Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł

Who was Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł?

Prince Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł or Nicholas Christopher Radziwill aka "Sierotka" was a Polish-Lithuanian noble.

He was Ordynat of Nieśwież from 1586. He was also Court Marshal of Lithuania from 1569, Grand Marshal of Lithuania from 1579, castellan of Trakai from 1586, voivode of Trakai Voivodeship from 1590, voivode of Vilnius Voivodeship from 1604 and Starost of Šiauliai. After the treaty at Vienna in 1515 all Radziwills were Imperial Princes and he held a position as Imperial Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.

He married Halaszka Eufemia Wiśniowiecka on November 24, 1584, a Calvinist who under his influence too converted to Roman Catholicism.

He took part in the Livonian War against Muscovites. In 1573 he was a member of a diplomatic mission to France to the future king of Poland, Henryk Walezy.

Unlike many other members of Radziwiłł family he tried to stay away from politics, especially from the dynastic clan politics of some of other Radziwiłłs like Janusz Radziwiłł; he also supported the forces loyal to the king and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Rokosz Zebrzydowskiego, a szlachta's confederatio threatening the king.