Jan Karol Chodkiewicz Jan Karol Chodkiewicz ( c . 1560 – 24 September 1621 ) ( , ) was a military commander of the Polish - Lithuanian army who was from 1601 Field Hetman of Lithuania , and from 1605 Grand Hetman of Lithuania , and was one of the most prominent noblemen and military commanders of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth of his era . His coat of arms was Chodkiewicz , as was his family name . He played a major role , often as the top commander of the Commonwealth forces , in the Wallachian campaign of 1599 – 1600 , the Polish – Swedish War of 1600 – 1611 , the Polish – Muscovite War of 1605 – 1618 , and the Polish – Ottoman War of 1620 – 1621 . His most famous victory was the Battle of Kircholm in 1605 , in which he dealt a major defeat to a Swedish army three time the size of his own . He died on the front lines during the battle of Chocim , in the besieged Khotyn Fortress , a few days before the Ottomans gave up on the siege and agreed to negotiate . Biography . Early life . Chodkiewicz was born around 1560 ( 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 family of Zborowscy . 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 . He visited Padua before returning to the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1590 . He started his military career soon after returning to the Commonwealth , raising a rota of 50 to 100 men . He gained military experience in the fight against the rebellious Cossacks during the Severyn Nalyvaiko ' s uprising under Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski . During that conflict he participated in the Battle of Kaniów on April 14 , 1596 , and in the siege of the Cossack tabor near Lubny . In 1599 , he was appointed the Elder ( starost ) of Samogitia . Chodkiewicz subsequently assisted Chancellor and Great Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski in his victorious Wallachian campaign , in which Chodkiewicz participated in the battle of Ploiești on 15 October 1600 . For that campaign , he was given that year the high office of the Field Lithuanian Hetman , the second commander - in - chief of the Lithuanian detachment of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth army . War in the North . 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 war against Sweden . He oversaw the fighting in the Livonia theater after Zamoyski ' s return to Poland in 1602 . In April 1603 , he captured Dorpat ( modern Tartu ) and defeated the Swedish forces at Biały Kamień ( the Battle of Weissenstein ) on 23 September 1604 . His crowning achievement was the great victory near the Dvina River in the Battle of Kircholm ( modern Salaspils ) on 27 September 1605 , when , with barely 4000 troops , mostly the heavy cavalry of Polish hussars , he annihilated a Swedish army three times the size of his force . For that feat he received letters of congratulation from Pope Paul V , most of the Catholic royalty of Europe , and even the sultan of Turkey and the shah of Persia . Soon afterward , he was rewarded with the rank of Grand Lithuanian Hetman , in addition to a number of royal land grants and leases . Yet this great victory was virtually fruitless , owing to the domestic dissensions ; the Sejm ( Commonwealth parliament ) failed to agree on raising the funds needed for the war effort . Chodkiewicz was one of the magnates who remained loyal to the king Zygmunt III Waza , and he helping him to defeat the Sandomierz rebellion ( rokosz of Zebrzydowski ) in 1606 – 1607 . He commanded the right wing of the royal army 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 , until Radziwiłł negotiated a settlement with the king in 1608 . A fresh invasion of Livonia by the Swedes recalled him thither once more , and in 1609 he relieved Riga and recaptured Pernau . He improvised a small fleet and dealt a surprise blow to the Swedish Navy at the Battle of Salis . Wars in the East and South . Meanwhile , the Dimitriad wars with Muscovy broke out . Instigated by King Zygmunt , 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 . Eventually their differences subsided , and Chodkiewicz was sent against the Muscovites , operating first near Smolensk and Pskov . Soon , the Polish - Lithuanian forces started garnering victories , such as the capture of Smolensk , and some , like Grand Crown Hetman Żółkiewski , planned for a grand Polish - Lithuanian - Muscovite union . Chodkiewicz was tasked by the king with an advance on Moscow . However , the Sejm neglected to pay for the maintenance of the Army once more , with the result that some units mutinied . Chodkiewicz fought several inconclusive battles against the Muscovites in the fall of 1611 , and then retreated . Disappointed with that outcome , he became once again estranged from the king , and criticized the campaign at the Sejm of 1613 . Over the next few years , in the period of 1613 - 1615 , Chodkiewicz defended the Commonwealth gains in the Smolensk area , and dealt with unrest in Lithuania . Not till the crown prince , Władysław arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war could assume a more offensive character once again . The army , nominally commanded by Władysław , but in practice under the experienced command of Chodkiewicz , took the fortress of Dorogobuzh on 11 October 1617 . The siege of Mozhaysk in December of subsequent year did not prove successful , and this marked the end of the conflict . The Polish - Muscovite War had no sooner been ended by the treaty of Deulino than Chodkiewicz was hastily dispatched southwards to defend the southern frontier against the Turks , who , in the opening phase of the Polish – Ottoman War , defeated Polish forces at Cecora , killing Hetman Zółkiewski . An army of 160 , 000 Turks and 60 , 000 Tatars led by Sultan Osman II in person advanced on the Polish frontier . Opposed it were the Commonwealth forces , numbering about 70 , 000 , half of them a Cossackdetachment under Cossack hetman Petro Konashevych - Sahaidachny ) . Chodkiewicz crossed the Dnieper in September 1621 , and entrenched himself in the Khotyn Fortress , directly in the path of the Ottoman advance . During the Battle of Chocim Chodkiewcz resisted the sultan ' s 200 - thousand army for a whole month . but the cost of victory was 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 very start of this campaign , died in the fortress on 24 September 1621 . Chodkiewcz ' s body was transported to Kamianets - Podilskyi , where he was buried on 14 October 1621 . A few years later , in the summer of 1622 , his widow arranged for exhumation , and Chodkiewicz was reburied in Ostróg in June that year . In 1627 he was moved to a new chapel in Ostróg , where he reburied again . His body was evacuated from Ostróg during the Chmielnicki Uprising in 1648 , and returned there in 1654 . It was reburied yet again in a new tomb in Ostróg in 1722 . Assessment and remembrance . In 1937 , Polish historian Wanda Dobrowolska , wrote in her Polish Biographical Dictionary entry on Chodkiewicz that he was one of the chief members of the " Great Hetman era " , renowned for his talent as a strategist and organizer . She notes that Chodkiewicz possessed an iron will , which he was able to impose on the troops under his command , and that he was an efficient commander , although more respected and feared than beloved by his troops . Dobrowolska notes that he was an energetic and explosive antithesis of the composed Żółkiewski , another great hetman of this era , whom Chodkiewicz disliked and competed with throughout his life . Chodkiewicz was not particularly involved in the politics of the Commonwealth , although his high office and wealth gave him significant influence ; for the most part he used his political influence , and base of support in Lithuania , to gather support for his military plans , increased the size of the army , and personal gratifications . His life was dominated by warfare , if not on the front lines , then on the political scene against other Lithuanian magnates , particularly the Radziwiłł family and the Sejm politicians whom he held responsible for not passing enough taxes to support the army he wanted . Over his career he acquired significant wealth , and funded a number of churches and other prestigious buildings . He often worked with the Jesuits . He strongly believed his service for the state should be rewarded with land grants , but at the same time he would often use his own money to pay for the army ' s military expenses . In his private life he is remembered as a very proud individual , and for stressing his identity as a member of the Lithuanian nobility . He was a family man , devoted to his family , but his only son , from his marriage in 1593 to Zofia Mielecka , died aged 16 in 1613 , and she died in 1618 . He remarried in 1620 , wedding Anna Alojza Ostrogska in November 1620 , shortly before departing on his final campaign . Also that year his daughter Anna married a Lithuanian magnate , Jan Stanisław Sapieha . Some poems and other works praising him were written during his lifetime , and a religious work was dedicated to him by the Jesuit Piotr Skarga . More works on Chodkiewicz were written in the years after his death . He was one of Wacław Potocki ' s characters in his epic novel on the Chocim war ( ) , and he also appeared in the works of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Zofia Kossak - Szczucka , usually portrayed as a patriot and military genius .