Radziwill, Nikolay Black

Father - Trok coughtan Jan Radziwill Bearded . Mother Anna was the daughter of Stanislav Kishki from Tekhanovets. He received his primary education at home, for some time he attended a university in Wittenberg . He spent his youth at the royal court in Krakow , where he became close to the future Grand Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland Sigismund II Augustus . He was nicknamed Black because of the color of his beard (whereas his cousin and namesake for the same reason became known as Red).

The rapid rise of Nicholas began after Sigismund the Old transferred power in the Grand Duchy to his son Sigismund Augustus in 1544. Nikolai got the post of Marshal of the Zemsky and took part in embassy missions. The marriage of the monarch with his cousin Barbara further strengthened the influence of Radziwill on political processes. In 1547, during his stay in Augsburg, he received the title of imperial prince from Emperor Charles V.

In 1549, he participated in military operations against the Tatars in Volyn . At age 35, he took the highest position of Chancellor of the Great Lithuanian . He led the Lithuanian detachment at the Battle of Chashniki , which ended in the defeat of the Russian troops.

Thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Prince Radziwill, Livonia was incorporated into the Commonwealth after the liquidation of the Livonian Order . He defended the independence of the Grand Duchy from Krakow and opposed the conclusion of the final Polish-Lithuanian union , for which he secretly maintained political contacts with the Habsburgs from the king.

Together with Nikolai Ryzh, one of the first among tycoons to break ties with both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. At first he was interested in Lutheranism , then he entered into correspondence with Calvin . In 1557, he founded the first Protestant church in Vilnius and Belorussian lands in Vilna, and three years later he gave the Calvinists all the churches in his vast estates (from Nesvizh to Szydlowiec ).

Towards the end of his life he was removed from influence on state affairs. Suffering from gout , smeared his feet with mercury . He was buried initially in Vilna. In 1647, the remains were transferred to the Calvinist church at the ancestral castle in Dubinki (now Dubingiai ).

Patronage

Under his patronage and in his possessions, printing houses were operating in Brest and Nesvizh , in which not only religious and polemical, but also secular literature was printed with the participation of Simon Budny , Maciej Kaviachinsky and other enlighteners. At his expense in 1563 the “ Brest Bible ” was published, the second (after the Catholic Bible of Leopolitus ) a full translation of the Holy Scripture in Polish .

In February 1548, in Sandomierz, he married Elzbiet Szydlowiecki (1533-1562), the heiress of the great fortune of his father, the great chancellor of the crown and governor of Krakow, Krzysztof Szydlowiecki (1467-1532), including the city of Szydlowiec . Children:

• Nicholas Hristofor "The Orphan" (1549-1616) - 1st ordinate of Nesvizh (1586-1616), governor of Troy and Vilensky
• Elzbieta (1550-1591), wife of the governor of Podolsk and the great hetman of the crown, Nikolai Meletsky
• Sophia Agnieszka (d. After 1597), wife of the governor of Pomeranian Achacia Chema .
• Anna Magdalena (1553-1590), wife of the Kamenetz subcommittee Nikolai Tvorovsky-Buchatsky
• Yuri (1556-1600) - Bishop of Vilnius and Krakow , Cardinal (1584)
• Albrecht (1558-1592) - 1st ordinate Kletsky (1586-1592), outward Lithuanian marshal and great Lithuanian marshal
• Stanislav (1559-1599) - the first ordinate of Olytsky (1586-1599), the great Lithuanian marshal and the general elder Zhemaitsky
• Christina (1560-1580), wife of the great chancellor of the crown and the great hetman of the crown, Jan Zamoysky

• In 1996, a postage stamp of the Republic of Belarus dedicated to Radziwill was issued.
• In 2009, Nikolai Radziwill Black was captured in sculpture at the Brest Millennium Monument ^[1] .
• On February 4, 2015, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus issued commemorative coins "Mikalay Radzivil Chorny": silver 20 rubles and 1 ruble from a copper-nickel alloy .
• On February 4, 2015, the Bank of Lithuania in honor of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Radziwill Black issued a commemorative silver coin of 20 euros.

• Thoughts and Svetnіkі Belarusі. Entsyklapedychny are a tributary. Minsk: Belarusian Entsyklapedyya, 1995.P. 112-114.