OLESNICKI, ZBIGNIEW

born 1389, Sienno, Pol. died April 1, 1455, Sandomierz Polish statesman and cardinal who was chief councillor to King Wladyslaw II and regent of Poland (143447). A member of the Polish noble house of Debno of Olesnica, he became the leading member of the royal Privy Council after he saved the King's life at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. Olsnicki was ordained a priest in 1412 and was made bishop of Krakw in 1423. Representing the interests of the church and the nobility, he secured a limitation of royal power (March 1430) in exchange for the nobles' recognition of the King's young son Wladyslaw as the heir to the throne, thereby beginning the Polish tradition of an elective monarchy. As regent after Wladyslaw II's death, Olesnicki opposed the spread of the dissident Hussite religious movement in Poland, defeating the Hussite nobles in 1439. His appointment as the first Polish cardinal by Pope Eugenius IV in 1439 further strengthened his position. When Wladyslaw III died (1444) while on a crusade, the Cardinal ruled the country until the King's death could be proved and his younger brother, Grand Prince Casimir of Lithuania, ascended the throne as Casimir IV (1447).