The siege of Danzig was a six-month

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

in 1577 of the city of Danzig, the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

(today

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

) by

Stephen Báthory Stephen Báthory (; ; ; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576–1586) as well as Prince of Transylvania, earlier Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576). The son of Stephen VIII Báthory ...

, the head of state of the Commonwealth. The siege ended in a negotiated agreement. It formed part of the Danzig rebellion. The conflict began when the city of Danzig, along with the Polish episcopate and a portion of the Polish

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

, did not recognize the royal election of Bathory to the Commonwealth throne and instead supported the candidature of Emperor Maximilian. This led to a short conflict, of which the

of Danzig was the last part. After a siege of six months, the Danzig army of 5,000 mercenaries, among them a Scottish regiment, was utterly defeated in a field battle on 16 December 1577. However, since Báthory's armies – the combined Commonwealth, and Hungarian forces – were unable to take the city itself, a compromise was reached: Báthory confirmed the city's special status and its Danzig law privileges granted by the earlier Polish kings in return for 200,000 złotys reparations and recognition of him as

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

References

Danzig 1577 in Europe Danzig 1577 Sieges of Gdańsk Danzig 1577 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth {{Poland-battle-stub

See also

References