He held high posts in the administration of the Commonwealth, including those of Castellan of Lwów (from 1590), Governor of Kiev Province, and Great Chancellor of the Crown (from 1618).

Żółkiewski's best-known victory was against combined Russian and Swedish forces at the 1610 battle of Klushino, in whose wake the Poles seized and occupied Moscow.

[2] Żółkiewski gained his first military experience under King Stefan Batory during the Danzig rebellion in which he commanded a rota of Polish hussars.

[2] He subsequently participated in Batory's Livonian campaign, fighting at Polotsk, Rossony (Sokół), Velizh and at the Siege of Pskov.

Żółkiewski commanded the right flank of Commonwealth forces in the battle of Byczyna, during which he received a knee wound that lamed him for the remainder of his life.

But Nalivaiko was subsequently executed in Warsaw,[5][7] and a mob of Polish soldiers massacred the other prisoners, which led to a deterioration in Polish-Cossack relations.

Unimpressed with Żółkiewski's performance, the king did not give him the Grand Crown Hetmanship that he coveted, although he was appointed to the office of the voivode of Kiev.

[10] During the De la Gardie Campaign in 1610 he achieved another significant victory against combined Russian and Swedish forces at the battle of Klushino.

The Początek i progres wojny moskiewskiej (The beginning and Progress of the Muscovite War), published in 1612, is a critique of Sigismund's policies.

[13] He was thus for a brief period the most powerful individual in the Commonwealth after the king, a position he reached not through wealth or family but by military achievement and reputation.

During the last rout Żólkiewski was killed; according to an anecdote he refused to retreat, preferring to stay with the rear guard till the very end.

[13][14][15] Before his death he received the blessing of his confessor, Father Szymon Wybierski (Wybierek) of the Society of Jesus, who stood fearlessly at his side (7 October).

[14][15] Żółkiewski's heroic death – portrayed in several works of art by contemporaries such as Teofil Szemberg [uk] and Stanisław Witkowski – boosted his reputation and guaranteed him a place among the pantheon of the most famous of Polish military commanders.

[14] In the years following his death he was mentioned in the works of writers such as Stefan Żeromski, Józef Szujski, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Maria Konopnicka.

[15] Up to the present day, the story of his death is the best remembered aspect of his life, with a number of sources discussing the "legend of Żółkiewski".

[20] It is inscribed with a motto from Horace: "Quam dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country).