Coordinates: 56°50′55″N, 24°20′53″E
The Battle of Kircholm (September 27, 1605, or September 17 in the Old Style calendar then in use in Protestant countries) was one of the major battles in the Polish-Swedish War of 1600-1611. The battle was decided in 20 minutes by the devastating charge of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cavalry, the Winged Hussars. The battle ended in the decisive victory of Polish-Lithuanian forces, and is remembered as the greatest ever triumph of Commonwealth cavalry.

Eve of the Battle
The Swedish forces seem to have been deployed in a checkerboard formation, made up of the infantry regiments formed into 7 or 8 well-spaced independent blocks, with intersecting fields of fire. The flanks were covered by the Swedish and German cavalry and the cannons were placed in front of the cavalry.
Jan Karol Chodkiewicz deployed his forces in the traditional deep Polish-Lithuanian battle formation - the so called "Old Polish Order" - with the left wing significantly stronger and commanded by Dąbrowa, while the right wing was composed of a smaller number of Hussars under Jan Paweł Sapieha and the centre, which included Hetman Chodkiewicz's own company of 300 hussars led by Woyna and a powerful formation of reiters sent by the Duke of Courland. The Polish-Lithuanian infantry, mostly armed in Hungarian haiduk-style, drew up in the centre. Some 280 hussars were left as a general reserve under Lacki.

Battle
After the defeat, the Swedish king was forced to abandon the siege of Riga and withdraw by ship back across the Baltic Sea to Sweden and to relinquish control of northern Latvia and Estonia. However, the Poles proved unable to exploit the victory fully because there was no money for the troops, who had not been paid for months. Without pay they could not buy food or fodder for their horses or replenish their military supplies, and so the campaign faltered. An additional factor was the large number of trained horses lost during the battle, which proved difficult to replace.
A truce was eventually signed in 1611, but by 1617 war broke out again, and finally in 1621 the new Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus, landed near Riga and took the city with a brief siege, wiping away - in Swedish eyes - much of the shame suffered at Kircholm.