Jan Chryzostom Pasek of Gosławice (c.1636–1701) was a Polish nobleman and writer during the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He is best remembered for his memoirs (Pamiętniki), which are a valuable historical source about Baroque sarmatian culture and events in the Commonwealth. Biography Pasek was born in Węgrzynowice (now in Tomaszów Mazowiecki County) in 1636, to Marian Władysław Pasek and Jadwiga Pasek (née Piekarska) a petty noble family. Jan was their only child and a very much beloved son. Pasek attended a Jesuit school at Rawa. He later enlisted in the army at age 19 and for 11 years he was a soldier in the Polish military, where he initially fought in the campaigns under Hetman Stefan Czarniecki, for whom he had great respect, against the Swedish Empire during the Swedish invasion of Poland (potop szwedzki) and the 1657 Hungarian invasion of Southern Poland led by George Rákóczi who had allied with the Swedish forces. In 1658 his division under Czarniecki was sent to aid the defence of Denmark where he took part in the capture of Als and the storming of Koldinghus castle. During his time in Denmark he nearly married a lady known as Eleanor of Croes Dyvarne, but instead decided to return to Poland with the rest of the army in 1659, a decision that was to personally trouble him for the rest of his life. Czarniecki's army returned to Poland and began to engage Moscovite units who had been invading from the East during 1660. Pasek took part in the Battle of Polonka in June and the Battle of Basya in October 1660. He refused to take part in the Confederacy that formed in over a lack of army pay 1661 and detested that the army would take such action just as the tide of the war against Muscovy was turning. Instead he left camp to return to his home near Łódź, before setting off to rejoin the army of Hetman Czarniecki near . Along the way he was involved in a mix-up between loyalist and confederate forces, arrested as a suspected confederate envoy and brought to the Royal Court at Grodno. After successfully arguing his innocence and loyalty to the King, the case against him was overturned by King John II Casimir and he was given letters to take to Czarniecki. After this he was tasked with escorting Muscovite envoys to the 1662 Diet at