Simple.
Choose your top three and say why / or perhaps tell of their life history.
Three specifications
a) must be leaders between 1492-1792
b) must never have been monarchs (purely military leaders).
c) leaders can be from your own country or from any other..
d) Don't have to be European ..
e) can be 3 or 4 ..
Here are my top four:
Koniecpolski, Stanislaw
b. c. 1591
d. March 12, 1646, Brody, Pol.
military and political leader of Poland who won major victories against the Turks, the Tatars, and the Swedes.
Appointed field commander of the Polish forces in 1619, Koniecpolski was captured during the Battle of Cecora (Tutora; 1620) by the Turks and held prisoner at Istanbul for three years. On returning to Poland, he defeated the Tatars (vassals of the Turks) at Martynów (1624), received the thanks of the Polish Sejm (Diet), and was made palatine of Sandomierz by King Sigismund III. In 1626 he was transferred to Prussia, where the Poles were engaged in a bitter conflict with the Swedish king Gustavus II Adolphus. Koniecpolski subsequently won a series of victories in 1627 at Puck, at Hamersztyn (Czarne), and at Tczew. But he was also compelled to withdraw from strategic Polish strongholds in Prussia (1628), and, despite his victory over Gustavus at Trzcianka (June 27, 1629), the Polish-Swedish Truce of Altmark (Sept. 25, 1629) acknowledged Sweden as the dominant power on the southern Baltic Sea coast.
Appointed commander in chief of the Polish forces in 1632, Koniecpolski played a major role directing political affairs after the death of Sigismund III Vasa (April 30, 1632) and became an influential adviser of the new king, Wladyslaw IV Vasa, as well as castellan of Kraków (1633). Encouraging Wladyslaw to direct Polish foreign policy against the Tatars, Koniecpolski repulsed a Tatar invasion (July 1633), held back a large Turko-Tatar force at Kamieniec (October 1633), and soundly defeated the Tatars again at Ochmatow (1644). Koniecpolski also subdued mutinous Cossacks in Ukraine and built the fortress of Kudak (on the site of the later Dnepropetrovsk) there in 1635.
Koniecpolski gathered a fortune in lands in the western Ukraine; more than 100,000 people lived on his estates. He founded the market town of Brody, with a citadel and bastions (1633), and set up workshops producing Persian-type carpets there. He died on the eve of an expedition against the Turks.
Jan Karol Chodkiewicz
b. 1560, probably at Stary Bykhov, Pol.
d. Sept. 24, 1621, Chocim
Polish general who won remarkable victories against the Swedes and the Turks despite the vacillating policies and inadequate support of his king, Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.
The son of a prominent Ruthenian military family active in Lithuania, Chodkiewicz made a name for himself in a campaign against the Turks in 1600 under the command of Jan Zamoyski, whom he accompanied to Lithuania in 1601 to fight in the war against Sweden for possession of Livonia. Appointed acting commander in chief of Lithuania after Zamoyski's return to Poland in 1602, Chodkiewicz, despite inadequate supplies and little support from the Polish Sejm (Diet) and King Sigismund III Vasa, drove the duke of Södermanland (later Charles IX of Sweden) from Riga, took Dorpat (Estonian Tartu) in 1603, defeated the Swedes near Weissenstein in 1604, and destroyed a Swedish Army four times larger than his own at Kirchholm (Salaspils) on the Dvina River in September 1605.
After helping to put down the Polish insurrection of 1606-07 and to relieve Riga when the Swedes again threatened it in 1609, he was sent to attack Moscow (1612), but his army mutinied for lack of pay, and he had to retreat to Smolensk. Reinforced by Sigismund's son Prince Wladyslaw (later King Wladyslaw IV Vasa), he took the fortress of Dorohobuzh in 1617. After the Truce of Deulino between Poland and the Muscovite state, he was sent to defend the southern frontier against the Turks. He died just after forcing the Turks to raise the siege of Chocim, in the Moldavian borderland, by successfully defending it against a force many times the size of his own.
Stanislaus Zolkiewski
Chancellor of Poland, born in Tuyrnka (Red Russia), 1547; died at Cecora, 6 Oct., 1620. He studied at Lemberg with great distinction, and it is said that he knew all Horace by heart. With his friend Zamoyski he fought under King Stephen Báthori in the wars against Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Both distinguished themselves greatly, and rose into high favour. Zolkiewski became castellan of Lemberg in 1593. Unfortunately Sigismund III was unfriendly to him from the outset; he mistrusted him and would have none of his advice. When the Cossacks began to revolt, Zolkiewski was for treating them gently, but he received orders to put down Nalewajck and Toba, the rebel leaders. His loyalty shone brightly when Zembrzydowski's rising took place. Although Zolkiewski knew that the nobles had many just grievances against King Sigismund, by whom he himself was disliked, yet he came to his aid, and defeated the rebels at Guzow. Again he advised his master against war with Muscovy, at the time of the 'False Demetrius', as both unjust and impolitic; but, as he says in his famous memoirs, 'His Majesty's ears were closed to the hetman's arguments'. Ordered to lead the army he obeyed, only to find the influence of his enemies and rival everywhere predominant, interfering with the campaign, making him beseige Smolensk against his better judgment, and at last sending him to Moscow with only 6000 men. At Kluszyn he met and cut into pieces the army of Szujsko, 35,000 strong, entered the city, and, after much parleying with the people and the clergy, made terms by which Wladislaw, King Sigismund's son, was to become Tsar of Muscovy. But even this did not please Sigismund; he reproached Zolkiewski, refused to ratify the agreement, and it became clear that he himself wished to become Tsar of Muscovy. This was an impossibility, and by this refusal all the victories and diplomatic triumphs of Zolkiewski were rendered null, as he pointed out to the Diet at Warsaw, when he returned with the Tsar Demetrius and two of the greatest Russian princes, his captives. In 1613 he at last received the grand hetman's staff (withheld from him until then), and went to fight the Turks. In Busza, forced by the superior strength of the enemy, he made a convention with them, for which he was put on his defence in the Diet, and ordeal from which he came forth victorious once more. He died in battle on the disastrous field of Cecora, borne down by Turkish hordes, abandoned by his own troops, but fighting like a hero to the very last. He was a great patriot, a faithful servant of the nation and of a weak king who hated him, an ardent Catholic, and one who did much to promote the union of the Ruthenian Church. The memoirs of his expedition to Moscow, written by himself, are extant, a masterpiece of modesty and sincerity, as invaluable for the history of those times as Caesar's 'Commentaries' are for his own. In them we find the sadness of a man whose life has been one long disappointment, striving unsuccessfully and almost alone to hold back the nation that he loves, and that is still mighty, from its impending fall and destruction.
Tarnowski, Jan
b. 1488, Tarnów, Pol.
d. May 16, 1561, Tarnów
army commander and political activist notable in Polish affairs.
As a young army commander, Tarnowski defeated the army of the Moldavian prince Bogdan in southeastern Poland (1509) and took a leading part in victories over the Tatars at Wisniowiec in 1512 and the Muscovites at Orsza in 1514. After travelling through western Europe and the Middle East (1517-19), he was entrusted with the command of a Portuguese army that he led to victory against the Moors (1520). Returning to Poland (1521), he led Polish forces in Prussia against the Teutonic Knights. Appointed commander in chief of the army (1527) by King Sigismund I the Old, he halted the Tatar raids into Poland, defeated the Moldavians at Obertyn in August 1531, and directed a campaign against the Muscovites in 1535. Appointed governor of Kraków province (1535) in recognition of his military services, he encouraged new settlements in southeastern Poland.
As a member of the Polish senate, Tarnowski supported Sigismund I during the 'Poultry War,' a revolt (1536) by the szlachta (gentry) against the King's attempt to increase his power. In 1547 he sided with King Sigismund II Augustus when the szlachta tried to force an annulment of the King's marriage to Barbara Radziwill, a member of a Lithuanian family whose power the szlachta feared. But in 1553, though a Catholic, Tarnowski supported the largely Calvinist szlachta against the restoration of independent Roman Catholic ecclesiastical courts. He wrote De bello cum . . . Turcis gerendo (1552; 'Concerning the Wars with the Turks'), about the emperor Charles V's projected war against the Turks, and Consilium rationis bellicae (1558; 'Plans on Methods of War'), on traditional Polish methods of warfare.
Sapura
[This message has been edited by Sapura (edited 26-08-2000).]
Choose your top three and say why / or perhaps tell of their life history.
Three specifications
a) must be leaders between 1492-1792
b) must never have been monarchs (purely military leaders).
c) leaders can be from your own country or from any other..
d) Don't have to be European ..
e) can be 3 or 4 ..
Here are my top four:
Koniecpolski, Stanislaw
b. c. 1591
d. March 12, 1646, Brody, Pol.
military and political leader of Poland who won major victories against the Turks, the Tatars, and the Swedes.
Appointed field commander of the Polish forces in 1619, Koniecpolski was captured during the Battle of Cecora (Tutora; 1620) by the Turks and held prisoner at Istanbul for three years. On returning to Poland, he defeated the Tatars (vassals of the Turks) at Martynów (1624), received the thanks of the Polish Sejm (Diet), and was made palatine of Sandomierz by King Sigismund III. In 1626 he was transferred to Prussia, where the Poles were engaged in a bitter conflict with the Swedish king Gustavus II Adolphus. Koniecpolski subsequently won a series of victories in 1627 at Puck, at Hamersztyn (Czarne), and at Tczew. But he was also compelled to withdraw from strategic Polish strongholds in Prussia (1628), and, despite his victory over Gustavus at Trzcianka (June 27, 1629), the Polish-Swedish Truce of Altmark (Sept. 25, 1629) acknowledged Sweden as the dominant power on the southern Baltic Sea coast.
Appointed commander in chief of the Polish forces in 1632, Koniecpolski played a major role directing political affairs after the death of Sigismund III Vasa (April 30, 1632) and became an influential adviser of the new king, Wladyslaw IV Vasa, as well as castellan of Kraków (1633). Encouraging Wladyslaw to direct Polish foreign policy against the Tatars, Koniecpolski repulsed a Tatar invasion (July 1633), held back a large Turko-Tatar force at Kamieniec (October 1633), and soundly defeated the Tatars again at Ochmatow (1644). Koniecpolski also subdued mutinous Cossacks in Ukraine and built the fortress of Kudak (on the site of the later Dnepropetrovsk) there in 1635.
Koniecpolski gathered a fortune in lands in the western Ukraine; more than 100,000 people lived on his estates. He founded the market town of Brody, with a citadel and bastions (1633), and set up workshops producing Persian-type carpets there. He died on the eve of an expedition against the Turks.
Jan Karol Chodkiewicz
b. 1560, probably at Stary Bykhov, Pol.
d. Sept. 24, 1621, Chocim
Polish general who won remarkable victories against the Swedes and the Turks despite the vacillating policies and inadequate support of his king, Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.
The son of a prominent Ruthenian military family active in Lithuania, Chodkiewicz made a name for himself in a campaign against the Turks in 1600 under the command of Jan Zamoyski, whom he accompanied to Lithuania in 1601 to fight in the war against Sweden for possession of Livonia. Appointed acting commander in chief of Lithuania after Zamoyski's return to Poland in 1602, Chodkiewicz, despite inadequate supplies and little support from the Polish Sejm (Diet) and King Sigismund III Vasa, drove the duke of Södermanland (later Charles IX of Sweden) from Riga, took Dorpat (Estonian Tartu) in 1603, defeated the Swedes near Weissenstein in 1604, and destroyed a Swedish Army four times larger than his own at Kirchholm (Salaspils) on the Dvina River in September 1605.
After helping to put down the Polish insurrection of 1606-07 and to relieve Riga when the Swedes again threatened it in 1609, he was sent to attack Moscow (1612), but his army mutinied for lack of pay, and he had to retreat to Smolensk. Reinforced by Sigismund's son Prince Wladyslaw (later King Wladyslaw IV Vasa), he took the fortress of Dorohobuzh in 1617. After the Truce of Deulino between Poland and the Muscovite state, he was sent to defend the southern frontier against the Turks. He died just after forcing the Turks to raise the siege of Chocim, in the Moldavian borderland, by successfully defending it against a force many times the size of his own.
Stanislaus Zolkiewski
Chancellor of Poland, born in Tuyrnka (Red Russia), 1547; died at Cecora, 6 Oct., 1620. He studied at Lemberg with great distinction, and it is said that he knew all Horace by heart. With his friend Zamoyski he fought under King Stephen Báthori in the wars against Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Both distinguished themselves greatly, and rose into high favour. Zolkiewski became castellan of Lemberg in 1593. Unfortunately Sigismund III was unfriendly to him from the outset; he mistrusted him and would have none of his advice. When the Cossacks began to revolt, Zolkiewski was for treating them gently, but he received orders to put down Nalewajck and Toba, the rebel leaders. His loyalty shone brightly when Zembrzydowski's rising took place. Although Zolkiewski knew that the nobles had many just grievances against King Sigismund, by whom he himself was disliked, yet he came to his aid, and defeated the rebels at Guzow. Again he advised his master against war with Muscovy, at the time of the 'False Demetrius', as both unjust and impolitic; but, as he says in his famous memoirs, 'His Majesty's ears were closed to the hetman's arguments'. Ordered to lead the army he obeyed, only to find the influence of his enemies and rival everywhere predominant, interfering with the campaign, making him beseige Smolensk against his better judgment, and at last sending him to Moscow with only 6000 men. At Kluszyn he met and cut into pieces the army of Szujsko, 35,000 strong, entered the city, and, after much parleying with the people and the clergy, made terms by which Wladislaw, King Sigismund's son, was to become Tsar of Muscovy. But even this did not please Sigismund; he reproached Zolkiewski, refused to ratify the agreement, and it became clear that he himself wished to become Tsar of Muscovy. This was an impossibility, and by this refusal all the victories and diplomatic triumphs of Zolkiewski were rendered null, as he pointed out to the Diet at Warsaw, when he returned with the Tsar Demetrius and two of the greatest Russian princes, his captives. In 1613 he at last received the grand hetman's staff (withheld from him until then), and went to fight the Turks. In Busza, forced by the superior strength of the enemy, he made a convention with them, for which he was put on his defence in the Diet, and ordeal from which he came forth victorious once more. He died in battle on the disastrous field of Cecora, borne down by Turkish hordes, abandoned by his own troops, but fighting like a hero to the very last. He was a great patriot, a faithful servant of the nation and of a weak king who hated him, an ardent Catholic, and one who did much to promote the union of the Ruthenian Church. The memoirs of his expedition to Moscow, written by himself, are extant, a masterpiece of modesty and sincerity, as invaluable for the history of those times as Caesar's 'Commentaries' are for his own. In them we find the sadness of a man whose life has been one long disappointment, striving unsuccessfully and almost alone to hold back the nation that he loves, and that is still mighty, from its impending fall and destruction.
Tarnowski, Jan
b. 1488, Tarnów, Pol.
d. May 16, 1561, Tarnów
army commander and political activist notable in Polish affairs.
As a young army commander, Tarnowski defeated the army of the Moldavian prince Bogdan in southeastern Poland (1509) and took a leading part in victories over the Tatars at Wisniowiec in 1512 and the Muscovites at Orsza in 1514. After travelling through western Europe and the Middle East (1517-19), he was entrusted with the command of a Portuguese army that he led to victory against the Moors (1520). Returning to Poland (1521), he led Polish forces in Prussia against the Teutonic Knights. Appointed commander in chief of the army (1527) by King Sigismund I the Old, he halted the Tatar raids into Poland, defeated the Moldavians at Obertyn in August 1531, and directed a campaign against the Muscovites in 1535. Appointed governor of Kraków province (1535) in recognition of his military services, he encouraged new settlements in southeastern Poland.
As a member of the Polish senate, Tarnowski supported Sigismund I during the 'Poultry War,' a revolt (1536) by the szlachta (gentry) against the King's attempt to increase his power. In 1547 he sided with King Sigismund II Augustus when the szlachta tried to force an annulment of the King's marriage to Barbara Radziwill, a member of a Lithuanian family whose power the szlachta feared. But in 1553, though a Catholic, Tarnowski supported the largely Calvinist szlachta against the restoration of independent Roman Catholic ecclesiastical courts. He wrote De bello cum . . . Turcis gerendo (1552; 'Concerning the Wars with the Turks'), about the emperor Charles V's projected war against the Turks, and Consilium rationis bellicae (1558; 'Plans on Methods of War'), on traditional Polish methods of warfare.
Sapura
[This message has been edited by Sapura (edited 26-08-2000).]
