Mikołaj Sieniawski (c. 1489 – 1569) was a notable Polish

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

, military commander and a prominent politician of his times. He built stone Brzeżany Castle round which the modern town of

Berezhany Berezhany ( ; ; ; , ''Bzhezhani''/''Bzhizhani'') is a small List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It lies about from the administrative center of the oblast, Ternopil. Berezhany hosts the administr ...

has developed. Since 1539 Mikołaj Sieniawski served as a Field Hetman of the Crown and took part in most wars Poland was engaged in. Most notably he organized several successful raids to the area of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. He took part in the battle of Obertyn in 1531, under hetman

Jan Tarnowski Jan Amor Tarnowski (Latin: Joannes Tarnovius; 1488 – 16 May 1561) was a Polish nobleman, knight, military commander, military theoretician, and statesman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. He was Grand Crown Hetman from 1527, and wa ...

, from whom he adopted the clan crest of Leliwa. Between 1542 and 1553 he was also the

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

Belz Belz (, ; ; ) is a small city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine, located near the border with Poland between the Solokiya River (a tributary of the Bug River) and the Richytsia stream. Belz hosts the administration of Belz urban hromada, one of ...

, and after that time he rose to be a voivod of the

Ruthenian Voivodship The Ruthenian Voivodeship (; ; ) was a voivodeship of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1434 until the First Partition of Poland in 1772, with its center in the city of Lwów (lat. Leopolis) (modern day Lviv). Together with a number of ot ...

, one of the richest and most populous regions of the Republic. In 1563 he was promoted to the rank of Grand Crown Hetman, that is the ''de facto'' commander in chief of the Polish army.

References

Secular senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Polish soldiers Field Crown Hetmans Great Crown Hetmans 1480s births 1569 deaths Mikolaj Starost of Halych Voivodes of the Ruthenian Voivodeship {{Poland-politician-stub