Background
Jan Zamoyski was born on 19 March 1542 to Stanisław Zamoyski and Anna Herburt in Skokówka.
Jan Zamoyski was born on 19 March 1542 to Stanisław Zamoyski and Anna Herburt in Skokówka.
He started his education in a school in Krasnystaw but when he was thirteen years old he was sent to study abroad. Already at this young age he attended lectures at the Sorbonne University and Collège de France. In 1559 he briefly visited Poland, then attended the University of Strasbourg; after a few months there he moved to University of Padua, where from 1561 he studied law and received a doctorate in 1564.
he returned to Poland in 1565 and was appointed secretary to King Sigismund II. After Sigismund’s death (1572), he became one of the best-liked leaders of the nobility. Opposing the magnates who wished to offer the throne to the Austrian Habsburgs, he supported the candidature of the French prince Henry and, after Henry’s flight from Poland, supported the anti-Habsburg Stephen Báthory. One of the latter’s closest collaborators, he was made chancellor in 1578 and grand hetman (commander in chief of the armed forces) in 1581. He soon became one of the richest Polish magnates.
Zamoyski energetically helped Stephen Báthory in his efforts to strengthen the royal power. He also distinguished himself during the war of 1579–82 against Muscovy.
After Stephen Báthory’s death, Zamoyski opposed the Habsburg candidature of the archduke Maximilian (brother of the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II) and contributed to the election of Sigismund III Vasa. When Maximilian tried to seize Kraków by force, Zamoyski routed his forces at Byczyna (Jan. 14, 1588) and took him prisoner. Yet from the very beginning of Sigismund III’s reign Zamoyski passed to opposition. The King feared the hetman’s power, and Zamoyski in turn treated the King as a pawn. Open conflict broke out during the Sejm (Diet) of 1592, when Zamoyski knew that Sigismund was plotting to cede the Polish crown to the Habsburgs in exchange for their support of his right to the Swedish throne. Zamoyski failed to dethrone Sigismund but won for himself a free hand in Moldavia. He installed a hospodar dependent on Poland in Moldavia and temporarily subjected Walachia to Poland.
Zamoyski died suddenly on 3 June 1605, due to a stroke. His fortune was inherited by his single son, Tomasz Zamoyski.
Royal Secretary from 1566, Deputy Kanclerz (Chancellor) of the Crown from 1576, Lord Grand-Chancellor of the Crown from 1578, and Grand Hetman of the Crown from 1581. General Starost of Kraków from 1580 to 1585, Starost of Bełz, Międzyrzecz, Krzeszów, Knyszyn and Tartu. Important advisor to Kings Sigismund II Augustus and Stephen Báthory, he was one of the major opponents of Bathory's successor, Sigismund III Vasa, and one of the most skilled diplomats, politicians and statesmen of his time, standing as a major figure in the politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout his life.
He converted from Calvinism to Roman Catholicism.
He valued the good of the country at least as high as his own, and although he could have become the king after a victorious civil war against Sigismund, he preferred to act within the limits of law instead, avoiding a war that could devastate the country, and thus curbing his own ambitions.
In 1571 he married Anna Ossolińska; his wife and their young son died shortly afterwards, in 1572. In 1577 he married again, this time marrying Krystyna Radziwiłł, daughter of magnate Mikołaj Radziwiłł Czarny. His third wife was Gryzelda Batory. After divorce he married Barbara Tarnowska.
