Katarzyna Żółkiewska

Youth

The details of Stanisław Koniecpolski's birth are unclear. Various dates between 1590 and 1594[a] have been provided, and none of his biographers identify where he was born. What is known, though, is that his father, Aleksander Koniecpolski, was a wealthy magnate belonging to the szlachta (Polish nobility) and was also the voivode of Sieradz, and a staunch supporter of King Sigismund III of the Swedish House of Vasa. Koniecpolski's mother, Anna Sroczycka, was the daughter of Stanisław Sroczycki, the voivode of Kamianets-Podilskyi, and had brought several large Podole estates into the Koniecpolski family upon her marriage to Aleksander. Stanisław's brothers were Krzysztof, who held the court office of chorąży wielki koronny (Grand Standard-Bearer of the Crown) and was voivode of Bełsk from 1641; Remigiusz, who was the bishop of Chełm before his death in 1640; Jan, a castellan and the voivode of Sieradz; and Przedbór who died in 1611.

Although Koniecpolski had a stutter, when he was 15, through his father's influence in the royal court, he secured an appointment as starosta (mayor) of Wieluń. In 1603 he began studying at the Kraków Academy, and after several years he was sent to the royal court by his father so that he could continue his education in a more practical fashion. He is believed to have stayed there a year or two. He may also have undertaken a tour of Western Europe for several months, spending the majority of his time in France before returning to his family's estates.

Early career: 1610–1626

From a young age Koniecpolski chose to follow a military career. In 1610, together with his brother Przedbór, he took part in the Dymitriads against Muscovy, raising a group of 300 men to join the Army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at Smolensk. On 4 July 1610 he participated in the Battle of Klushino before joining the Siege of Smolensk where Przedbór was crushed to death by the fortress' collapsing walls on 8 July 1611. After returning to his family mansion at Koniecpol with his brother's body, the following autumn Koniecpolski rejoined the army. Under the command of Grand Lithuanian Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, he took part in the effort to relieve and supply the besieged Polish forces in the Moscow Kremlin. During that time, he was entrusted by the Hetman with the command of the right flank of the Polish forces.

In 1612 Koniecpolski joined the wojsko kwarciane (regular Commonwealth army) in Ukraine under the command of Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, who greatly influenced his career. In 1614 he was entrusted with destroying rebellious regular units led by Jan Karwacki, and on 17 May, with Stanisław Żółkiewski's son, Jan, he won the Battle of Rohatyn and captured Karwacki. In 1615 he married Żółkiewski's daughter Katarzyna (Catherine). Soon after the wedding, he received the official rank of podstoli koronny (Crown Master of the Pantry).

Throughout 1615 and 1616 Koniecpolski gained further experience in Ukraine, fighting the Tatar hordes, but failed to destroy or capture any sizable enemy units. In 1616, Katarzyna died while giving birth to Koniecpolski's first son, Andrzej. The following year, Koniecpolski took part in the Moldavian Magnate Wars alongside Żołkiewski, and stood against Iskender Pasha's powerful Turkish army. The conflict ended that year with a negotiated cease-fire. Following negotiations with the Cossacks in Olszanica, Koniecpolski reduced the Cossack register to 1,000, thereby limiting the number of positions that the Cossacks could hold in the Commonwealth military. He also banned raids on the Black Sea. Such raids, which pillaged wealthy Ottoman cities, contributed to the Cossacks' income but provoked retaliatory raids into Commonwealth territory.

In 1618, during a session of the Sejm—the Commonwealth parliament—King Sigismund III Vasa granted the buława (ceremonial mace or baton) of Grand Crown Hetman to Stanisław Żółkiewski and that of Field Crown Hetman to Koniecpolski, disregarding the opposition of magnate Krzysztof Zbaraski and his allies. Soon afterward, Koniecpolski was defeated by the Tatars near Orynin, where he committed the mistake of pursuing the enemy against overwhelming odds and barely made it out of the battle alive. In 1619, Koniecpolski married Krystyna Lubomirska, who gave birth to a son, Aleksander, the following year.

Fighting Gustavus Adolphus: 1626–1629

In 1626 the southern threat to the Commonwealth was overshadowed by a northern one, as an incursion by Swedish forces reignited the Polish–Swedish War. In June, Gustavus Adolphus, with a fleet of 125 ships and an army of over 14,000 men, approached the Polish coast and began collecting tariffs on trade passing through Gdańsk (Danzig). Having taken Piława and Braniewo, Swedish forces spread through Pomerania, taking Frombork, Tolkmicko, Elbląg, Malbork, Gniew, Tczew and Starogard, while other Swedish forces landed near Puck—the main port of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth fleet—and captured it. The major city of Gdańsk, however, refused to surrender even in the face of lightning Swedish advances. In a battle that took place between 22 and 30 September 1626 near the village of Gniew, Gustavus defeated a Polish army led by King Sigismund, who retreated and called for reinforcements from other parts of the country. In response, Koniecpolski was tasked with defending Royal Prussia against the Swedish incursion. He was delayed by the unstable situation in the south, though, and it was not until 1 October that he finally departed for Prussia.

Koniecpolski's force of 4,200 light cavalry, 1,000 dragoons, and 1,000 infantry quickly moved to Prussia. Reinforced by other units, he had 9,000 men against the 20,000-strong Swedish force.[b] Employing maneuver warfare, using small mobile units to strike at enemy communication lines and smaller units, he stopped the Swedish attack and forced Axel Oxenstierna into a defensive posture. Meanwhile, the Sejm agreed to raise money for the war. The situation of the Commonwealth forces, short of money and food, was difficult. Lithuanian forces were dealt a serious defeat near Koknese, Inflanty Voivodeship, in December 1626 and they subsequently retreated behind the Dvina River. The Swedes then planned to strike Koniecpolski from two directions: Oxenstierna, from the Vistula River, and Johann Streiff von Lawentstein and Maxymilian Teuffl, from Swedish-held Pomorze. The flooding of the Vistula, however, disrupted their plans and allowed Koniecpolski to intercept the enemy units advancing from Pomerania.

On 2 April 1627 Koniecpolski managed to recapture Puck. He took Czarne (Hamersztyn) on 18 April and forced the Swedish forces to retreat into the city. A week later they surrendered, with many mercenaries and some Swedish abandoning their banners and insignia, and changing sides. As a result of the series of Swedish defeats in spring 1627, they lost all their strongholds on the west bank of the Vistula, and with those, their hopes for a quick and decisive victory. The situation also convinced the Elector of Brandenburg to declare his support for the Commonwealth, and afterwards the Lithuanian forces resumed their offensive in Livonia.

Grand Crown Hetman: 1630–1637

In 1630, the Cossack leader, Taras Fedorovych, executed the moderate Hryhoriy Chorny, and began a Cossack uprising, later dubbed the "Fedorovych Uprising". Soon afterwards he captured the fortress of Korsun. In an effort to restore the situation, Koniecpolski laid siege to Pereyaslav. Lacking artillery and infantry support, he could not breach its walls, but the Cossacks, needing supplies and having suffered heavy casualties, agreed to negotiate. The Treaty of Pereyaslav, signed in August 1630, granted liberal terms, including amnesty for the rebels. Koniecpolski, as usual, was for harsh punishment, but also argued that in the long run the Cossack situation was better remedied by more equitable treatment, including an increase in the Cossack register and the regular payment of wages. Still, he supported policies aimed at turning the Cossacks into serfs, which was one of the main causes of unrest in Ukraine; this, along with his decision to settle his soldiers' living expenses on the local populace instead of paying them wages, led to his extreme unpopularity in Ukraine.

In 1632, a few months before his death, King Sigismund III Vasa awarded Koniecpolski the post of Grand Crown Hetman. It had stood vacant for 12 years, since the death of Stanisław Żółkiewski; presumably King Sigismund had feared that Koniecpolski, if given the post earlier, would have become too powerful a magnate. After the King's death, Koniecpolski played a major role in directing the political affairs of the Commonwealth and in 1632 supported the election of Sigismund's son, Władysław IV Vasa, as king. In return, a year after his election, King Władysław IV rewarded Koniecpolski with the office of Castellan of Kraków, the most prestigious of the Commonwealth's district offices. Koniecpolski became an influential adviser to the new king, often encouraging him to direct Polish foreign policy against the Tartars. Koniecpolski also supported King Władysław IV's military reforms. Though generally seen as a supporter of the King, Koniecpolski opposed some of his plans aimed at increasing royal power in the Commonwealth and weakening the Golden Liberty of the nobility.

In 1633 Koniecpolski thwarted the Turks' attacks on the Commonwealth, defeating their forces on 4 July at Sasowy Róg. On 22 October that year, he repulsed a superior invading Ottoman force of over 20,000 at Kamianets-Podilskyi, his own forces numbering 11,000. The Ottoman defeats and Koniecpolski's attitude persuaded the Turks to sign a new treaty on 19 August 1634. The treaty repeated the terms of the Treaty of Chocim of 1621 and ended the Ottoman–Commonwealth War (1633–34).

Last years: 1637–1645

After 1637 Koniecpolski's declining health made him reliant on the younger Hetman Mikołaj Potocki, who successfully crushed Cossack uprisings in 1637 and 1638, and a Tartar uprising in 1639. Koniecpolski's influence also protected the outlaw Samuel Łaszcz, whom he saw as another able commander.

One of Koniecpolski's greatest victories occurred during a winter 1644 campaign against Tatars. With a large army of some 19,000 soldiers (60% of them, magnates' private armies; Koniecpolski's own forces numbered 2,200) he dealt a crushing defeat to Toğay bey's forces near Ochmatów on 30 January 1644. Many Tatars drowned near Sina Woda when the ice over the water gave way. The Battle of Ochmatów, the Commonwealth's greatest victory over the Tatars in the first half of the 17th century, brought international fame to Koniecpolski, who had not only predicted the time and place of their attack but had destroyed their forces before they could deploy their usual tactic of splitting their main forces into multiple highly-mobile units (czambuls).

The victory led King Władysław IV to consider an offensive war against the Turks. Koniecpolski supported a limited war against the Crimean Khanate but opposed the King's plan to wage war on the entire Ottoman Empire, believing it to be an unrealistic folly. Setting out his strategic views in a plan titled "Dyskurs o zniesieniu Tatarow krymskich i lidze z Moskwą" (Discourse on Destruction of the Crimean Tartars and on coalition with Moscow), Koniecpolski also strongly urged a coalition with Moscow for such a campaign. King Władysław IV continued to push for a crusade against Turkey, but it had little internal support and failed to achieve anything except to spread false hopes among the Cossacks, to whom he promised privileges and money in exchange for their participation.

On 15 June 1645, Koniecpolski's wife, Krystyna, died. Koniecpolski remarried soon after, taking the hand of 16-year-old Zofia Opalińska, daughter of future Crown Marshal Łukasz Opaliński, on 16 January 1646. The marriage was short lived, though, ending with Koniecpolski's death in Brody on 11 March 1646. Sources suggest that his new marriage was the cause of his death; Joachim Jerlicz wrote in his diary that Koniecpolski had overdosed on an aphrodisiac. His funeral was held in Brody on 30 April 1646.

Wealth and influence

Over the course of his life, Koniecpolski accumulated much wealth. Most of his possessions were in Ukraine, and he became Ukraine's unofficial ruler; some foreigners referred to him as "viceroy of Ukraine", though no such Commonwealth position ever existed. King Władysław IV trusted him with most political decisions concerning this southeastern region of the Commonwealth. With the knowledge and support of the King, Koniecpolski sent and received diplomatic missions from Constantinople, carried out negotiations and signed treaties, and as the Grand Crown Hetman he directly controlled a substantial part of the Commonwealth's military. He had his own private army and an espionage network that stretched from Moscow to the Ottoman Empire.

Koniecpolski inherited some seven or eight villages from his father. At his death, he owned 12 starostwo districts, with over 300 settlements, including dozens of towns, giving him yearly revenues of over 500,000 złoty. His holdings of land and serfs in western Ukraine were considerable; he owned 18,548 households in Bratslav. Koniecpolski invested much of his wealth in developing his Ukrainian estates, and supported settlement of underpopulated regions. He founded and sponsored the development of many towns and cities, including the town of Brody, which flourished with his investments, and became an important local commercial center. Koniecpolski fortified the town with a citadel and bastions in 1633 and set up workshops for producing Persian-type samite fabrics, carpets and rugs. He also constructed a fortified palace in Pidhirtsi (Podhorce) with beautiful Italian gardens. Like most magnates, Koniecpolski was a patron of the arts, sponsoring painters, sculptors, writers. He also founded many churches and sought to upgrade Brody's school to an academy. He sponsored the construction of the Koniecpolski Palace (now the Presidential Palace) in Warsaw, and military fortifications in Bar and Kudak.

Regarded as a courteous and educated man, Koniecpolski participated in all the Sejm sessions that he could, though he rarely spoke publicly due to his stutter. He was widely respected and highly popular among his szlachta peers.