Mazeppa

Mazeppa, a Cossack hetman or prince, was born in Podolia about 1640. He entered the service of a Polish lord, who, suspecting him of an intrigue with his wife, had him bound to the back of a wild horse. The animal carried him into the Ukraine, where he was released by some peasants, settled amongst them, and rose in 1687 to he hetman. Peter the Great conferred on him the title of Prince, but he betrayed his benefactor, and fought against him under Charles XII. of Sweden. When the latter was defeated at Pultawa, Mazeppa fled, and died at Bender in 1709. He owes his fame chiefly to the well-known poem in which Byron describes his involuntary and perhaps apocryphal ride.