Hetman
Videos
Hetman is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders. First used by the Czechs in Bohemia in the 15th century, it was the title of the second-highe
Hetman Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł
Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz wearing a traditional costume of Polish magnates
Janusz Radziwiłł, one of the most powerful people in the Commonwealth at the time
Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Zinoviy Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Videos
Zynoviy Bohdan Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky of the Abdank coat of arms was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Zaporozhian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the s
Hetman
…dismiss their army commanders at any time. In 1648 the Zaporizhian Host (then a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth subject) elected a hetman of its own, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, igniting the Ukrainian struggle for independence. The military reform of 1776 curtailed the powers of the hetmans. The Hetman office was abolished…
Khmelnytsky holding a bulava, c. 1651
Portrait of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (c. 1650) in the District Museum in Tarnów. Khmelnytsky obtained ready-made garments from the East. According to a 1651 message, Sultan Mehmed IV sent to him "a samite caftan, one of his honorable royal caftans."
Bohdan Khmelnytsky (left) with Tugay Bey (right) at Lviv, oil on canvas by Jan Matejko, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw
Meeting of Khmelnytsky with the Polish envoy, 1648 (unknown author, 17th century)