Not Everyone Carried the Hetman’s Mace in His Knapsack. Some Remarks on the Military and Political Career of Aleksander Hilary Połubiński in Relation with Andrzej Adam Majewski’s Book

Abstract

The purpose of this review article is to assess the biography of Aleksander Hilary Połubiński penned by Andrzej A. Majewski. It evaluates the source base and literature on the subject used by Majewski, the qualities of the selection of the protagonist, the structure of the book, and the theses put forward by the author. In the case of the latter, the strongest reservations concern the way of presenting Połubiński as military commander, pushing his political and economic activities into the background, as well as the way of presenting Połubiński’s clients. Together with the adopted structure of the book, it downgrades the value of the reviewed book which can be hardly regarded as bringing a new quality to the knowledge about the military and political life of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the 1640s and 1670s. However, it is an interesting study of Połubiński’s activity in the military, and – to a lesser extent – political fields.