The road to great achievements
In the estate of Ostrovno, today's Beshenkovichi district of the Vitebsk region, on April 2, 1557, Leo Sapega was born and was baptized into the Orthodox faith. By the time of Lev's birth, his family Sapega had achieved fame and influential position, his ancestors began to hold high positions in the GDL, and most of all, according to family tradition, held positions of clerks at court, and his grandfather Ivan Bogdanovich became first the Vitebsk Voivode, and then the Voivode of Podlasie.
His education Leo Sapieha began at the age of 7, in Niasvizh private school of Nicholas Radzivil Chyorny, where the boy was sent to learn by his parents, his father Ivan Sapieha and mother Bogdana Drutskaya-Sokolinskaya.
Despite the fact that the Nesvizh school was Protestant, it did not prevent Lev Sapega to study there, and get a good knowledge of philosophy, literature, theology from the leading teachers of European countries, as well as he learned Polish, German, Latin and Greek.
After Nesvizh in 1570, Leo Sapega with his friends, the sons of Nicholas Radzivil the Black, Yuri and Stanislav, went for further education to the University of Leipzig. There, under the influence of Reformed ideas, he converted to the Protestant faith.
Three years later, in 1573, Leo Sapieha returned to his homeland, but despite his great desire to serve the fatherland, he did not immediately begin to serve it. He had to wait for his time for a long 7 years, expectations and disappointment that his knowledge and aspirations are not needed. Sapieha was in waiting until 1580, but still waited for his time, when he was called to him by the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stefan Batory, a year later, seeing the talent and abilities of Lev Sapieha, Batory appointed him a scribe of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The next stage in the service of Leo Sapieha was his appointment as ambassador to Moscow to confirm the peace treaty signed by Ivan the Terrible in 1582. Together with his guards and escort, he went on the road in 1584.
While Lev Sapiega traveled to Moscow to Ivan the Terrible, he died in the same 1584, and on arrival in Moscow, he had to deal with the new Moscow Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. But despite the change of governor in Moscow, Sapieha manages to confirm the peace treaty and get out of captivity 900 of his countrymen, for which Stefan Bathory February 2, 1585, received from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania post of sub-chancellor, and July 20, 1586 Slonim administration, then makes it his main residence.
At 29 years of age Leo Sapieha married Dorota, daughter of Lublin Kasztelan Andrei Firlei, the wedding took place September 1, 1586. Dorota was already a widow and had a daughter from her first marriage, but Leo Sapega raised his stepdaughter Barbara Zbarozska as his own. His wife bore him a son, Jan Stanislaw, and three other children who died as infants.
In 1587 Stefan Batory died, and in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began a royalty-free period, at which time Leo Sapieha was very active in political affairs. The throne of Rzeczpospolita claimed three candidates, the Swedish king Sigismund Vaza, the Austrian Archduke Maximelian and the Moscow Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who was initially supported by Lev Sapiega.
Leo Sapieha cleverly used the candidacy of Fyodor Ivanovich in order to pass the third statute of Lithuania in 1588, in the creation of which he actively participated. This statute contained clauses that established de facto independence and almost complete autonomy of the GDL from Poland, which naturally did not suit the Polish magnates. However, Leo Sapieha promised to withdraw support from Fyodor Ivanovich, if the Polish side, at the Sejm, will accept the statute. Poland's fear of the Moscow tsar was stronger and they agreed to approve the third statute of the GDL.
A further task in approving the statute was to obtain the signature of the King of the Commonwealth, and with this task Leo Sapieha skillfully coped. To begin with, he supported the candidacy of Sigismund Vaza, who was not yet king. After the election of Sigismund Vaza to the throne, Maximelian went with troops to challenge the decision in his favor. Sigismund Vasa, who needed the support of neutral Lithuania in this fight, and who did not know that his troops defeated the Austrian, agreed to sign the third statute of the GDL, in exchange for the support of the GDL. The whole cunning consisted in the fact that Sapega prepared for this battle, and as soon as his spies, the very first, reported to him about the victory of Sigismund, he immediately went to him to sign the statute. Thus, thanks to his cunning and talent, Leo Sapieha was able to approve the statute of the GDL in 1588, which in other conditions would hardly have been accepted by the Polish side, and signed by the king.
Under the influence of Peter Scarga and the Jesuit order, Leo Sapieha converted to Catholicism, but this change of faith did not prevent Sapieha from building both Catholic and Orthodox churches in the GDL.
At the height of his power
In 1589 the king of Rzeczpospolita appointed Lew Sapieha as chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and he became the head of the foreign and domestic policy of the GDL. Two years later, his wife Bogdan dies. Sapieha becomes a widower and buries his wife in St. Michael's Church in Vilna.
As the chancellor of the GDL in 1594 Sapieha established the good work of his office, and ordered to rewrite the books of the Lithuanian metric in order to preserve and organize the archival documents of 15-16 centuries.
In the interests of his principality, Sapiega in 1596, comes into conflict with the king, and refused to put a large state seal on the act of appointment to the post of Vilna bishop natives of Poland. By his persistence, he manages to defend his position and obtain the appointment of a native of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to this position, thus preventing the violation of the recently adopted statute, which stated that such positions could only be held by a native of the GDL.
The second time Leo Sapieha married in 1599 to 16-year-old Elizaveta Radziwil, daughter of the governor of Vilna and the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Christophe Radziwil Perun. In their marriage they had three sons and a daughter: Kristof Nikolai, Leo, Nikolai, and Anna.
After the death of Tsar Ivan Feodorovich of Moscow, Boris Godunov takes the throne of Moscow. The Sejm appoints Leo Sapieha as ambassador to Moscow to confirm the peace treaty. In September 1600 Sapieha from Orsha sent to Moscow to confirm the peace treaty and sign a state union between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Principality of Moscow. In March 1601 a peace for 20 years was signed, but the proposal for a union was rejected.
Eight years later, in September 1609 Sapieha again went to the principality of Moscow, but not at the head of the embassy, and the army, in place of King Sigismund Vaza, he went to Smolensk. Leo Sapieha led the regiment, which he formed at his own expense. He would stay near Smolensk until 1611, the besiegers still managed to take the city, and Sapega returned to Vilna. In the same year, 1611, Leo Sapieha becomes a widower twice, his young wife Elizabeth dies at age 27.
In 1612 he again went to war with Moscow, along with Karl Chodkiewicz and King Sigismund. But the lost time and the militia of Minin and Pozharsky, will not give the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to put on the throne of Sigismund's son Vladislav, having suffered bad luck, together with the troops, Leo Sapega returned home.
The second raid on Moscow in 1618, in which also participated Sapega, also had no results. Vladislav's troops failed to take Moscow and other Moscow cities. The result of this war was the signing of the truce of Deulin, under which the GDL became Smolensk, and Chernigov to Poland.
After the signing of the act of truce, Sapega immediately returned to Vilna in 1619. The next year, 1620 at the Diet, Liev Sapieha managed to beat back the proposal of the deputies of the Diet, to give Smolensk and Chernigov under the administration of Prince Wladyslaw.
Sigismund Vaza, February 6, 1623 appointed Sapieha governor of Vilna, at that time, it was the most honorable military post in the GDL, but simultaneously with the new appointment, Sapieha refused the post of Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
At the age of 68 years, July 25, 1625 Sigismund, Leo Sapega was appointed to the post of Grand Hetman of the Duchy of Lithuania. At this time there was a war with the Swedes, but Sapega, did not immediately go to the front, and began to gather new troops for the war. Only in September 1625 he went to war to the Western Dvina. Because of his political activities, he did not stay at the front for long, as he had to go to the Sejm all the time. So he would go back and forth until the signing of the armistice with the Swedes on September 26, 1629.
In 1632, Sigismund Vaza dies, elections begin in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of a new king, and Leo Sapega supports the candidacy of the son of Sigismund Wladyslaw Vaza. In the same year, he again has to form new regiments, as the Principality of Moscow declared war and sent troops to Smolensk.
Being one of the richest and most influential people in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who had served the Fatherland all his life and achieved the highest positions in his family, Leo Sapieha dies on July 7, 1633. He is buried in the church of St. Michael the Archangel in Vilna.
