Ivan Chodkiewicz

Ivan Chodkiewicz; (c. 1420 – 1484) was a noble from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was a son of Chodko Jurewicz and ancestor of the Chodkiewicz family. Ivan married Jawnuta (Agnieszka) Belska, first cousin of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The marriage into the royal line helped him to obtain positions of starosta of Lutsk (1473) and voivode of Kiev (1480). During a Tatar invasion in 1482, Ivan and his family were taken hostage. Ivan died in captivity while his wife, daughter Agrafena, and son Aleksander Chodkiewicz were ransomed and continued the family line.

Traditionally, historiography states that Ivan Chodkiewicz first appears in written sources in 1453 when his was a member of a Lithuanian delegation sent to Polish sejm in Parczew. However, this note is based on an unreliable account by Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz. According to Lithuanian historian Genutė Kirkienė, the first reliable mention of Ivan was on 6 June 1459 when he witnessed a treaty. At the time he was starosta of Minsk. He reappeared as a military commander in 1466 during the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66) between Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Knights. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania declared neutrality and officially did not participate in the war. In 1466, the Knights defended themselves in Chojnice (Konitz) and the siege by Polish troops, commanded by Piotr Dunin, stalled. Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Casimir IV Jagiellon sent reinforcements of 500 Lithuanian and 300 Tatar soldiers, who were commanded by Ivan Chodkiewicz. The Polish–Lithuanian forces succeeded in burning and capturing the city on September 28, 1466.

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