"Uncrowned kings"

The cycle "Uncrowned kings" is devoted to the families of nobility in Podillia and Bratslavshchina of XV - XVIII centuries. They were elite of Ukraine of Middle Ages. Beginning of the middle of XIV century when the Podolian lands were joined to the great Lithuanian principality, those families got there the great influence and political authority. In historical literature they are traditionally hold Lithuanian - Russian aristocracy, though there are not so many Lithuanians among them. Ancient Ukrainian and Belorussians families and the families of small landowners dominated. They had to assimilate the territories near the Bug and the Dniester in the difficult circumstances of Border lands, they had to defend those lands from the militant neighbors, to build fortresses and to defend commercial ways. In those time the military and organizing abilities of the Ostrozkis, the Kmitys, the Sangushkis, the Zbarazkis, the Koretskis and the Chartoriyskis were shown.

From the middle of XVIth century, after Lublin Union, the representatives of Polish magnate families moved on the territories of Bratslavshchina. They got there the territories of the Head as a gift from the king; besides they occupied nearly all main posts in Podolian and Bratslav provinces. They were governors, judges and so on. They headed the armed forces of Rich Pospolita. The representatives of those families worked in different ways but we should appreciate their input in the history of our land. So, we are going to tell about such Polish magnate families as the Pototskis, Kalinovskis, Jablonovskis, Yazlovetskis, Branitskis, Lubomirskis, Konetspolskis, Lantskorontskis and Zamoyskis and their relations with Podillia and Bratslavshchina.