Editing Cossacks (section)

====Relations with surrounding states====

The major powers tried to exploit Cossack military power for their own purposes. In the 16th century, with the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Commonwealth as their subjects.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Ure, John |title=The Cossacks: An Illustrated History |location=London |publisher=Gerald Duckworth}}</ref> Foreign and internal pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the government making concessions to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. King [[Stephen Báthory]] granted them certain rights and freedoms in 1578, and they gradually began to create their foreign policy. They did so independently of the government, and often against its interests, as for example with their role in Moldavian affairs, and with the signing of a treaty with [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Rudolf II]] in the 1590s.<ref name="Cossacks"/> [[Registered Cossacks]] formed a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699.

[[File:Kremenets Mountains, Piatnitski (Cossack) cemetery, 27.08.2007 01.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Cossack cross]]es on a cemetery near [[Kremenets]], Ukraine]]
Around the end of the 16th century, increasing Cossack aggression strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories during the second part of the 16th century. The Polish government could not control them, but was held responsible as the men were nominally its subjects. In retaliation, [[Tatars]] living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. Cossack pirates responded by raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the [[Dnieper]] river. In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of [[Constantinople]], forcing the [[Ottoman Sultan]] to flee his palace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/unavy/aCossack1.html |title=Cossack Navy 16th–17th Centuries |website=Geocities |access-date=2 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020001446/http://geocities.com/unavy/aCossack1.html |archive-date=20 October 2009}}</ref> In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the [[Don Cossacks]], captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of [[Azov]], which guarded the Don.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Brian L. |last1=Davies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |via=Google Books |title=Warfare, State, and Society on the Black Sea Steppe |year=2007 |pages=89–90 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-55283-2 |access-date=2018-05-13 |archive-date=2020-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729181622/https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman [[Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny]], who launched successful campaigns against the Tatars and Turks. Tsar [[Boris Fyodorovich Godunov|Boris Godunov]] had incurred the hatred of Ukrainian Cossacks by ordering the Don Cossacks to drive away from the Don all the Ukrainian Cossacks fleeing the failed uprisings of the 1590s. This contributed to the Ukrainian Cossacks' willingness to fight against him.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunning, Chester S. L.|title=Russia's first civil war: the Time of Troubles and the founding of the Romanov dynasty|date=2001|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-02074-1|oclc=185670712}}</ref> In 1604, 2,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and their proposal for the Tsar ([[False Dmitry I|Dmitri I]]), against the Muscovite army.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunning, Chester S. L.|title=Russia's first civil war: the Time of Troubles and the founding of the Romanov dynasty|date=2001|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-02074-1|oclc=185670712|quote="The bulk of the rebels supporting Dmitrii were cossacks, petty gentry, lower status military servitors, and townsmen […] It is well known that Tsar Dmitrii maintained good relations with the Zaporizhian cossacks"}}</ref> By September 1604, Dmitri I had gathered a force of 2,500 men, of whom 1,400 were Cossacks. Two thirds of these "cossacks", however, were in fact Ukrainian civilians, only 500 being professional Ukrainian Cossacks.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dunning|first1=Chester S. L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&q=polish-muscovite+war+1605|title=Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty|date=2010|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-04371-5|language=en|quote="to gather a force of approximately twenty five hundred men, about eleven hundred of whom were cavalry and infantry forces drawn from men into the service to the magnates and approximately fourteen hundred of whom were so called "cossacks". About two thirds of the latter group were, in fact, Ukrainians, and only about five hundred of Dmitrii's "cossacks" were true Ukrainian Cossacks."|access-date=2020-11-10|archive-date=2022-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206071159/https://books.google.com/books?id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&q=polish-muscovite+war+1605|url-status=live}}</ref> On July 4, 1610, 4,000 Ukrainian Cossacks fought in the [[Battle of Klushino]], on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They helped to defeat a combined Muscovite-Swedish army and facilitate the occupation of Moscow from 1610 to 1611, riding into Moscow with [[Stanisław Żółkiewski]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/kluszyn.htm|title=Kluszyn 1610, Battle between Polish Commonwealth and Russia (Moscovy)|website=www.kismeta.com|access-date=2020-02-14|archive-date=2013-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515185814/http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/kluszyn.htm}}</ref>

The final attempt by [[Sigismund III Vasa|King Sigismund]] and [[Władysław IV Vasa|Wladyslav]] to seize the throne of Muscovy was launched on April 6, 1617. Although Wladyslav was the nominal leader, it was [[Jan Karol Chodkiewicz]] who commanded the Commonwealth forces. By October, the towns of [[Dorogobuzh]] and [[Vyazma]] had surrendered. But a defeat, when the counterattack on Moscow by Chodkiewicz failed between Vyasma and [[Mozhaysk]], prompted the Polish-Lithuanian army to retreat. In 1618, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny continued his campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on behalf of the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous Russian towns were sacked, including [[Livny]] and [[Yelets]]. In September 1618, with Chodkiewicz, Konashevych-Sahaidachny laid siege to Moscow, but peace was secured.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://opinie.wp.pl/polacy-rzadzili-na-kremlu-syna-zygmunta-iii-wazy-obwolano-carem-6126018565142145a|title=Polacy rządzili na Kremlu. Syna Zygmunta III Wazy obwołano carem|last1=S.A|first1=Wirtualna Polska Media|date=2014-02-03|website=opinie.wp.pl|language=pl|access-date=2020-02-14|quote="For Poland, the Dymitriads found their end only at the turn of 1618 and 1619 of the truce contained in Dywilno. As a result of an earlier march of hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, supported by a Cossack army of 20,000, the capital of Russia was threatened again. At the same time, troops of Lisowczyk and Cossacks spread terror, ravaging nearby towns. Faced with the country's poor internal situation, Moscow could not afford to repeat the devastating struggle. Tsar Michał I Romanow decided to end the war."|archive-date=2020-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728230325/https://opinie.wp.pl/polacy-rzadzili-na-kremlu-syna-zygmunta-iii-wazy-obwolano-carem-6126018565142145a|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Peterson, Gary Dean.|title=Warrior kings of Sweden: the rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries|date=2007|publisher=McFarland & Co|isbn=978-0-7864-2873-1|oclc=237127678|quote="The treaty came none to soon for Russia as later that year Poland led a campaign led by Wladyslaw and supported by the Dnieper Cossacks that carried all the way to the gates of Moscow. A truce followed and an exchange of prisoners."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-14|quote="When Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny not only spread their fame through his successful campaigns against the Tatars and the Turks and his aid to the Polish army at Moscow in 1618"|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Верстовий стовп з Мошориного.jpg|thumb|One of the unique granite columns with which the Cossacks marked their territory]]
Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely. During this time, the [[Habsburg monarchy]] sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders against the Ottomans, to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the [[Moldavian Magnate Wars]] (1593–1617) to the [[Battle of Cecora (1620)]], and campaigns in the [[Polish–Ottoman War (1633–34)|Polish–Ottoman War]] of 1633–1634.