Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł

Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Red (Polish Rudy, Lithuanian: Radvila Rudasis; 1512 – 28 April 1584

Life

His father was Jerzy Radzwiłł, called "Victor", a Lithuanian hetman. His mother was Barbara Kolanka, daughter of voivode of Podolia Paweł Kola, a representative of a wealthy Małopolska family. His sisters were Anna and Barbara, later the wife of Polish King Sigismund Augustus.

Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Red received, not the best, home education. His first language was Polish, which he used on a daily basis. He also knew Ruthenian, the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He read and wrote in both Polish and Ruthenian, although his handwritten letters are written in illegible and careless handwriting, indicating the magnate's low level of calligraphy. He did not know Latin, or knew it at a completely rudimentary level. The education was supplemented by service at the royal court in Kraków. Radziwiłł himself did not value university education highly, and did not send his sons to university, limiting their training to home education.

In 1532, Mikołaj was betrothed to the daughter of Grand Crown Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, Anna. The marriage never occurred, as the bride died in 1536 before reaching marriageable age. Mikołaj's first participation in public life was in the Lithuanian-Moscow War of 1534 at his father's side.

Mikołaj Radziwiłł spent many years as a military commander. One of his most notable victories was achieved at the head of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army during the Battle of Ula of 1564, when his forces defeated Ivan the Terrible's much larger forces. Under King Stephen Báthory, he was fairly successful in defending the eastern borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania against the Muscovy.

In the early 21st century Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Red's remains and his cousin Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black's remains were discovered in the cellar of a demolished Evangelical Reformed Church of the Dubingiai Castle and in 2009 they were reburied during a formal ceremony in the Radziwiłł Pantheon of the Dubingiai Castle.