Founder of the House of Wiśniowieckie

Michał Zbaraski Wiśniowiecki,a prince, and founder of the Wiśniowieckie family. He was the eldest son of the prince Vasil Zbaraski. He took his name from the inherited village of Wiśniowiec.

In 1475, Michał (on behalf of himself and his other heirs of his father) was able to regain half of his property from his uncle Semen Zbaraski, who had jointly managed with Vasyl after the death of Sołtan (1472). In this district was Wiśniowiec. In 1478, this cannon was confirmed by all concerned: on the one hand, by Semen Zbaraski, and on the other by the widow of Vasyl Zbarasky, the unknown by name of Kniahinia Vasileva with his sons Michael, Semena and Fedor. The whole of the inheritance, including the part recovered from the uncle, took place in 1482. Michał and one of the Semens received the part obtained from his uncle, which they shared so that Wiśniowiec fell to Michał.

In 1490, Michał Zbaraski appears for the first time in the documents as a prince Mikhailo Wisznowiecki (witness in the trial in Kremenets). Since then, he has appeared in documents in which he gives his name as Wiśniowiecki (Wisznowiecki, Wisznewecki, Wiszniewiecki) (1511, 1512), and in the last of the aforementioned as a prince Michał Wasilewicz Wisznewecki and Zbarażski (1517). However, the royal law still calls him in the documents (grantings of villages and official writings) Zbaraski (Zbarażski) (1491, 1504, 1507, 1509, 1514).

Wiśniowiecki held the office of the governor of Bracław (formerly Ostrogski replacing the prince Andrzej Sanguszko). He took an active part in public life, together with other princes and masters, he judged the affairs of the Volhynian landowners. The areas of his estate were on the Tatar invasion route. In 1512, near Wiśniów, Polish troops under the command of both great hetmans, the crowned Mikołaj Kamieniecki and the Lithuanian Konstanty Ostrogski, broke up the Tatars. Wiśniowiecki took part in the battle with his sons Ivan and Alexander.

Michał Wiśniowiecki was also a participant in typical noble disputes. In 1511, he was accused by the nobleman of Dawidowski of an armed invasion, and in 1512, together with his sons and hetman Ostrogski, he claimed Kuczuku after the fall of the current nobles.

He expanded his possessions, receiving several grants from the king, and in 1514 he received for eternity Brahinia, in which almost 100 years later Dmitry Samozwaniec appeared at the court of Wiśniowiecki.

The last time Michał Zbaraski Wiśniowiecki appeared in a document in 1517, taking part in the courts.

He probably had two wives, Tatyana of Połubiński, daughter of Jan of the Novgorod voivode, the second unknown by name and origin. With Tatyana he had a son Alexander (the first of the older, so-called royal Wiśniowiecki line), Jan the courtier and Theodore. With his second wife he had three sons, the princes of Ivan (the first of the younger Wiśniowiecki line), Fedka and Fedora.