For the 27 September 1605, King Charles IX of Sweden penned the following note in his diary:
Was fought the Battle of Kircholm. There many a brave hero fell due to his craven heart. I was hacked in the head but praise the Lord not hurt. I lost the battle. This was caused by the Finnish and Swedish horse, second to God’s punishment, which put us in the hands of our enemies.
With these few words the king summed up what was perhaps the worst defeat in Swedish history. It was even more costly than the far-better-known Battle of Poltava, a little over a century later. And the battle was lost even though the Swedish army was three times as strong as the victorious Polish-Lithuanian army. Enemy casualties were minimal. It was a humiliating defeat.
War Classics – Bugles and a Tiger