Lew Sapieha was a nobleman and statesman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He became Great Secretary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1580, Great Clerk of the Grand Duchy in 1581, Crown Chancellor in 1585, Grand Chancellor from 1589 until 1623, Voivode of Vilnius in 1621, Great Lithuanian Hetman in 1623 and governor of Slonim, Brest and Mogilev.
Portrait depicting Sapieha by an unknown painter
St. Michael's Church in Vilnius (1594), commissioned by Sapieha as a personal mausoleum
Tomb of Lew Sapieha inside the church
Lew Sapieha is buried with his two wives
Grand Chancellor of Lithuania
The Grand Chancellor of Lithuania was one of the highest offices in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The office functioned from the middle of the 15th century until the end of the real union with the Kingdom of Poland in 1795 and its subsequent partition among Prussia, Russia and Austria. The chancellor possessed the Great Seal of Lithuania and had the Lithuanian Metrica at his disposal.
A Lithuanian Metrica of 1511–18, from the chancellery of Lithuanian Grand Chancellor Mikołaj Radziwiłł, written in Ruthenian.
Image: Albert Gaštold. Альбэрт Гаштольд
Image: Mikołaj Radziwiłł Czarny
Image: Mikałaj Radzivił Rudy. Мікалай Радзівіл Руды (1851 1900)
