Jan Onufry Zagloba was a Polish-Lithuanian minor nobleman of the 17th century.
Biography[]
Jan Onufry Zagloba was born in Poland-Lithuania to a family of Polish lesser nobles, and he spent his life pursuing adventure, drinking, and entering the company of heroic figures. He claimed that he received a head wound from an Ottoman during one of his adventures, although he created many other stories about how he received his wound. In 1647, he befriended the Lithuanian swordsman Longinus Podbipieta and the Polish hussar lieutenant Mikolaj Skrzetuski at a tavern in Czehryn (Chyhyryn, Ukraine). That same year, he befriended the Cossack Ivan Bohun, but he turned against Bohun after witnessing Bohun massacre his adoptive family for their cancellation of his betrothal to Helena Kurcewiczowna, who was instead promised to Skrzetuski. Zagloba helped Helena escape from her Rozlogi estate, and he became rivals with the cruel Bohun. He later persuaded Jerzy Wołodyjowski to duel Bohun, and Bohun was wounded in the ensuing fight. Zagloba also participated in the 1649 Siege of Zbarazh as a member of Skrzetuski's party, and he nonchalantly threw wine jugs and bombs over the castle walls, accidentally capturing a Tatar banner in the process. Zagloba became a trusted friend of Skrzetuski, and he went on to become a man respected by powerful magnates, giving counsel to kings, and drunkenly calling Janusz Radziwill a traitor on his toast to the good health of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden in 1655. He and Wolodyjowski were arrested by Radziwill for opposing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but Zagloba later deceived Roch Kowalski and escaped with Wolodyjowski. They befriended Andrzej Kmicic despite his initial loyalty to Radziwill, and they later fought alongside him at the Battle of Prostki in 1656.
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