Military and political leader of Poland who won major victories against the Turks, the Tatars and the Swedes.
Appointed field commander of the Polish forces in 1619 he was captured during the Battle of Cecora (Tetora, 1620) by the Turks and held prisoner at Constantinople (now Istanbul) for three years.
On returning to Poland he defeated the Tatars (vassals of the Turks) at Martynow (1624), received the thanks of the Polish Sejm (Diet) and was made palatine of Sandomierz by King Sigismund III.
In 1626 he was trasferred to Prussia where the Poles were engaged in a bitter conflict with the Swedish king Gustavus II Adolphus. Koniecpolski subsequently won a series of victories in 1627 at Puck, at Hamersztyn (Czarne) and at Tczew. But he was also compelled to withdraw from strategic Polish strongholds in Prussia (1628) and despite his victory over Gustavus at Trzciana (June 27, 1629), the Polish-Swedish Truce of Altmark (sept. 25, 1629) acknowledged Sweden as the dominant power on the southern Baltic Sea coast.
Appointed commander in chief of the Polish forces in 1632 he played a major role directing political affairs after the death of Sigismund III Vasa (April 30, 1632) and became an influential adviser of the new king Wladyslaw IV Vasa as well as castellan of Cracow (1633).
Encouraging Wladyslaw to direct Polish foreign policy against the Tatars he repulsed a Tatar invasion (July 1633), held back a large Turko-Tatar force at Kamieniec (October 1633) and soundly defeated the Tatars again at Ochmatow (1644).
Engaged also in subduing mutinous Cossacks in the Ukraine he built the fortress of Kudak (on the site of the later Dnepropetrovsk) in 1635.
During his career Koniecpolski gathered a fortune in lands in the Ukraine; more than 100,000 people lived on his estates. He founded the market town of Brody with a citadel and bastions (1633) and set up workshops producing Persian-type carpets there.
He died on the eve of an expedition against the Turks.
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