Piotr Kochanowski, a lawyer and judge, and Anna Białaczowska. Among their 11 children, two of Jan's brothers were also writers. He studied at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Then he attended the University of Königsberg (Królewiec), in Ducal Prussia, and Padua University in Italy. He returned to Poland in 1559. In 1563 he became a secretary at the royal court of Sigismund II Augustus. He married Dorota Podlodowska around 1575 and settled at the family estate at Czarnolas ("Blackwood"). Kochanowski is sometimes called "Jan z Czarnolasu" ("John of Blackwood"). He died of a heart attack in 1584 in the town of Lublin.