Jan Zamoyski: chancellor, hetman and founder of Zamość

Zamoyski commanded in the field for two decades. He directed the siege of Pskov against Muscovy in 1581 and 1582, won at Byczyna in 1588, held off Tatar and Ottoman forces at Cecora in 1595, beat Michael the Brave of Wallachia at Bukov in 1600 and took Wolmar in Livonia from the Swedes in 1601.¹

What was Jan Zamoyski famous for?

Zamoyski is remembered for three things. As Grand Hetman he defeated and captured Archduke Maximilian at Byczyna in 1588, which decided a disputed royal election. As chancellor he was the leading statesman of Stephen Báthory's reign and later the head of the opposition to Sigismund III. And in 1580 he founded Zamość, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.²

Early life and education

He was born on 19 March 1542 at Skokówka near Zamość, into a family of the middling gentry; he began his career, as Czesław Galek puts it, as the modest heir of a few villages. He studied in Paris, Strasbourg and Padua, where he was elected rector. Back in Poland he became a royal secretary to Sigismund II Augustus.³

How did Zamoyski shape the royal elections?

When the Jagiellonian dynasty died out in 1572, Zamoyski emerged as a leader of the middle nobility. The historian Stefan Ciara credits him with the idea of election viritim, under which every nobleman could vote for the king in person. In 1575 the nobility elected Stephen Báthory, who made Zamoyski his chief political adviser.⁴

Báthory's chancellor and hetman

King Stephen Báthory made him Grand Chancellor in 1578 and Grand Hetman in 1581, and he became the king's closest collaborator and adviser. In the war against Muscovy for Livonia he directed the siege of Pskov in the winter of 1581 to 1582. The city never fell, and in Stefan Ciara's account the failure was blamed on Zamoyski, but the truce that ended the war in 1582 gave Livonia to the Commonwealth.⁵

What happened at the Battle of Byczyna?

After Báthory's death, rival factions elected two kings in 1587: Zamoyski's party chose Sigismund Vasa, the Zborowski faction Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Zamoyski kept Maximilian out of Kraków, where Sigismund was crowned on 27 December 1587, then pursued him toward Silesia and on 24 January 1588 defeated his army at Byczyna and took him prisoner.⁶

Maximilian's troops had tried to take Kraków by storm in late November 1587 and failed. After the coronation the hetman followed the retreating archduke, who halted at Byczyna, on the road from Poland into Silesia; the battle there ended his bid for the Polish crown.⁷

Why did Zamoyski fall out with Sigismund III?

Zamoyski had put Sigismund III on the throne, but relations between the chancellor and the king soon broke down over their different views of royal power. Zamoyski moved into open opposition after the king's secret talks with the Habsburgs about handing them the Polish crown came to light. He nevertheless kept both his offices, chancellor and hetman, until his death.⁸

What did Zamoyski do in Moldavia?

Zamoyski led two armed interventions in the Danubian principalities. In 1595 he placed Ieremia Movilă (Jeremi Mohyła) on the Moldavian throne and held off Tatar and Ottoman forces at Cecora. In 1600, after Michael the Brave of Wallachia had driven Movilă out, he restored him, beat Michael at Bukov and put Movilă's brother Simion on the Wallachian throne.⁹ › Battle of Cecora, 1595

The first expedition came at a dangerous moment. A league of the Danubian principalities sponsored by the Habsburgs had turned against the Ottomans, the pro-Polish hospodar Aron had been deposed in favor of Ștefan Răzvan, an ally of Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania, and an Ottoman army had entered Wallachia. The two historians who have studied the outcome at Cecora describe it differently: Paweł Tyszka writes that Zamoyski held off the Crimean khan Gazi II Giray and then reached an agreement with him recognizing Movilă, while Ilona Czamańska calls the battle indecisive, with some Polish advantage, and describes a settlement negotiated with the Ottoman commander Ahmed Pasha.¹⁰

Five years later the settlement collapsed. Michael the Brave beat Zamoyski's political ally Andrew Báthory of Transylvania in the autumn of 1599, Andrew was killed days later, and in May 1600 Michael invaded Moldavia and defeated Movilă. Zamoyski's victory restored Movilă, but Simion's rule in Wallachia was short: Czamańska dates his expulsion to June 1601, while Tyszka says he had lost his principality by 1602. Czamańska argues that these interventions served the policy of the Commonwealth and were not Zamoyski's private ventures.¹¹

Livonia, 1601

In 1600 the Commonwealth went to war with Sweden over Livonia, one of the long wars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Zamoyski led the Crown forces there. In 1601 his army besieged and took Wolmar (Valmiera), whose Swedish garrison capitulated in December.¹²

Why is Zamość called an ideal city?

Zamoyski founded Zamość in 1580 as a private town and the center of his estates, planned on Italian theories of the ideal Renaissance city. The Italian architect Bernardo Morando designed the whole town, from its street plan and fortifications to its most important buildings. The Old Town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992.¹³

The town was the center of a vast fortune: Ciara and Galek both count him among the largest landowners of the Commonwealth. He bound the core of it into the Zamoyski entail (Ordynacja Zamojska), an estate that could not be divided among heirs, and it survived in reduced form until the land reform of 1944.¹⁴

The Zamość Academy began teaching in 1595 (the state education platform dates its foundation to 1594) and taught until 1784. In Stefan Ciara's view it was meant as a civic school that would train men for the service of the state.¹⁵

How good a commander was Zamoyski?

Historians judge his generalship as mixed. Stefan Ciara credits him with winning the Muscovite war and the battle of Byczyna, but notes that the siege of Pskov failed. In Ciara's view his greatest strength was choosing able subordinates, above all his protégé Stanisław Żółkiewski, who later became a hetman himself.¹⁶

His command reached well beyond the battlefield. The historian Paweł Tyszka, who studied his correspondence, stresses that as Grand Hetman he had to guard the south-eastern frontier against Tatar and Ottoman raids, and, from that correspondence, describes a network of informants at the court of the Moldavian hospodar that kept him informed of events on the border, in the Ottoman Empire and in the Crimean Khanate.¹⁷

How did Jan Zamoyski die?

Jan Zamoyski died in Zamość on 3 June 1605, at the age of 63, still Grand Chancellor and Grand Hetman of the Crown. He left behind the city of Zamość, an academy that would teach until 1784 and the Zamoyski entail, which kept his estates together until the land reform of 1944.¹⁸