Early life Chodkiewicz was born around 1561 (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
Zborowski. 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 14 April 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 Grand Ducal Lithuanian 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 the
Battle of Weissenstein on 23 September 1604. His crowning achievement was the great victory near the
Daugava in the
Battle of Kircholm (modern
Salaspils) on 27 September 1605, when, with barely 4,000 troops, mostly the
Winged hussar heavy cavalry, 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 Catholic royalty, and even the
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the
Shah of Persia. Soon afterward, he was rewarded with the rank of Lithuanian Grand 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 king
Sigismund III Vasa, and helped him to defeat the
Zebrzydowski rebellion in 1606–1607. He commanded the Crown Army's right wing 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 Sigismund III, 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 Commonwealth. Chodkiewicz was tasked by the king with an advance on Moscow. However, the Sejm neglected to pay for the maintenance of the armies once more, resulting in the mutiny of some units. Chodkiewicz fought several inconclusive battles against the Muscovites in autumn 1611 and then, after the
Battle of Moscow (1612), retreated. Disappointed with the 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 1613–15, 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 Chodkiewicz's experienced command, took the
Dorogobuzh fortress on 11 October 1617. The siege of
Mozhaysk in December of subsequent year proved unsuccessful, and this marked the end of the conflict. The Polish-Muscovite War had no sooner been ended by the
Truce 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 Żółkiewski. 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
Cossack detachment 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 Khotyn Chodkiewicz resisted the sultan's 200-thousand army for a whole month,. but the victory cost 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 campaign's opening, died in the fortress on 24 September 1621. Chodkiewicz'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
Ostroh in June that year. In 1627 he was moved to a new chapel in Ostroh, where he reburied again. His body was evacuated from Ostroh during the
Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648, and returned there in 1654. It was reburied yet again in a new tomb in Ostroh in 1722. ==Assessment and remembrance==