Volhynian Nobility in the Face of the Turkish Aggression against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1621

Abstract

In 1621, the Commonwealth was forced to make a strenuous military effort to repel the Turkish-Tatar invasion. On a national scale, it has already been the subject of historians’ interest; thus, the article aims to present less known aspects of the preparations for the war with Turkey, seen from the perspective of the nobility living in a specific region. In this case, in the Province of Volhynia, one of the territories directly threatened by military actions. The source material made it possible to prove that its inhabitants made a military effort in 1621 on a much larger scale than previously thought: they set up a regiment of the poviat, private and voluntary troops, a contingent from the entail of Ostrog, and finally, they participated in a mass levy of troops at Gliniany. Comparing the collected data with the number of the Commonwealth’s permanent armed forces deployed against the Turks proves that they do not always include all units that ultimately took part in the battles.