By July, after minor skirmishes and the arrival of his reinforcements, Charles was ready to attack Augustus's army, which had taken up a strong defensive position at Kliszów.

Augustus retreated to Sandomierz with his largely-intact army and retained control of large parts of Poland, but his military power was greatly weakened following the battle, which was a tactical and political victory for Charles.

On February 12, 1700, the Great Northern War began when Augustus II the Strong, King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and elector of Saxony, crossed the Düna river with his Saxon troops and laid siege to the city of Riga in Swedish Livonia.

At the same time, the Royal Danish Army under King Frederick IV of Denmark invaded the Swedish-allied duchies of Holstein and Gottorp to secure his rear before commencing with the planned invasion of Scania.

These three nations had secretly agreed on a joint pact to attack the Swedish Empire from three separate fronts and each aimed to win back territories they had lost to Sweden in previous wars.

After a successful Swedish landing operation at Humlebæk on Zealand on July 25, 1700, Frederick IV was forced to withdraw from the war on August 8 the same year by signing the Peace of Travendal.

The majority of the Saxon–Russian troops under Field Marshal Adam Heinrich von Steinau withdrew from the battle in a relatively orderly fashion, leaving Charles unable to completely defeat Augustus.

Both Augustus and the Commonwealth's main representative Cardinal Primate Michał Stefan Radziejowski left Warsaw, leaving Charles to enter the city unopposed on May 14.

[5] During the march, the king dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Axel Gyllenkrok with 500 cavalry and 300 infantry to collect supplies for the maintenance of the main Swedish army.

At Wierzbica on July 5, Mörner and Stenbock had an unexpected meeting with Charles, who had ridden the 160 kilometres (99 mi) from Kielce in two days to give them oral directions for the march to his camp.

On July 2, the king had detached Colonel Johan August Meijerfeldt, who with 600 cavalry was to reconnoitre the Saxon positions at Pińczów 12 km (7.5 mi) south of Kliszów.

The attack was repulsed by thirty Swedish dragoons under Captain Tomas Funck [sv], and the ambushers retreated with heavy casualties.

The king contemplated launching a surprise attack against Augustus on the morning of July 8 but on the advice of Lieutenant General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, he decided to wait another day for Mörner's and Stenbock's troops to arrive at his camp.

[5][25][26] On the morning of July 8, Ryttmästare Carl Gustaf Örnestedt [sv]'s outposts near the army's field camp at Obice were attacked by 200 Saxon soldiers and about 100 Wallachians under Major General von Brause, whom Augustus had ordered to gather intelligence about the Swedes' location.

When the Swedes arrived at a field outside the southern edge of the forest, Charles sighted the Saxon positions near Kliszów, wheeled right and arranged his troops in the order of battle.

The battlefield was surrounded by small villages including Rebów in the west; Kliszów and Kokot in the south; Kije, Lipnik and Wymoslów in the east; and Górki, Wierzbica and Borczyn in the north.

Under Stenbock's command, the Swedish infantry was regrouped, and nine battalions from the Dalarna, Kalmar, Närke-Värmland, Uppland, and Västmanland regiments rushed into the widened gaps between the squadrons in the left wing.

Observing the danger, Rehnskiöld quickly sent Adjutant General Gustaf Adam Taube [sv; de] across the battlefield to Charles with a request for help.

With great difficulty, several Saxon cavalry regiments reached safety on the west bank of the Nida while other units were pushed into the wetlands and drowned.

The cavalry engagements in the early afternoon generated large clouds of dust and gunpowder smoke that drifted in southeasterly winds towards the height, and obstructed the Saxon artillery's aim.

Under fierce artillery fire, they rushed up the hill's slope past the chevaux de frise and made a furious charge against the Saxon infantry.

[80][3] At the same time, Lieutenant General Schulenburg rallied a significant number of retreating Saxon regiments to a new position on Kulaki Height.

Squadrons of the Swedish left wing blocked the road to Pinczów at 16:00 and the last remnants of Augustus's army were chased away or captured in the former Saxon field camp.

[88][84][89] The following day, Charles ordered the dead Swedish privates and officers to be buried with all honors, and gave his troops permission to plunder the Saxon wagons scattered around the wetlands.

[61] Among the most precious spoils of war was a large Turkish tent that Augustus's father John George III had captured from the Ottoman Empire at the battle of Vienna in 1683.

[57][76][79][81][97] Due to Schulenburg's actions in the final stages of the battle, Augustus was able to retreat with most of his troops but his infantry was almost broken and he lost his respect among Poles, undermining Polish unity within the Commonwealth.

[98] The Swedes failed to pursue the Saxon–Polish army and their victory was not decisive because Augustus was able to retreat to Kraków, where he rallied fresh reinforcements and continued through eastern Poland towards Sandomierz.

[101] In a letter to his sister Hedvig Sophia that was sent in August 1702 from the Swedish field camp at Kraków, King Charles wrote: Thereto, I told about the blissful battle and that, which now, without any doubt, God knows better, must be as well known to my heart (Hedvig Sophia) as it is among us here, about the difficult and terrible misfortune that has befallen us, that we have lost our dear and precious brother-in-law, the duke, of which we will never fully regret and lament, and which turns all our joy into sorrow.

At Pińczów, the king established a field hospital for wounded Swedes and Saxon prisoners of war,[103] and the rest of the Swedish army arrived there in the following days and encamped near the banks of the Nida.

[104] While Charles later moved his army to Skalbmierz, he ordered Lieutenant Colonel von Feilitzen to form a garrison in Pińczów to guard the wounded and sick, and to collect supplies from the surrounding area.