Jan Zamoyski
Jan Zamoyski (* 19th March 1542 in Skokówka ; † 3. June 1605 in Zamość ) was a Polish aristocrat , magnate , officials in the civil service , statesman and hetman in the Polish part of the First Republic of Poland-Lithuania , also temporarily Rector of the University of Padua . He came from the region around the planned town of Zamość, which was later built according to his specifications and named after him, from a Calvinist family. His father Stanisław Zamoyski († 1572) was Castellan of Chełm and Starost of Bels . His mother was Anna Zamoyska († before 1554, born Herburt).
Zamoyski was an adviser and chancellor of the kings Sigismund II. August and Stephan Báthory and a main adversary of their successor Sigismund III. Wasa . Zamoyski was one of the most experienced and best-educated diplomats , politicians and statesmen of his time. He remained one of the main characters of political life in Poland-Lithuania throughout his life. Under his aegis, the Zamoyski family became one of the most important families of magnates in the aristocratic republic .
Life
The Early Years: The Royal Advocate
Jan Zamoyski studied at the universities of Paris and Padua , whose rector he became in 1563 at the age of 21, and discovered his love for politics . After returning to Poland , he was appointed secretary to King Sigismund II August. He wrote in 1563 De senatu Romano, a brochure about the form of government in ancient Rome, in which he tried, the constitutional principles of the Republican Rome to which constituent apply Polish-Lithuanian nobility Republic.
After the extinction of the Jagiellonian in the male line , he used his influence during the 1572 Wahlsejms to the Viritimwahl (all nobles of Poland-Lithuania had the right to choose the King) and to enforce the majority vote procedure. During this time he wrote about the modus electionis . He was a friend of Mikołaj Sienicki and Hieronim Ossoliński . He soon became the main leader of the middle nobility party, the Szlachta. He was so influential that this group was later called "Zamojczycy".
Zamoyski was against the influence of the magnates who wanted to offer the Polish-Lithuanian throne to a member of the Austrian line of the Habsburgs . He supported the election of Heinrich von Valois as King ("President") of the First Republic. During the royal election in 1575 he was one of the supporters of Stephan Báthory, who was hostile to the House of Habsburg. At that time he was one of the most influential politicians in the country, in which he also held the rank of Grand Chancellor and Grand Hetman of the Polish crown. He soon became one of the richest Polish magnates. He supported a policy of the new King Báthory directed against the Habsburgs and the Ottomans . He took part in its war against Tsarist Russia during the Livonian War .
The later years: in opposition to the royal family
After the death of King Báthory in 1586, Zamoyski Sigismund III helped. Wasa to ascend the Polish throne. In the brief civil war he fought against some of the noble republican magnates who wanted to see Archduke Maximilian von Habsburg on the Polish throne. In the battle of Byczyna in 1588 he and his Polish retinue were defeated. Maximilian was captured by Zamoyski and later renounced his claims to the Polish throne.
With the beginning of the reign of Sigismund III. Wasa went to Zamoyski in opposition to the royal family, although he was once an advocate of the first electoral kings. He opposed the king's intentions to transform the aristocratic republic into an absolute monarchy . In terms of foreign policy, King Sigismund allied himself with the House of Habsburg and other counter-reformation forces in Europe in order to obtain their help in regaining the Swedish throne. The new king feared the power of the influential chancellor, but due to noble republican laws he was unable to remove him from office. In return, Zamoyski treated the king as a mere pawn in the power structure of the aristocratic republic and ignorant foreigners. In opposition to the king, Zamoyski advocated religious tolerance against the increasing power of the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits in Poland. He warned against plunging the aristocratic republic into useless dynastic wars with the Kingdom of Sweden , especially in the face of the threatening situation on the borders with the Ottoman Empire. Contrary to the socio-political processes in the rest of Europe, his policy prevented the establishment of an absolute monarchy in Poland. An open conflict between the king and the chancellor broke out during the Sejm of 1592, when Zamoyski found out that King Sigismund was planning to cede the Polish crown to the House of Habsburg, which in turn would help him regain the Swedish crown. Zamoyski did not succeed in disempowering King Sigismund, but won a free hand in the Moldova campaign, the plans of which were already being worked out at the time of King Báthory.
Fight for the Danube principalities and war against Sweden
Zamoyski intervened in the internal affairs of the Danube principalities and helped the Hospodar Ieremia Movilă ( Polish "Jeremi Mohyła") to rule in the Principality of Moldova in 1595 . In 1600 he fought against Michael "the Brave" (Polish "Michał Waleczny"), the Hospodar of Wallachia , who shortly before subjugated the Principality of Transylvania and the Principality of Moldova and became the national myth of the Romanian state through the brief union of the three principalities . He defeated him in the same year in the Battle of Bucov, in today's Prahova district , and put the disempowered Ieremia Movilă again on the princely throne of Moldova, while his brother, Simion Movilă (Polish "Szymon Mohyła"), was awarded Wallachia. As a result, Zamoyski extended the influence of Poland-Lithuania to the lower Danube and thus set the basis for the aristocratic republic's warlike entanglements with the Ottoman Empire ( Ottoman-Polish War 1620–1621 ), which counted these principalities to its area of influence.
He took part in the Swedish-Polish War 1600–1629 , in which he commanded the Polish troops in Livonia (Polish "Inflanty") from 1600 . He recaptured some fortresses from the Swedes and in 1601 took Wolmar and Fellin and 1602 Biały Kamień in what is now Estonia . He gave up his command shortly afterwards due to poor health made worse by the war.
Civil service and estate
Zamoyski was chancellor from 1576 to 1578 and from 1578 grand chancellor of the Polish crown . From 1581 he was Grand Hetman to the Polish crown and from 1566 also royal advisor and secretary. He was Starost of Bels , Międzyrzecz , Krzeszów am San, Knyszyn , Tartu and “General Starost ” of Kraków from 1580 to 1585. In 1580 he founded the city of Zamość named after him. Due to his important position in the Polish-Lithuanian state, he became very rich - he owned 24 cities, including Tomaszów Lubelski and 816 villages (approx. 6,400 km²). As the leaseholder of the royal domains in lifelong use, he was lord of another 35 cities and 1024 villages (about 11,100 km²). His annual income at that time is now estimated at up to 700,000 zloty . He also maintained a private army of about 6,000 men. In 1595 he founded the Zamoyski Academy (Polish Akademia Zamojska ), which existed until 1944.
Marriages and offspring
His first wife was Anna Zamoyska († 1572), née Ossolińska . In 1577 he married Krystyna Zamoyska († 1580), born Princess Radziwiłł . His third wife was from 1583 Gryzelda Zamoyska († 1590), a née Princess Báthory , the niece of the Polish king. In 1592 he married Barbara Zamoyska († 1610), nee Tarnowska . The son Tomasz Zamoyski (1594–1638), a Polish magnate and statesman, was born from this marriage .
Quote
- In Latin: Rex regnat, sed non gubernat! (In German: The King rules, but he doesn't rule! )
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Zamoyski, John I . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 59th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1890, p. 146 f. ( Digitized version ).
swell
- Page no longer available , search in web archives: Genealogia dynastyczna
Individual evidence
- ^ Republic of the Polish Crown [Kingdom of Poland] and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- ↑ Giuseppe Veltri, Annette Winkelmann: On the threshold to modernity, p. 208.
- ↑ Polish adjective form of his family name, in German something like: "Zamoyskis people".
- ↑ Also called the Battle of Pitschen.
- ^ Jan Zamoyski in the Polish Reichstag according to Ernst Lautenbach: Latin - German: Zitaten-Lexikon der Schwelle zur Moderne , p. 636.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zamoyski, Jan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Zamojski, Jan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish magnate |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1542 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Skokówka |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 3, 1605 |
| Place of death | Zamość |