Mikhail Lwowitsch Glinski

The Gliński family coat of arms

Michael Glinski ( Lithuanian Mykolas Glinskis , Polish Michał Gliński , Ukrainian Михайло Львович Глинський , scientific. Transliteration Mychajlo L'vovyč Hlyns'kyj * to 1470 ; † 15. September 1534 ) was a Ruthenian nobleman in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Prince , officials in State service (Starost, court marshal), also boyar and regent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. As a direct descendant of the Emir Mamai of the Golden Horde , he was partly of Tatar descent.

Life

He came from the Tatar princely family Glinski , who had lived in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1380 and gained political influence. After fighting for a long time in Friesland under Duke Albrecht of Saxony and in Italy under Emperor Maximilian I , he became the favorite of King Alexander of Poland , who made him court marshal of Lithuania and Starost of Bielsk . He stopped a raid by the Crimean Tatars at the Battle of Klezk in 1506 and almost completely wiped them out.

But his proud and violent demeanor against the greats of the empire and by envious of King Sigismund I caused suspicions that he wanted to subjugate the country to the rule of Moscow , soon brought him out of favor. He lost all his offices and organized with his brothers an uprising against the royal rule in Lithuania, but it failed. His plans consisted of forming an independent state from its Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian territories. He then fled to Moscow with his relatives and entered the service of Grand Duke Vasily III. From then on Glinski lived in Moscow and was robbed of all of his Lithuanian goods and lands.

He invaded Poland-Lithuania with a Muscovite army , but was defeated by Sigismund. The Russian monarch made peace with Poland in 1508. In a second incursion in 1514 he seized the fortress of Smolensk by treason, but because the Grand Duke did not keep his promise to leave this city to him, he tried to reconcile with Sigismund. Because of the secret connections to the Polish king he was imprisoned for a few years and was later even exiled to the interior of the Moscow state .

At the intercession of Emperor Charles V and Glinski's niece Helena , who became the wife of the Grand Duke in 1526, he was released. After his release, he gained great influence on the Grand Duke Vasily III. and in 1533 he was even appointed guardian of Prince Ivan . However, when he criticized Helene's dissolute life, she blinded him and threw him into prison, where he died in 1534.

The Polish poet Franciszek Wężyk treated Glinski's fate in a tragedy.

literature

Stanisław Warnka: De ducis Michaelis Glinscii contra Sigismundum Regem Poloniae et M. Ducem Lithuaniae rebellione (1507-1508) . Berlin 1868.