Andrzej Karol Grudziński

A Greater Poland voivode

Andrzej Karol Grudziński (1611–1678) was a leading Greater Poland official: voivode of Kalisz from 1653 and, after the war, voivode of Poznań. In 1651 he was already organizing a noble levy, attending to camp rules and discipline. His family held Kórnik. A surviving collection of his papers from 1653–1676 points to a public career that cannot be reduced to one signature in 1655.¹²³

Ujście and changed allegiance

In July 1655 he co-commanded Greater Poland's noble levy against Arvid Wittenberg. His redoubt endured five hours of Swedish fire before he left it that evening. The next day he signed the capitulation with Krzysztof Opaliński, placing two voivodeships under Swedish protection. The decision has been harshly judged, but the immediate situation was grave: enemy troops were turning the Polish position and threatened to cut it off.⁴

He did not remain with Sweden. In 1656 he returned to John Casimir's side. At Lubrze in Greater Poland he led a night attack on Swedish-Brandenburg troops under Jan Wejhard Wrzesowicz. Reports differ on numbers and losses; the change of allegiance and the local victory are clear.⁵

After the war, novel and film

He became voivode of Poznań in 1661. Kórnik's later history records his sale of the castle to the Działyński family in 1676. In the novel and film, Ujście represents the first shock of the invasion, but Grudziński's life resists a simple division into permanent “traitors” and “heroes”. We found no separate part for him in Hoffman's film cast.²⁶