Misja Janusza Radziwiłła w Londynie (1633)
Janusz Radziwiłł’s Mission to London (1633)

Summary/Abstract: In February 1633, the twenty-one-year-old Janusz Radziwiłł, son of Krzysztof Radziwiłł, arrived in London as an ambassador of the newly-elected Polish king, Władysław IV. The specifics of the mission and the young magnate’s stay in England have not hitherto been well known , since it was impossible – due to limited number and quality of primary sources – to determine, for example, the exact dates of his visit, the list of his contacts, ceremonial issues as well as reactions to his activities. Thanks to the analysis of new Polish and English primary sources, it is now possible to reconstruct all these issues in detail: one can now confirm, for example, that the ambassador spent in England two weeks, had three audiences with Charles I, and received preferential treatment when it comes to covering the costs of his stay, which was against the rules introduced only a few years earlier. This proves that the young Radziwiłł’s stay in London was not of only a strictly ceremonial nature. The way he was treated by the English court and the details of the mission should be interpreted as a manifestation of the new Polish ruler’s active approach to foreign policy and the importance of the Radziwiłł family in the international arena.

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