He spent his youth at the court of Emperor Maximilian I, where he distinguished himself for his military valor and humanistic refinement. He fought the Tatars in the Battle of Wisniowiec and the Russians in the Battle of Orsha, and in 1520 he took part in the war against the Teutonic Knights. In 1518, he became Marshal of the Crown Court and in 1522 was a Polish envoy to the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg. In 1524 he defeated the Turkish army in Terebovl. In 1520 he received from Sigismund I the Old the right to collect tributes on the roads to Ustjanowa Dolna.