolved to live and die with her lord and to risk every peril just as she had promised him as her husband, whatever good or ill fate the dear Lord might have in store for them, whatever might happen to the children, country or subjects according to His will. Not to mention how she had willingly and gladly offered and contributed everything she had brought with her into the country and all the other things she had been presented with at weddings and baptisms toward coping with the emergency and these possessions were by no means inconsiderable, but rather quite substantial. Later, during her lord and husband's long illness and until his death, she showed him complete love and devotion. It is thus quite appropriate that she be described as a true and living example and repository of all matrimonial and Christian virtues. All people living in matrimony, whoever they might be, should follow her example. It was for this reason that the dear God so richly blessed her with such tender and beautiful fruits of marriage, some of whom died and are with God, others are still alive, may God preserve them so that they might honor Him and insure the well‑being of the entire ducal family. These are the beautiful gifts which God bestows upon people who hold Him in reverence and love Him. You will see "thy children like olive plants round about thy table."[20]

After committing his atrocities at Kokenhausen, the Grand Duke moved from there back toward Wenden, as mentioned above, and he sent dispatch after dispatch demanding that his subject Knez Alexander Polubinski,[21] whom Magnus' men had taken prisoner [64b] on August 28 after the capture of the castle and fortress of Wolmar, and his treasure be turned over to him and that Duke Magnus send some of his men out to speak with him. The latter was done with great reluctance and the lot fell to Andreas Friedrich Senffteberger and Christopher Kurssel. The Grand Duke heaped biting censure upon them, distorted the tragedy which had taken place at Kokenhausen, and said that King Magnus had not behaved at all well toward him: he had sent his man Christian[22] to the two traitors Taube and Kruse; he had not honored the Pskov agreement, but had rather taken over virtually the best fortresses in Livonia; and he had taken his subject Knez Polubensky prisoner and seized his treasure. It was the latter above everything else which he wished returned. The legates placed the blame for the delayed communications on Hoper[23] and promised to report all these matters to their lord, which they did. Little attention was given the matter until Andreas Friedrich and several other men were finally persuaded to return to the Grand Duke with gifts of a golden chain, silver caussen [24]which had originally come from the Grand Duke, and all manner of silver and gold jewelry from the ladies and maidens, in an attempt to still or at least mitigate his rage and anger.[25]

How much all this helped can be seen from the siege of the castle of Wenden: when the Muscovite appeared before it, that poor little town was unable to resist him for long, but rather, may God have mercy, quickly fell to him.[26] The husbands of a number of honorable noblewomen were in the castle and, since the latter were about to be led away, they pleaded in God's name that they be allowed to speak a word with their husbands and bid them farewell. The tyrant agreed to this. They were led up to the castle and in the presence of the Russians they spoke with their husbands through the shut gates. They touched hands through the gap at the bottom of the gates and said farewell. One says, "parting is painful," but what an anguished parting this was, especially for those husbands who had dear children and would not know whither they had been scattered.[27] Every honest married couple can easily imagine the sorrow for themselves.

In light of the situation of the city of Wenden and in response to the impassioned pleas and entreaties of those besieged in the castle, [65a] King Magnus summoned up his courage and decided to go out from the castle to the Grand Duke with twenty‑three men in order to intercede on behalf of the besieged. As soon as he caught sight of the Grand Duke, he and all his men fell to their knees and he begged for mercy and for his own life and the lives of his men. The Grand Duke and his son and chief general dismounted. The Grand Duke bade Magnus rise, for he was, after all, the child of a great lord. He returned his sword to him (earlier he had had the swords taken away from Magnus and all his men) and, after rebuking him most severely, promised to forgive him, to do him no harm, and to spare his life.[28]

Just then a shot came flying from the castle and it whizzed right by the Grand Duke's head. He then remounted and was so enraged that he swore by St.Nicholas that not a single person in Wenden would be spared death, even though he be a prince. And so he began a bombardment and determined assault on the castle. Abject despair and utter hopelessness arose, especially among Magnus' subjects. Whenever someone, standing in a window for example, was struck and killed by a shot from the heavy artillery, another would take his place as soon as he had been dragged away, hoping to meet his own end in the same fashion. Thus did they attempt to save themselves.[29]

After the Grand Duke had departed in great rage and anger, his chancellor, Sollican Vasilii,[30] remained with King Magnus near a roofless peasant bathhouse. The chancellor requested a translator who could write Russian and he dictated to him and he wrote down that King Magnus owed the Grand Duke forty thousand Hungarian guldens because of the treasure which had been seized from Polubensky in Wolmar. This sum was due by the following Christmas and if this deadline was not met, then King Magnus was to stay in Moscow until twice that amount was paid, in Arabian gold or jewels. King Magnus, as well as Andreas Friedrich and Wilhelm the scribe and translator, had to together sign this promissory note. Then Magnus' men were stripped of all they had and taken to the bathhouse where they were held prisoner along with the twenty‑three men mentioned above.

The provost of Suckau, a von Enden, a brave, esteemed and courageous man from Prussia, had come to the country a short time before on account of his dead brother. He had laid down his [65b] priestly vestments, taken up a spear and become a volunteer soldier. He managed to speak to some of them and embolden them, but they were very few. It was to no avail. One man is no man and the hand of one man offers a weak contest.[31] So everyone began to despair and they resolved that rather than be captured, along with their wives and children, by the Russian and fall into his hands, they would seek death by some other means.

They were all of one accord in this matter and they wished to make their peace with God, receive the Blessed Sacrament and then leave the outcome and conclusion of all their troubles to Him. But as they, several hundred in number, were preparing to put their plan into effect, they discovered that there was no wine and this made them even more downcast and sick at heart. It was all the pastors could do to console them and bolster them with the saying of St.Augustine, "Believe and you have partaken."[32] The provost of Suckau, a Catholic, reputedly said that he was now curious to see how the Lutherans would receive the sacrament since they had no wine. Now, whether they liked it or not, they would have to receive communion in the Catholic fashion, in the single form. After all, he said, there is no flesh without blood.

But the dear, ever‑faithful God, Who never sends us trials we cannot bear and Who is the true Helper in time of need, brought it about in miraculous fashion that King Magnus' chamberlain found a small flask of Rhine wine among the clothes as he was going through them and sorting and packing them so that they might be saved. Not a single living person in the castle had known the wine was there. He placed it at the service of the pastors and thus the desperately needed spiritual succor was provided and the poor, hungering, souls were rescued and revived with the flesh and blood of the Lord Christ in the form of bread and wine. Truly a divine miracle!

After this had been done, i.e., after each had received his provisions for the journey, they all unanimously decided to blow themselves up, along with their wives, tiny infants and children, and to give themselves unto the dear God. There were a few exceptions among them and these people [66a] let themselves down over the walls at night when everyone else was sleeping. Crawling on hands and knees, they hoped to slip through the Russian encampment. But they failed and then thanked God that they were drawn back up into the castle by a rope. One should have seen this sorrow beyond all sorrow as the good people knelt in the room beneath which the gunpowder had been placed. Man and wife held each others' hands, children gathered around their parents, some still nursing at their mothers' breasts, all awaiting blessed St.Simeon's hour. Nor, as the Muscovite soon hereafter began to storm and invade the castle, was it long delayed. The gunpowder was ignited and all were blown up, aside from those who had hidden elsewhere in the castle and two other noblemen who survived through the special providence of God, just as the Apostle Peter escaped the prison and Daniel, the lions' den.[33] They only managed to live after surviving direst peril, because during the night they had to crawl through the encampment, often brushing against the clothes of sleeping and snoring Russians. During the day they immersed themselves up to their necks in the stinking waters of the marshes, doubtlessly because they, as men who had witnessed everything that had happened in the castle and had themselves intended to be blown up with the rest, wanted to inform others of the great sorrow and suffering and to compare their recollections of the event. "Truth lies in the accounts of two or three."

One rightly marvels at the obedience toward God demonstrated by Abraham, the patriarch of all believers, and that which his son Isaac, who was to have been sacrificed on Mt.Moria, showed toward his father Abraham. What a piteous and moving scene that was! But dear God, whoever recalls and contemplates this piteous event, the husbands and wives, the parents and children, will be no less moved. Whoever reflects that such a thing actually took place, will feel as though his heart might break a thousand times over and burst forth from his breast.

Since the Grand Duke had earlier proclaimed that all who were in Wenden castle should pay and die, even though they be princes, so now [66b] he was bound to fulfill his imperial oath and promise, just as King Herod, his sworn brother, did toward John the Baptist. And so he had everyone who survived the explosion or who had not escaped during the capture of the city piteously sabered, hacked to bits, mutilated and then left unburied as food for the birds, dogs and other wild beasts. Among the slain was also one who invoked the protection of the King of Poland.[34] In the seventy‑ninth Psalms the brutality of the foes of Christians[35] is condemned: "The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth."[36] O Lord God, show us Thy strength!

In a word, the tyrant dealt with the mightiest just as he did with the most humble. It was just as when that poor man in Moscow supposedly said to a nobleman who was lamenting his imprisonment as something ill‑befitting his noble status, "Dear junker, you must accept your being here with and among us. What is happening here is just as it happens in heaven where no regard is given to person." The first and the last are equals in honor.[37]

While these tortures were being carried out, several virtuous captive ladies took pity on the men and gave them a refreshing drink of cold water. The men were then immediately dragged away, acknowledging and invoking the name of our one Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and ending their lives in a state of grace, singing the beautiful Christian hymn, "Lord Jesus Christ was man and God". But the Muscovite had one of them, Jasper Unninghausen,[38] the secretary to Fürstenberg and castellan of Wenden, flayed before his very eyes until all his flesh fell from his ribs and one could see the intestines in his body. Finally he gave up his spirit in the midst of this pain, anguish and torment.

Dear God alone knows why it was chiefly at the important castles of Kokenhausen and Wenden where the archbishops and masters had had their courts that these dreadful and monstrous atrocities were committed.[39]

He dealt in no less severe fashion with the people at Wolmar who were subjects of King Magnus, ordering Knez Bogdan (Bucdan) Belsky to slay them.[40] And yet, after he captured the castles of Ronnenburg, and the splendid fortresses of Schmilten [67a] and Trikaten, he allowed all the Poles who had been there to leave unmolested and he made prisoners of the Germans and took them away with him. [41]

Thus this splendid and beautiful province along with thirty cities and castles, excepting only the cities of Riga, Dünamünde, Treiden and the Duchy of Courland and Semgallia, fell into the hands of the tyrant without resistance during this single campaign. Many of the junkers who had been driven out of Transdüna along with their wives and children had, next to God, the Duke of Courland to thank for providing for them. His castles and manors were full of them and there would have been nowhere else for them to stay.

After the above‑mentioned catastrophes had taken place, the Grand Duke, when he learned of the approach of the Lithuanians, withdrew toward Ronnenburg and Wolmar and from there went on to Dorpat.[42] He brought King Magnus, whom he had captured before Wenden, along with him and at Ronnenburg he housed him in a peasant's shack. At Wolmar Magnus was led closely past some sixty of his men whom the brutal Knez Bogdan Belsky had sabered and who had been left lying stark naked. Once again he had to take his lodgings in a peasant's hut. He was treated the same at Dorpat, which the Grand Duke entered on September 18. The next day the Muscovite summoned Magnus to appear before him and once again he delivered a long and harsh reprimand. He reminded him that he and his forbearers had been close and cordial friends with the Holy Roman Emperors and kings for over one hundred years. He knew this to be true from extant histories. He himself was born of German blood and line.[43] (This, no doubt, was as true as the legend about Pontius Pilate's being from Forchheim in Franconia.) He had also had important dealings with the Salt King (by which he meant the King of Denmark) and it was for this reason that he had so loved and honored King Magnus and given him his close blood kinswoman for his wife. Now, as previously, he harshly censured him for the actions of Christian Schraffer. Finally, however, promising to show him new and great favor, he released him and allowed him to join his royal wife at Karx. But soon afterwards he wrote demanding the Arabian gold or jewels and instructing that they be forwarded to Helmede with a prominent boyar. King Magnus explained that it was quite impossible [67b] for him to raise such a large sum in this country. He thus asked that he be granted leave and permission to go to Germany and Denmark to his lords and kinsmen to see if they might be able to help him in this matter. The Russian legate returned to the Grand Duke with this message and with a splendid golden chain and other jewels.

That same fall, soon after the Grand Duke's withdrawal, a number of Germans and Lithuanians surprised and recaptured Dünaburg.[44] Sir Mathias Dobinsky likewise took Suntzel, Erle and other minor castles in that region. Later Johann Büring, a man of the pen and one whom fortune did not always favor (for, as the blessed Dr. Luther said, there were some who were loath to see an humble Christ‑bearer become a knight of St.George) and the fine men he had with him at Treiden, obtained accurate intelligence reports and then took the city and castle of Wenden by night.[45] They slew many Russians there, but took two of the leaders, Knez Daniel, the former governor of Pskov, and Ivan Quasin, and sent them as prisoners to the King of Poland.[46] In the same fashion and soon afterwards they also captured the two castles of Lemsal and Burtneck from Duke Magnus' men.

At Wenden he had the stone rubble and debris cleared from the room where the people had blown themselves up.One found both husbands and wives with their children, lying close to each other. In great sorrow they took them away from there and buried them in the earth. They likewise buried the limbs and bones of those who had been sabered, insofar as there remained any which the dogs, birds and other beasts had not dragged away.

Although Wenden was besieged again that same winter and subjected to a heavy assault bombardment and although the besieged were forced in their plight to eat their horses, those Germans, Poles and Lithuanians remained valiant and steadfast and were eventually relieved by Sir Alexander Chodkiewicz, the Lithuanian commander‑in‑chief.[47] And so the Russians abandoned the siege and were forced to withdraw in great defeat and disgrace.[48]

This same year the Swedes seized the castle [68a] of Oberpahlen from King Magnus, but the Russians subsequently retook it from them by force.[49] After King Magnus lost Oberpahlen he saw that as time went on his great good fortune in Livonia, bound as it was to the Grand Duke, was beginning to change. He considered his imminent plight and recalled that "dogs tend to bite the hindmost." And so, after receiving reports from his forerunner, Christian Schraffer,[50] whom he had sent on ahead to the King of Poland and the Duke of Courland, he and his wife went to his Courish diocese. From there he went to Bauske, to the plenipotentiary of the King of Poland, the lord palatine of Vilna. There he placed himself and all the castles he still controlled in Transdüna, as well as the Courish diocese, under the sovereignty of the King, while nonetheless preserving the rights and prerogatives of the King of Denmark in regard to the diocese.[51] And, after some urging, those rights were again acknowledged in spite of everything the people of the diocese and their lord Duke Magnus had done against the Duke of Courland and his eldest son, Duke Friedrich, both earlier and subsequently.[52]

There are sayings: "Grand designs cause people to weep," "Often the best of intentions turn out for the worst,"[53] and "Many a plan becomes unraveled in the course of a year." This is also what happened in the case of Duke Magnus, who allowed himself to be enticed to this dance through the sweet pipings of those who had been driven off their lands, in particular the two baronized lords Taube and Kruse, as well as others who hoped in this manner to quickly grow rich and prosperous. Each person is the artisan of his own fortune.[54]

The Grand Duke, that vain and puffed up tyrant, was sorely distressed that a clerk and not one of his equals, a mighty potentate, should have taken away from him and out of his hands the castle and city of Wenden, the most important castle in the land where the masters had always and inevitably had their residence and court, just as the Pharaoh of Egypt had been greatly mortified and distressed when, as part of the Ten Plagues, he was beset with flies, frogs and lice and not with bears and lions. And so it was that Augustine properly said, [68a] "God sent flies and frogs upon Pharaoh and his servants and not bears and lions, so that by the vilest means arrogance might be subdued."[55]

And so he decided to repay like with like and in October of this year he sent two of his chancellors, or sollicans as they are called, with 20,000 men not counting the baggage train, and twenty‑four heavy artillery pieces to Wenden. They besieged it and subjected it to very heavy bombardment, but the Poles, Swedes and Germans banded together and relieved the besieged on October 22.[56] During the battle to relieve the town the Grand Duke lost several thousand of his men, as well as the artillery, which was then taken to Dünamünde and then on to Vilna as spoils of victory in a great triumphal procession. When the King of Poland paid his first visit to Vilna the following year, the lord palatine of Vilna presented him with the artillery.[57]

In summation, the King of Sweden and his army did much to aid the country, not only before Wenden, but elsewhere as well, and he restored all those who had not crassly deserted the Crown to their hereditary and patrimonial holdings. He treated those who had sold their castles differently. However he maintained his sovereignty over those honorable people living there, the contained rather than the container,[58] for he would be little or not at all served if he had but the land itself and not its living inhabitants, even though others might think differently, looking only at territory and not at people.[59]

Here I must not neglect to mention the prophetic meaning of Wenden.[60] It was above all before Wenden that the Grand Duke's fortune took a remarkable turn. From times of old the Russians had had their emporium and trading depot at Wenden. They had brought their goods there, deposited them and from there made their return journey. But, praise and thanks to God, during this Muscovite war in a single year the Grand Duke's army was twice turned back before Wenden and had to withdraw in defeat and disgrace. It is thus quite appropriate that Wenden has the name it does. Names are often appropriate to their objects.[61]

[69a] The year 1579

During the winter Duke Christopher Radzivil,[62] the field commander of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, invaded the diocese of Dorpat with several thousand Poles, Lithuanians, Tatars and also a thousand German horsemen from Livonia and Courland. He wreaked great havoc there, plundering and burning, and he eventually put the castle of Kirienpol to the torch, taking the Russians he captured there to Vilna.[63]

This spring the king went to Grodno in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then on to Vilna and he summoned the Duke of Courland to appear there in order to be formally invested with his fiefdom. But it could not be done there on account of all manner of legal complications and difficulties and also because of the mobilization against the Muscovite. Nonetheless all the details had been completely worked out between the king and the duke. And so, after the estates in the kingdom and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had fully considered the matter, the duke was enfeoffed with his duchy with all due ceremony and solemnity on August 4 at the royal encampment at Dissena.[64] Part of the proclamation of investiture reads as follows:

First, to his lordship and to his male posterity, legitimately descending from his loins by a direct line, we confirm the ducal title, like that of the illustrious duke in Prussia, with all dignity, insignia, and privileges of duke and anew in this investiture we grant that he be vassal and feudatory prince of ours and of our successors and a member of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and that his aforesaid posterity be the same. Furthermore, as by the deified Sigismund Augustus, our most serene predecessor, to his lordship and to his legitimate masculine posterity descending from his loins in a direct line jurisdictions, possessions, cities, towns, and specified castles were assigned by name without the solemnity of infeudation, so we by power of legitimate investiture, bestow, give, and confer upon the same first, that whole area of Courland and Semgallia, etc. [65]

The king graciously reaffirmed then and for all time that which the blessed Sigismund Augustus had first promised him and he graciously honored the duke's royal coat‑of‑arms by adding to them the family crest of the Batorys', three wolf fangs, placing them next to the letters 'S.A.' in the pothook.[66] The king pledged and promised the Duke of Courland and his subjects, just as had the blessed Sigismund Augustus before him, that no one would assail their honor or possessions on account of this unavoidable transfer of fealty, nor would they be beset by any condemnation or proscription from the Holy Roman Empire, for the above‑mentioned proclamation of investiture also contained the following words:

Finally, since his lordship, for very necessary and just reasons, subjected himself to the authority and command of our most serene predecessor and the successors to the kingdom and to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, having been impelled by the extreme wrong wrought by the grand duke of the Muscovites and by enemy violence and oppression, the resource and aid of the Roman Empire and the emperors having been implored in vain through very many years, and since, although he was already treated as abandoned for a very long space of time, he remained under the authority of the kings of Poland, our antecedents, and under our authority with no objection, we truly judge that it shall be that to his lordship on this account no controversy or trouble will be offered. But, nevertheless, if any shall have been offered, which has carried with it any loss of name or detriment, we, in regard to him, by no means leave out of consideration doing through our royal office what we know that it, i.e., our royal office, did in defending our subjects in the case of his lordship Albert, formerly duke in Prussia, and we shall guarantee defense against every enemy, of whatever sort he shall have been, and our successors will make this guarantee as well.[67]

In the meanwhile, while the duke was with the king at his encampment in order to be invested with his fiefdom, the Muscovite crossed the Düna and invaded Semgallia with several thousand Russians and Tatars, inflicting considerable damage in his customary brutal fashion. He soundly defeated the duke's horsemen in and around Newen, captured a number of them, and led them [70a] off to Pskov where he struck them over the head and let them drown.[68]

On August 30 the king captured the mighty fortress of Polozk and wrested it from the hands of the enemy. He also seized splendid artillery and supplies adequate for any eventuality, supplies such as any castle in all of Christendom might have well envied.[69] Quickly thereafter he advanced on the castle of Sokal (Suckol) to which several thousand eminent Russians had been sent in order to effect the relief of Polozk. The king set fire to the town and bombarded it so heavily with fireballs that the Russians could find no haven from the flames. Rather, almost all of them burned and perished there. The same thing happened to several hundred Hungarians and Germans who had charged into the city under the command of Count Christopher von Penißdorf. The portcullises or gates had been shut behind them and they were unable to make their way back out again. The Russians in the castle were said to have comported themselves with such chivalry and valor that even when the clothes on their backs were in flames, they still turned their fronts toward the enemy and fought resolutely. The reader can find information on this episode, as well as the other events which took place during this campaign and the subsequent ones against Veliki Luki (Wellikilucka), Pskov, and the monastery of Petschur (Pietzschür), in Reinhold Heidenstein's Historia belli cum Moscho a Rege Stepheno gesti.[70] For we do not wish to dress ourselves in the plumage of another.[71]

The year 1580

The Poles, in particular Meledoffsky, captured the castle of Schmilten and Duke Magnus in person. Matthias Dobinsky and Berthold Bütler, the officer in command, invaded the diocese of Dorpat with their horsemen and with foot soldiers from Riga and advanced as far as Neuhausen, almost up to the Russian border.[72] This fall a large number of Reval and Swedish forces again besieged the abbey of Padis, finally conquering it through starvation.[73] The Russian officers were so weakened by hunger that they could not even meet the Swedes at the gates. Their commander‑in‑chief[74] said, "May those soldiers forgive me who are still in the fortress and yet able to do something for their lord. I waged war against the enemy for as long as I could, but I cannot and must not defy God [70b] and Nature." He then handed over some Byzantine gold pieces and was spared. In the tyrant's lands possession of such gold was not unusual.[75]

The year 1581

On the First Sunday in Lent Duke Magnus of Holstein had his young daughter baptized at Pilten since the child was over thirty weeks old.[76] He had also summoned approximately eighty godfathers to be present there. But soon after the baptism and the celebrations his Russian wife was sent to Dondangen.

During the winter of this year a rather strong force of Swedish horsemen and foot soldiers invaded Russia by way of Finland and captured the castle of Korela.[77] On account of extremely heavy snow they were unable to advance farther into the enemy's country and do anything more and so they had to turn back. The commander‑in‑chief, Pontus de la Gardie, a Frenchman, crossed over to Wierland with a number of soldiers, traversing a hundred‑mile stretch of frozen sea before arriving before Wesenberg. Outside that castle he took by surprise and defeated approximately one hundred Russian musketeers who were on their way there from Dorpat. And then, on March 1,2,3 and 4, he recaptured the two castles of Wesenberg and Tolsburg.[78]

On April 7 the city of Riga swore allegiance to Stephen, the King of Poland, may this be felicitous and salutary for the state.[79] May God grant that it serve the general well‑being and prosperity. The king's legates were the royal clerk and secretary Johann Demetrius Solikowski and Wenceslaus Agrippa, the chancellor[80] of Lithuania.

Now that the King of Sweden had successfully captured the castles of Wesenberg and Tolsburg, as mentioned above, and withdrawn in triumph, he not only employed that same splendid army to forcibly retake the castles in Wiek, i.e., Hapsal, Lode and Leal, but also, after their capture, he ordered de la Gardie to advance on German Narva, which he bombarded, stormed and conquered. In the assault and capture many thousand Russians were slain.[81] During this same savage campaign he also advanced on the splendid fortress of Ivangorod or Russian Narva [71a] and captured it. The royal fortress of Weissenstein likewise surrendered to him, the Swedish commander‑in‑chief Pontus, forced to do so through starvation.[82] And so in the years 1581 and 1582 the two kings of Poland and Sweden took almost more lands and subjects away from the Grand Duke of Moscow than he had captured over a period of thirty years. There was one setback: Hermann Fleming, a Swedish commander, advanced with an army on Petrokrepost (Notheburg) in the absence of the commander‑in‑chief Pontus and without his permission. Fleming besieged the city and bombarded it heavily but to no avail and he finally had to withdraw, having accomplished nothing.