Czetwertyński family

According to the family's legend, the progenitor of the family is the Grand Prince of Kiev, Sviatopolk II.[1] The first documented member of the family is Oleksander Chetvertynsky, who is mentioned in 1388.[2] The family was accepted into the princely houses of Poland and Lithuania in 1569 and their Russian title of prince was confirmed in 1843.[3]

In 1492, Prince Fedir Mykhailovych Chetvertynsky was the Lithuanian-Ruthenian ambassador to Wallachia.[2] Over time, the family were Polonized and Catholicized, but some members remained adherent to the Eastern Orthodox religion.[2]

Prince Stepan Sviatopolk-Chetvertynsky (1575–1659) played a key role in re-establishing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1620.[2] His son Mykola Sviatopolk-Chetvertynsky (?–1659) was a relative of the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, Ivan Vyhovsky.[2]

Two of the most notable representatives of the family were Hedeon Zakharovych Svyatopolk-Chetvertynsky, the Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and all Little Russia in 1685–90,[2] and Antoni Stanislaw's daughter Marie, who was Alexander I of Russia's mistress and had children by him. A nephew of Hedeon, Yurii Sviatopolk-Chetvertynsky (?-c. 1717–22), was a son-in-law of the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, Ivan Samoylovych.[2]

After Antoni Stanisław Czetwertyński-Światopełk was lynched in 1794 by Polish nationals in Warsaw during the Kościuszko Uprising,[4] his family resettled in Saint Petersburg, in the Russian Empire. It received major land grants from Catherine the Great, such as the manor of Filimonki near Moscow.

By royal decree of King Albert II of Belgium,[5] two members (both sons of Prince Michel Felix Swiatopelk-Czetwertynski) were recognised in the Belgian nobility with the rank of Prince, for them and their male-line descendants.

• Alexandre Wladimir (Alex), Prince Swiatopelk-Czetwertynski (Ukkel, 27 December 1975), married to Christine Renée Harrington
• Constantin Nicolas (Tinko), Prince Swiatopelk-Czetwertynski (Brussels, 20 February 1978), a portrait and fashion photographer known as "Tinko Czetwertynski",[6] married to model and product designer Princess Paola Maria Sapieha-Rozanska (London, 27 April 1983)[7]

The family used the Pogoń Ruska coat of arms.

• 
  Smaller coat of arms of the Czetwertyński family used in the 16th century
• 
  Pogoń Ruska

• Antoni Stanisław Czetwertyński-Światopełk
• Gedeon Chetvertinsky, became a first Metropolitan of Kiev appointed by Moscow in 1685
• Seweryn Franciszek Światopełk-Czetwertyński

• 
  Palace in Żołudek
• 
  Czetwertyńsk Palace in Grodno
• 
  Uruski Palace in Warsaw, inherited in 1931 from Countess Maria Uruska herbu Sas, youngest child of Count Seweryn Uruski herbu Sas (1817–1890); the palace now forms the University of Warsaw

• Swiatopolk-Czetwertynski family website
• Genealogia książąt Czetwertyńskich i Sokolskich