Qualla: Siege of Pskov

Siege of Pskov: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ludvig14, CC BY-SA 3.0. Stefan Bathory, king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, told his commanders that taking Pskov would be the easy part. He had already captured Polotsk and Velikiye Luki in the previous two campaigns, and his army of thirty-one thousand drawn from across Catholic Europe was the most formidable force the Livonian War had yet seen. He arrived under the city's walls on 18 August 1581. Inside were twelve thousand armed citizens, four thousand professional soldiers, and a commander, Prince Ivan Shuisky, who had no plan but to refuse to leave. Five months later, the king of Poland was riding home in mid-winter, and the Treaty of Jam Zapolski was being signed by candlelight to end a war Russia could no longer afford to win and Poland could no longer afford to continue.

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Image: Ludvig14 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Pskov: A City of Stone

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. Pskov in 1581 was a fortified city of stone, with concentric walls and a chronicle of repelled attacks stretching back to the medieval Hanseatic wars. It sat at the junction of the Velikaya and Pskova rivers, looking west toward Livonia, looking east toward Novgorod and Moscow. T...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

Siege of Pskov: The First Assaults

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Various illustrators, all dead for more than 100 years., Public domain. Bathory's first general attack came on 8 September 1581. It was repulsed at heavy cost. Mining operations followed, the besiegers digging tunnels under the walls to plant gunpowder charges; the defenders dug counter-tunnels and intercepted them. A second general assault on 2 Nove...

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Image: Various illustrators, all dead for more than 100 years. | Public domain

Siege of Pskov: The Winter That Broke the Siege

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Zamojski's army nearly mutinied that winter. The Lithuanian regiments and the Hungarian, Romanian, Bohemian, and Scottish mercenaries had been promised a quick campaign. Pay was late. Food was short. Russian partisans operated freely in the forests behind the Polish lines, attack...

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Image: Public domain

Siege of Pskov: Treaty by Candlelight

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Golytsyn Nikolai Sergeevich, Public domain. On 15 January 1582, Bathory and Ivan IV signed the Treaty of Jam Zapolski. Russia renounced its claims to Livonia and Polotsk. In return, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth gave back the Russian territory it had captured. The Livonian War, which had begun in 1558 with Ivan's inva...

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Image: Golytsyn Nikolai Sergeevich | Public domain