Chodko Jurewicz

Chodko Jurewicz (Ukrainian: Ходко Юрійович, Lithuanian: Chodka (Katkus) Jurgaitis; fl.

Chodko was a historical person, but his obscure origin and biography have long been surrounded by legends and disputed by scholars.

According to Polish historian Adam Boniecki, Chodko might be derived from Chodor and could be a broken form of Feodor (Theodore).

[2] However, this likely referred to rivalry between Hrehory's grandfather Ivan Chodkiewicz and Feodor Ivanovich Belski for the Kiev Voivodeship and not to the ancestral possessions of Chodko.

[5] Lithuanian historian Genutė Kirkienė noted that in 1415 a certain Chodconi was sent on a diplomatic mission by Grand Duke Vytautas to Jogaila, King of Poland.

[11] Chodko remained influential in domestic politics and along with voivodes of Trakai and Vilnius distributed veldamai (a class of dependent peasants) to other nobles.

[2] According to Rotundus, Chodko carried a Lithuanian Grand Duke on his shoulders from a battlefield thus savings his lord's life.

1547–1593) in his epic poem On the beginnings, accounts, virtues, marital and domestic affairs of the famed nations of Lithuania, Samogitia, Ruthenia (Polish: O początkach, wywodach, dzielnościach, sprawach rycerskich i domowych sławnego narodu litewskiego, żemojdzkiego i ruskiego).

According to the poem, an envoy from the Golden Horde asked Grand Duke Gediminas (ruled 1316–1341) for a duel with a Lithuanian warrior.

[15] The tale survived in the history books until the end of the 19th century when it was rejected as a legend by critically minded historians.