Editing Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Chodkiewicz was born around 1561 (exact date of his birth is unknown) as the son of [[Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz]], [[Grand Marshal of Lithuania]], [[castellan]] of [[Vilnius]] and [[Krystyna Zborowska]], daughter of a Polish [[magnate (Poland)|magnate]] family of [[Zborowski (Jastrzębiec)|Zborowski]].<ref name="psb363"/> From 1573 he was a student at the Vilnius Jesuit College and the [[Vilnius University]], and from 1586 to 1589, together with his brother Aleksander, he continued his studies abroad at the [[University of Ingolstadt]].<ref name="psb363"/> He visited [[Padua]] before returning to the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] in 1590.<ref name="psb363"/>

He started his military career soon after returning to the Commonwealth, raising a [[Rota (formation)|rota]] of 50 to 100 men.<ref name="psb363"/> He gained military experience in the fight against the rebellious [[Cossacks]] during the [[Severyn Nalyvaiko]]'s [[Nalyvaiko uprising|uprising]] under [[Field Crown Hetman]] [[Stanisław Żółkiewski]].<ref name="psb363"/> During that conflict he participated in the battle of Kaniów on 14 April 1596, and in the siege of the Cossack [[tabor (formation)|tabor]] near [[Lubny]].<ref name="psb363"/> In 1599, he was appointed the Elder ([[starost]]) of [[Eldership of Samogitia|Samogitia]].<ref name="psb363"/>

Chodkiewicz  subsequently assisted [[Chancellor]] and [[Great Crown Hetman]] [[Jan Zamoyski]] in his victorious [[Moldavian Magnate Wars#1599–1601|Wallachian campaign]], in which Chodkiewicz  participated in the battle of Ploiești on 15 October 1600.<ref name="psb363"/> For that campaign, he was given that year the high office of the [[Field Lithuanian Hetman]], the second commander-in-chief of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army.<ref name="psb364"/>

===War in the North===
[[File:Jan Karal Chadkievič. Ян Караль Хадкевіч (1750).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Grand Hetman Chodkiewicz]]
A year later, in 1601, Chodkiewicz accompanied Zamoyski north, to the [[Duchy of Livonia]] (Inflanty), where he commanded Lithuanian units on the right wing of the Commonwealth army in a victorious [[battle of Kokenhausen]] in late July that year in the [[Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611)|war against Sweden]].<ref name="psb364"/> He oversaw the fighting in the Livonia theater after Zamoyski's return to Poland in 1602.<ref name="psb364"/> <!--Chodkiewicz, despite inadequate supplies and little support from the Commonwealth [[Sejm]] ([[parliament]]) and King [[Sigismund III Vasa|Sigismund III]], brilliantly distinguished himself, capturing fortress after fortress and repulsing the duke of [[Södermanland]], afterwards [[Charles IX of Sweden|Charles IX]], from [[Riga]]. unref--> In April 1603, he captured [[Dorpat]] (modern Tartu) and defeated the Swedish forces at the [[Battle of Weissenstein]] on 23 September 1604.<ref name="psb364"/> His crowning achievement was the great victory near the [[Daugava]] in the [[Battle of Kircholm]] (modern [[Salaspils]]) on  27 September 1605, when, with barely 4,000 troops, mostly the [[Winged Hussars|Winged hussar]] heavy cavalry, he annihilated a Swedish army three times the size of his force.<ref name="psb364"/> For that feat he received letters of congratulation from [[Pope Paul V]], most of Catholic royalty, and even the [[Ahmed I|Sultan of the Ottoman Empire]] and the [[Abbas the Great|Shah of Persia]].<ref name="psb364"/> Soon afterward, he was rewarded with the rank of Lithuanian Grand Hetman, in addition to a number of royal land grants and leases.<ref name="psb364"/>

Yet this great victory was virtually fruitless, owing to the domestic dissensions; the [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Sejm]] (Commonwealth parliament) failed to agree on raising the funds needed for the war effort.<ref name="psb364"/> <!-- Chodkiewicz's own army, unpaid for years, abandoned him en masse in order to plunder the estates of their political opponents, leaving the hetman to carry on the war as best as he could with a handful of mercenaries paid out of the pockets of himself and his friends.--> Chodkiewicz was one of the magnates who remained loyal to king [[Sigismund III Vasa]], and helped him to defeat the [[Zebrzydowski rebellion]] in 1606–1607.<ref name="psb364"/> He commanded the Crown Army's right wing during the [[Battle of Guzów]] on 6–7 July 1607, in which the insurgents were defeated, and then quelled the unrest in the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], fighting against another rebellious magnate, [[Janusz Radziwiłł (1579–1620)|Janusz Radziwiłł]], until Radziwiłł negotiated a settlement with the king in 1608.<ref name="psb364"/> A fresh invasion of Livonia by the Swedes recalled him thither once more, and in 1609 he relieved [[Riga]] and recaptured [[Pernau]].<ref name="psb364"/> He improvised a [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy|small fleet]] and dealt a surprise blow to the [[Swedish Navy]] at the [[Battle of Salis]].<ref name="psb365"/>

===Wars in the East and South===
[[Image:HetmanChodkiewicz.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Jan Karol Chodkiewicz painted by [[Juliusz Kossak]]]]
Meanwhile, the [[Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)|Dimitriad wars]] with [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovy]] broke out. Instigated by King Sigismund III, the war was unpopular among Lithuanian magnates, and Chodkiewicz was no exception; in fact his displeasure was so public and significant that he lost the royal favor for a time.<ref name="psb365"/> Eventually their differences subsided, and Chodkiewicz was sent against the Muscovites, operating first near [[Smolensk]] and [[Pskov]].<ref name="psb365"/><!--with an army of 2,000--> Soon, the Polish–Lithuanian forces started garnering victories, such as the [[Siege of Smolensk (1609–1611)|capture of Smolensk]], and some, like Grand Crown Hetman Żółkiewski, planned for a grand [[Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite Commonwealth]].<ref name="psb365"/> Chodkiewicz was tasked by the king with an advance on Moscow.<ref name="psb365"/> However, the Sejm neglected to pay for the maintenance of the armies once more, resulting in the mutiny of some units. Chodkiewicz fought several inconclusive battles against the Muscovites in autumn 1611 and then, after the [[Battle of Moscow (1612)]], retreated.<ref name="psb365"/> Disappointed with the outcome, he became once again estranged from the king, and criticized the campaign at the Sejm of 1613.<ref name="psb365"/> Over the next few years, in the period of 1613–15, Chodkiewicz defended the Commonwealth gains in the Smolensk area, and dealt with unrest in Lithuania.<ref name="psb365"/>  Not till the crown prince, [[Władysław IV Vasa|Władysław]] arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war could assume a more offensive character once again.<ref name="psb365"/> The army, nominally commanded by Władysław, but in practice under Chodkiewicz's experienced command, took the [[Dorogobuzh]] fortress on 11 October 1617.<ref name="psb365"/> <!--During that campaign, among many officers under Chodkiewicz's command, was future hetman, [[Stanisław Koniecpolski]].--> The siege of [[Mozhaysk]] in December of subsequent year proved unsuccessful, and this marked the end of the conflict.<ref name="psb365"/>

[[Image:Józef Brandt, Bitwa pod Chocimiem.jpg|thumb|250px|Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (in red) at Chocim, 1621]]
[[File:JKChodkiewicz.JPG|left|thumb|[[Hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Great Hetman]] of [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], Jan K. Chodkiewicz]]
The Polish-Muscovite War had no sooner been ended by the [[Truce of Deulino]] than Chodkiewicz was hastily dispatched southwards to defend the southern frontier against the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]], who, in the opening phase of the [[Polish–Ottoman War (1620–1621)|Polish–Ottoman War]], defeated Polish forces at [[Battle of Cecora (1620)|Cecora]], killing Hetman Żółkiewski.<ref name="psb365"/><ref name="Nagielski1995-138-139"/> An army of 160,000 [[Turkish people|Turks]] and 60,000 [[Tatars]] led by [[Sultan]] [[Osman II]] in person advanced <!--from [[Adrianople]]--> on the Polish frontier.<ref name="psb365"/> Opposed it were the Commonwealth forces, numbering about 70,000, half of them a [[Cossack]] detachment under [[Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks|Cossack hetman]] [[Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny]].<ref name="psb365"/> Chodkiewicz crossed the [[Dnieper]] in September 1621, and entrenched himself in the [[Khotyn Fortress]], directly in the path of the Ottoman advance.<ref name="psb365"/> During the [[Battle of Khotyn (1621)|Battle of Khotyn]] Chodkiewicz resisted the sultan's 200-thousand army for a whole month,<!--, repelling all its assaults till the first fall of autumn snow compelled Osman to withdraw his diminished forces-->.<ref name="psb365"/><ref name="Penson"/> but the  victory cost his life. A few days before the siege was raised and the Ottomans decided to open negotiations, the aged Grand Lithuanian Hetman, already suffering from illness since the campaign's opening, died in the fortress on 24 September 1621.<ref name="psb365"/><ref name="Penson"/>

Chodkiewicz's body was transported to [[Kamianets-Podilskyi]], where he was buried on  14 October 1621.<ref name="psb367"/> A few years later, in the summer of 1622, his widow arranged for exhumation, and Chodkiewicz was reburied in [[Ostroh]] in June that year.<ref name="psb367"/> In 1627 he was moved to a new chapel in Ostroh, where he reburied again.<ref name="psb367"/> His body was evacuated from Ostroh during the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]] in 1648, and returned there in 1654.<ref name="psb367"/> It was reburied yet again in a new tomb in Ostroh in 1722.<ref name="psb367"/>