Michał Franciszek Sapieha (1670 – November 19, 1700) was a Polish-Lithuanian magnate of the

Sapieha family The House of Sapieha (; be, Сапега, ''Sapieha''; lt, Sapiega) is a Polish-Lithuanian noble and magnate family of Lithuanian and Ruthenian origin,Энцыклапедыя ВКЛ. Т.2, арт. "Сапегі" descending from the medi ...

, ''

Koniuszy Master of the Horse is an official position in several European nations. It was more common when most countries in Europe were monarchies, and is of varying prominence today. (Ancient Rome) The original Master of the Horse ( la, Magister Equitu ...

'' (Master of the Horse) of Lithuania, and a general of Lithuanian and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

armies. In 1680 he attended a Jesuit college in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, then one in

Braniewo Braniewo () (german: Braunsberg in Ostpreußen, la, Brunsberga, Old Prussian: ''Brus'', lt, Prūsa), is a town in northern Poland, in Warmia, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, with a population of 16,907 as of June 2021. It is the capital ...

. He participated in the campaign against Turkey of

Emperor Leopold I Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria An ...

in 1690, and then after John III Sobieski's , returned to the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

in 1691. In the spring of 1692 he was promoted to Major General in the Habsburg army and in the years 1693–1694 fought in further wars against the Ottomans as head of the 47th Styrian Infantry Regiment. He participated in the Siege of Belgrade in 1693.

Lithuanian Civil War

After returning home in 1695 he fought against the party of the Great Lithuanian Chancellor Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł whom he defeated. He supported the candidacy of

Augustus II the Strong Augustus II; german: August der Starke; lt, Augustas II; in Saxony also known as Frederick Augustus I – Friedrich August I (12 May 16701 February 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as K ...

to the Polish-Lithuanian throne. From 1696 to 1700 he participated in battles against the anti-Sapieha coalition of

Grzegorz Antoni Ogiński Grzegorz Antoni Ogiński (23 June 1654–17 October 1709) was a Polish-Lithuanian Hetman and governor-general of the Duchy of Samogitia from 1698. He was the fourth and youngest son of Jan Jacek Ogiński, also a hetman. Ogiński was one of the le ...

and of the Radziwiłł,

Wiśniowiecki The House of Wiśniowiecki ( uk, Вишневе́цькі, ''Vyshnevetski''; lt, Višnioveckiai}) was a Polish-Lithuanian princely family of Ruthenian-Lithuanian origin, notable in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. They we ...

and Pac families in the Lithuanian Civil War. After his surrender at the Battle of Valkininkai on November 18, 1700, he was murdered by a mob of drunken szlachta. One of the major culprits behind the crime was the

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, Krzysztof Białłozor whose brother had been executed on Sapieha's orders a year earlier, and who instead of giving confession that Sapieha asked for was the first to physically attack him. Michał was dragged out of the abbey where he was being kept prisoner, and hacked to death with sabres. His supporters who had been captured were killed along with him, while those who were merely suspected of being sympathetic to him were forced to slash at the corpse to prove their loyalty to the anti-Sapieha cause.

Title

On 14 September 1700, Sapieha obtained the title of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

from Emperor Leopold I. The title became extinct upon his death on 19 November 1700. That year the family lost its dominant position in the Grand Duchy as a result of its defeat in the Lithuanian Civil War. Most of the family members were stripped of their titles and privileges by the victorious confederates. In 1768, members of the Sapieha family obtained recognition of the princely title from the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the

partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for ...

, the family appeared in the list of persons authorized to bear the title of Prince of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...

in 1824. The title was recognized in Austria in 1836 and 1840, and in Russia in 1874 and 1901. In 1905, the family obtained the qualification of Serene Highness in Austria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sapieha, Michal 1670 births 1700 deaths

Michal Michal (; he, מיכל , gr, Μιχάλ) was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David (), who later became king, first of Judah, ...

Generals of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth