I Will Never Misspell Andrzej Again

Ok, I know you have all been on the edge of your seats ALL WEEK for another post full of Poles. But how about some Lithuanians today? I mean, they are part of the Commonwealth, too, you know!

Prince Boguslav Nesvizhsky

I have no idea what he is prince of. He seems to only exist in the game. I thought maybe he was supposed be Prince Boguslav Radzivill of Lithuania, Janusz’ cousin. I mean, it’s kind of strange to just have a made-up prince surrounded by all of this reality, isn’t it? Then again, he definitely does NOT look anything like Bo Radziwill so … I must be wrong.

Hetman Pavel Sapega

According to the M&B wiki, he is based on Pawel Jan Sapieha. He was Great Hetman of Lithuania after Janusz Radziwill. Oh look, Kiszka was before Radziwill. Too bad I don’t have a shot of him yet, he would have fit into this post very well.

As long as we’re in Lithuania, though, we have to talk about Andrzej Kmicic.

No, he’s not real. But he IS the hero of the second book in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s trilogy, The Deluge (Potop in Polish). I was going to say he’s the Jan Skrzetuski of the second book but, well … first of all, Jan is IN the book, and second of all … his character is not at all like Jan. Well, that’s not quite true, either. He does have Jan’s knightly characteristics, but he also has Bogun’s .. he’s like Jan and Bogun all rolled into one. So he’s got this pure, honorable side … but he’s also got a side that is completely roguish, with a hot temper to go with it. Not to say that Bogun was a complete rogue, because he had his own honorable thoughts and deeds. But you get the idea.

So anyway, in a nutshell, Kmicic is on the side of Radziwill at first when he allies Lithuania with Sweden, because Janusz convinces him that he is doing what is best for the Commonwealth. Kmicic eventually realizes that this is untrue, and he must find a way to both help Poland and restore his name and honor.

I’m only halfway through the book though so don’t tell me what happens! :p

More Poles

Yeah, I still haven’t had any luck getting shots of the rest of the Cossacks. But I spent some time on my Polish subject yesterday and he got to participate in a huge battle between a large number of Poles and one of the Swedish armies that spawn as part of The Deluge questline. So I got enough shots for a couple of days’ worth of posts.

The first shot I got is Jerzy Halecki, who is one of my favorites.

It was very foggy, so that’s why everything is a bit yellow.

Like Gritsenko, Halecki seems to be one that was just made up for the game.

Next we have Fyodor Obukhovich.

He’s probably the first lord you actually meet in the game if you follow Clermont’s advice and do the quests that the town elder gives you in Zamoshye. He also only exists within the game.

That is Jan Skrzetuski behind him, but from the other side his face was all bloody and I didn’t like the shot I got of him, so I’m going to try to get a better one because he is important.

I suppose this next guy is important too though. I mean, he *is* the King; Jan II Kazimierz Waza:

He was elected in 1648, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Yes, I said elected. Did you know that the Polish Commonwealth had elected kings rather than an absolute monarchy? I thought that was pretty interesting. The king’s power was held in check by a parliament (the Sejm) and a senate. His brother Wladyslaw was king before him, so being an elected position doesn’t necessarily mean that it strays far from ‘royal’ bloodlines. But it can. His family had also held the Swedish throne until his father was deposed by his father’s uncle in 1599, leading to a long feud and many wars between Sweden and Poland, including this Deluge in 1655.