Registered Cossacks

The first recorded official plan for enlisting Cossack formations as a border service in Poland-Lithuania was brought to the State Council of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1524 by Semen Polozovic and Kristof Kmitic. However, due to a lack of funds, the idea was not realized. The starosta of Cherkasy, Ostap Dashkevych, revived the idea at the 1533 council in Piotrków Trybunalski. Dashkevych tried to show that in order to protect the borders beyond the Dnieper River it would be necessary to maintain an army of 2,000 soldiers and several hundred cavalrymen. He pointed out the importance of establishing forts on the river's islands to keep Tatar raids in check.

On July 21, 1541, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund I the Old, issued an edict to the starosta of Cherkasy, Andrei Glebovich Pronsky (?-1557, a descendant of the Pronsk princes),[3] in which he strictly warned Pronsky to control the Cossack raids against Tatar uluses. With the start of the Livonian War of 1558–1583, the voivode of Kiev, Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, and the starosta of Cherkasy, Alexander Wiśniowecki, recruited Cossacks into their armies, while in 1568 King and Grand Duke Sigismund II Augustus sent a proposition to the Zaporizhian Sich to join his foreign campaign and to sign up for royal service.

Sigismund II Augustus decreed the formation of registered Cossacks on June 5, 1572[2] when the King confirmed the orders of Great Crown Hetman Jerzy Jazłowiecki, the voivode of Podole and Ruthenia, for state service.[4] The first commander, called starszy ("elder") of the registered cossacks, was Jan Badowski.[2] The registered Cossacks were the only military Cossack formation recognized by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[2]

The most well-known of the first recorded Cossack reforms came from King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stefan Batory (r. 1576–1586).[5] At first Batory tried to control Cossack forces that were waging wars in Moldavia and Wallachia as well as other parts of the Ottoman Empire. On 4 April 1578 he issued four universals to all local government officials. He asked them to support Jan Tarlo in an investigation of the coup-d'etat by Zaporozhian leader Ivan Pidkova. The coup overthrew the Ottoman-installed Hospodar of Moldavia, Peter the Lame, in 1577 under the pretense that Ivan was the brother of the previous voivode of Moldavia, John III the Terrible. Batory also ordered the voivode of Kiev, Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, to send a punitive expedition against Pidkova and asked the mayors of Khmilnyk, Bar, Bratslav, Vinnytsia, Bila Tserkva and others to support him. At the same time Batory sent his ambassador Marcin Broniowski to the Khan of Crimea proposing cooperative actions against the Zaporizhian Sich.

On July 27, 1578, Batory sent ambassador Jancsi Bereg to the Zaporozhian host proposing the Cossacks redirect their raids from Moldavia to Muscovy. To further discuss the proposition, a delegation headed by Andriy Lykhansky arrived in Lviv on September 15, 1578. The next day[4] it was agreed that 500 Cossacks would be enlisted for fifteen florins each per year. The Starosta of Cherkasy and Kaniv, Prince Michał Wiśniowiecki, was appointed hetman; Jan Oryszowski served as his deputy.[4] The Cossacks' headquarters was established at Trakhtemyriv (today a village in Cherkasy Raion) with its monastery, which was used as the Cossacks' hospital. The Cossacks were given a banner that denoted their relationship to the state army and Bereg promised to pay them in Cherkasky on Saint Nicolas Day.[4] The Cossacks evidently were paid only after the Siege of Pskov in 1581. Even though the official register consisted of only 500 names, in reality the contingent of registered Cossacks numbered around 4,000.

Batory's military reform, however, proved ineffective. The Polish government promised to pay the Cossacks' salary, but often did not do so. The Cossacks frequently and proudly pledged their allegiance to serve the King of Poland and hoped for at least the same financial compensation as the regular army. Due to the hold-ups in pay some Cossacks returned to raiding the Tatars and Moldavians.[4]

In 1590 the Sejm issued a new declaration re-creating the Cossack units. A royal edict issued on July 25, 1590, envisaged registering 1,000 Cossacks for policing duty in order to prevent unauthorized raids into neighboring countries.[4] The registered Cossacks were paid from 5 to 12 zlotys each quarter, and the Zaporizhian Sich was selected as their headquarters.[4] As the Polish interests aimed in securing the Swedish crown, however, the Cossack movement was allowed to grow out of control, leading to a series of local rebellions by polkovnyk Krzysztof Kosiński and Severyn Nalyvaiko, with assistance from kosh otaman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks Hryhoriy Loboda.[8]