Adam Vaclav Cieszinsky

In November 1579, after the death of his father, Prince of Cieszyn Wenceslas III Adam , four-year-old Adam Wenceslas became the new Prince of Cieszyn . In 1579 - 1594, for the young prince Adam Wenceslas, the princedom was first ruled by his mother Catherine Sidonia of Saxe-Lauenburg (d. 1594), and then Silesian princes Jerzy II Brzhebsky (1523-1586) and Karol II Zembitsky (1545-1617). This regency lasted until 1586 , when the eldest of the regents, Prince Jerzy II Brzegsky, died, and the mother of Adam Wenceslas, Catherine Sidonia , remarried the Hungarian aristocrat Emerick Forgach, over Zhupan Trencin . Despite remarriage, Catherine Sidonia of Saxe-Lauenburg retained her influence in the Cieszyn principality .

In 1585, a plague epidemic entered Tesinska Silesia , as a result of which a large number of inhabitants of the principality died. In 1587, the territory of the principality became the site of battles between the Austrian Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg and the Polish hetman Jan Zamoysky .

In 1587, Prince Adam Vaclav Cieszinsky was sent to the court of the Saxon Elector Christian I , where he spent eight years. Here Adam Wenceslas received a thorough education, especially in military affairs.

In 1595, Adam Wenceslas returned from Saxony to Cieszyn , where he began to rule on his own. Prince Adam Vaclav Tseschinsky on the side of the Austrian Habsburg house participated in hostilities against the Ottoman Turks and other opponents of the emperor in Hungary. This necessitated the construction of defensive fortifications in the southern lands of the principality. The issue of border defense came up sharply during the anti-Habsburg uprising in Upper Hungary under the leadership of Istvan Bochkai in 1604 - 1606 , when Hungarian rebels began to threaten the Cieszyn principality .

In 1609, Prince Adam Vaclav Tseschinsky became embroiled in a family conflict between the Habsburgs - Emperor Rudolph II and Archduke Matthew , in which he supported the emperor. In the end, it didn’t come to fights, since Rudolph II capitulated to his younger brother and ceded to him the Czech crown, which embarrassed Prince Adam Vaclav Cieszinsky, who in 1611 was forced to take the oath of allegiance to the new Czech king in Wroclaw .

1609 was a watershed year for Adam Wenceslas for another reason. Prince Cieszinski, a native of the Lutheran family, brought up at the court of the Lutheran , Elector of Saxony Christian I , converted to the Catholic faith ^[1] . As far back as 1598, Prince Adam Vaclav Tseshinsky issued a large privilege for the Lutherans, in which he pledged for himself and his successors that they would profess the Lutheran religion in Cieszyn and transfer the Catholic churches only to Lutherans. However, in 1611 there was a complete change in the prince's behavior. He began the struggle with the Protestant church in the spirit of counter-reformation. After his return to the bosom of the Catholic Church, Adam Vaclav Tseshinsky canceled his signed privilege for Lutherans from 1598 . Because of the stubborn resistance of the nobility and the townspeople, only the princely court and a number of monasteries became Catholic. Bernardine returned to Cieszyn , who began to fight with the Protestants .

On February 6, 1617, the Holy Roman Emperor Matthew Habsburg appointed Prince Adam Vaclav Cieszinsky as the general headman in Silesia .

The reign of Adam Wenceslas for the Cieszyn principality was not very profitable. Constant trips, expensive military expeditions, and, finally, a change of religion, brought the principality into a state of bankruptcy. An example of the wastefulness of Prince Adam Wenceslas was a trip to Wroclaw for the ceremony of bringing homage to King Matthew of the Czech Republic. The prince arrived at this ceremony, accompanied by a retinue of 285 people. Another example was the trip of Prince Adam Wenceslas to the possession of the Commonwealth, during which the prince made a pilgrimage to Kalvaria Zebrzydowska . This trip, according to contemporaries, was not religious: the prince's only desire was to show his wealth. In the end, the prince's debts were often paid by cities and chivalry .

Adam Vaclav Cieszinski published documents in Latin, German and Czech, but at his court the Polish language was most widely spoken ^[2] .

Prince Adam Vaclav Tseshinsky died July 13, 1617 in Brandis (a suburb of Cieszyn ), and was buried in a Dominican church in Cieszyn .

On September 17, 1595, Adam Vaclav Tseschinsky married Elizabeth of Courland (d. November 1601 ), the eldest daughter of the first Duke of Courland, Gotthard von Ketler (1517-1587) and Anna Mecklenburg-Gustrowskaya (1533-1602). Children:

• Adam Gothard (July 27, 1596 - May 25, 1597);
• Anna Sidonia (March 2, 1598 - c. July 1619), wife from 1616 Jacob Hannibal II, Earl of Hohenems (d. 1646);
• Elzbieta Lucrezia (June 1, 1599 - May 19, 1653), Princess Cieszinski (1625–1653), wife from 1618 Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein (1580–1658);
• Christian Adam (1600 - March 12, 1602);
• Friedrich Wilhelm (November 9, 1601 - August 19, 1625), Prince of Silesia-Cieszyn (1617-1625).

He also had an illegitimate son, Vaclav Gottfried , Baron Hohenstein from 1640 .

• Józef Golec, Stefania Bojda, Słownik biograficzny ziemi cieszyńskiej, t. 1, Cieszyn 1993, s. 18-19.
• Kazimierz Jasiński, Rodowód Piastów śląskich, t. 3, Wrocław 1977.
• Moritz Landwehr v. Pragenau, Geschichte der Stadt Teschen, Würzburg 1976, s. 6, 20, 34-35, 41-42, 46, 48-50, 56-57.
• Anna Machej, Adama Wacława, księcia cieszyńskiego, zmiana wyznania w 1610 roku i okoliczności tego wydarzenia, "Pamiętnik Cieszyński" t. 13: 1998, s. 5-12.
• Franciszek Popiołek, Adam Wacław, [w:] Polski Słownik Biograficzny, t. 1, 1935.