"Wedle lat, czasu i zabaw przybierać mu czeladź" - dziecięce dwory wybranych rodzin magnackich z terenów siedemnastowiecznej Rzeczypospolitej
"According to the Age, the Time, and the Activities Choose His Guardians" - Children's Courts of Selected Magnate Families from the Territory of the Seventeenth-Century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses issues related to children's courts in the seventeenth century. Using preserved sources, it shows the creation, organisation, and functioning of children's courts on the example of selected families. Only a few courts created for the offspring of the wealthiest members of the nobility and magnates are well-documented. Thus, the question arises when one can speak of establishing a children's court: what criteria had to be met to speak of its existence, what functions such courts performed, and what was their structure. In this context, it is possible to distinguish children's courts by the child's age, gender (boys' and girls' courts), and functions (stationary courts of a caring nature, travelling courts associated with educational and school trips). The courts of the children of Krzysztof Radziwiłł, the only son of Jan Zamoyski, and the court accompanying the sons of Jakub Sobieski during their studies in Cracow are presented. Due to their specific functions, children's courts differed in their structure from those created for adults. In addition to people performing similar functions to their counterparts in the adult courts (Hofmeister, servants, cooks, etc.), there are people taking care of children (wet nurses, nannies, babysitters, etc.) and participating in their education (tutors, teachers, preceptors, etc.).

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