War of the Rivers

The Tvertsa River, one of the rivers which gave rise to the name of the war

Belligerents| **Sweden*** Estonia (Swedish vassal)
* Novgorod (Swedish vassal)
* Norway (Swedish vassal)
* Odoyev

Commanders and leaders| Leaders:**Gustav II** of Sweden* Otto II of Estonia
* Msitslav VII of Novgorod
* Olav V of Norway

Commanders:* Ulrik Hard of Sweden
* Priidu Carpelan of Estonia
* Vasiliy III of Muscovy (also commander)†
* Yaroslav III of Tver
* Katya I of Odoyev

Strength| **Sweden: 29,000 men, 27 ships*** Estonia: 2,000 men, 1 ship
* Novgorod: 3 ships
* Norway: 3,000 men, 2 ships
* Odoyev: 7,000 men

Casualties and losses| **Total: 31,847 men*** Sweden: 27,751 men
	+ Estonia: 1,258 men
	+ Novgorod: 2,400 men
	+ Norway: 435 men
* Tver: 13,042 men
* Odoyev: 10,907 men

The **War of the Rivers** is a conflict between Sweden and Muscovy.

## Background

Following the Tambov War, Muscovy lost their status as one of the great powers of the world, and quickly fell into disarray with the Muscovite Peasants' War breaking out. Sweden had many more plans to take land from Muscovy though, especially since they barely got any land in the Treaty of Glogau. The specific land targeted were:

* All of the former Novgorodian land not already part of Sweden
* Pskov and Luki, for Estonia
* Moscow, just to spite them.

The war was planned for October 1515, the day the truce from the Treaty of Glogau ended. However, the Great Noble Revolt delayed the war for about half a year. The name "War of the Rivers" was agreed upon as the official name of the conflict, to recognize the Tvertsa and Tsna Rivers near Vyshny Volochyok.

## The War

War was declared on 23 April 1516. Swedish troops beelined for Luki, at it was mothballed at the time; they failed to get there before a garrison came, but the siege continued nonetheless. Luki fell on 4 December. Meanwhile, Muscovite troops entered into Novgorod, but were driven out by Novgorodian troops; it was during this that Vasily III of Muscovy most likely died, and was thus succeeded by his son Vasily IV. Those troops later moved into Muscovy proper and occupied the countryside. Pskov was the next target, finally falling on 16 May 1517. Muscovite troops moved into Finland just before the siege ended, but were caught in Osterbotten in August and all 9,000 invaders were killed. Tver was besieged and occupied after just a month on 10 December.

Moscow, already under siege from peasants, was besieged by Sweden and it fell on 11 May 1518. The troops then chased around Muscovite, Tverian, and Odoyevian ones in the far north and fought them in Shenkursk on 15 August 1518, wiping out 14,000 men at once. Some time later, Vasily IV died and was succeeded by Ivan IV. Yaroslavl was occupied on 6 January 1519. Odoyev fell on 26 August 1519, and the war ended the next day.

## End

The Treaty of Stockholm was signed on 27 August 1519. Onega, Kholmogory, and Mezen were returned to Novgorod. Pskov was ceded to Estonia, but most importantly Rzhev, Zubstov, and Moscow were ceded to Sweden. The last of which was simply out of spite, as no money or other reparations were taken due to how developed the city was. In fact, the city was renamed to Nya Stockholm just to add insult to injury to the Muscovites. Rzhev and Zubstov were also renamed, to Risjev and Drakestad respectively.