Michał Piekarski

As the illness systematically progressed, Piekarski was temporarily isolated and forbidden from rightfully managing his estates at Binkowice in southeastern Poland where he was most likely born.

[3] In May 1610, when king Henry IV of France was successfully assassinated by François Ravaillac, Piekarski, then still a young man, decided to kill Sigismund III of Poland.

[4] Rumours circulated that it was the Radziwiłł magnate family who played a pivotal role in attempting to murder the king due to religious persecution and their fervent support for Protestantism.

[4] When the cortege approached the end of the corridor, Piekarski leaped out and stabbed the monarch twice using a czekan (light war axe), firstly in the back and then in the cheek, and striking him in the arm.

[5] The assassination attempt quickly became a major event; chaos erupted when false rumours spread that the king had been murdered as his clothes were stained in blood.

The Parliament ordered the confiscation of his estates; the repugnance of the magnates towards Piekarski was so great that his native village of Binkowice was to be sacked and burned to the ground.