Stafiichuk M. The Olyka majorat (ordynacja) in 1586-1629: Foundation, Structure, Mechanism of Functioning.
Dissertation to obtain the scientific degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Field of Study 03 “Humanities”, Programme Subject Area 032 “History and Archaeology”. – National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, 2025.
The study focuses on the Olyka majorat of the last quarter of the 16th – first third of the 17th centuries. Despite the lack of in-depth specialised research dedicated to the Olyka majorat during the reign of the first three of its owners – samogitian starosta Stanislav, nicknamed ‘Pius’ (1559-1599), Mikolaj-Krysztof (1589-1614) and Grand Chancellor of Lithuania Albrycht-Stanislav (1593-1656) – a comprehensive set of sources and historiography has made it possible to answer the main questions regarding the foundation, structure and functioning of this estate complex.
This work is the first comprehensive analysis and presentation of a number of research questions related to the Olyka majorat. Established by the Radziwill family in 1586, it was the first estate complex in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with such a legal status, that was able to exist successfully for a long time. The purpose of creating the majorat, or entail, was to prevent the fragmentation of large estates as a result of inheritance, as well as the alienation of property through the sale or mortgaging of a significant part of the estates. At the time of its establishment, the majorat included extensive estates in the Lutsk and Kremenets counties of the Volyn Voivodeship, as well as several smaller enclaves in the Minsk, Novgorod and Vilnius Voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Between 1586 and 1629, the internal structure of the Olyka majorat underwent several changes. However, in general, there was a noticeable tendency for the owners of the complex not to buy land to expand the core of their estates but, for certain reasons, to sell part of its territory, namely the Radyvyliv volost on the border between the Volyn and Ruthenian voivodeships. Thus, the fundamental prohibition on the alienation of ordination lands, the cornerstone of its existence, a law that was supposed to ensure the property power of the family, was violated. At the same time, at the end of the 16th and in the first decades of the 17th century, there was active colonisation of those parts of the ordination that had previously been deserted. The sources analysed show that the Radziwills of Olyka invested significant funds in the development of their Volhynian estates, and thanks to this, new settlements, including urban ones, began to appear in the previously undeveloped periphery.
The Radziwills of Olyka formed an extensive client-patronage system that operated both within and outside the Olyka majorat. In the absence of other source material, the personal composition of the clientele of the first Olyka majorat was reconstructed based on the records of the Volhynian Voivodeship and private correspondence. It was found that the ‘old’ hereditary servants, who had shown loyalty to the house for generations, occupied a privileged position in the Radziwill entourage and, in return, received special care from the magnates in the form of expansion of their fiefdoms (‘visages’) or appointment as administrators of estate complexes. However, new agents were regularly accepted into the clientele of the first branch of the Olyka majorat owners.
As a result of this work, it was possible for the first time to comprehensively study a number of issues related to the formation and functioning of the Olyka majorat and the client-patronage system that developed around it. The special ordination status of the estates of the samogitian starosta Stanislav Radziwill ‘Pius’ and his two sons seems to have affected only the mechanism of their inheritance, while in terms of formation, land management and administration, these latifundia were similar to the typical estates of other magnate families.
Thus, the first comprehensive study of the Olyka majorat presented in this work, covering the initial period of its existence, broadens the basis for comparison, deepens our knowledge of the magnate estates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the first decades after the Union of Lublin, and opens up potential opportunities for further comparative studies on ordinations of the early modern period in the Polish-Lithuanian state.
Keywords: early-modern period, early-modern times, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Volhynia, Volhynian Voivodeship, Radziwill princes, Olyka majorat (ordynancja), clientele, gentry, population, cities, Magdeburg law, travel literature, travel, public spher.
