The Radziwiłł Mausoleum
in Nesvizh.
Research

The Radziwiłł family belonged to the elite of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Their large holdings were stretched through the present territories of Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. They held significant levers of the state affairs and shaped cultural trends in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Nonetheless, like any other human beings, they suffered from various diseases and disorders, which soured their daily life and brought death. The surviving diaries and letters of the Radziwiłłs, the medical records produced by their physicians and other sources allow us to become acquainted with the “medical histories” of the representatives of this noble family. Though an extensive archive of the family has survived, it does not contain much information about diseases and causes of death of Radziwiłłs buried in the crypt of the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, and the available data are not always comprehensive¹For a thorough research of Biržai and Dubingiai line of the Radziwiłł family from the perspective of biological history, see Raimonda Ragauskienė, Mirties nugalėti nepavyko: Biržų ir Dubingių Radvilų biologinė istorija (XV a. pabaiga – XVII a.), Vilnius: Lietuvos edukologijos universiteto leidykla, 2017..

The Radziwiłłs suffered from various illnesses caused by their lifestyle, the environment and other factors. Of course, almost each of them suffered occasionally from internal diseases then generally referred to as “fevers”, gastrointestinal disorders or what they themselves calls “headaches”. However, it seems unlikely that the Radziwiłłs of the Nesvizh-Olyka line suffered from some hereditary disease or that all of them had gout, a disease common among the well-off at that time, and thus referred to as “the disease of the wealthy”. We are going to look at some cases, which, although they do not disclose the whole picture, speak volumes about the illnesses and ailments that affected the Radziwiłłs of Nesvizh.

The description of illnesses produced by an unknown physician around 1594 contains detailed data about Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł’s Sierotka diseases, their severity, duration and the treatment given²[Description of the illness of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka (1594)], Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (hereinafter referred to as AGAD). Archiwum Warszawskie Radziwiłłów (hereinafter referred to as AR), dz. XI, nr. 84, p. 1-8. Also see Tomasz Kempa, Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka (1549-1616): wojewoda wileński, Warszawa: Semper, 2000, p. 315.. The 45-year-old prince suffered from many ailments, such as blood poisoning, tinnitus and joint pains. However, a non-specified “venereal disease” (lues venerea), which the duke contracted around 1575, caused most problems. Mikołaj Krzysztof went to Italy and Poland³Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila Našlaitėlis, Kelionė į Jeruzalę, Vilnius: Mintis, 1990, p. 34-35. immediately to undergo urgent treatment, but did not achieve a full recovery. Even twenty years later he still dealt with the symptoms of this malady. His doctor mentions the following symptoms of this chronic disease: “dirtiness” (inquinatio), most probably related to non-healing and weeping wounds, and the body that acquired an “unhealthy colour”⁴[Description of the illness of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka], p. 7.. Despite this, the prince lived for several decades and the exact cause of his death remains unknown.

Krzysztof Mikołaj (1590-1607), the son of Mikołaj Krzysztof, died young from smallpox. He contracted a severe form of this disease in Bologna in 1607. The symptoms of the disease, the efforts of Italian physicians, the methods of treatment used and the last hours of the young prince’s life were recorded by an anonymous physician (or at least a person who had a thorough medical knowledge) who stayed at his side all that time. Despite all the efforts made, Krzysztof Mikołaj passed away in the evening of the eighth day of his ordeal⁵[The diary of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko (1719-1761; a copy)], AGAD. AR, dz. VI, nr. II-80a, p. 496.. He was not the only Radziwiłł who died of smallpox. Anna Maria Joanna, a two-year old daughter of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł and Urszula Franciszka, also died of this disease⁶Krzysztof Zuba, “O tym jak “Rybeńkę” leczono: kuracje i zabiegi medyczne Michała Kazimierza Radziwiłła (1702-1762)”, Medycyna Nowożytna, 2001, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 89-110..

Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko (1702-1762) also underwent all kinds of treatment during his life⁷[The diary of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko], p. 1664., about which he wrote extensively in his diary. The Radziwiłł suffered from reoccurring headaches and fevers, stomach aches and kidney stone attacks. For example, on the 21 June 1749, after a very painful attack, a kidney stone “the size of a date stone, weighing a quarter of a red złoty”⁸Ibid., p. 1760. passed on its own when the prince urinated. In October 1750, he suffered from a bad toothache, and his physicians did not only extract three teeth but also performed several surgeries during which many maxillary bone spicules of various sizes were removed. For example, on 23 October, a physician, most likely French, Noel “removed one bone from the left side of the jaw and pushed the other one a bit deeper”⁹Ibid., p. 1754-1755.. Later doctors had to repeatedly perform that unpleasant procedure. It was only at the end of November that Michał Kazimierz wrote the following: “I am slowly getting better; the wounds in my mouth are beginning to heal. God help me, let them heal as soon as possible.”¹⁰Ibid., p. 1760. He also experienced a number of injuries when riding a horse. Although in most cases he received only minor injuries, he was not always a success. On 22 August 1758, during hunting, the prince fell off his horse, hit his right shoulder on a rock and broke his right humerus. He felt the consequences of this trauma long after that accident¹¹Ibid., p. 2155-2156..

In his diary, Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł (1715-1760), the brother of Michał Kazimierz, more than once mentioned severe headaches, fevers and other “defects”, which greatly burdened his life. Like his brother, he suffered from calculi. When he was about 27 years old, he contracted gonorrhea. His physician Johann Friedrich Bachstrom prepared a treatment plan, in which he thoroughly described the prince’s state of health, the circumstances of the infection, the symptoms of the disease and the drugs prescribed (including mercury)¹²[Description of illness of Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł (1742)], AGAD. AR, dz. XI, nr. 138, p. 174-180.. However, it is not known whether the treatment was successful.

The diary of Michał Kazimierz contains some hints about the fevers and other diseases that his son Karol Stanisław Panie Kochanku (1734-1790) had suffered in his childhood, adolescence and early youth. Some interesting facts about the state of his health during the last years of his life are found in the Reminiscences about the Prince Karol Stanisław published in 1864. According to the author of the reminiscences, at the end of his life, the prince suffered from a severe eye disease¹³Pamiętnik o księciu Karolu Radziwille pisany podług archiwum nieświeskiego, Lwów: nakładem Karola Wilda, 1864, p. 36-37.. This is also confirmed by the entry in the Death Registration Book of the Corpus Christi Parish in Nesvizh, which states that “Karol Stanisław went blind a year and a half before his death”.¹⁴[Extract from the Death Registration Book of Nesvizh Parish], AGAD. AR, dz. XI, nr. 170, p. 282. His portraits and anthropological research of the remains show that the prince was heavily overweight, therefore, his blindness is likely to have been caused by some form of diabetes.

In his diary, Michał Kazimierz often mentions constant health problems troubling his wife, Urszula Franciszka (1705-1753). The princess constantly complained of poor health, she often caught colds, had “fevers” and suffered from pains caused by arthritis¹⁵[The diary of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko], p. 419.. The complications that occurred during her pregnancies, which often ended in miscarriages, were also physically and mentally demanding. Nonetheless, during the 28 years of her marriage to Michał Kazimierz she gave birth to seven children.

The above-discussed cases show that despite good living conditions, access to medical services¹⁶For more details about the medical staff of the manor in the 18th century, see Krzysztof Zuba, “Chirurdzy, felczery i cyrulicy w dobrach Radziwiłłów linii nieświeskiej w XVIII w.”, Medycyna Nowożytna, 1999, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 77-104., and efforts made by the dukes themselves to take care of their health ( of which we know from the pages of Michał Kazimierz’s diary¹⁷Vika Veličkaitė, “Mykolo Kazimiero Radvilos, vadinamo Žuvele (1702-1762), dienoraštis: tarp itinerarijaus ir egodokumento”, Privačioji raštija ir egodokumentinis paveldas (series Bibliotheca Lituana, vol. 4), compiled by Arvydas Pacevičius, Vilnius: Akademinė leidyba, 2017, p. 114.), the Radziwiłłs suffered from various diseases and injuries. Nevertheless, the Nesvizh-Olyka line of the Radziwiłł family, unlike the Biržai-Dubingiai line of the Radziwiłł family, which came to an end as far back as 1695, managed to maintain their male line and survive to this day.

Martynas Jakulis