The first ancestor of Korwin Slepovron Krasinski's family was a Roman knight, who, called out by a foreign chief of noted size, strength, and bravery to fight a deadly duel with him, slew him, and took a golden ring from his finger in the presence of both armies. As during the fight a raven was seen near him, he was called from that time CorAin (Korwin), which means raven (Kruk), and which name he transmitted to his descendants. He died at the age of a himdred years. From Italy that family went to Hungary. Valerius Messalus Corvinus conquered that province for the Romans in the reign of Tiberius Caesar. There are still in Dalmatia and Raguza some splendid buildings, public documents, and historical reminiscences associated with that family.
The mother of Holy Szczepan, king of Hungary, was a Corvin. To that family also belonged the celebrated Hungarian warrior, John Huniad Corvin, whose son Mathias was elected to the throne of Hungary. For political reasons the latter's natural son emigrated to Poland, and settling among his relatives there, became the progenitor of the youngest branch of the Krasinski family; while at the same time, another Krasinski went from Poland to the court of King Mathias, who acknowledged him as his relative, and satisfied with his courage and ability, liberally rewarded him for his services, and then allowed him to return to his country. These two branches were much mixed by intermarriages, and the youngest branch is extinct. The Hungarian Korwins are also, I have heard, in all probability extinct, though many years ago they claimed their share of succession in Poland. There was a time when some Hungarian Korwins were staying among the Polish Korwins, and some Polish Korwins were staying among the Hungarian Korwins. From Hungary that family passed to Poland, and settled in the duchy of Mazovia, which, before its annexation to the kingdom of Poland, in the reign of Sigismundus I., in 1537, was an independent principality.
Antecedent to the year 1224, Conrad, the old Duke of Mazovia (Konrad Stary), at the request of Vavrzenta Corvin (Wawrzeta Korwin), who first removed from Hungary to Poland, permitted the latter to add to his original surname the title of his estate, Slepovron, which means a crow. The above Wawrzeta Korwin married Dorothy Pobozanka, a Polish heiress, who to wealth and beauty joined great amiability of character. Her husband had a daughter to whom he was attached, and whose personal attraction was daily increasing; his lady, however (Pobozanka), instead of being jealous of her, paid so much attention to her, and overwhelmed her with so much kindness that she gained her friendship for life; while Wawrzeta Korwin, wishing to give a mark of his particular regard to his wife, adopted legally her coat of arms, and put them under his own, which he transmitted to his descendants: a case scarcely ever known in Poland. Under the raven with a golden ring in its beak, he placed a silver horseshoe in a blue field, which was originally red, on account of the blood spilt by his ancestor's vanquished antagonist. He left two sons, and divided among them his estates; the law of primogeniture never having prevailed in Poland. The oldest who took his mother's estate, retained the blue field in his coat of arms; the youngest reverted to the red field. In some documents and title deeds it is half red and half blue, or entirely red or blue, though the armorial bearings are the same.
Slavomir Korwin was the first who, from the estate called Krasne, transmitted him by his father, took the name of Slawomir Korwin Slepowron Krasinski, in 1337. His descendant, Stanislas Krasinski, palatine of Plock (pronounced Plotsk), who visited Africa and travelled over all Europe, left, by two wives, five daughters and ten sons. He was raised to the dignity of a foreign coimt, which title was inherited by his progeny (Vide Konstytucye Xwa Mazovieckiego).
Among all the above mentioned descendants of Korwin Krasinski's family, none was more noted for his knowledge and influence than Francis, the bishop of Cracow, who was several times sent as an ambassador from the Polish clergy to the pope, Paul IV., and by whose exertions the ultimate imion of the Grand Duchy of Litvania with Poland was accomplished in 1569, in the reign of Sigismundus Augustus. He was the latter king's confessor, and was always opposed to religious persecutions, in fasliion in his time.
After him, setting aside some good generals, none was equal in wisdom, craft, and knowledge to Coimt Adam Ij-asinski, the bishop of Kamienietz, who signed the confederation of Bar, the 29 th of February, 1768.