to the recollections of the French diplomat Jean Baluze, “with excellent knowledge of this language he could compete with our best Jesuit fathers”) and spoke Italian and German. Pylyp Orlyk testified that Mazepa knew the Tatar language very well, as many Cossack foremen did at that time. As a page, Mazepa was sent to study "gunnery" in Deventer (Dutch Republic) in 1656–1659, during which time he traveled across Western Europe. From 1659 he served at the court of the Polish king, John II Casimir Vasa (reigned 1648–1668) on numerous diplomatic missions to Ukraine. His service at the Polish royal court earned him a reputation as an alleged catholicized "Lyakh" – later the Russian Imperial government would effectively use this slur to discredit Mazepa. During this time there arose the legend of his affair with Madam Falbowska that inspired a number of European Romantics, such Franz Liszt, Victor Hugo, and many others. In 1663 Mazepa returned home when his father fell ill. After the death of his father (ca. 1665), he inherited the title of the Chernihiv cupbearer. From 1669 to 1673 Mazepa served under Petro Doroshenko (Hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine from 1665 to 1672) as a squadron commander in the Hetman Guard, particularly during Doroshenko's 1672 campaign in Halychyna, and as a chancellor on diplomatic missions to Poland, Crimea, and the Ottoman Empire. From 1674 to 1681 Mazepa served as a "courtier" of Doroshenko's rival Hetman Ivan Samoylovych after Mazepa was captured on the way to Crimea by the Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko in 1674. From 1677 to 1678 Mazepa participated in the Chyhyryn campaigns during which Yuri Khmelnytsky, with the support from the Ottoman Empire, tried to regain power in Ukraine. The young, educated Mazepa quickly rose through the Cossack ranks, and from 1682 to 1686 he served as an Aide-de-Camp General (Heneralny Osaul). Hetman In 1687 Ivan Mazepa accused Samoylovych of conspiring to secede from Russia, secured his ouster, and was elected the Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine in Kolomak, with the support of Vasily Galitzine. At the same time Ivan Mazepa signed the Kolomak Articles, which were based on the Hlukhiv Articles of Demian Mnohohrishny. Gradually, Mazepa accumulated great wealth, becoming one of Europe's largest land owners. A multitude of churches were built all over Ukraine during his reign in the Ukrainian Baroque style. He founded schools and printing houses, and expanded the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the primary educational