"I am Mr. Kowalski, and this is Mrs. Kowalska" - said the sympathetic hero of Sienkiewicz's "Deluge", beating his saber. Two historians managed to prove that he was not a fictional character and indeed died a heroic death in the attack on the Swedish king.
The three-day battle of Warsaw, fought between 28 and 30 July 1656, ended in defeat for the Polish army. However, it was close to being a spectacular success. On the second day of the fighting, a powerful charge of the hussars threatened the Swedish king Charles X Gustav himself. One of the hussars was to attack the ruler directly, throw him even from his horse, but die in battle.
This episode, known from many sources, was included in his monumental "Deluge" by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The nice Roch Kowalski, whose uncle becomes Zagłoba, also dies near Warsaw during the attack on Karol Gustaw. What's more, he is killed by the novel's arch-villain, Bogusław Radziwiłł. This fact was also taken over by Sienkiewicz from sources, some of them indicate the prince as the one who saved the life of the Swedish king.
... and Krzysztof Kowalewski as "Mr. Kowalski" in Jerzy Hoffman's Deluge.
Would-be Kingslayer
So what's the problem? In Polish sources, the heroic hussar bore as many as four different names:Kowalewski (or Kowalowski), as well as Odachowski, Dąbrowski and Lipski. Moreover, even the very fact of the attack of a Pole on the Swedish king was questioned, because the official historian of the Swedish court claimed that Charles Gustav was not threatened by the hussars, but ... the Tatars allied with Poles.
Finally, Zbigniew Hundert and Andrzej A. Majewski finally explained the matter. They found a document that seems to settle the doubts. In 1672, the Warsaw council commemorated the death of two noblemen who fell in the attack on the Swedish king:Kowalewski and Lipski in its resolution of April 27.
The news is based on an article from Przegląd Historyczny.
Therefore, we obtained confirmation in the official legal act that Karol Gustaw was close to death at the hands of Poland. We also know that at least two hussars raised their hand on him:Kowalewski (hence Roch Kowalski at Sienkiewicz) and Lipski, also known from other sources. It is possible that there were more of them:the Warsaw nobility could only remember the inhabitants of their own land.
Since there were at least two charging at the king, he could have several defenders as well. These could include both Bogusław Radziwiłł, mentioned in Polish sources, and Bengt Trafvare, the guardsman indicated in Swedish reports. While reading the pages of "The Deluge" about Roch Kowalski, it is worth mentioning the heroic hussar Kowalewski and his companions.
The source of the above news is:
Zbigniew Hundert, Andrzej A. Majewski, About two Rocha Kowalskie (the most famous episode of the Battle of Warsaw in 1656 in the light of a new source , "Przegląd Historyczny", vol. 105 (2014), issue 2, pp. 283-286.
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