Jan Piotr Sapieha (Belarusian: Ян Пётр Сапега; Lithuanian: Jonas Petras Sapiega; 1569–1611) was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman (szlachcic), general, politician, diplomat, governor of Uświat county, member of the Parliament and a skilled commander of the Polish troops stationing in the Moscow Kremlin.
Sapieha was a participant in the Polish–Swedish War of 1600–1611; he brought a private regiment of 100 Cossacks and commanded the right wing of the Polish–Lithuanian army during the famous Battle of Kircholm in 1605, consisting of 400 winged hussars and 700 mounted Cossacks. He also participated in the Polish–Russian War of 1609–1618, where he commanded the failed siege of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1608 and later fought anti-Polish Muscovite forces near Moscow, led by Prokopy Lyapunov. He died suddenly on 15 October, during the siege of the Moscow Kremlin.
Known for his ruthlessness towards the Russian peoples, he was nicknamed Pan Hetman, literally meaning Mr General.
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Biography
Jan Piotr was born in 1569 as the son of Anna Chodkiewicz and Paweł Sapieha. He firstly studied at the University of Vilnius (up to 1587) and then at the University of Padua. After returning from abroad he accompanied his father in an expedition against the Tartars and Vlachs. In 1600 he became a member of the parliament from the district of Grodno. Despite an initial refusal to accept the offer of Krzysztof Mikołaj "the Thunderbolt" Radziwiłł, he took part in the Livonian War (1601–1605) and on 5 March 1603, his regiments distinguished themselves in the Battle of Rakibor, under the command of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. He also participated in the victorious Battle of Weissenstein (25 September 1604), where the Polish army besieging the city and crushed the Swedish forces. In recognition for his merits, Sapieha was given the temporary command of the Lithuanian army camp during the absence Chodkiewicz at Dorpat, and in the battle of Kircholm he commanded the whole left side of the Lithuanian army. The regiment commanded by Sapieha miraculously endured one of the main counter-attacks of the Swedish army, led personally by King Charles IX of Sweden. The participation in the Livonian campaign earned him great fame among the Polish nobility – for this, in 1606, Sapieha received a title, the county of Uświat and the parliament, in 1607, awarded him with 10 000 Polish złotys.