M Moires Secrets Et in Dits de Stanislas Auguste Comte Poniatowski: Dernier Roi de Pologne, Relatifs Ses Raports Intimes Avec L'Imp Ratrice Catherine II Et Son AV Nement Au Trone. Journal Priv Du Roi Stanislas Auguste Pendant Son Voyage En Russie
Stanisław August Poniatowski (also Stanisław II August) was the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764-1795). He remains a controversial figure in Polish history. Recognized as a great patron of the arts and sciences and a supporter of progressive reforms, he is also remembered as the last king of the Commonwealth, the one who failed to prevent its destruction.
Background
Stanisław August Poniatowski (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski) was born on 17 January 1732 at Volchyn (Wolczyn), a small town in Brest district (now in the Kamenets district of the Brest Region). He was a descendant of Poniatowski magnate family, related to Czartoryski family. He was the son of Stanislaw, an influential politician and castellan of Krakow, and Konstancja née Czartoryska. He spent the first few years of his childhood in Gdańsk; afterward, his family moved to Warsaw.
Stanisław August Poniatowski was brought up in the environment close to the highest circles of power of Rzeczpospolita and since his youth was connected to the Czartoryski Familia, a very influential grouping in Rzeczpospolita. He travelled a lot, visiting England, Holland, France, and Germany and was under a strong influence of the European Enlightenment ideas.
Education
Stanisław Poniatowski got an excellent home formation and later a proper education. He was educated by his mother, then by private tutors, including Russian ambassador Herman Karl von Keyserling. He graduated from the Collegium of the Theatine order in Warsaw.
Career
In 1755-1764 Stanisław Poniatowski held an honorary post of Stolnik (Steward) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1755-1756 and in 1757-1758 he was in Saint Petersburg, first as the secretary of the English Embassy and then as the Ambassador of Saxony and Rzeczpospolita.
After the death of Augustus III, the King of Poland, in 1763, Catherine and the Czartoryskis nominated Stanisław Poniatowski for the election to the post. That was a well thought-out scheme, based on the knowledge of the future monarch’s personality. They needed an obedient person at the head of the state. The Russian Empress expected a new king to be subordinate to her and expected joining Western Belarus and Western Latvia to the Russian Empire in exchange for her support. Backed by the Russian troops, Stanisław Poniatowski was elected King at the Election Seym on September 6, 1764. After his election, he took the name of Augustus and did not intend to be anybody’s weak-willed puppet. He thought his mission to be a reformer of Rzeczpospolita and tried to convince his powerful protectress of the expediency of his plans.
The first years of his reign were rather quiet. There was even an impression that the revival of Rzeczpospolita began. Together with the Czartoryskis, his kins, Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski was pursuing the policy of reforms, consolidating the state power, limiting liberum veto, (the right to veto any decision of Seym by a single vote), trying to become independent of Russia. The reforms undertaken by Stanislaw Augustus consolidated the state but alarmed Russia and Prussia. Poniatowski’s inconsistency and indecisiveness changed the adoration by the population to the hostility toward the King, whose power was controlled by Russia. In 1768 Catherine II imposed on Rzeczpospolita a treaty excluding any change of its state system. In response, wide circles of szlachta declared the Confederation of Bar, an armed union, which came out for the independence of the country as well as against the King and his protectress. The Russian troops defeated the Cofederation thus paving the way for the first partition of Rzeczpospolita (1772). Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski, who owed his power once again to the Russian bayonets, was against the partition. He appealed to royal courts of Europe but no state agreed to help. Facing the risk of the opposition from magnates he was leaning for support on Russian Ambassador Otto Stakelberg, in agreement with whom he wanted to consolidate his power and pursue necessary reforms.
With the surge of patriotic feelings of the peoples of Rzeczpospolita facing the loss of the statehood, Stanislaw August gradually managed to consolidate his power. There was established the Permanent Council, a central body of executive power with the King at the head. The Hetman’s power became limited and the troops were placed under the command of the King. Resolutions aimed at the development of industry and trade, at the improvement of the legal status of town residents were adopted. During the Four-Year Seym of 1788-1792, Poniatowski joined the patriotic section; he supported the reformers and contributed to the radical change of the political system. The Seym undertook numerous and profound reforms, resulted in the Constitution of May 3,1791. Poniatowski was its co-author. Many magnates were against the Constitution. In 1792 they formed the Confederation of Targowica, which promoted the occupation of the country by the Russian troops. The reforms were stopped. The King joined the Confederation of Targowica. The capitulatory mood of Stanislaw Augustus, his behaviour during the Hrodna Seym of 1793, when he agreed to the second partition of Rzeczpospolita, cast a shadow on his 30-year-long reign.
The uprising of 1794 led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko frightened Stanisław Poniatowski, who worried about his future, and his belief in Kosciuszko’s noble character was his only hope for the positive outcome. He was deprived of power, though officially, he retained the throne. After the start of the uprising, his influence on public affairs reduced to a minimum. After the uprising was suppressed, he was ordered by Catherine II to move to Hrodna where he got the news of the third partition of Rzeczpospolita. On November 25, 1795 he had under the pressure of Catherine II to abdicate in her favour after a brief negotiation (primarily concerning the payment of the royal debts). That act ceased officially the existence of both Rzeczpospolita.
Deprived of power, Stanisław Poniatowski lived in Hrodna under surveillance, in the New Castle with the status of an honorary prisoner. In 1796 he was invited by Paul I to come to St. Petersburg, where he got the pension assigned by Catherine II. The last years of his life he lived in luxury in the capital of Russia. He left behind big debts and memoirs. The memoirs were published in 1914-1916 by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Stanisław Poniatowski died in Saint Peterburg and was buried in the Church of St. Catherine. In 1938 his remains were handed over to Polish authorities and. Were re-buried in the Trinity Church at Volchin, his birthplace, and on July 11, 1995 the remains were laid to rest at the Warsaw Cathedral of St. Jan, but not in the Cathedral on Wawel Hill in Krakow where Polish kings were buried.
Achievements
Stanisław Poniatowski founded the Warsaw National Theatre, the first Polish public theatre, and sponsored many of its expenses, actors and an associated ballet school. Stanisław Poniatowski was deeply involved with the details of the architectural projects, and his eclectic style became known as the "Stanisław Augustus style", a term coined by Polish art historian Władysław Tatarkiewicz. His chief architects included Domenico Merlini and Jan Kamsetzer.
Stanisław Poniatowski was also a patron of numerous painters, many of them on personal retainer. They included Poles Anna Rajecka, Franciszek Smuglewicz, Jan Bogumił Plersch, Józef Wall and Zygmunt Vogel, as well as foreign painters, namely Marceli Bacciarelli, Bernardo Canalatto, Jean Pillement, Ludwik Marteau and Per Krafft the Elder. His retinue of sculptors was led by Andrzej Le Brun, and included Giacomo Monaldi, Franciszek Pinck and Tommaso Righi. Jan Filip Holzhaeusser was his court engraver and designer of many commemorative medals.
According to a 1795 inventory, his art collection, spread throughout numerous buildings, contained 2, 889 pieces, including ones by Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck and others. His plan to create a large painting gallery in Warsaw was interrupted by the dismembering of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; nonetheless, most of the paintings he ordered can now be seen at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. Stanisław Poniatowski also planned to fund an Academy of Fine Arts, but this dream was also never realized.
Stanisław Poniatowski accomplished much in the realm of education and literature. He established the School of Chivalry (also called the "Corps of Cadets"), which functioned from 1765 to 1794 and whose alumni included Tadeusz Kościuszko; he supported the creation of the Commission of National Education, considered to be the world's first Ministry of Education.
In 1765 Stanisław Poniatowski helped found the Monitor, one of the first Polish newspapers and the leading periodical of the Polish Enlightenment. He sponsored many articles that appeared in the Monitor (and perhaps even wrote some himself). Writers and poets who received his patronage included Stanisław Trembecki, Franciszek Salezy Jezierski, Franciszek Bohomolec and Franciszek Zabłocki. He also supported publishers, including Piotr Świtkowski, and library owners such as Józef Lex.
Stanisław Poniatowski supported the development of the sciences, particularly cartography; he hired a personal cartographer (Karol de Perthees) even before his election as king. A plan he initiated to map the entire territory of the Commonwealth, however, was never finished. At the Royal Castle in Warsaw, he organized an astronomical observatory and supported astronomers Jan Śniadecki and Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt. He also sponsored historical studies, including the collection, cataloging and copying of historical manuscripts. He encouraged publications of biographies of famous Polish historical figures, and sponsored their paintings and sculptures.
During his reign Stanisław Poniatowski expanded considerably his library, his art and numismatic collections, which he started to form before he took the throne.The court library contained about twenty thousand books and manuscripts. A large part of his library and numismatic collection were acquired later for the Lyceum in Kamieniec, Ukraine, and after its closure they were taken to the Kiev University. At present the collections are at the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Stanisław Poniatowski may have been the most important patron of the arts of the Polish Enlightenment. His political goals included the overthrow of the myth of the Golden Freedoms and the reform of the backward culture of sarmatism, and many of his artistic projects aimed to eradicate the negative qualities he associated with them.
Membership
For his contributions to the arts and sciences, Stanisław Poniatowski was awarded membership in 1766 to the Royal Society, where he was the first royal member outside the British royalty. In 1778, he was awarded membership to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1791 to the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
Royal Society
,
United Kingdom
1766
Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
,
Russian Federation
1778
Berlin Academy of Science
,
Germany
1791
Personality
Stanisław Poniatowski did not have many friends in his teenage years; instead, he developed a fondness for books, which continued throughout his life. He had indeed a generous heart, frequently paid the debts of his friends or of deserving scholars whose cases were brought to his notice, and was exceedingly good to the poor. Stanisław Poniatowski was considered a great orator and a skilled conversationalist.
Quotes from others about the person
The best description of Stanislaus is by the Swedish minister Engestrom, who was presented to him early in 1788: "The king of Poland has the finest head I ever saw, but an expression of deep melancholy detracts from the beauty of his countenance... He is broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and of such lofty stature that his legs seem disproportionately short... He has all the dazzling qualities necessary to sustain his dignity in public. He speaks the Polish, Latin, German, Italian, French and English tongues perfectly. . . and his conversation fills strangers with admira- 'don... As a grand-master of the ceremonies, he would have done the honours most brilliantly. . . . Moral courage he altogether lacks and allows himself to be completely led by his entourage, which for the most part consists of women."
Interests
arts, sciences
Politicians
Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski, Charles Hanbury Williams
Connections
In Saint Petersburg, Stanisław Poniatowski got acquainted with Grand Duchess (later Tsarina) Catherine, who made him one of her favourites and bore him a daughter. He could not resist the spell of that extraordinary woman till the end of his life.
Stanisław Poniatowski was never married. In his youth, he had loved his cousin Elżbieta Czartoryska, but her father August Aleksander Czartoryski disapproved because he did not think him influential or rich enough. When this was no longer an issue, she was already married. His pacta conventa specified that he should marry a Polish noblewoman, although he himself always hoped to marry into some royal family.
Upon his accession to the throne, Stanisław Poniatowski had hopes of marrying Catherine II, writing to her on 2 November 1763 in a moment of doubt, "If I desired the throne, it was because I saw you on it. " When she made it clear through his envoy Rzewuski that she would not marry him, there were hopes of an Austrian archduchess.
Of his innumerable mistresses, the most notable was Mme Lullie, the widow of an upholsterer, on whom he lavished a fortune. He also contracted a secret marriage with the countess Grabowska. Yet Stanisław Poniatowski was capable of the most romantic friendships, as witness his correspondence with Mme Geoffrin, whom he invited to Warsaw, where on her arrival she found rooms provided for her exactly like those she had left at Paris - the same size, the same kind of carpets, the same furniture, down even to the very book which she had been reading the evening before her departure, placed exactly as she had left it with a marker at the very place where she had left off.
Father:
Stanisław Poniatowski
Stanisław Poniatowski was a Polish military commander, diplomat, and noble. Throughout his career, Poniatowski served in various military offices, and was a general in both the Swedish and Polish-Lithuanian militaries. He also held numerous civil positions, including those of podstoli of Lithuania and Grand Treasurer of the Lithuanian army in 1722, voivode of the Masovian Voivodeship in 1731, regimentarz of the Crown Army in 1728, and castellan of Kraków in 1752. Throughout his lifetime, he served in many starost positions.
Grand Prince of Lithuania, King of Poland, Stanisław August, by the grace of God and the will of the people, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Duke of Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Podlasie, Livonia, Smolensk, Severia and Chernihiv
