Stanislaw Rewera Potocki (1589-1667) was a Polish magnate and the most trusted advisor of King Jan II Casimir.
Biography[]
Stanislaw Potocki was born to a Calvinist family in Podhajce, Poland-Lithuania (Pidhaitsi, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine) in 1589. He converted to Catholicism under the influence of the Jesuits and his first wife, and he served under King Sigismund III Vasa at the 1607 Battle of Guzow, the Siege of Smolensk in 1611, the 1620 Battle of Cecora, the Battle of Khotyn in 1621, the Battle of Gorzno in 1629, and against the Pavliuk uprising of 1637-1638. Potocki became voivode of Bratslav Voivodeship in 1621, of Podolia Voivodeship in 1636, of Kiev Voivodeship from 1655, and Voivode of Krakow Voivodeship from 1658, and he also served as Field Crown Hetman in 1652 and Grand Crown Hetman in 1654.Potocki helped elect King Wladyslaw IV Vasa in 1632 and Jan II Casimir in 1648. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, he saved the King's life near Zborow, and he commanded Poland's armies against the Russians and Cossacks, winning the Battle of Okhmativ in 1655. He was later forced to surrender to the invading King Charles X Gustav of Sweden amid the Deluge, but he joined the anti-Swedish Tyszowce confederation and led a division at the Battle of Warsaw in 1656 and in the campaign against George II Rakoczi in 1657. In 1660, he scored a major victory over the Russians, but Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski defeated him at Czestochowa in 1665. After a military career spanning 46 battles, he died in 1667. His son Andrzej Potocki would go on to found the city of Stanislawow (Ivano-Frankivsk) in his honor in 1662.