Other 17th-century conflicts
Printed and manuscript maps, prints and views of 22 seventeenth-century wars
Battle of Kicholm and Riga, 1605
Victoria relata en Carolo Duce Sudermaniæ perduel: / le Serenissimi Poloniæ et Suetiæ Regis, per Ill.um Ioannem / Carolum Chodkieuicium, generalem in Lituania exercitus / Ducem, qui Regis Poloniæ...
published 1606Etching and engraving; printed on paper; mounted on paper (Mount Type B); gilt edges top, right and bottom | 26.0 x 33.7 cm (image and sheet) | RCIN 721128
A view of the Battle of Kircholm near Riga, fought on 27 September 1605 between the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, commanded by Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (c.1560-24 September 1621) and the Swedish army, commanded by Charles IX of Sweden, resulting in a Polish-Lithuanian victory. First Polish-Swedish War (1600-1611). Oriented with north-north-west to top.
The Swedes had increased their army in Livonia (Latvia) by 12,000 men and laid siege to Riga and blocked up the harbour with their fleet, shown in this print annotated ‘N’. Chodkiewicz took up position on commanding ground in the area of the Swedish camps and refused to be drawn into battle with the numerically superior Swedes until, judging that he had the advantage of the terrain, his ‘Winge Hussars’ ‘poured down like a torrent from the hills’ and defeated the Swedes at Kirkholm (Salaspils), south-east of Riga. The fierce battle, shown in the foreground of this print, ended with about 8,000 dead on the Swedish side to only a hundred or so of the Polish-Lithuanian army.
Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) (engraver) [bottom right:] Antonius Tempesta sculpsit
Giacomo Lauro (active 1583-1645) (publisher) [bottom right:] Romæ Cum Priuilegio Summi Pontificis / Iacobus Laurus Romanus f. et excudit. / Superiorum permissu 1606.
Watermark: Indistinct: cross and letters in circle?
Condition: no fold lines; pressure marks from the mounts of items which were kept above and below this print in a different collection are present on the recto and verso
26.0 x 33.7 cm (image and sheet)
cropped (platemark)
53.6 x 39.5 cm (mount)
Printed title:
Victoria relata en Carolo Duce Sudermaniæ perduel: / le Serenissimi Poloniæ et Suetiæ Regis, per Ill.um Ioannem / Carolum Chodkieuicium, generalem in Lituania exercitus / Ducem, qui Regis Poloniæ uoluntate, Prouincia Liuonia / ab hostiu iniurijs uindicans, cum tribus millibus suorum / Suecoru 14 millia profligauit, 9. millia ex illis cecidit / reliquos una cum Duce Sudermaniæ in turpem coniecit / fugam, 27 Sept. Anno Dni 1605. [recto, in rectangular panel below the coat of arms of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz]
Additional text:
[top centre, below coat of arms of Sigismund III, King of Poland:] Dum petit auxilium Mosci diadematis hæres, … [below title, a key, A-I, K-T, V, X:] Declaratio locorum acrerum insignium.
Annotations:
George III heading: Riga 27.th Sep. 1605.
Other annotations: (Recto) [top right, black pencil:] 1600 1605; [top left on mount, black pencil, erased:] Riga; [bottom right, black pencil:] B No.634. (Verso) [top, on print, red pencil:] 1/110; [bottom, on mount, black pencil:] I/114.
George III catalogue entry:
Riga View of the victory gained by John Charles Chotkiewitz over Charles Duke of Sudermania at Riga on the 27.th of Sept.r 1605: by Antonio Tempesta, published by I. Laurus, 1606.
Subject(s)
Salaspils, Latvia (56°51ʹ37ʺN 24°21ʹ56ʺE)
Riga, Rīga, Latvia (56°56ʹ45ʺN 24°06ʹ21ʺE)
Bibliographic reference(s)
A. Bartsch, The Illustrated Bartsch 35, New York 1984, no.634, p.364
G. Sale et al., An universal history: from the earliest accounts to the present time, vol. 34, Virginia 1762, pp.171-173
M. McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. Part II, Architecture, Topography and Military Maps, 3 vols, London 2019, cat. no. 2802
Page revisions
14 March 2024
Current version
