Hetman
Hetman is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders (comparable to a field marshal or imperial marshal in the Holy Roman Empire). Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century, it was the title of the second-highest military commander after the king in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 16th to 18th centuries. Throughout much of the history of Romania and the Moldavia, hetmans were the second-highest army rank. In the modern Czech Republic, the title is used for regional governors.
For other uses, see Hetman (disambiguation).Etymology[edit]
The term hetman was a Polish borrowing, most likely stemming via Czech from the Turkic title ataman (literally 'father of horsemen'),[1][2] however it could also come from the German Hauptmann – captain.[3] Since hetman as a title first appeared in Czechia in the 15th century, assuming it stems from a Turkic language, it is possible it was introduced to Czechs by the Cumans.
The Polish title Grand Crown Hetman (Polish: hetman wielki koronny) dates from 1505. The title of Hetman was given to the leader of the Polish Army. Until 1581 the hetman position existed only during specific campaigns and wars. After that, it became a permanent title, as were all the titles in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At any given time the Commonwealth had four hetmans – a Great Hetman and Field (deputy) Hetman for each of both Poland and Lithuania.
From 1585, the title could not be taken away without a proven charge of treachery, thus most hetmans served for life, as illustrated by the case of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz literally commanding the army from his deathbed (1621). Hetmans were not paid for their job by the royal treasury. Hetmans were the main commanders of the military forces, second only to the monarch in the army's chain of command. The fact that they could not be removed by the monarch made them very independent, and thus often able to pursue independent policies.
This system worked well when a hetman had great ability and the monarch was weak, but sometimes produced disastrous results in the opposite case. The security of the position notably contrasted with that of military leaders in states bordering the commonwealth, where sovereigns could dismiss their army commanders at any time. In 1648 the Zaporizhian Host (the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth subject) elected a hetman of their own, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, igniting the Ukrainian struggle for independence.
The military reform of 1776 limited the powers of the hetmans. The Hetman office was abolished after the Third Partition of Poland (1795).
Hetmans of Bohemia, Romania, and Moldavia[edit]
Used by the Czechs in Bohemia from the Hussite Wars (15th century) onward, hejtman is today the term for the elected governor of a Czech region (kraj).
For much of the history of Romania and the Principality of Moldavia, hetmans were second in rank in the army, after the ruling prince, who held the position of voivode.
Hetman has often been used figuratively to mean 'commander' or simply 'leader'. Examples:
Queen (chess piece) is called hetman in Polish and coded as H in the algebraic notation.
