A series of other mentions of Łado or Łada are present in the correspondence of the various Polish and Lithuanian nobles with the Polish King during the time of the so-called Executionist Sejm (legislative gathering – if you want more context, read Robert Frost’s “The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union 1385-1569” which is volume 1 of the Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania). These letters include:

• A letter dated Tuesday, the 14th December 1563
• A letter dated Friday, the 21st of January, 1564

On the one hand these are late but on the other they signal that the Name was still known and used in songs and sayings, kind of like lelum polelum which probably from the Castor-Pollux pair of Lalki – Alcis became a wistful exclamation in  drinking songs.

These letters (which appear to have been written to the Polish king – Sigismund Augustus) were published (by Adam Tytus Działyński) in 1856-1861 as the “Written Sources Regarding the Union of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Part II” (Źródłopisma do Dziejów Unii Korony Polskiej i W.X. Litewskiego: Część II) (oddly, only parts II and III seem to exist).

Adam Tytus Działyński

December 1563 Letter

This letter contains a reference to a song which mentions Łado. Interestingly this song is attributed by the writer of the letter to Jakub Uchański (1502 – 1581) the later Primate of Poland. He was born in Uchanie (Radwan coat of arms) in the Lublin area but was subsequently a bishop of Chełm (German Kulm) and it was then that he was sent with an embassy to the royal court and, apparently, sang a song the text of which is cited in this letter. The contents of the letter are not particularly relevant to the topic but I include the full letter for completeness or context.

Jakub Uchański

The text is as follows:

Polish: “Łado, łado. Będzie to z łaski miłego Pana Boga łado, nam wszem wiernym W.K.M. poddanym…”

English: “Łado, Łado. Let this be [come] from the grace of the Dear Lord Łado, for all of us your royal highness’ faithful servants…”

This is the Uchański tombstone in Łowicz with his coat of arms (Radwan).

January 1564 Letter

The contents of this letter are also not particularly relevant for our purposes but the sentence underlined below essentially states that because things went so splendidly that day:

Polish: “…tak że się prędko rozjachać możemy, ono nasze stare Łado zaśpiewawszy…”

English: “…we may quickly depart having [first] sang our old Łado…”

This letter may be by Stanisław Orzechowski.

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