Prologue: The Konfederacja
In 1604, during the early stages of the Polish-Swedish War, the Sejm of the Commonwealth failed to gather the money to pay its soldiers fighting in Livonia against the Swedes. Aleksander Józef Lisowski became one of the leaders of the resulting konfederacja - a section of the army that mutinied and decided to gather its outstanding wages by pillaging local civilians, not caring whether these owed their allegiance to the Commonwealth or to Sweden. Although this annoyed the Commonwealth commander, Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, and resulted in Lisowski being banished from the Commonwealth, little was done to stop the mutineers. Soon after, Lisowski with his followers joined the Sandomierz rebellion or rokosz of Zebrzydowski, a revolt against the absolutist tendencies of the Commonwealth ruler Sigismund III Vasa.
Read more about this topic: Lisowczycy