KASZTELAN CZERSKI STANISŁAW MORSZTYN A JAN III SOBIESKI: KILKA UWAG NA PODSTAWIE ARCHIWALIÓW Z KOLEKCJI DR. TOMASZA NIEWODNICZAŃSKIEGO

This article discusses the relationship between Stanisław Morsztyn and Jan Sobieski in theyears 1667–1696 on various levels – military, political, fiscal, and court-related, as well aspersonal. The research was inspired by two documents found in the collection of Dr TomaszNiewodniczański which are on loan to the Royal Castle in Warsaw. One of them was of particularvalue, as it helped explain Morsztyn’s advancement as a leader of foreign troops enlisted inthe early 1670s. Sobieski’s ties with Morsztyn began in around 1667, when he became militaryenvoy to the Sejm after the Battle of Podhajce (now Pidhaitsi, Ukraine). Soon after he wasappointed to the office of deputy-steward of Chełmno, and in 1670 he was also granted furthermilitary promotions: from major to lieutenant colonel, and then to colonel. He repaid HetmanSobieski by becoming involved on the battlefields of the Ukrainian campaign of 1671 andChocim in 1673. He supported Sobieski – his superior – in his bid for the Polish crown in1674. When Sobieski became monarch, he appointed Morsztyn commander of Queen MarieCasimire’s guard, which tied him even more closely to the king’s family circle. Morsztyn waspolitically linked to the Kraków province, but after his marriage to Konstancja née Oborska,daughter of the Castellan of Warsaw, in 1676, his activities gradually focused on Masovia. Asa result, he was the envoy for the szlachta from the sejmik of Czersk to the 1681 Sejm; later,in 1687, he was appointed Castellan of Czersk. As a senator, Morsztyn supported the kingin his actions, such as in 1688 during the so-called Berlin Affair. Morsztyn, one of the mostdistinguished infantry commanders in the second half of the seventeenth century, owed hisunmistakable social advancement to Sobieski.