At the end of the sixteenth century, the commanders of the Zaporizhian Cossacks were titled or "Hetman"; Christof Kosynsky was the first Zaporizhian hetman. In 1572, a hetman was a commander of the Registered Cossack Army () of the Rzeczpospolita, too. From 1648, the start of Bohdan Khmelnytsky's uprising, a hetman was the head of the whole Ukrainian State — . Although they were elected, Ukrainian hetmans had very broad powers and acted as heads of the Cossack state, their supreme military commanders, and top legislators (by issuing administrative decrees).