Battle of Lubieszów The Battle of Lubieszów ( Battle of Lubieszów Lake ) , occurred on April 17 , 1577 , was the most important battle in the two - year Danzig Rebellion fought between the forces loyal to the newly elected king Stefan Batory of Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Commonwealth ' s richest city Danzig ( Gdańsk ) , following the city ' s refusal to accept the election of Batory as monarch of Commonwealth which had taken place on December 15 , 1575 . The battle took place to the west of the town of Tczew ( Dirschau ) , southeast of Gdansk on the left bank of the Vistula river , near the Lubieszów Lake ( present name Lubiszewo Lake ) and modern village of Lubiszewo Tczewskie ( ) . While it was not a decisive victory insofar as Gdansk itself was not taken and the war raged on , the city , having lost large number of its wealthy citizenry , did finally to come to terms with the king at the end of the year . The city ' s army , led by the mercenary German commander Jan Winkelbruch ( Hans Winckelbruch or Winckelburg von Kölln ) , was about 7 , 000 – 12 , 000 strong ( including mercenaries , among them a Scottish regiment which not participate in the battle itself ) , but with less than 1 , 000 cavalry . The city ' s army was utterly defeated by the army of Jan Zborowski ( of about 2 , 000 men , half of them cavalry ) . The Danzigers , who lost over half of their army to casualties and surrenders , were forced to retreat behind the walls , and thus the Siege of Danzig ( 1577 ) began . Initial Moves . The campaign leading up to the battle began in August 1576 ; Batory marched with 2 , 000 men to Malbork , east of Tczew in order to isolate Gdansk from the surrounding countryside . The following January he took the town of Tczew , and successively stormed the rebel defenses at Głowa and Garabina . The last of these was a mere from Gdansk and its fall to the king cut the city off by land . The king then left the army under command of hetman Jan Zborowski , ordering a blockade to isolate the city by sea as well , with Polish privateers fighting both the Gdansk and Danish fleets . Opposing Forces . The winter reduced military action to minor skirmishing and the spring thaw halted all military engagements , but during this lull , the city magnates hired the German mercenary captain Hans Winckelbruch von Kölln , who , in April , marched out to engage the Polish army at Lubieszów , near Tczew . The Polish army consisted of 1000 infantry ( primarily Hungarians and Wallachians ) and 1 , 300 cavalry , while Winckelbruch ' s force was made up of 3 , 100 landsknecht s , 400 mercenary reiter cavalry , 400 city cavalry , and 6 , 000 – 8 , 000 militiamen , in total 10 – 12 , 000 soldiers . He also brought 7 cannon and 30 light cannon mounted on wagons . On hearing of Winckelbruch ' s advance , hetman Zborowski marched all but 100 infantry out of Tczew to attack the Gdansk army , crossing the Motława River ( a tributary of the Vistula then swollen with the spring thaw ) at Rokitki , while Winckelbruch sent a force of 200 to delay the Commonwealth army as he tried to flank it and cross the Motława between two lakes to the south of the town of Lubieszów itself , west south west of Rokitki . While scouts informed Zborowski of the flanking move , two standards of cavalry he sent out to stop them were unable to stop Winckelbruch ' s crossing . Upon hearing of the failure to dislodge Winckelbruch from his left flank , Zborowski ordered the bridge at Roktiki destroyed and sent all of his forces to the west to engage Winckelbruch at the lakes . The battle . The battle started in earnest with Polish - Hungarian Infantry advancing , crouching at first to avoid withering enemy fire , to capture a battery of Gdansk artillery , which was then turned to fire on the Danzig army . Winckelbruch ordered the landsknechts to attack with pikes , but they were repelled by the king ' s infantry who charged them with sabers . The landsknechts held their ground before the enemy infantry but finally broke when another two companies of Polish hussars attacked them in the flank . With this , the entire Danzig army broke and fled , and the Polish cavalry kept up the chase right to the Danzig city gates . Danzig ' s losses amounted to 4 , 400 dead and 5 , 000 taken prisoner , while the king ' s army suffered 188 casualties , only 88 of them deaths . The aftermath . The battle , while decisive for the king , did not end Gdansk ' s resistance . The king could only reinforce his forces in June , and a raid on July 3 destroyed a third of Batory ' s artillery park , making direct assault on the city , defended by heavy medieval walls , very difficult . In September , Batory began withdrawing his army to prepare for war with Muscovy . Both sides came to terms in December 1577 , with Batory receiving an indemnity of 200 , 000 Polish złoty s while confirming the city ' s liberties . Significance . Although it failed to end the wider war , the Battle of Lubieszów is seen to mark the beginning of the heyday of the Polish - Lithuanian hussars , who were so instrumental in sealing the victory that day .