Janusz Radziwiłł (1612-1655)

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Janusz II Radziwiłł

Noble Family

Radziwiłł

Coat of Arms

Trąby - Radziwiłł Coat of Arms uses The Trąby in the center of a Black Eagle in a Golden Shield

Parents

Krzysztof Radziwłł
Anna Kiszka

Consorts

Katarzyna Potocka
Maria Lupul

Children

with Katarzyna Potocka
Anna Maria Radziwiłł
Krzysztof Radziwiłł

Date of Birth

December 12, 1612

Place of Birth

Popiela

Date of Death

December 31, 1655

Place of Death

Tykocin

Prince Janusz Radziwiłł (Lithuanian: Jonušas Radvila, also known as Janusz the Second or The Traitor) (1612-1655) was a powerful Polish-Lithuanian noble (szlachcic) and magnate. Court Chamberlain of Lithuania since 1633, Field Lithuanian Hetman and Samogitian starost since 1646, voivode of Vilnius Voivodship since 1653, Great Hetman of Lithuania since 1654, Starost kamienicki, kazimierski and sejwejski.

Educated abroad, in Germany and Netherlands, he took part in the Smolensk War in 1633. He was a Calvinist, but he married a Catholic (first wife, Katarzyna) in 1638. In 1645 he married Maria Lupul, daughter of a Moldavian hospodar. He was a protector of the Protestant religion in Lithuania, sponsor of many Protestant schools and churches.

For several decades, the interests between Radziwłł family and the state (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) had begun to drift apart, as the Radziwłł were less and less satisfied with the magnatial status of the family and its immense wealth and began craving for more political power. This culminated in the doings of Janusz Radziwiłł, who is remembered in Polish history as one of the nobles responsible for the end of the Golden Age of the Commonwealth.

Janusz Radziwiłł

His vanity and ambitions appeared early in his career. Upon marching into Kyiv in 1651, he ordered the production of a commemorative medal on which he compared his victory to the taking of Kyiv by the first Polish king, Bolesław Chrobry, some six hundred years earlier.

Janusz used his political influence against King Jan Kazimierz Vasa in order to secure the voivode, hetman and other offices. In 1652 he paralysed the central government by evoking a Liberum veto, a procedure whereby any single member of the Sejm (Commonwealth Parliament) could completely halt and annul its proceedings by the simple expression of dissent, saying 'Veto'.

In 1654, during the Swedish invasion of Poland, known as The Deluge, together with his cousin Bogusław Radziwiłł, he began negotiations with Swedish king Charles X Gustav of Sweden, aimed at breaking the Commonwealth and the Polish-Lithuanian union. They signed a treaty according to which was founded Swedish-Lithuanian union.

Many Polish nobles (szlachta), as Deputy Chancellor of the Crown Hieronim Radziejowski and Grand Treasurer of the Crown Bogusław Leszczyński, thinking that Jan II Kazimierz was a weak King, or a Jesuit-King, or for any other reasons, encouraged Charles Gustav to claim the Polish Crown.

Jan Kazimirerz had few friends among the Polish szlachta, as he openly sympathized with Austria and showed disregard and contempt for Polish culture (Sarmatism). Poznań Voivod Krzysztof Opaliński surrendered Great Poland to him, and quickly, the other voievodies surrendered also. Almost the whole country did this, before the Jasna Góra resistance and the Tyszowce Confederation.

Janusz Radziwiłł memorial monument in Kėdainiai, Lithuania.

The Swedish defeat and eventual retreat from the territories of the Commonwealth abruptly ended the plans of Janusz and Bogusław. Janusz died in Tykocin, besieged by the loyal Commonwealth forces (desperate Swedish defenders later blew themselves up). Their lines of the Radziwiłl family became extinct by the next generation, and their only lasting achievement was to tarnish the Radziwiłł family name for years to come, their treason eclipsing the deeds of other Radziwiłłs like Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł, who fought for the Crown and the Commonwealth against the Swedes.

Great Lithuanian Hetmans of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth