Jerzy Wisniewski was a Polish mercenary who roamed Eastern Europe during The Deluge of the 1650s.
Biography[]
Born in the eastern borderlands of Poland-Lithuania to a family of Catholic Poles, Jerzy Wisniewski claimed descent from the szlachta nobility. However, he grew up in poverty and trained as a warrior, embarking on a career of freebooting in 1655. At that time, Poland-Lithuania, Sweden, the Tsardom of Russia, the Crimean Khanate, and the Cossack Hetmanate were locked in a series of wars with each other, and bandits and deserters roamed the "bloodlands" of Eastern Europe in search of fortune. Wisniewski emerged as a mercenary leader, recruiting villagers from the frontiers of Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine and selling their services to warlords, primarily from Poland-Lithuania. In May 1655, Cornet Siegmund Slushka hired Wisniewski to lead a company of mercenaries for an upcoming campaign, and Wisniewski would proceed to lead his mercenary army in a series of battles against the Swedes, Russians, and Cossacks, starting with the Battle of Molodechno on 6 May and continuing with the lifting of the Russo-Swedish siege of Vilna. Wisniewski would renew his service to the Polish crown even after his month-long enlistment expired, and he led his growing company of mercenaries into several major battles, helping the Poles turn the tide of the war against the Swedes. Wisniewski himself wounded King Charles X Gustav of Sweden at the Battle of Kretivtsi on 12 June 1655, and he later captured Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge in battle.
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