House of Wiśniowiecki

House of Wiśniowiecki

Country	Poland
Titles	King of Poland Grand Duke of Lithuania Grand Duke of Ruthenia Grand Duke of Prussia Grand Duke of Masovia Grand Duke of Samogitia Grand Duke of Livonia Grand Duke of Smolensk Grand Duke of Kiev Grand Duke of Volhynia Grand Duke of Podolia Grand Duke of Podlasie Grand Duke of Severia Grand Duke of Chernihiv
Founded	Free election, 1669
Final ruler	Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (Michael I)
Current head	Extinct
Ethnicity	Polish, Ruthenian

King Michael I

Jeremi Wiśniowiecki

House of Wiśniowiecki (Ukrainian: Вишневе́цькі, Vyshnevetski; Lithuanian: Višnioveckiai) is the name of a Polish princely family of Ruthenian/Lithuanian origin, notable in the history of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. They were powerful magnates with the estates predominantly in Ruthenian lands of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, who held the Polish coat of arms Korybut. The family traditions would trace their descend to Gediminids, but modern historians believe there is more evidence for them to have descended from the Rurikids.^[1] According to the Gediminids relation theory, the ancestor of the family was Duke Kaributas (Ruthenian: Dymitr Korybut), a son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Algirdas. His son Fedor of Nieśwież started the family.

The name of the family can be traced to their estates in Wiśniowiec in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (now Vyshnivets, Ukraine).^[1]

From their days as Ruthenian nobility they held the Kniaz (prince) title. By late 16th century, the family converted from Orthodox to Catholicism and became Polonized.^[1] They gained much importance in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with vast possessions in the 16th to 18th centuries on the territories of today's Ukraine, particularly the town of Vyshnivets (Wiśniowiec). Their estates were so vast and their position so powerful that they were known as the most powerful of magnates – the "little kings" ("królewięta"). Their ancestral seat was the Vyshnivets Castle.

The family's Golden Age was the 17th century, when its members accumulated much wealth and influence, held numerous important posts within the Commonwealth.^[1] Likely the most notable members of this family were Michael I, king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1669 to 1673,^[1] and his father Jeremi Wiśniowiecki.

Coat of Arms

The Coat of Arms of the House of Wiśniowiecki was Korybut.

Coat of Arms of King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki

Notable family members

Possessions of Wiśniowiecki family are marked in red

Michał Zbaraski Wiśniowiecki (died after 1516), Prince at Wiśniowiec, progenitor of the Wiśniowiecki family
- Iwan Wiśniowiecki (died after 1516), courtier, married Nastazja Olizarowicz h. Chorągwie
  - Konstanty Wiśniowiecki (before 1516–1574), courtier, starost of Żytomierz, married Anna Elżbieta Swierszcz z Olchowca h. Jastrzębiec
    - Konstanty Wiśniowiecki (1564–1641), voivode of Belz and Ruthenia, married Anna Zahorowska h. Korczak, Urszula Mniszech h. Mniszech, Katarzyna Korniaktowna h. Krucyni and Krystyna Strusiowna h. Korczak
      - Marianna Wiśniowiecka (1600–1624), married voivode of Bełz and Ruthenia Marshal Jakub Sobieski h. Janina, the father of King of Poland Jan III Sobieski
      - Janusz Wiśniowiecki (1598–1636), Master of the Stables of the Crown, married Katarzyna Eugenia Tyszkiewicz h. Leliwa
        Dymitr Jerzy Wiśniowiecki (1631–1682), Great Guard and Hetman of the Crown, voivode of Belz and Kraków, married Marianna Zamoyska h. Jelita
        
        Konstanty Krzysztof Wiśniowiecki (1633–1686), voivode of Podlasie of Bracław and Bełz, married Urszula Teresa Mniszech h. Mniszech and Anna Chodorowska h. Korczak
        Janusz Antoni Wiśniowiecki (1678–1741), voivode of Wilno and Marshal, married Teofilia Leszczyńska h. Wieniawa
        Urszula Franciszka Wiśniowiecka (1705–1753), dramatist and writer, married voivode of Troki and Hetman Prince Michał Kazimierz "Rybeńko" Radziwiłł h. Trąby
        
        Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki (1680–1744), the last male representative of the Wiśniowiecki family,^[2] Hetman, Castellan and Voivode of Wilno, Great Chancellor of Lithuania, married Katarzyna Dolska h. Kościesza, Maria Magdalena Czartoryska h. Czartoryski and Tekla Róża Radziwiłł h. Trąby
  - Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, also known as Baida, first Ataman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, Hetman of the Registered Cossacks
- Aleksander Wiśniowiecki (c. 1500–1555), starost of Rzeczyce, married Katarzyna Skoruta h. Korczak
  - Michał Wiśniowiecki (1529–1584), castelan of Bracław and Kijów, married Halszka Zenowiczówna h. Deszpot
    - Michał Wiśniowiecki (died 1616), starost of Owrucz, married Regina Mohyła
      - Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (1612–1651), Prince at Wiśniowiec, Łubny and Chorol, voivode of Ruthenia, married Gryzelda Konstancja Zamoyska h. Jelita
        Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (Michael I, 1640-1673), King of Poland 1669–1673, married Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland
      - Anna Wiśniowiecka, married starost of Lublin Zbigniew Firlej h. Lewart
  - Aleksander Wisiowiecki (1543–1577), courtier, married Aleksandra Kapusta h. Kapusta
    - Adam Wiśniowiecki (c. 1566–1622), married Aleksandra Chodkiewicz h. Kościesza, daughter of Hetman Jan Hieronimowicz Chodkiewicz h. Kościesza and Krystyna Zborowska h. Jastrzębiec

Estate

Vyshnivets Palace
Zbarazh Castle
Castle of Ostróg
Manor house in Łodygowice
Zbarski Palace in Kraków
Palace of the Minister of the Treasury in Warsaw (rebuilt from the former Wiśniowiecki Palace)
Ruins of the Castle of Biały Kamień
Wisniowiecki Chapel (Latin Cathedral in Lviv)

External links

Lubomyr Wynar. Wiśniowiecki in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).
(Polish) Herb i rodowód Wiśniowieckich.
Marek, Miroslav. "Genealogy of Wiśniowiecki-Zbaraski family." (in Polish). Genealogy.EU. External link in |publisher= (help)
(Ukrainian) Pictures of Wiśniowiec castle.

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki (1996). Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood Publishing. p. 654. ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0.
↑ http://www.wilanow-palac.pl/kniaziowie_wisniowieccy.html

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wiśniowiecki.

Noble families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Of Lithuanian origin	Alšėniškiai Astikai Čartoriskiai Gelgaudai Goštautai Kęsgailos Manvydai Olelkaičiai Pacai Radvilos Sakaičiai Sudimantaičiai

Of Ruthenian origin	Chodkevičiai Iljiničiai Oginskiai Ostrogiškiai Puzinai Sapiegos Strutinskiai Tiškevičiai Višnioveckiai Zasławski

Of other origin	Glinskiai (Tatar) Kiškos (Masovian) Pliateriai (German) Tyzenhauzai (German)

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