Registered Cossacks

Timeline

1. 1572–1575Podolia-Ruthenia frontier · UkraineSigismund II confirmed the order of Crown Grand Hetman Jazłowiecki, enrolling about three hundred of the better-off Cossacks under elder Jan Badowski, placed beyond local jurisdiction. From then on the unregistered held only semi-legal status, and the Commonwealth for the first time distinguished 'Cossacks fit for pay' from the free armed men of the Sich.
2. 1578–1583Trakhtemiriv · Middle DnieperTo stop Cossack raids on Moldavia and Crimea on their own initiative, Batory expanded the register to about five hundred, granting banners, seals, and a mace, and endowed Trakhtemiriv as winter camp, arsenal, and hospital. The registered were tax-exempt, entitled to land, and subject to a government-appointed elder, in exchange for ceasing unauthorized cross-border plunder.
3. 1583–1590Middle and lower Dnieper frontier · DnieperThe registered troops received quarterly salaries, garrisoned central Ukraine in peacetime, and only fortified beyond the rapids when ordered. Quotas fluctuated between five hundred and six hundred, far below the armed population of the Sich and settlements, making 'who has the right to call himself a Cossack' a persistent political conflict.
4. 1591–1596Right-bank Ukraine and the Dnieper basin · UkraineThe Kosiński uprising (1591–1593) and the Nalyvaiko uprising (1594–1596) were both triggered by registration quotas, unpaid salaries, and the suppression of the unregistered. The Commonwealth's attempt to control the Cossacks by shrinking the rolls instead made the opposition between the registered formation and the Sich armed men public, showing that the institution was a frontier-defense tool rather than a representative of Cossack society as a whole.