Online Encyclopedia

JAN KAROL CHODKIEWICZ (156o-1621)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 260 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:
JAN KAROL CHODKIEWICZ (156o-1621)  ,
See also:
Polish general, was the son of Hieronymus Chodkiewicz, castellan of Wilna . After being educated at the Wilna academy he went abroad to learn the science of war, fighting in the
See also:
Spanish service under Alva, and also under Maurice of
See also:
Nassau . In 1593 he married the wealthy Sophia Mielecka, by whom he had one son who predeceased him . His first military service at home was against the Cossack rising of Nalewajko as
See also:
lieutenant to Zolkiewski, and he subsequently assisted Zamoyski in his victorious Moldavian
See also:
campaign . Honours and dignities were now showered upon him . In 1599 he was appointed starosta of Samogitia, and in 1600 acting
See also:
commander-in-chief of Lithuania . In the war against Sweden for the possession of Livonia he brilliantly distinguished himself, capturing fortress after fortress and repulsing the duke of Sudermania, afterwards Charles IX, from Riga . In 1604 he captured Dorpat, twice defeated the
See also:
Swedish generals at Bialy Kamien, and was rewarded with the
See also:
grand baton of Lithuania . Criminally neglected by the
See also:
diet, which from sheer niggardliness turned a
See also:
deaf ear to all his requests for reinforcements and for supplies and
See also:
money to pay his soldiers, Chodkiewicz nevertheless more than held his own against the Swedes . His crowning achievement was the
See also:
great victory of Kirkholm (Aug . 27th, 1605), when with barely 5000 men he annihilated a threefold larger Swedish army; for which feat he received letters of congratulation from the pqpe, all the Catholic potentates. of
See also:
Europe, and even from the sultan of
See also:
Turkey and the shah of
See also:
Persia . Yet this great victory was absolutely fruitless, owing to the domestic dissensions which prevailed in Poland during the following five years .

Chodkiewicz's own army, unpaid for years, abandoned him at last en masse in

order to
See also:
plunder the estates of their
See also:
political opponents, leaving the grand
See also:
hetman to carry on the war as best he could with a handful of mercenaries paid out of the pockets of himself and his friends . Chodkiewicz was one of the few magnates who remained loyal to the king, and after helping to defeat the rebels in Poland a fresh invasion of Livonia by the Swedes recalled him thither, and once more he relieved Riga besides capturing Pernau . Meanwhile the war with Muscovy broke out, and Chodkiewicz was sent against Moscow with an army of 2000 men—though if there had been a spark of true patriotism in Poland he could easily have marshalled
See also:
Ioo,000 . Moreover, the diet neglected to pay for the maintenance even of this paltry 2000, with the result, that they mutinied and compelled their leader to retreat through the heart of Muscovy to
See also:
Smolensk . Not till the
See also:
crown prince . Wladislaus arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war assume a different character, Chodkiewicz opening a new career of victory by taking the fortress of Drohobu in 1617 . The
See also:
Muscovite war had no sooner been ended by the treaty of Deulina than Chodkiewicz was hastily despatched southwards to defend the
See also:
southern frontier against the
See also:
Turks, who after the catastrophe of Cecora (see ZOLKIEWSKI) had high hopes of conquering Poland altogether . An army of 16o,000
See also:
Turkish veterans led by Sultan Osman in person advanced from Adrianople towards the Polish frontier, but Chodkiewicz crossed the
See also:
Dnieper in September 1621 and entrenched himself in the fortress of Khotin right in the path of the
See also:
Ottoman advance . Here for a whole month the Polish hero held the sultan at
See also:
bay, till the first fall of autumn snow compelled Osman to withdraw his diminished forces . But the victory was dearly
See also:
purchased by Poland . A few days before the siege was raised the aged grand hetman died of exhaustion in the fortress (
See also:
Sept . 24th, 1621) .

See

Adam Stanislaw Naruszewicz,
See also:
Life of J . K . Chodkiewicz (Pol.; 4th ed., Cracow, 1857–1858) ; Lukasz Golebiowski, The Moral Side of J . K . Chodkiewicz as indicated by his Letters (Pol.; Warsaw, 1854) . (R . N .

End of Article: JAN KAROL CHODKIEWICZ (156o-1621)
[back]
CHOCTAWS, CHAHTAS, or CHACATOS (apparently a corrup...
[next]
DANIEL NICOLAS CHODOWIECKI (1726–1801)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.