Jacob De la Gardie
Swedish diplomat and soldier
1583 CE to 1652 CE
Field Marshal and Count Jacob Pontusson De la Gardie (Reval, 20 June 1583 - Stockholm, 22 August 1652) is a statesman and a soldier of the Swedish Empire.
He is appointed Privy Councilor in 1613, Governor of Swedish Estonia between 1619 and 1622, Governor General of Livonia in 1622, and Lord High Constable in 1620.
He introduces reforms based on the novel Dutch military doctrine into the Swedish army.
He commands the Swedish forces in Russia and against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
He also serves as one of the five regents jointly ruling Sweden during the minority of Queen Christina.
World
The Great Crossroads
View →Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 16 total
Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, having lost his father at an early age, had been educated by his mother.
During the reign of Boris Godunov, he had been appointed stolnik (tsar's assistant).
False Dmitriy I had made Mikhail his mechnik, or sword carrier, and had asked him personally to bring Marfa Ivanovna—mother of Michhael Romanov, who will one day become tsar—to Moscow from exile.
During the reign of Vasili IV, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky has become a close associate of the tsar, being his cousin.
He had begun his military career in 1606 with the appearance of Ivan Bolotnikov, whom he has defeated twice, first near the Pakhra River with a small unit at his disposal (after Bolotnikov had crushed the Muscovite army led by Mstislavsky and other boyars) and then at Kotly.
After the second defeat, Bolotnikov and his men had fled to Tula.
Skopin-Shuisky had taken an active part in a successful siege of Tula alongside the Muscovite army.
When False Dmitriy II appears on the political horizon, Vasili IV decides to seek help from the Swedes and sends his cousin Mikhail to Novgorod to negotiate with them.
Despite some obstacles, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky has managed to persuade the Swedes to help the Russian tsar.
Mikhail leaves Novgorod on April 14, 1609, with twelve thousand Swedish soldiers under the command of Jacob De la Gardie to save the Russian throne.
Skopin-Shuisky and De la Gardie capture Oreshek, ...
...Tver and ...
...Torzhok and clear the north of the country from their enemies.
Many Polish nobles and soldiers are fighting for the second False Dmitry at this time, but Sigismund and the troops under his command do not act in support of Dimity’s claim to the throne—Sigismund wants Russia himself.
The entry of the King of Poland-Lithuania into Russia causes the majority of False Dmitriy II's Polish supporters to desert him and contributes to his eventual defeat.
A Commonwealth army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, who is generally opposed to this conflict, but cannot disobey a king's orders, crosses the border, and on September 29, 1609 lay siege to Smolensk, an important city that Russia had captured from Lithuania in 1514.
Smolensk is manned by fewer than a thousand Russian men commanded by the voivod Mikhail Shein, while Żółkiewski commands twelve thousand troops.
However, Smolensk has one major advantage: the previous Tsar, Boris Godunov, had sponsored the fortification of the city with a massive fortress completed in 1602.
The Poles find it impenetrable; they settle into a long siege, firing artillery into the city, attempting to tunnel under the moat, and building earthen ramparts, remnants of which can still be seen today.
At the same time, ...
...the strong Russo-Swedish army under Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky and Jacob De la Gardie is marching towards Moscow; defeating Hetman Jan Piotrus Sapieha at Kalyazin.
Auxiliary detachments under the command of David Zherebtsov (nine hundred men) and Grigory Voluyev (five hundred men) had managed to make their respective ways way into the fortress of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra on October 19, 1609, and on January 4, 1610.
Under the threat of the approaching army of Skopin-Shuisky and De la Gardie, the Polish-Lithuanian forces raise the siege on January 12, 1610 and retreat to ...
...Dmitrov.
The combined Russo-Swedish force under De la Gardie and Skopin-Shuisky disperses the supporters of False Dmitry II, who maintains an alternative court in Tushino near Moscow, forcing Dmitry to flee his camp disguised as a peasant and go to ...
...Kostroma, where Marina joins him and he lives once more in regal state.