Piotr Gembicki

Piotr Gembicki (1585-1657), Deputy Crown Chancellor and Bishop of Przemyśl from 1635, Great Crown Chancellor from 1638, Bishop of Kraków from 1642 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Piotr Gembicki born into a szlachta family of Nałęcz coat of arms, began his ecclasiastical career early and attended academies abroad. Later he became the secretary of king Sigismund III Vasa and regent of the Crown's Chancery. After Zygmunt's son, Wladyslaw IV Waza, succeeded to the Polish throne in 1632, Gembicki led the diplomatic mission to Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1635 he took part in the negotiations with Muscovy following the Smolensk War. In December 1635 he became the Deputy Crown Chancellor and Bishop of Przemyśl. Since then, his influence and wealth grew, and in 1638 he became the Great Crown Chancellor.

He was a supporter of Habsburgs, which earned him a nickname "covert Spaniard", and an opponent of the pro-French faction. He advocated tightening Polish control over the Commonwealth vassal, prince-elector of the Duchy of Prussia. Fighting for power and influence with magnate Jerzy Ossoliński, he became an ally of Adam Kazanowski and opponent of queen Cecylia Renata. In 1642 he lost the political battle and retired from court politics to the see of Bishop of Cracow, passing the chancery to Ossoliński. Since then, he focused mostly on religious matters, coming back into politics only in 1646 with his vocal opposition of Władysław's planned campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

Viewed by szlachta as a prideful and greedy, he supported the position of the Commonwealth king over orders from distant Rome when disputes arose beteeen those two powers. He disliked the Jesuits and often sent complains about their actions destabilising the fragile religious tolerance in the Commonwealth.