Sapegi

Most of the old Polish heraldists called Puneigail, the chestnut of Trocki, the son of Narimunt Gediminovich ; his son, Sunigailo ^[1] , was baptized with the name of Semyon. The unreliability of this genealogy , based on the panegyric work of Misztolt, lit. Antanas Aloyzas Miš-tautas "Historia Illustris domus Sapiehianae" (Vilnae 1724 ) ^[2] , was proved by Kazimir Stadnitsky , who found out that Sunigetoild died. In the latest genealogical literature it is considered established that the genus Sapieha comes from the Smolensk land , where the Sapieha already owned significant estates in the 15th century . The founder of Sapeg is considered Simon Sopig , the clerk of Casimir Jagiellonian ; his name is found in acts and chronicles of the 40s of the XV century . From his sons - Bogdan and Ivan - two branches of the Sapeg clan went: the Chereisk – Ruzhansk and the Kodsen ^[3] . Through marriage and awards, the Sapeg clan acquired enormous wealth, which enabled it to occupy a leading position, after the Radziwills , in Lithuania.

In the 17th century, the Sapieha was a formidable force, before which even the king sometimes had to humble himself. Sapieha ruled autocratically in Lithuania, disposing of their own free will on the seymics and tribunals, pursuing and eliminating people they disliked. Deprived of patience by the arrogance and oppression of Sapieha, the gentry constituted a confederation led by the Vashtebsky Kocella's coughtan, who even declared the Commonwealth ruin against Sapega. The intervention of the king in this matter did not prevent a clash; the Home War broke out (in February 1700 ), which ended in the defeat of Sapieha near Olkeniky ( November 18, 1700 ), after which all Sapegas were sentenced to deprivation of their posts and estates and sentenced to perpetual expulsion from the state. Sapieha turned to the mediation of Augustus II , who reconciled them with the gentry. Sapieha’s wealth was greatly shaken during this war, which required high costs. Nevertheless, until the last days of the existence of the Commonwealth of Sapieha played an outstanding role. 16 persons from the Sapieha clan occupied the so-called “digitalist” posts, three were the chief commanders of the Lithuanian artillery, 25 held the post of governor, four were the Kashtelyans, three were the great Lithuanian hetmans, one was the Polish hetman, two were bishops. Initially, the Sapieha professed Orthodoxy ; the first to convert to Catholicism was Ivan Semenovich Sapega (c. 1430 - 1517 ), sent in 1514 to Rome and adopted Catholicism there; his sons remained Orthodox, but during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Catholicism was finally established in the Sapeg family.

In 1572, Nikolai Sapega , governor of Minsk and Vitebsk, was still elevated by the emperor Rudolph II to the count of the Roman Empire, and the count branch of the Sapega family went from him. In 1633, Jan Stanislav Sapega , the great Lithuanian marshal, was elevated by the emperor Ferdinand III to the princely Roman Empire, but refused to accept this title and died childless. In 1700, Michal Franciszek , a stable Lithuanian, general of Lithuanian artillery, was elevated by Leopold I to the princely Roman Empire, but died in the same year, being unmarried. Having no formal rights to the princely title, Sapieha already used it at that time, claiming to be of origin from the rulers of Lithuania. In 1768, the Polish Sejm, recognizing this legendary genealogy, officially approved the princely title for the sapiege of the coat of arms of Fox. The Seversky line was in Russian, and the Kodenskaya line in Russian and Austrian citizenship.

In Russia, princely dignity was approved for Sapieha by the Highest decree on July 26, 1874 .

Sapieha estates in Russia, including Bykhov Castle , were confiscated for their participation in the uprising of 1830–31 .

In the scarlet shield there is a silver rider with a silver sword and shield raised, on which there is an eight-pointed scarlet cross, to the right on a silver horse covered with a scarlet three-pointed carpet with a gold border and a scarlet harness with a gold border (Lithuanian coat of arms). The head of the shield is cut into three parts, in the middle scarlet part there is a silver double-crossed arrow, the upper crossbar is shorter than the lower (coat of arms “Fox”), in the right black part there are three silver lilies (two and one), in the left azure part a hand in silver armor, clenched into a fist, pierced with a silver arrow, point down.

Above the shield is a princely crowned helmet. Crest: standing silver fox to the right with scarlet eyes and tongue. Namet: scarlet with silver. The coat of arms is decorated with a princely scarlet, lined with ermine, a mantle with gold tassels and a fringe, and crowned with a princely crown. The coat of arms of Prince Ivan-Paul-Alexander Sapega is included in Part 13 of the General Tombstone of the noble families of the All-Russian Empire, p. 6.

• Leo Sapega ( 1557 - 1633 ) - governor of Vilna, hetman the great Lithuanian and chancellor the great Lithuanian.
• Jan Peter Sapieha ( 1569 - 1611 ) is known for his participation in the turmoil of the era of impostors; supported the Tushinsky thief , to whose aid he came with a detachment contrary to the order of the king; led the siege of the Trinity Monastery; subsequently passed from Tushinsky thief to the king, then back, sometimes declaring a desire to fight with the Russians against the Poles; died in Moscow. Compiled "Diary", printed in Russian translation in the "Son of the Fatherland" in 1858.
• Casimir Lev Sapega ( 1609 - 1656 ) concluded, in 1634 , a peace favorable to Poland with Moscow; enjoyed the unlimited trust of Vladislav IV .
• Pavel Jan Sapieha (c. 1609 - 1665 ), governor of Vilnius, the great Lithuanian hetman , is known for his deeds in the wars of the Cossack and Swedish (1656).
• Alexander Casimir Sapega ( 1624 - 1671 ) took the priesthood in Rome, where he studied; was bishop of Zhmud, then Vilna; published: “Constitutiones synodi dioecesis Vilnensis” (Vilna, 1669).
   

  The ruins of the Ruzhany palace Sapeg in Belarus.
• Casimir Jan Sapieha ( 1637 - 1720 ), governor of Vilnius and Hetman the Great Lithuanian, published: “Enucleatio nullitatis excommunicationis ratione praetensae devastationis ecclesiarum bonorumque dioecesis Vilnensis publicatae ad 1695” and “Manifest Bogu i swiatu doi podomice 16 podomice.
• Jan Casimir Sapega (? - 1730 ) - the great Lithuanian hetman, took part in the great Northern War , stood on the side of Charles XII and won two victories over the Russian troops in July 1709 , but after the Battle of Poltava switched to the side of Peter the Great . In 1720, he entered into negotiations with Menshikov about the marriage of his son Peter to his daughter, and promised Menshikov to support his candidacy for the dukes of Courland . Arriving in St. Petersburg in 1726, he received the rank of Field Marshal and wealthy estates from Empress Catherine I. Some researchers speculate that the favor of Catherine I to Sapieha is explained by the fact that he helped her find her Skavronsky relatives. After the fall of Menshikov, Sapega joined the Dolgoruky and in 1727 was appointed St. Petersburg Governor-General , but soon left for his estates, where he died.

• His son, Pyotr Sapieha ( 1701 - 1771 ), the captain of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, was engaged to Princess Menshikova in 1726 , but then Catherine I made him her favorite, awarded her with the rank of chamberlain and estates and appointed Countess Sofya Skavronskaya to be her niece’s groom. on which he married on November 19, 1727, after the death of Catherine I. Despite his solid position in Russia, Sapega sold the huge estates received as a dowry and left for Lithuania, taking with him up to 2 million then silver rubles.
• Jan Frederick Sapega ( 1680 - 1751 ) - statesman and writer; from 1698 - the headman of Brest, 1716 - the chestnut Trotsky, 1735 - the great chancellor of Lithuania.

• Alexander Anthony Sapega ( 1773 - 1812 ) - visited the Yugoslav lands in 1802–03, compiled a valuable description of his journey (“Podroze po krajach slowianskich” (Wroclaw, 1811). His other works: “Tablice stosunku nowych miar i wag francuskich linealnych z lilewskiemi i polskiemi ”(Warsaw, 1801) and“ Lettres sur les bords de l'Adriatique ”(P., 1808).

• Leo Sapega ( 1801 - 1878 ) was a chamberlain of the Russian court, but after 1831 he was forced to emigrate to Galicia , where in 1861 - 1875 he was marshal of the Sejm.

• Sapeg Palace (values)
• Civil war of 1696-1702 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

• Sapiehowie. Materjały historyczno-genealogiczne i majątkowe. - Petersburg, 1890-1894. - T. I — III. (polish)
• Kossakowski, Stanisław Kazimierz. Monografie historyczno-genealogiczne niektórych rodzin polskich . - Warszawa, 1872. - T. 3. (Polish)
• Sapieha // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Grebelsky P. Kh., Dumin S.V. (with the participation of T. Lentchevsky ). Princes, counts and nobles of Sapega // Noble clans of the Russian Empire. - SPb. : IPK “Vesti”, 1995. - T. 2. - S. 248—255. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-86153-012-2 .
• Dolgorukov P.V. Russian genealogy book . - SPb. : Type. E. Weimar, 1856. - T. 3. - S. 45.

• Sapega // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Generational painting of the Sapeg family (English) . Date of treatment January 26, 2009. Archived March 25, 2012.
• Modern representatives of the genus Sapeg (English) . Date of treatment December 2, 2010. Archived March 25, 2012.