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Plater family

File:POL_CoA_Plater_Hrabia_II.png]]

File:POL COA Plater-Zyberk.svg

The Plater family is a German noble family originating in Westphalia, whose members first settled in Livonia and later in Lithuania and Poland.https://worldhistory.de/wnf/navbar/wnf.php?oid=16868&sid=

The Platers returned to Catholicism in the 17th century and held high offices in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and achieved magnate status in the 18th century, with six representatives of the family achieveing a seat in the Senate. The basis of the family's importance in Polish Livonia was the uninterrupted holding of the post of starosta in Dyneburg since 1670.

History

= Origins and family name =

The family was first documented in 1274 with knight Hinricus de Broyle and later in 1392 with Rötger von dem Broel genannt Plater. Their original seat was {{Ill|Broel Castle|lt=Broel|de|Bröhler Schloss}} in County of Mark, hence the family's name was von dem Broel. The part of the family that moved in 15th century to Livonia used the name Plater or the combined name Broel-Plater.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=215}}

The Plater-Zyberk branch line was founded by Michał Plater-Zyberk, who married Izabela Helena Syberg zu Wischling (1785-1849), daughter of {{Ill|Jan Tadeusz Syberg zu Wischling|pl|Jan Tadeusz Zyberg}}, the last male representative of the House of Syberg, German uradel noble family also hailing from the County of Mark. In order to save his wife's family name, he adopted her surname and the coat of arms.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=226}}

The ancestor of the Plater family, which stemmed from Livonia, was Fryderyk Plater (ca. 1465- ca. 1533), who, together with his brother Jan, acquired the Weissensee and Nidritz (Indryca, now {{Ill|Lielindrica|lv}}) estates in Livonia.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=215}}

Jan, Fryderyk's son, established a line of the family, which divided into branches of the Weissensee and Könhof (now Keeni) heirlooms. These estates came under Swedish and later Russian rule.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=215}}

Fryderyk's second son Henryk inherited Nidritz. His son, also Henryk (II), supported the transfer of Livonia to Poland in 1561.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=216}} His son Henryk (III) from his marriage with Maria von Knorr had three sons: Henryk (IV), Gotard Jan and Jan Wilhelm.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=216}}

Jan Wilhelm gave rise to the Samogitian line of the family, while Gotard Jan gave rise to the Livonian line.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=216}}

= Samogitian line =

File:Antazaves_muiža_-_panoramio.jpg]]

Jan Wilhelm (d. 1664) converted to Catholicism under the influence of his second wife Jadwiga Naruszewicz. He owned estates in Livonia and Samogitia.

One of his grandsons Jan Wilhelm (1676-1757) was a diplomat, from his second marriage to Princess Helena Ogińska (1694-1739) he had a son Wilhelm Jan (d. 1769).{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=216}}

Wilhelm Jan inherited his parents' estates: Ozolmuiža, Antazavė, Šateikiai, and others, and also acquired Švėkšna (Szweksznie) in Samogitia. From his marriage to Petronela Nagórska (1720-1790), he had two sons Józef Antoni and Jerzy, who started branches of the family in Dąbrowica and Švėkšna.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=216}}

== Dąbrowica branch ==

File:Dubrovica, Varobin, Plater. Дубровіца, Варобін, Плятэр (K. Niedabitoŭski, 1919-39).jpg, owned by Dąbrowica branch of the Plater family, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, taken before 1939]]

{{Ill|Józef Antoni Plater|pl}} (1750-1832), acquired Dubrovytsia and Worobin estates in Brest Litovsk Voivodeship, and Pulma and Zahordzie in Volhynia.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=216}} His only heir was Ignacy Wilhelm Plater (1791-1854), who obtained the {{Ill|Akhremovites|lt=Belmont|be|Ахрэмаўцы}} and Bohiń estates in the Vilnius region from his sister Konstancja, the widow of Count Stanisław Manuzzi.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=217}} He also obtained confirmation of the title of count in the Russian Empire for himself and the entire Plater family. One of his sons was {{ill|Włodzimierz Stanisław Plater|pl}}, a historian and bibliophile, owner of a valuable library, which he housed in the castle in Wiśniowiec.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=217}} Second son Konstanty (1828-1886) was an architect, took part in the January Uprising, due to which he lost his property, was exiled to Siberia, then settled in Austria. His sons died childless.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=217-218}}

Third son Wiktor (1843-1911) inherited his father and brother Wlodzimierz's estates in Volhynia, Dabrowica and Pulma. With Helena Potocka he had three sons. Two of them, Ignacy and Antoni, were murdered in November 1918 by revolutionaries.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=218}} The only survivor was Witold (1893-1962), who inherited all the family's property, but settled in Osiecz Wielki near Włocławek. He was one of the largest landowners in interwar Poland. Witold had eight children, two sons died in the Warsaw Uprising.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=218}} After the war the family lived in Wrocław.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=218}}

== Szweksznie branch ==

File:Švekšna_-_panoramio_(1).jpg, owned by the Szweksznie branch of the Plater family, Šilutė District, Lithuania]]

Szweksznie branch was founded by George (died before 1825), the second son of Wilhelm Jan, owner of Švėkšna Manor, Kartena, {{Ill|Šateikiai|lt}} and other estates in Samogitia.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=218}} It had three sons. Jerzy, who died young, was a historian and bibliophile. Franciszek (1798-1867) inherited Šateikiai and had many children, but no male grandchildren. Stefan inherited Švėkšna and took over, along with the hand of Alina Żaba-Marcinkiewicz, the entire estate of the Żaba family.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=219}} He had sons Gustaw Wilhelm (1841-1912) a composer, and Adam Alfred (1836-1908), an archaeologist, president of the Vilnius Land Bank, and a political loyalist.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=219}}

Adam Alfred's older son was Marian (1873-1951) also a bibliophile and president of the Vilnius Land Bank. Marian had three sons, of whom Kazimierz Plater was a chess champion.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=219}} Adam Alfred's younger son was {{Ill|Jerzy Plater (born 1875)|lt=Jerzy|lt|Jurgis Pliateris (1875)}}, last owner of Švėkšna, lived in the interwar Lithuania after World War I, and died on exile in Soviet Union in 1943. His son was {{Ill|Aleksandras Plateris|lt}}, Lithuanian historian and writer.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=220}}

= Livonian line =

File:Krasłaŭ,_Plater._Краслаў,_Плятэр_(1901-17).jpg, Krāslava Municipality, Latgale, Lithuania]]

Gotard Jan Plater (d. 1664) was a major and military officer, and owned landed estates in Livonia (Indryca, {{Ill|Varnaviči|lt}}) and Antonosze in Vilnius voivodeship.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=220}} He had three sons who attained high magnate positions in the Commonwealth. The most powerful position was held by the youngest of the brothers, Jan Andrzej Plater (d. 1696), starosta of Livonia and Dyneburg, who, after accepting the Catholic faith in 1695, was able to become the first of the family to hold the senatorial office of Voivode of Livonia. Teofil Plater (d. 1697) was a diplomat and deputy, and at the end of his life converted to Catholicism. Along with him, the second of the brothers, Fabian (d. 1709), did so, becoming Voivode of Livonia.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=220-221}}

Jan Andrzej's son was Jan Ludwik (d. 1736), also an Voivode of Livonia, and a buyer of Krāslava and Kombuļi, the main estates of the Plater family.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=221}} His son Konstanty Ludwik (1722-1788), Castellan of Trakai, increased the family's wealth by acquiring estates in Volhynia and Ukraine through his marriage to Princess Augusta Ogińska (1724-1791).{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=222}} His heir was his son August Hiacynt (c.1755-1803), who further expanded his estate through marriage to Countess Anna Rzewuska (1761-1800). He himself had nine children.

== Krasław and Kombul branches ==

The heir of Krāslava was Adam Antoni (1790-1862), a polyhistor; after his death and that of his sons, the estate passed to the Szweksznie line.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=222-223}} Kombuļi was inherited by Józef Kazimierz (1796-1852), who had 14 children, including seven daughters. Among them was {{ill|Leon Joachim Plater|pl}}. (1836-1863), who died during the January Uprising taking it upon himself to organize an attack on Russian troops, thus protecting Zygmunt Bujnicki, the actual commander and father of a large family.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=223}} The only one of Leon Joachim's sons to marry was Michał Hieronim (1834-1924), heir to Kombuļi, who had two sons, both of whom left no offspring. Józef (1890-1941) fought in the French and Polish armies during World War I, and died in a German concentration camp in 1940. Leon Plater, on the other hand, was ordained a priest and was chaplain to the Polish Air Force and President Władysław Raczkiewicz during World War II.{{Sfn|Zielińska|1997|p=223-224}}

Notable members of the family

References

{{Ref list}}

Bibliography

  • {{Cite journal |last=Wróbel |first=Łukasz |date=2018 |title=Hylzenowie, Platerowie i Tyzenhauzowie. Szlachta inflancka i jej rola w życiu politycznym osiemnastowiecznej Rzeczypospolitej |trans-title=The Hylzen family, the Plater family and the Tyzenhauz family. The Livonian nobility and its role in the political life of the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth |journal=Res Gestae |volume=6}}
  • {{Cite book |last=Zielińska |first=Teresa |title=Poczet polskich rodów arystokratycznych |publisher=Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne |year=1997 |isbn=8302064297 |language=pl |trans-title=Polish aristocratic families}}