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Truce of Altmark

Bilingual Polish and Swedish memorial stone in Stary Targ
Type	Ceasefire
Signed	16 (O.S.)/26 (N.S.) September 1629
Location	Altmark (Stary Targ), Poland
Parties	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Swedish Empire

The six-year Truce of Altmark (or Treaty of Stary Targ, Polish: Rozejm w Altmarku, Swedish: Stillståndet i Altmark) was signed on 16 (O.S.)/26 (N.S.) September 1629 in the village of Altmark (Stary Targ), in Poland, by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden, with helped by Richelieu's envoy Charnacé ending the Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629)，and freeing Gustavus to enter the Thirty Years' War.

Provisions

The truce allowed Sweden to retain control of Livonia. Sweden also evacuated most of the Duchy of Prussia but kept the coastal cities. Poland had other Swedish gains returned from the 1625 invasion. Most of Livonia north of the Daugava River was ceded to Sweden (Swedish Livonia), but Latgale, the southeastern area, remained under Polish rule. Sweden received the right to two third of all the shipping tolls at Polish ports, such as at Gdańsk (Danzig) and Elbląg (Elbing) and from the Duchy of Prussia, for six years. The shipping tolls financed Sweden's involvement in the Thirty Years' War.

The Truce of Altmark was signed shortly after Sweden had been defeated by Poland led by Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski and Holy Roman Imperial troops at Trzciana, which nearly lead to the capture of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Gustavus was wounded several times and was once saved by one of his men.

The Polish Parliament (Sejm) did not impose new taxes to pay the soldiers of the imperial army fighting under Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg and low morale made some of them mutiny or go over to Sweden. Several other countries intervened diplomatically, which eventually forced Sigismund III of Poland to enter the truce.

In 1635, the truce was extended by the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf. Sweden gave up the Prussian ports, and Poland ceded most of Livonia with Riga but kept the Latgale region.

The most important result of the truce was that it solidified Sweden's position as the ruler of the northern part of the Baltic Sea down to the Daugava, including Riga.

See also

• List of treaties

References

1. "Truce of Altmark, 12 September 1629". historyofwar.org. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
2. Wedgwood, C.V. (1938). The Thirty Years War (2005 ed.). New York Review of Books. pp. 385–386. ISBN 978-1-59017-146-2.
3. Porshnev, B F. (1995). Muscovy and Sweden in the Thirty Years' War 1630-1635. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521451390.
4. Ulf Sundber (1997). "Stilleståndet i Altmark 1629". svenskakrig/freder. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
5. Stanley A. Ciesielski. "Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski". Polish American Journal. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
6. "Hans Georg V A Boitzenburg". Neue deutsche Biographie. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
7. Wolke, Lars Ericson (2014). 1658: Tåget över bält [1658: March across the Belts] (in Swedish). Historiska Media. p. 14. ISBN 9789187031984.

Other Sources

• Ulf Sundberg (2002) Svenska freder och stillestånd 1249-1814 (Hjalmarson & Högberg) ISBN 9789189080980

External links

Scan and edition of the treaty

• Scan of the treaty at IEG Mainz
• Annotated edition of the treaty at IEG Mainz

Further reading

• Chronology of Sweden
• History of Latvia: A Brief Synopsis

• Truces of Poland
• Swedish Livonia
• Peace treaties of Sweden
• Poland–Sweden relations
• 1629 treaties
• Treaties of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
• Treaties of the Swedish Empire
• 1629 in Europe
• 1629 in Sweden
• 1629 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth