Editing Registered Cossacks (section)

=== Origins ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;margin-left:1em;float:right;width:30%;"
|+ '''Seniors of the Registered Cossacks '''
|-
| align="center"|  '''Year'''
| align="center"|  '''Hetman'''
| align="center"| '''Notes'''
|-
| 1572
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Jan Badowski]]<ref name="haidamaka">{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.haidamaka.org.ua/0108.html Реєстрові козаки на державній службі (with reference to Sherbak, V. ''History of Ukrainian Cossacks: outlines in two volumes''. Publishing house "Kiev-Mohyla Academy". Vol.1. Kiev, 2006. p.800)]</ref>
| align="center"|
|-
| 1575
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Bohdan Ruzhynsky]]
| align="center"|
|-
| 1578
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Michał Wiśniowiecki (1529–1584)|Michał Wiśniowiecki]]<ref name="haidamaka"/>
| align="center"|
|-
| 1583
| style="text-align:left;"|
| align="center"|
|-
| 1590
| style="text-align:left;"|
| align="center"|
|-
| 1600
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Havrylo Krutnevych]]<ref name="haidamaka"/>
| align="center"|
|-
| 1603
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Ivan Kuchkovych]]<ref name="haidamaka"/>
| align="center"|
|-
| 1618
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Petro Konashevych]]<ref name="haidamaka"/>
| align="center"|
|-
| 1622
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Olifer Holub]]<ref name="haidamaka"/>
| align="center"| elected by Cossacks
|-
| 1623
| style="text-align:left;"| [[Mykhailo Doroshenko]]<ref name="haidamaka"/>
| align="center"| last hetman, replaced by a commissar
|-
| colspan="4"|<small></small>
|}

In 1524, King [[Sigismund I the Old|Sigismund I]] commissioned Semen Połozowicz and Krzysztof Kmitycz to organize permanent Cossack units to defend the lower [[Dnieper]]; however, the plan was not implemented due to a lack of funds.{{Sfn|Yakovenko|2011|p=186}} The [[starosta]] of [[Cherkasy]], [[Ostap Dashkevych]], revived the idea at the 1533 Polish Sejm in [[Piotrków Trybunalski]]. Dashkevych tried to show that in order to protect the borders beyond the [[Dnieper]] River it would be necessary to maintain an army of 2,000 soldiers and several hundred [[cavalrymen]]. He pointed out the importance of establishing forts on the river's islands to keep [[Tatars|Tatar]] [[Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe|raids]] in check.{{Sfn|Yakovenko|2011|p=186}} Although the plans to establish permanent Cossack units were not realized at that time, Polish and Lithuanian border starosts frequently made use of Cossack troops in fights against the Tatars, both for defensive purposes and in retaliatory raids.{{Sfn|Yakovenko|2011|p=186-187}}

In 1568 [[Sigismund II Augustus]] sent a proposition to the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks|Zaporizhian Cossacks]] to join his royal service in exchange of payment. In 1570 [[Great Crown Hetman]] [[Jerzy Jazłowiecki]] formed first 300-men Cossack unit, under the command of {{ill|Jan Badowski|uk|Ян Бадовський}}, which was although disbanded after their death in 1575.{{Sfn|Yakovenko|2011|p=259}}