page_title: Battle of Warsaw (1705)
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Warsaw (1705) / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Hinrichtung von Otto Arnold von Paykull in Stockholm im Jahr 1707 (Neueröffneter Historischer Bildersaal, Ausgabe 7, Seite 213, 1719). English: The execution of Otto Arnold von Paykull in Stockholm, 1707.
context_page_description: The Battle of Warsaw was fought on 31 July 1705 near Warsaw, Poland, during the Great Northern War. The battle was part of a power struggle for the Polish–Lithuanian throne. It was fought between Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński and their allies. Augustus II entered the Northern war as elector of Saxony and king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and had formed an alliance with Denmark–Norway and Russia. Stanisław Leszczyński had seized the Polish throne in 1704, with the support of the Swedish army of Charles XII of Sweden. The struggle for the throne forced the Polish nobility to pick sides; the Warsaw Confederation supported Leszczyński and Sweden, and the Sandomierz Confederation supported Augustus II and his allies. The conflict resulted in the Polish civil war of 1704–1706.
  In 1705 two events were planned to take place in Warsaw: a session of the Polish parliament to formally negotiate peace between Poland and Sweden; and the coronation of Stanisław Leszczyński as the new Polish king. Meanwhile, Augustus II and his allies developed a grand strategy that envisioned a combined assault to crush the Swedish forces and restore Augustus II to the Polish throne.
context_section_description: The scattered Polish noblemen, receiving notice of the victory, eventually returned and proceeded with the coronation of Stanisław Leszczyński and the declaration of peace between Sweden and Poland. Meanwhile, Augustus II's allies obtained reinforcements of about 1,000 Russians and once again threatened to disrupt the parliament, until the two Swedish infantry regiments under Johan Valentin von Daldorff finally arrived, on 11 August, with Stanisław Leszczyński and the Swedish ambassadors. This put a temporary end to the ambitions of Augustus II's allies, forcing them to withdraw towards Lithuania and unite with the Russian Army stationed there.
  The main Swedish army at Rawicz, under Charles XII, struck camp at 8 August and marched towards Krotoszyn, where the captured Otto Arnold von Paykull was taken under strict military surveillance, for an audience with the king. Some letters and documents Paykull had carried with him during the battle, which he had tried to discard before his imminent capture, had been brought with him to Krotoszyn. The documents informed Charles XII of the greater allied plan, under which the Tsar, Peter I of Russia, intended to march into Warsaw on 30 August at the head of 40,000 men and put an end to the parliament. This would, they thought, provoke Charles XII to take action and march with the Swedish army to Warsaw, where he would find himself surrounded by Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg and his 20,000 men, who were assembling in Saxony, to move into Poland and attack the Swedes in the rear. Charles XII, who had long sought a decisive battle with the coalition forces, indicated no sign of panic at this, but simply stated to his ministers: "I wish the enemy may keep their word". On 10 August, he once again struck camp and commenced a rapid march with his army towards Błonie, close to Warsaw, arriving on 17 August. He had left General Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld with 10,000 men near Poznań to guard against the main Saxon army under Schulenburg which threatened to enter Poland.
  The Russian Tsar abandoned his plans after seeing how two of his and Augustus II's armies had already suffered defeat at the hands of the Swedes: the one under Boris Sheremetev that faced Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt in Courland, during the Battle of Gemauerthof, and now at the Battle of Warsaw, between Paykull and Nieroth. As he no longer dared to fully commit in Poland, he decided to instead let his main army under Georg Benedict Ogilvy await the Swedes behind the strongly fortified defences of Grodno, in Lithuania. He would attempt to lure Charles XII there, while the Saxon army under Schulenburg would enter Poland from the west, and attack him in the rear. These developments would result in the Campaign of Grodno.
caption: The execution of von Paykull in Stockholm, 1707
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