Hrehory Chodkiewicz

Hrehory Chodkiewicz (Lithuanian: Grigalius Chodkevičius, Ukrainian: Григорій Олександрович Ходкевич, romanized: Hryhorii Oleksandrovych Khodkevych; c. 1514 – 9 November 1572) was a Ruthenian noble and military officer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

[1] However, Lithuania historian Genutė Kirkienė noted that in such a case Chodkiewicz began his political career in his mid-forties, when most nobles started in late twenties or early thirties.

Chodkiewicz family slowly regained royal favor after Barbara's death in 1551 and when other Radziwiłłs opposed the proposed Union of Lublin in 1562.

[9] In 1561, Grand Hetman Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł, Chodkiewicz, and his brother Hieronim led the Lithuanian army into Livonia where they achieved victory against the Tsardom of Russia.

[13] He also built and strengthened a number of border posts and conducted the military census of 1568 to determine how many troops each noble had to provide for the army.

Kirkienė found hints that Chodkiewicz was not strictly Orthodox and supported church union—eastern liturgy under the Pope in Rome.

[14] In 1566, Chodkiewicz sponsored Pyotr Mstislavets and Ivan Fyodorov, book printers who defected from Russia, and opened a printing press in Zabłudów.