Krzysztof Arciszewski (9 December 1592 in Rogalin – 7 April 1656 near

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

(Danzig),

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) was a Polish nobleman,

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

, and

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

. Arciszewski also served as a

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during si ...

for the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

. He was brought up in a family of devout members of the

Polish Brethren The Polish Brethren (Polish: ''Bracia Polscy'') were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called " Arians" or " Socinians" ( ...

Church - his father was a pastor, and his cousin was the celebrated theologian

Jonasz Szlichtyng Jonasz Szlichtyng (German: Jonas Schlichting) (1592 in Bukowiec, Lubusz Voivodeship – 1661 in Sulechów) was a Polish nobleman, theologian of the Socinian Polish Brethren and father of Krzysztof Szlichtyng. He studied in Germany, from where he ...

. As a young man he served under Krzysztof Radziwiłł. After murdering Kacper Jaruzel Brzeźnicki, he was condemned to infamy and exile, and left Poland in 1623. He went to the Netherlands where he settled in

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. There he converted to

Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...

. Thanks to support of Krzysztof Radziwiłł he was able to study artillery, military engineering and navigation at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city o ...

. In 1637 he became a vice-governor of

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americ ...

and head chief of Dutch military forces in that country. In 1646 he returned to Poland, where he became General of the Artillery.

Sources

* ''Krzysztof Arciszewski'' in :pl:Tygodnik Ilustrowany 1859-10-03, pp. 17–1
p. 17

* ''Arciszewski, Krzysztof'' in :pl:S. Orgelbranda Encyklopedia Powszechna (1898)br>v. 1, pp. 415-416
1592 births 1656 deaths People from Poznań County Polish engineers 16th-century Polish nobility Polish Calvinist and Reformed Christians Polish generals in other armies Generals of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth People of Dutch Brazil Royal Netherlands Army personnel Leiden University alumni 17th-century Polish nobility 17th-century Polish military personnel {{Poland-noble-stub

See also

Sources