Background
He was son of January Oleśnicki, lord of Chmielnik in the voivodie of Sandomir His uncle was Lord Mikołaj Oleśnicki the elder (d 1556) a Polish Calvinist nobleman who established the first Protestant academy in Poland at Pińczów in 1550, and his aunt Zofia Oleśnicka (d c1567) was the first notable Polish woman poet.
