Johann Pleitner (ok. 1604–1664). Inżynier wojskowy i żołnierz w służbie króla Władysława IV. Część druga: 1634–1648.
Johann Pleitner (ca. 1604–1664).Military engineer and solider in the employ of King Władysław IV. Part two: 1634–1648.

Summary/Abstract: In the autumn of 1634, Johann Pleitner was busy with the map of the Puck Bay area with the Hel Peninsula. On its basis, King Wladyslaw IV Vasa chose a place for the new fortified royal navy port Vladislausburg in the middle of the peninsula and fort Casimirschanz at its base, to prepare for a possible war with Sweden. These were built in 1635 according to Pleitner’s design and under his supervision. In 1634, along with the military engineer Friedrich Getkant and Colonel Eliasz Arciszewski, Pleitner was involved in upgrading fortifications of the towns in Royal Prussia (Pomerania). In the following year, he collaborated with engraver Wilhelm Hondius in Gdansk, providing him with sketches, maps and information for the first edition of his big copperplate Smolensk Delineation. Until 1646, he was an officer for special tasks and military engineering and also captain of the Royal Foot Guard (first Body Company). In 1638, was sent to the Hague foundry to learn the art of casting artillery pieces. Next year he fortified a couple of small strongholds along the left bank of the River Dnepr in Ukraine, with the southernmost fortress of Kudak that had to withhold Cossacks’ incursions into the Black Sea settlements of the Ottoman Empire. In 1646, in the rank of lieutenant colonel, he took part in the welcome to Gdańsk of Royal Princess Marie Louise Gonzaga, the bride of King Wladyslaw IV, and escorted her to Warsaw. During his stay in Gdansk, he married the Dutch Eva van Bancken, a daughter of the king’s agent in the city. Nominated a colonel of the dragons, he recruited soldiers in connection with the king’s plans to fight the Ottoman Empire. After the Sejm frustrated the king’s plans, he started to recruit German infantrymen to Polish auxiliary troops for France. In 1647 he landed with his regiment in France and took part in the Franco-Spanish War in Flanders. He transferred to the French army in the rank of a colonel of a dragoon regiment and was an informant of Cardinal Mazarin in Marshal de Turenne’s army.

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