Janusz Radziwiłł

Life

Janusz Radziwiłł, of the Trąby coat of arms, was born in December 1612 at Popiel in Lithuania¹. He was the son of Krzysztof, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, and of Anna Kiszczanka¹. He attended the gymnasium at Słuck (Slutsk) and then studied abroad, at Leipzig, Altdorf and Leiden among other places¹.

In 1633 Władysław IV conferred on him the office of Chamberlain of Lithuania¹. In 1646 he received the baton of Field Hetman of Lithuania, and in 1653 he forced John Casimir to give him the voivodeship of Vilnius¹. He won fame by his victory over the Cossacks at Łojów (Loyew) on 31 July 1649¹. The privilege granting him the baton of Grand Hetman of Lithuania, the supreme command of the Lithuanian army, was issued on 17 June 1654¹. He was a Calvinist, but according to Tadeusz Wasilewski he came forward in defence of his Church chiefly for reasons of politics and prestige¹. He had long hated John Casimir, as Wasilewski writes, and the feeling was mutual¹.

During the Deluge

In the war with Muscovy he defeated the tsar's troops at Szkłów (Shklow) on 12 August 1654, but on 24 August he suffered his first defeat¹. From the capitulation of Smolensk onwards he urged soldiers and supporters to submit to the Swedes or to call George II Rákóczi to the throne¹. According to Wasilewski, no later than 29 July 1655 he resolved, together with Bogusław Radziwiłł, to detach Lithuania from the Crown and submit it to Sweden¹. For himself he demanded the voivodeship of Brest-Litovsk and the districts of Grodno and Ukmergė, in which he would have a position close to that of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire¹.

After the fall of Vilnius on 8 August 1655 he withdrew to Samogitia, and at Josvainiai near Kėdainiai proclaimed a provisional act submitting Lithuania to Charles Gustav. The document was dated 17 August; an older account gives 18 August for its proclamation.²¹³ The Union of Kėdainiai proper was signed on 20 October¹⁴ (see Capitulation of Kėdainiai). John Casimir declared him a traitor and appointed his rival Sapieha commander-in-chief of the Lithuanian army⁵. When it turned out that the Swedes had not brought the arrears of pay, the banners (companies) of the national (Polish-style) contingent mutinied under the leadership of Mikołaj Szemiot. Fewer than a thousand soldiers of the foreign-style contingent remained with the hetman¹.

A separate witness to the negotiations was Mikołaj Kazimierz Szemiot, who first objected to the Swedish terms but signed the agreement on 20 October. His later poem explained that choice. He must not be confused with Mikołaj Samuel Szemiot. We do not assign the shortened “Mikołaj Szemiot” in the account of the banners’ mutiny to either man without further evidence.⁶¹

About 15 December he occupied the castle at Tykocin¹. He wrote his last known letter to Charles Gustav on 26 December¹⁷. He died unexpectedly in Tykocin castle in the last days of 1655¹.

Controversies

In the novel

In The Deluge (Potop) Radziwiłł announces the agreement with the Swedes at a banquet at Kėdainiai, and the act is read out at his command by Mr Komorowski¹⁰. He dies at Tykocin while it is besieged by Sapieha's troops. Immediately after his death a mighty explosion is heard (Charłamp guesses that the Swedes have blown up the tower), and Wołodyjowski's soldiers burst into the chamber:

– Nie żyje! nie żyje! – poszedł głos z ust do ust. – Nie żyje zdrajca i sprzedawczyk!

Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Deluge (Potop)¹¹

(Our translation: "He is dead! He is dead!" the word went from mouth to mouth. "The traitor and turncoat is dead!")

In the film

In Jerzy Hoffman's film Janusz Radziwiłł was played by Władysław Hańcza¹²; the role is also noted in Radziwiłł's entry in the Polish Biographical Dictionary¹. The description of the film's first part in the filmpolski.pl database speaks of the Radziwiłłs collaborating with the Swedes, concerned „nie o dobro ojczyzny, ale o własne interesy, w tym także objęcie polskiego tronu” ("not with the good of the fatherland but with their own interests, including taking the Polish throne")¹².

Notes

1. Tadeusz Wasilewski, Radziwiłł Janusz h. Trąby (1612–1655), Polski słownik biograficzny, t. 30, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1987
2. Rok 1655 na Litwie, Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce / Instytut Historii PAN
3. Ludwik Kubala, Wojna szwecka w roku 1655 i 1656, Szkice historyczne, serya IV (Biblioteka Historyczna Altenberga), Lwów; Warszawa: H. Altenberg, G. Seyfarth, E. Wende i Sp.; E. Wende i Sp., 1913, s. 87
4. Układ w Kiejdanach, Kalendarium, Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polski w Warszawie
5. Ludwik Kubala, Wojna szwecka w roku 1655 i 1656, Szkice historyczne, serya IV (Biblioteka Historyczna Altenberga), Lwów; Warszawa: H. Altenberg, G. Seyfarth, E. Wende i Sp.; E. Wende i Sp., 1913, s. 91
6. Andrzej Rachuba, Szemiot h. Łabędź Mikołaj Kazimierz, Polski słownik biograficzny, t. 48, Warszawa–Kraków: Polska Akademia Nauk, 2012–2013
7. Ludwik Kubala, Wojna szwecka w roku 1655 i 1656, Szkice historyczne, serya IV (Biblioteka Historyczna Altenberga), Lwów; Warszawa: H. Altenberg, G. Seyfarth, E. Wende i Sp.; E. Wende i Sp., 1913, s. 93
8. Kunigaikščių Radvilų mauzoliejus evangelikų reformatų bažnyčioje, Kėdainiai: Kėdainių krašto muziejus
9. Ludwik Kubala, Wojna szwecka w roku 1655 i 1656, Szkice historyczne, serya IV (Biblioteka Historyczna Altenberga), Lwów; Warszawa: H. Altenberg, G. Seyfarth, E. Wende i Sp.; E. Wende i Sp., 1913, s. 87–88
10. Henryk Sienkiewicz, Potop, Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska (Wolne Lektury), 2009–2010, t. I, rozdz. XIII
11. Henryk Sienkiewicz, Potop, Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska (Wolne Lektury), 2009–2010, t. II, rozdz. XXIX
12. Potop, Łódź: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna im. Leona Schillera w Łodzi (filmpolski.pl)