Battle of Warsaw (1705)

Battle of Warsaw

Date	21 July 1705 (Swedish calendar) 31 July 1705 (N.S.)
Location	Outskirts of Warsaw, Poland
Result	Decisive Swedish victory

Belligerents

Swedish Empire

Saxony

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Commanders and leaders

Carl Nieroth

Otto Arnold von Paykull (POW)

Strength

2,000:

1,940 cavalry,
60 infantry

9,500:

6,000 Polish cavalry,
3,500 Saxon cavalry

Casualties and losses

300:

150 killed,
150 wounded

1,800:

800 killed,
1,000 wounded

2,000:

9,500:

300:

1,800:

The Battle of Warsaw (also known as Battle of Rakowitz) took place on 31 July 1705 near Warsaw. Swedish forces under Carl Nieroth defeated the Polish-Lithuanian-Saxonian forces under Otto Arnold von Paykull.

Part of the Great Northern War constituted a civil war in Poland (1704–1706), between the forces of the Warsaw Confederation, supporting the pretender king Stanisław Leszczyński, and the Sandomierz Confederation, supporting king August II the Strong. Sweden supported Leszczyński against August, and sent a contingent of troops to Leszczyński's aid, under Carl Nieroth. In July 1705 the Saxon commander Otto Arnold von Paykull and his allies from the Warsaw Confederation decided to take on the numerically inferior Swedish forces loyal to Leszczyński.

The battle was part of the campaign plan created by Johann Patkul and Otto Arnold von Paykull to crush Charles XII's army with overwhelming odds in a gathered allied offensive, which was to be executed in order; the Russian general Boris Sheremetev would engage the Swedish general Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt in Courland and there beat him to secure the march under Georg Benedict Ogilvy, towards the strongly fortified Grodno. Here Ogilvy was believed able to withstand Charles long enough for the Saxon stationed army under Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg to flank through Krakow, and subsequently engage the Swedes from behind – creating a strategic "hammer and anvil" strike, together with Ogilvy's frontal 'Grodno' troops. At the same time, Paykull would gather a force of Saxons, Poles and Lithuanians and march towards Warsaw to interrupt the coronation of pretender king Stanisław Leszczyński.

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