Aleksander Józef Lisowski
Aleksander Józef Lisowski HNG was a Polish noble, commander of the mercenary group called Lisowczyks. His coat of arms was Jeż.
Early years
He came from a moderately wealthy noble family originating from Lisewo in the Chełmno Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland. The Lisowskis moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the mid-16th century. First references of Aleksander Józef Lisowski put him in 1601 involved with the Moldavian Magnate Wars, first as a supporter of Mihai Viteazul, later as a supporter of Great Chancellor of the Crown Jan Zamoyski.Rising into notoriety
Revolt against Sigismund III
In 1604, during the early stages of the Commonwealth's war with Sweden, the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth failed to gather money to pay its soldiers fighting in Livonia against the Swedes. Aleksander Józef Lisowski became one of the leaders of the resulting confederation – a mutinied part of the army, that decided to gather their wages by pillaging local civilians, not caring whether they pledged allegiance to Poland-Lithuania or Sweden. Although this annoyed the Great Hetman of Lithuania Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, and resulted in the banicja sentence on Lisowski, little was done to stop the mutinied forces. Soon Lisowski with his followers joined the Zebrzydowski rebellion, a larger rebellion against King Sigismund III Vasa.Military career
Eventually, after the rokosz forces were defeated in the Battle of Guzów, Lisowski's fortunes turned low and he became persona non grata in most of the Commonwealth and sought refugee with a powerful magnate family of Radziwiłłs. It was the Muscovy's Time of Troubles and Lisowski could not pass the opportunity to try to make a profit out of this, as many other local magnates and szlachta already did, meddling in the Muscovy affairs. Soon afterwards he decided to support a pretender to the Muscovy's throne, False Dmitry II. Lisowski was initially stationed near Kleck. By the end of 1607, he moved to Starodub with a unit of 200 Cossacks.Polish–Muscovite War
In the Spring of 1608, together with Aleksander Kleczkowski, leading his forces – a band of few hundred ragtag soldiers of fortune: Don Cossacks, Ruthenians, Tatars, Germans, Swedes, Poles, Lithuanians and who knows who else, he was sent to Ryazan lands to incite uprising against Vasiliy Shuisky. He had several hundreds Don Cossacks at his command, and more local ones who joined him along the way. He captured Mikhaylov, [Ryazan Oblast|Mikhailov], then he defeated a group led by Zakhary Lyapunov and Ivan Khovansky sent by Tsar Vasili Shuisky near Zaraysk: according to Russian chronicles the former instead of besieging the city fell drunk on the battlefield and was dispersed by Lisowski once he learned about weakness inside Zakhary's ranks. Then they set off for Kolomna, and moved on to the blockade of Moscow.Soon however he was defeated at Niedźwiedzi Bród, losing most of his loot at hands of voivode. He reorganized the army and joined with Jan Piotr Sapieha, but besieged and failed to capture the fortress of Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and were forced to retreated near Rakhmantsevo. Then came successes at Kostroma, Soligalich and some other cities.
Around 1608–09, his troops, composed of 2,000 Cossacks, 1,000 "Boyar's children" and 700 Polish riders, joined with forces of Erazm Strawiński, defeated Russian mass levy from Galich and Vologda, and conquered Kostroma, Galich, Soligalich.