Hetman
The rank of the hetman is derived from the old Middle German term for the captain . The word Het means head in direct translation. The Hetman was the second highest commander to the king (similar to a Field Marshal and Reich Marshal in the Holy Roman Empire ) between the 15th and 18th centuries in Poland and Lithuania , also designated Cossacks their commanders initially also as Hetman.
Poland-Lithuania
In 1581 Jan Zamoyski was appointed the first Grand Hetman to the Polish Crown. He was supported by his deputy, the field hetman of the Polish crown. Zamoyski was the first hetman to hold supreme command over the entire Polish army . The Grand Hetman was appointed directly by the king and had unrestricted power over the troops. Only when the king stayed with the army did he have to give up command. From 1581 the soldiers of the crown swore allegiance to the Grand Hetman, no longer directly to the king. The Grand Hetman owned all prisoners and extorted ransoms. But he was forbidden to intervene in popular deliberations and to attend the election of a king.
This type of subdivision existed in both Poland and Lithuania from 1581. In 1792 the hetman degrees were revoked by the Polish Sejm .
There was a grand hetman who stayed at the king's court in peacetime and took care of the administration and matters of the military
- in Poland: Grand Hetman of the (Polish) Crown ( Polish hetman wielki koronny )
- in Lithuania: Grand Hetman of Lithuania (Polish hetman wielki litewski )
and his deputy, the field hetman , who had to defend the country's borders with small, mobile units against incursions , including the Tatars .
- in Poland: field hetman of the (Polish) crown (Polish hetman polny koronny )
- in Lithuania: Feldhetman von Lithuania (Polish hetman polny litewski )
Cossacks
Among the Zaporozhian Cossacks in Ukraine , the Grand Hetman was called Colonel Otaman . His deputy was the hetman. Among the Don Cossacks in Tsarist Russia , the commander-in-chief was called Ataman .
A Cossack hetman was appointed for the first time in 1576 by the Polish King Stephan Báthory . This should better organize the Cossack soldiers and form a standing army. As a token of his dignity, he was given a command baton, a seal and a flag for the Cossack army. After Russia subjugated the Cossacks in 1654, a hetman continued to be appointed. From then on, this was directly subordinate to the Tsar. After the hetman Iwan Masepa on the side of the Swedish King Karl XII in 1708 . changed and was defeated in the following year by the army of Tsar Peter I , this severely curtailed the powers of the hetman. The position remained vacant until 1750. Kirill Grigoryevich Rasumovsky was the last hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks from 1750 to 1764. The Russian Empress Catherine II abolished the Ukrainian military command in 1764 and set up a government with eight ministers.
See also
literature
- Razumovsky . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 16, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, pp. 612–613 .
- General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes. Ninth original edition, Volume 7, FA Brockhaus-Verlag (Leipzig 1845)