Jan Łaski (1456–1531)

Jan Łaski
Primate of Poland Archbishop of Gniezno
Installed	1510 - 1531
Personal details
Born	1456 Łask, Kingdom of Poland
Died	May 19, 1531 Kalisz, Kingdom of Poland
Coat of arms

Jan Łaski (1456, Łask - 19 May 1531, Kalisz, Poland) was a Polish nobleman, Grand Chancellor of the Crown (1503–10), diplomat, from 1490 secretary to Poland's King Casimir IV Jagiellon and from 1508 coadjutor to the Archbishop of Lwów.

From 1510 Łaski was Archbishop of Gniezno and thus Primate of Poland.

He was the uncle of his namesake Jan Łaski, the noted Protestant reformer. Łaski appears to have been largely self-taught.

He became a priest, and in 1495 was secretary to the Polish chancellor Zawisza Kurozwęcki, in which position he acquired both influence and experience. The aged chancellor entrusted the sharp-witted young ecclesiastic with the conduct of several important missions. Twice, in 1495 and again in 1500, he was sent to Rome, and once on a special embassy to Flanders, of which he has left an account. On these occasions he had the opportunity of displaying diplomatic talent of a high order.

On the accession to the Polish throne in 1501 of Alexander Jagiellon, who had little knowledge of Polish affairs and chiefly resided in Lithuania, Łaski was appointed by the senate the king's secretary, in which capacity he successfully opposed the growing separatist tendencies of the grand-duchy and maintained the influence of Catholicism there.

So struck was the king by his ability that on the death of the Polish chancellor in 1503 he passed over the vice-chancellor Macics Dzewicki and confided the great seal to Łaski. As chancellor Łaski supported the szlachta, or country-gentlemen, against the lower orders, going so far as to pass an edict excluding henceforth all plebeians from the higher benefices of the church. Nevertheless, he approved himself such an excellent public servant that the new king, Sigismund I, made him one of his chief counsellors.

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