Jan Karol Chodkiewicz

Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, born around 1561 and dead in September 1621, was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman and one of the leading field commanders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of his era. He became Field Hetman of Lithuania in 1601 and Grand Hetman of Lithuania in 1605, the senior commander of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army. He took part in the Wallachian campaign of 1599 to 1601, the Polish-Swedish War of 1600 to 1611, the Polish-Muscovite War of 1605 to 1618 and the Polish-Ottoman War of 1620 to 1621. His best known victory came at Kircholm in 1605, where barely 4,000 troops, mostly winged hussar heavy cavalry, defeated a Swedish army three times their size. He died in the Khotyn Fortress in September 1621, a few days before the Ottoman siege was lifted.