Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Red (Polish Rudy, Lithuanian: Radvila Rudasis; 1512 – 28 April 1584), was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman who served as the voivode of Vilnius, Grand Chancellor of Lithuania (since 1566), and Grand Lithuanian Hetman (1553–1566 and since 1576) in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Together with his cousin Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black and the Radziwiłł family, they were granted title and position as Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
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Life
His father was Jerzy Radzwiłł, called "Victor", a Lithuanian hetman. His mother was Barbara Kolanka, daughter of voivode of Podolia Paweł Kola, a representative of a wealthy Małopolska family. His sisters were Anna and Barbara, later the wife of Polish King Sigismund Augustus.
Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Red received, not the best, home education. His first language was Polish, which he used on a daily basis. He also knew Ruthenian, the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He read and wrote in both Polish and Ruthenian, although his handwritten letters are written in illegible and careless handwriting, indicating the magnate's low level of calligraphy. He did not know Latin, or knew it at a completely rudimentary level. The education was supplemented by service at the royal court in Kraków. Radziwiłł himself did not value university education highly, and did not send his sons to university, limiting their training to home education.
In 1532, Mikołaj was betrothed to the daughter of Grand Crown Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, Anna. The marriage never occurred, as the bride died in 1536 before reaching marriageable age. Mikołaj's first participation in public life was in the Lithuanian-Moscow War of 1534 at his father's side.