Polish nobles form a konfederacja, an ad hoc association that acts in lieu of state authority or to force their demands upon that authority, gathering at a rokosz (a semi-legal rebellion against the king) in Stężyca and Lublin on August 5, 1606. (A "confederation", so understood, should not be confused with the modern senses of a "confederation".)

The nobles,  including Mikołaj Zebrzydowski, Jan Szczęsny Herburt, Stanisław Stadnicki, Aleksander Józef Lisowski and Janusz Radziwiłł, outline their demands in sixty-seven articles.

They demand Sigismund’s dethronement for breaching the Henrician Articles, and the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

They further demand that the Sejm appoint state officials instead of the king; that local officials should be elected and not appointed, and that Protestant rights should be expanded and protected.

The 1607 Sejm rejects the demands of the konfederacja.

The rebel nobles gather in Guzów (Guzow, Guznów, Guznow, Guzowo), and the Royal Army led by Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (commander at the Battle of Kircholm) is sent to pacify the rebels.

The confrontation turns violent, however, eventually leading to a full scale battle (Battle of Guzów) on July 5/July 6 (sources vary), with two hundred casualties, which results in the victory of the Royalist faction.

Tsar Vasili Shuiski is unpopular and weak in Russia and his reign is far from stable.

He is perceived as anti-Polish; he had led the coup against the first False Dmitri, killing over five hundred Polish soldiers in Moscow and imprisoning a Polish envoy.

The second False Dmitry, who first appears on the scene circa 1607 at Starodub, is believed to have been either a priest's son or a converted Jew, and is relatively highly educated for the time.

He speaks both the Russian and Polish languages and is something of an expert in liturgical matters.

He pretended at first to be the Muscovite boyar Nagoy, but confesses under torture that he is Tsarevich Dmitry, whereupon he is taken at his word and joined by thousands of Cossacks, Poles, and Muscovites.

In the course of the year Jerzy Mniszech, father of Marina Mniszech, widow of the first Dimitry, 'reunites' him with Marina, who miraculously recognizes her late husband in this second Dimitry (subsequently quieting her conscience by privately marrying this impostor, who in no way resembles her first husband, False Dmitry I).

This brings him the support of the magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who had supported False Dmitry I. Adam Wiśniowiecki, Roman Różyński, and Jan Sapieha decide to support the second pretender as well, supplying him with some early funds and seventy-five hundred soldiers, among them Aleksander Józef Lisowski, leader of the infamous mercenary band later known as Lisowczycy.

Dmitry quickly captures Karachev, ...

...Bryansk, and other towns.

Lisowczycy, together with Aleksander Kleczkowski, leads his forces—a band of few hundred ragtag soldiers of fortune, mainly Poles, Lithuanians, Don Cossacks, Ruthenians, Tatars, Germans, Swedes—against the army of Tsar Vasili Shuisky led by Zakhary Lyapunov and Ivan Khovansky, defeating them in 1608 near Zarajsk, then ...

...capturing Mikhailov and ...

...Kolomna.

Next, ...

...Lisowczycy advances towards Moscow, but is defeated by Vasiliy Buturlin at Medvezhiy Brod, losing most of his plunder.

The pillaging of the second Dmitry’s army, especially of the Lisowczycy mercenaries, contribute to the later Russian view of the "three plagues: typhus, Tatars, Poles".

Dmitry, reinforced by the Poles, advances upon Moscow in the spring of 1608, routing the army of Tsar Vasily Shuisky at Bolkhov.