Przyczynki do genealogii Żółkiewskich w XVI w.
Contributions to Genealogy of the Żółkiewski Family in the 16th Century

Summary/Abstract: It could seem that the history of the Żółkiewskis, one of the most famous and distinguished families in the Commonwealth at the turn of the 16th and 17th century, should be very well known and documented. In fact, with regard to political and especially military activity of the chancellor and the great Crown hetman Stanisław and partly of his father’s we know quite a lot. However, surprisingly little is known about the hetman’s ancestors – the Żółkiewskis from Żółkiew (current name Żółkiewka) near Krasnystaw. Rather laconic and often misleading information contained in Paprocki’s or Niesiecki’s armorials was without much criticism repeated by historians. Meanwhile a thorough library research of court registers from Chełm and Krasnystaw led to many new findings, shedding a new light on their family connections. It can be inferred from this source that the grandfather of hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski was in fact not Mikołaj, the alleged Bełżec voivod, as armorists would have it, but Stanisław, Khorunzhyi of Chełm and Krasnystaw, succamerarius of Bełżec and a judge of Chełm, who died in 1525. It was also possible to capture the family connections and activity of hetman’s paternal uncles (Jan, Tomasz, Kasper and Marcelin) and cousins (Paweł, Andrzej, Jan, Tomasz and Idzi) in the Chełm Land. An attempt was also made at explaining the fact of the co-occurrence of two Żółkiewski families, with different coats of arms – Lubicz and Bończa, and it was possible to trace the origins of the latter ones to the Radwański family, having their parts of land in Żółkiew, who with time started using the place-derived name as well.

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