A Forgotten Servant of Power – Martinus de Schadek, a Diplomat and Adviser

Abstract

During his short stay in Lithuania (1434–1445), a modest clergyman from Poland managed to get into the close circle of the Grand Duke and become his informal adviser. It is an example of the unusual career of a man from nowhere, remaining in the shadow of ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries and yet playing a vital role in important political events. Martinus de Schadek emerged from obscurity to reach a high ecclesiastical dignity (archdeaconship of Vilnius in 1435) and, at a moment of political turmoil in Polish-Lithuanian relations, to save the union by persuading the Grand Duke and the Lithuanian lords to unite the Polish Crown and the Grand Ducal throne (the interregnum in Poland and negotiations on the election 1445–1446). He was one of those public figures in the mid-fifteenth century Grand Duchy of Lithuania who consistently supported the union and, through his contacts, united the intellectual cathedral circles of Vilnius and Krakow. After fulfilling a crucial diplomatic mission in Livonia (1445), Martinus de Schadek disappeared from sources.