Jan Karol Chodkiewicz

Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz
Painting by Bacciarelli
Coat of arms	Chodkiewicz coat of arms
Spouse(s)	Zofia Mielecka Anna Alojza Ostrogska
Issue Hieronim Chodkiewicz Anna Scholastyka Chodkiewicz
Noble family	Chodkiewicz
Father	Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz
Mother	Krystyna Zborowska
Born	c. 1560
Died	24 September 1621 (aged 60–61) Chocim, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (c. 1560 – 24 September 1621; Belarusian: Ян Караль Хадкевіч, Jan Karal Chadkievič, Lithuanian: Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius) was a military commander of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army who was from 1601 Field Hetman of Lithuania, and from 1605 Grand Hetman of Lithuania, and was one of the most prominent noblemen and military commanders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of his era. His coat of arms was Chodkiewicz, as was his family name.

He played a major role, often as the top commander of the Commonwealth forces, in the Wallachian campaign of 1599–1600, the Polish–Swedish War of 1600–11, the Polish–Muscovite War of 1605–18, and the Polish–Ottoman War of 1620–21. His most famous victory was the Battle of Kircholm in 1605, in which he dealt a major defeat to a Swedish army three times the size of his own. He died on the front lines during the battle of Chocim, in the besieged Khotyn Fortress, a few days before the Ottomans gave up on the siege and agreed to negotiate.

Chodkiewicz was born around 1560 (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 Zborowscy. 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.