Prince Jeremi Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, nicknamed Hammer on the Cossacks (), was a notable member of the aristocracy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prince of Vyshnivets, Lubny and Khorol in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the father of the future King of Poland, Michael I.

A notable magnate and military commander with Ruthenian and Moldavian origin, Wiśniowiecki was heir of one of the biggest fortunes of the state and rose to several notable dignities, including the position of voivode of the Ruthenian Voivodship (today Poland and Ukraine) in 1646. His conversion from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism caused much dissent in Ruthenian lands (part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Wiśniowiecki was a successful military leader as well as one of the wealthiest magnates of Poland, ruling over lands inhabited by 230,000 people.

A charismatic leader and skilled military commander, Wiśniowiecki became famous for his decisive and frequently cruel actions during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, in the course of which he achieved several victories against rebellious Zaporozhian Cossacks and engaged in a campaign of terror against their perceived supporters around Ukraine. He died during one of anti-Cossack campaigns in 1651. His son Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki would later become King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Biography

Youth

Jeremi Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki was born in 1612; neither the exact date nor the place of his birth are known. died soon after Jeremi's birth, in 1616.

Khmelnytsky uprising

Wiśniowiecki fought against the Cossacks again during the Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648–51. A the point of the revolt's explosion he was staying in Lubny, He continued to Mazyr, Zhytomir, and Pohrebyshche, stopping briefly in Zhytomir for the local sejmik. During Wiśniowiecki's march of terror, people suspected of sympathy to Cossack insurgents would be put on stakes, hanged, beheaded, blinded and had their arms cut off. After some skirmishes near Nemyriv, Makhnivka and Starokostiantyniv (Battle of Starokostiantyniv) against the Cossack forces, In the end, the cities were not captured by the Cossacks, who in the light of the coming winter decided to retreat, after being paid a ransom by both town councils; no other large field battle took place that year. Later that year, on 14 August, Wiśniowiecki suddenly fell ill while in a camp near the village of Pawołocz, and died on 20 August 1651, at the age of only 39. He was given a "ceremonial funeral with the entire army present. On 22 August Wiśniowiecki's body was seen off with the utmost pomp on its journey to his residence". showed that the body belonged to another person, who was taller and died at a more advanced age than Wiśniowiecki. No traces of the autopsy performed in the 17th century were found; however, it is likely that this person lived in the same historical period and their corpse was kept on display in the monastery as Wiśniowiecki.

Wealth

thumb|Magnate possessions in the Commonwealth before the Khmelnytsky Uprising; the lands owned by Wiśniowiecki family and their close relatives are shown in red

The majority of the Wiśniowiecki family estates were found on the eastern side of the Dnieper River (Volhynian, Ruthenian and Kyiv Voivodships), and most of them were acquired by Jeremi's grandfather, Aleksander Wiśniowiecki, in the 16th century.

Sources

  • Page dedicated to Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, in Polish