December 23, 1750: Birth of Friedrich August I of Saxony

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Confederation of the Rhine, Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, Elector Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, King Stanislas II Augustus of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen of Saxony

From the Emperor’s Desk: In this post I will be just dealing with how Friedrich August became King of Saxony. I will also reference his marriage and other family connections.

Friedrich August I (December 23, 1750 – May 5, 1827) was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 (as Friedrich August III) and as King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was also Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1815.

Throughout his political career Friedrich August tried to rehabilitate and recreate the Polish state that was torn apart and ceased to exist after the final partition of Poland in 1795. However he did not succeed, for which he blamed himself for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, his efforts at reestablishing an independent Polish nation did endear him to the Polish people.

Family Background

Friedrich August was the second (but eldest surviving) son of Friedrich Christian, Elector of Saxony and Maria Antonia Walpurgis, Princess of Bavaria, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria and Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria who became Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII between 1742 and 1745.

Because he was underage at the time of his father’s death in 1763, Elector Friedrich August III’s mother served as Regent until 1768. His uncle, Prince Franz Xavier, functioned as his representative. Through his father’s side, he was descended from two kings of Poland, and through his mother’s side Siemowit, the first confirmed duke of Poland.

Friedrich August I, King of Saxony

Renunciation of the Polish throne

In 1765 Prince Franz Xavier ceded the Polish throne to Stanislas II Augustus on behalf of the underage Elector. However, when a Polish Constitution was ratified by the Polish Sejm Elector Friedrich August III was named successor to Stanislas II Augustus.

At the same time, the head of the Saxon Royal House was established as heir to the Polish throne (Article VII of the Polish Constitution). Elector Friedrich August III declined to accept the crown upon Stanislas II Augustus’s death in 1798, because he feared becoming entangled in disputes with Austria, Prussia and Russia, who had begun to partition Poland in 1772.

In fact, a full partition of Poland among the neighboring powers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia had already taken place by 1795.

Foreign policy up to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire

In August 1791, Elector Friedrich August III arranged a meeting with Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle. The move was intended partly to offer support for the French monarchy in the face of revolutionary agitation in France.

The Declaration of Pillnitz warned of the possibility of military action against the French revolutionary government, a provocation that provided the latter with grounds to declare war on Austria in April 1792. Friedrich August III himself did not sign the Declaration.

Saxony wanted nothing to do with the defensive alliance against France formed between Austria and Prussia. Nonetheless, a proclamation of the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire issued in March 1793, obliged Elector Friedrich August III to take part.

There was great concern in Saxony in April 1795 when Prussia suddenly concluded a separate peace with France in order to facilitate the partition of Poland. Saxony dropped out of the coalition against France in August 1796 after France had advanced east into the German lands and additional conditions for the Holy Roman Empire to conclude a separate peace were agreed.

Both the peace agreement with France and Saxony’s participation in the Congress of Rastatt in 1797 served to demonstrate Elector Friedrich August III’s loyalty to the conventional constitutional principles of the Holy Roman Empire. The Congress of Rastatt was supposed to authorize the surrender to France of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine in return for compensation for the rulers relinquishing territory.

However, at Rastatt and again in 1803 at the issuance of the Final Report of the Empire Delegation [the law of the Holy Roman Empire that laid out the new order of the Empire], Saxony refused to agree to territorial adjustments, since these were designed to benefit Bavaria, Prussia, Württemberg, and Baden.

Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, Queen of Saxony

Foreign policy until the peace with Napoleon

Elector Friedrich August III also did not participate in the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, which led to the final dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. With respect to the Prussian idea of a north German empire, within which Saxony was supposed to be raised to a kingdom, he appeared reserved.

However, after September 1806, in response to the Berlin Ultimatum, which demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the left bank of the Rhine, Napoleon advanced as far as Thuringia. At that point, Friedrich August III joined with Prussia.

However, at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 Napoleon inflicted a crushing defeat on the Prusso–Saxon troops. The Prussian government and army then withdrew headlong to the east. Friedrich August III, left without any information concerning Prussian intentions, and with Napoleon’s troops about to occupy Saxony, was forced to conclude peace.

On December 11, 1806 in Poznań a treaty was signed by authorized representatives of both sides. According to its terms, Saxony was forced to join the Confederation of the Rhine and to surrender parts of Thuringia to the recently organized Kingdom of Westphalia.

As compensation, Saxony was given the area around Cottbus and was raised to the status of a kingdom alongside the Confederation states of Bavaria and Württemberg. Elector Friedrich August III of Saxony became King Friedrich August I of Saxony.

Marriage

In Mannheim on January 17, 1769 (by proxy) and again in Dresden on January 29, 1769 (in person), Friedrich August III married the Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, sister of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. During their marriage, Amalia gave birth to four children, but only one daughter, Princess Maria Augusta of Saxony (1782 – 1863) survived to adulthood.

Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld was the daughter of Count Palatine Friedrich Michael of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler and his wife, Countess Palatine Maria Francisca of Palatinate-Sulzbach.

Friedrich August and Amalie (being the sister of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria) were the Aunt and Uncle to the Bavarian Princesses that made important dynastic marriages with two of thier nieces marrying Kings of Saxony.

Maximilian I Joseph’s second wife was Caroline of Baden, eldest child of Charles Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Baden, and his wife Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Elisabeth Ludovika (“Elise”) (1801 – 1873) twin sister of Amalie Auguste. Married King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

Princess Amalie Auguste (1801 – 1877) twin sister of Elisabeth Ludovika. Married Johann I of Saxony.

Princess Marie Anne (1805 – 1877) twin sister of Sophie. Married King Friedrich August II of Saxony.

Princess Sophie (1805 – 1872) twin sister of Marie Anna. Married Archduke Franz Charles of Austria, mother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.

Princess Ludovika (1808 – 1892), married Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria. They were the parents of
Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary.

August 16, 1573: Archduchess Anne of Austria, Queen of Poland and Sweden. Part I.

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Archduchess Anne of Austria, Archduke Charles II Franz of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, House of Habsburg, House of Vasa, Kingdom of Poland, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria, Sigismund III of Poland and Sweden

Archduchess Anne of Austria (August 16, 1573 – February 10, 1598) was Queen of Poland and Sweden as the first consort of King Sigismund III Vasa.

Archduchess Anne was a daughter of Archduke Charles II Franz of Austria and ruler of Inner Austria (Styria, Carniola, Carinthia and Gorizia) from 1564. He was a member of the House of Habsburg. He was the third son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Anne of Bohemia and Hungary, daughter of King Vladislaus II of Hungary and his wife Anne of Foix-Candale.

Archduchess Anne’s mother was Maria Anna of Bavaria the daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria and Archduchess Anna of Austria, the third of fifteen children of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian Princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Archduchess Anne’s mother was an important supporter of the Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria, who gave her children an upbringing focused on Catholicism.

The siblings were made to attend church from the age of one, their first words were to be Jesus and Mary, they were tutored by Catholic priests, and Latin was to be a priority before their native German language. As a child, Anna was called “Andle”, and she was taught to translate Ribadeneyra’s Vita Ignatii Loyolæ from Latin to German. Outside of Latin and Catholicism, she was mainly tutored in household tasks such as sewing and cooking.

Marriage

In 1577, the Papal envoy to Sweden, Possevino, suggested that the children of King Johan III of Sweden be married to children of the Habsburg dynasty. This was in a period when Sweden was close to a Counter-Reformation under Johan III and his Polish queen Catherine Jagiellon.

The Pope gave his approval to the idea of a marriage alliance between Habsburg and Sweden in the persons of Anne and Sigismund, as did the Polish king and queen, and when visiting Graz in 1578, Possevino acquired a portrait of Anne to bring with him on his next visit to the Swedish court.

Soon after, however, a new proposal was made to arrange a marriage between Anne and Henri of Lorraine to prevent French expansion in Lorraine, and for a while, these plans were given priority. In 1585, Anne accompanied her parents to the Imperial court in Vienna and Prague, unofficially to investigate a possible marriage to her cousin the Emperor, but those plans did not come to fruition either.

In 1586-1587, when Prince Sigismund of Sweden was elected King of Poland, his maternal aunt, Queen Anna Jagiellon, resummed the old plans of a marriage between Sigismund and Anne. Anne’s parents, however, still preferred the match with Henri of Lorraine, especially because of the political instability in Poland, the opposition of chancellor Jan Zamoisky and Archbishop Maximilian’s desire for the Polish crown.

In 1589, the Polish court opted for Maria Anna of Bavaria instead. In 1591, however, the Emperor finally decided that a marriage to Sigismund would be the match for Anne which would best benefit the Habsburg dynasty. Count Gustaf Brahe was sent as an envoy to Graz, other formalities were negotiated by Sigismund’s favorite cardinal Georg Radziwil, and Anne, who was personally unwilling, was told to obey the Emperor’s command.

In April 1592, the betrothal was formally celebrated in the Imperial Court in Vienna; on May 4, a proxy wedding was celebrated, after which Anna and her mother departed for the wedding in Krakow. Anne became the first wife of King Sigismund of Poland on May 31, 1592. This marriage was opposed by many szlachta (nobles) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, who were opposed to the alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs that Sigismund pursued.

When Sigismund sent Cardinal Radziwill to Prague for his bride, the anti-Habsburg party with chancellor Jan Zamoyski guarded the borders to prevent the Archduchess from entering the country. Anne evaded the guards, arrived in Kraków, and was crowned in May 1592 by Primas Karnkowski as the Queen of Poland. Later, during her lifetime, the capital of the Commonwealth was moved from Kraków to Warsaw.

January 18, 1701 ~ Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg, Crowns himself King Friedrich I in Prussia in Königsberg.

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Augustus the Strong, Duchy of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Emperor Leopold, Frederick I of Prussia, Frederick III of Brandenburg, Holy Roman Empire, King in Prussia, Kingdom of Poland

Friedrich I. ( July 11, 1657 – February 25, 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Friedrich III) Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia (1701–1713).

Born in Königsberg, he was the third son of Friedrich Wilhelm, The Great Elector of Brandenburg by his father’s first marriage to Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau, eldest daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. His maternal cousin was King William III of England.

Upon the death of his father on 29 April 1688, Friedrich became Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia. Right after ascending the throne Friedrich founded a new city southerly adjacent to Dorotheenstadt and named it after himself, the Friedrichstadt.

The Hohenzollern state was then known as Brandenburg-Prussia. The family’s main possessions were the Margraviate of Brandenburg within the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Prussia outside of the Empire, ruled as a personal union.

Although he was the Margrave and Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Prussia, Elector Friedrich III desired the more prestigious title of king. However, according to Germanic law at that time, no kingdoms could exist within the Holy Roman Empire, with the exception of the Kingdom of Bohemia which belonged to the Holy Roman Emperor of the House of Habsburg.

Friedrich persuaded Emperor Leopold I to allow Prussia to be elevated to a kingdom by the Crown Treaty of November 16, 1700. This agreement was ostensibly given in exchange for an alliance against King Louis XIV of France and Navarre in the War of the Spanish Succession, along with the provision of 8,000 Prussian troops to Leopold’s service.

Friedrich argued that Prussia had never been part of the Holy Roman Empire, (it was once a fief of the Kingdom of Poland) and he ruled over it with full sovereignty. Therefore, he said, there was no legal or political barrier to letting him rule it as a kingdom.

Friedrich crowned himself on January 18, 1701 in Königsberg. Although he did so with the Emperor’s consent, and also with formal acknowledgement from Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony, who held the title of King of Poland, the Polish-Lithuanian Diet (Sejm) did raise objections, and viewed the coronation as illegal.

In fact, according to the terms of the Treaty of Wehlau and Bromberg, the House of Hohenzollern’s sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia was not absolute but contingent on the continuation of the male line (in the absence of which the duchy would revert to the Polish crown). Therefore, out of deference to the region’s historic ties to the Polish crown, Friedrich made the symbolic concession of calling himself “King in Prussia” instead of “King of Prussia”.

His sovereignty was, in any case, limited to Prussia and did not reduce the rights of the Emperor in the portions of Friedrich’s domains that were still part of the Holy Roman Empire.

In other words, while he was a king in Prussia, he was still only an Imperial Elector of Brandenburg under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Legally, the Hohenzollern state was still a personal union vested in Friedrich who now was both Elector of Brandenburg and the King in Prussia. In other words, Brandenburg and Prussia we’re not politically united as a singular state.

However, in practice and reality, at the time Friedrich crowned himself as King in Prussia, the Emperor Leopold’s authority over the Electorate of Brandenburg (and the rest of the Empire itself) was only nominal, and it soon came to be treated as part of the Prussian Kingdom rather than as a separate entity. His grandson, Friedrich II the Great, was the first Prussian king formally to style himself “King of Prussia” (from 1772 onwards).

With the rise of the Prussian Kingdom, and with the Habsburg Emperors generally only having authority within their native hereditary lands such as the Archduchy of Austria, began a rivalry for the supremacy of the entirety of Germany.

The Act of 5th November of 1916

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Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hun, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Kingdom of Poland, Partition of Poland, Polish Lithuania Commonwealth, President Woodrow Wilson, Stanisław II August of Poland, World War I

The Act of 5th November of 1916 was a declaration of Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of territory of Congress Poland, envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers. The origin of that document was the dire need to draft new recruits from German-occupied Poland for the war with Russia. Even though the act itself expressed very little in concrete terms, its declaration is regarded as one of main factors in the Polish efforts to regain independence. Despite official statements, the German Empire really planned to annex up to 30,000 km² of prewar Congress Poland, with expulsion of between 2 and 3 million Poles and Jews out of these territories to make room for German settlers.

Following the declaration, on December 6, 1916, the Provisional Council of State was created, with Waclaw Niemojowski as its president, and Jozef Pilsudski as chairman of its Military Commission. Units of the Polish Military Organisation were put under management of the Provisional Council of State, but the council itself had very limited authority and, after the oath crisis was disbanded in August 1917.

Stanisław II August, Last King of an independent Poland

The Act of 5th November had a wide impact among the Allies of World War I. In December 1916, the Italian Parliament supported the independence of Poland, and in early 1917, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia returned to the idea of independent Poland, tied in a union with the Russian Empire that Russian officials proposed already in 1914. At the same time, US President Woodrow Wilson also publicly expressed his support of a free Polish state.

Stanisław II August (January 17, 1732 – February 12, 1798) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The defining crisis of his reign was the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772) that led to the First Partition of Poland (1772). The later part of his reign saw reforms wrought by the Diet (1788–1792) and the Constitution of May 3, 1791. These reforms were overthrown by the 1792 Targowica Confederation and by the Polish–Russian War of 1792, leading directly to the Second Partition of Poland (1793), and the Kościuszko Uprising (1794).

On October 24, 1795, the Act of the final, Third Partition of Poland was signed. One month and one day later, on 25 November, Stanisław II August signed his abdication and spent the last years of his life as a captive in Saint Petersburg’s Marble Palace.

Next week I will discuss more about the Kingdom of Poland (1916 – 1918)

First Two Marriages of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland

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Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, Barbara Radziwiłł, Bona Sforza, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland, Polish Lithuania Commonwealth, Sigismund I the Old of Poland, Sigismund II Augustus of Poland

From the Emperor’s Desk: Before I conclude talking of the life of Archduchess Catherine of Austria I would like to discuss the two marriages of her husband King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland in order to put Catherine’s marriages to Sigismund in context and perspective.

Sigismund II Augustus (August 1, 1520 — July 7, 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the last male monarch from the Jagiellonian dynasty.

Sigismund Augustus was born in Kraków to Sigismund I the Old and his wife, Bona Sforza of Milan. His paternal grandparents were Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, and Elizabeth of Austria. Sigismund’s maternal grandparents, Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella of Aragon, daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples, both ruled the Duchy of Milan until Sforza’s suspicious death in 1494.

Throughout his youth, Sigismund Augustus was under the careful watch of his mother, Bona. Being the only legitimate male heir to the Polish throne throughout his father’s reign, he was well educated and taught by the most renowned scholars in the country. It was also his mother’s wish to name her only son Augustus, after the first Roman Emperor Gaius Octavius Augustus.

However, this decision was met with Sigismund the Old’s strong disapproval, who hoped for a lineage of Sigismunds on the Polish throne. Consequently, it was established that the child will bear two names to settle the conflict. The tradition of adopting Augustus as a second or middle name was also observed during the coronation of Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski who became King Stanisław II Augustus in 1764.

When Sigismund Augustus was co-crowned, Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki organized a preliminary marriage treaty between the young king and Elizabeth of Austria (1526 – 1545) the eldest of fifteen children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Anne of Bohemia and Hungary. The marriage was signed on November 10–11, 1530 in Poznań, however, the arrangement was delayed by Queen Bona Sforza, who detested the new bride.

The treaty was renewed on June 1,1538 in Wrocław by Johannes Dantiscus and the betrothal ceremony took place on July 17, 1538 in Innsbruck. Bona continued to lobby against the marriage and instead proposed Marguerite de Valois of France, the daughter of King François I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, to potentially form an alliance with the French against the Habsburgs.

On May 5, 1543, Elizabeth’s escorted convoy entered Kraków and was greeted with enthusiasm by both the nobles and the townsfolk. The same day 16-year-old Elizabeth married 22-year-old Sigismund Augustus, whom she met for the first time shortly before marriage vows. The ceremony was performed at the Wawel Cathedral and the wedding continued for two weeks.

Bona began to plot against the new queen. As a result, the newly wedded couple decided to reside in Vilnius, far from the royal court.
Despite the initial euphoria demonstrated by royal subjects, the marriage was unsuccessful from the very beginning. Sigismund Augustus did not find Elizabeth attractive and continued to have extramarital affairs with several mistresses, the most famous being Barbara Radziwiłł.

Elizabeth was also known to be timid, meek and apprehensive due to strict upbringing. The young and garrulous king was also repulsed by Elizabeth’s newly diagnosed epilepsy and subsequent seizures. Only Sigismund the Old and some nobles showed compassion towards the new Queen, who was disregarded by her husband and scorned by Bona.

Sigismund Augustus was indifferent to her health condition; when the seizures continued to intensify he abandoned Elizabeth and returned to Kraków to collect her dowry. He also sent for Ferdinand’s doctors to travel the long distance from Vienna knowing that Elizabeth was ailing and deteriorating fast. She eventually died unattended and exhausted from the epileptic attacks on June 15, 1545 at the age of 18.

Second marriage

From the outset of his reign, Sigismund II Augustus came into collision with the country’s privileged nobility, who had already begun curtailing the power of the great families. The ostensible cause of the nobility’s animosity to the King was his second marriage, secretly contracted before his accession to the throne, with the Lithuanian, Calvinist and former mistress, Barbara Radziwiłł, the daughter of Hetman Jerzy Radziwiłł. The marriage was announced by the king himself on February 2, 1548 in Piotrków Trybunalski.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwiłł by Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1553
The young and beautiful Barbara was despised by Queen Bona, who attempted to annul the marriage at any cost. The agitation was also abundant at Sigismund’s first Sejm (parliament) sitting on October 31, 1548 where the deputies threatened to renounce their allegiance unless the new king repudiated Barbara.

The nobles portrayed Barbara as an opportunistic prostitute that charmed the king for her own benefit. That perception was shared with Bona Sforza, who decisively eliminated all her rivals by any means to stay in power. The young monarch even considered abdicating.

By 1550, when Sigismund summoned his second Sejm, the nobles had begun to be in his favor; the nobility was rebuked by Marshal Piotr Kmita Sobieński, who accused them of attempting to unduly diminish the legislative prerogatives of the Polish Crown. Furthermore, Bona was removed from Wawel and sent to Mazovia where she established her own small courtly entourage.

Unlike her predecessor, Barbara was disliked by the royal court and led a more secluded life with Sigismund Augustus, who was deeply in love with her. On the other hand, she was ambitious, intelligent, perceptive and had an exemplar taste in fashion. She always wore precious pearl necklaces when sitting for portraits. The mutual admiration between Sigismund and Barbara made the relationship “one of the greatest love affairs in Polish history”. While still married to Elizabeth, Sigismund Augustus ordered the construction of a secret passage connecting the Royal Castle in Vilnius with the nearby Radziwiłł Palace so that the couple could meet frequently and discreetly.

Due to her unpopularity in Poland, Barbara often expressed her wish to reside permanently in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. To ease the situation, Sigismund Augustus provided a luxurious lifestyle and expensive gifts for his wife at Wawel Castle since her arrival in Kraków on February 13, 1549.

The monarch also granted Barbara several provinces to administer and provide income. Although ambitious and bright, she showed lack of interest in political life, but had some influence over decisions made by Sigismund. This also caused an uproar among the nobility. To avoid an armed rebellion, Sigismund was forced to form an alliance with his former father-in-law, Emperor Ferdinand I. This allowed for Barbara’s coronation as Queen of Poland on December 7, 1550 by Primate Mikołaj Dzierzgowski. Queen Bona eventually succumbed to her son’s demand and accepted the marriage.

Since the day Sigismund and Barbara met, she complained of poor health, particularly stomach and abdominal pain. After the coronation her condition deteriorated rapidly. She was tormented by strong fever, diarrhea, nausea and lack of appetite. After careful observation by hired medics, a lump was discovered on her stomach filled with pus.

Sigismund II Augustus gravely despaired and sent for doctors and even folk healers from the entire country. He personally tended to his sick wife despite her foul smell and dedicated himself when necessary; the king hoped to take Barbara to the hunting castle at Niepołomice and ordered to demolish the small city gate so her carriage could pass freely.

However, Barbara died on May 8, 1551 in Kraków after continuous pain and agony. It was her dying wish that she’d be buried in Lithuania, her homeland. The body was transported to Vilnius Cathedral, where she was finally buried on 23 June next to Elizabeth of Austria. Her death was a major blow to Sigismund; he often attended her coffin on foot while being transported to Vilnius in hot weather. Sigismund also became more serious and reserved; he avoided balls, temporarily renounced his mistresses and dressed black until death.

The cause of Barbara’s death is debatable. Her opponents and family members suggested sexually transmitted diseases due to a number of affairs she had before marrying Sigismund. There were also persistent rumors that she was poisoned by Queen Bona Sforza, who had a long history of eliminating her rivals or enemies quickly and efficiently. However, contemporary historians and experts agree on cervical or ovarian cancer.

September 1, 1647: Birth of Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark and Norway .

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Anna Sophia of Denmark, August III of Poland, Frederick III of Denmark and Norway, Holy Roman Empire, John George II of Saxony, John George III of Saxony, King of Norway, Kingdom of Poland

Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark and Norway ( September 1, 1647 – July 1, 1717) was the eldest daughter of King Frederik III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Electress of Saxony from 1680 to 1691 as the wife of Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony.

Anna Sophie was born in Flensburg, the second child and first daughter of Frederik III of Denmark and Norway and his wife, Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, daughter of Georg, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt.

In 1662, the negotiations about her marriage were initiated, and she met with Johann Georg of Saxony who visited the Danish court with his mother. In 1663, a celebration was held at Copenhagen Castle honouring the fifteen-year-old princess’s engagement to the future Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony, the only son of Johann George II and Magdalene Sybille of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.

She had an elder brother, Christian. Her paternal grandfather, King Christian IV, died when she was six months old, and after many months of deliberation, the Rigsraadet royal council and Estates elected her father king. He was crowned Frederik III on November 23, 1648. Her parents had six more children, two of whom died in infancy. Her surviving siblings were Frederica Amalia, Wilhelmina Ernestine, George, and Ulrika Eleonora.

Anna Sophie received a fine education. Besides her native Danish, she knew German, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian. She is described physically as having thick dark eyebrows and long curving nose. During her childhood, she as well as her sisters were brought up under the supervision of the royal governess Helena von Westphalen. In 1663, she was given her own court under Enevold Parsberg.

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Anna Sophia of Denmark and Norway

Johann Georg of Saxony and his mother once again visited Denmark in person to be present. Anna Sophie and Johann Georg were married three years later, on October 9, 1666. The Polish king John III Sobieski later said of her husband, “[He] is an honest man with a straight heart.”

The relationship between Anna Sophie and Johann Georg is not described as a happy one. Her husband also had an illegitimate son by his official mistress, a Venetian opera singer named Margarita Salicola, and may have had a daughter, Magdalena Sibylla of Neidschutz, with Ursula Margarethe of Haugwitz. Both her sons were initially brought up by Danish ladies-in-waiting sent to Dresden by her mother. The relationship between Anna Sophie and her two sons are described as somewhat tense.

Anna Sophie’s father died on February 9, 1670 and was succeeded by her elder brother, Christian V, with whom she held a very active correspondence and discussed political matters. She visited Denmark that year and expressed her sympathy for the imprisoned Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, her half aunt.

In 1680, Anna Sophie became Electress of Saxony when her husband became the Elector Johann Georg III of Saxony. Her widowed sister Wilhelmina Ernestine, Dowager Electress Palatine, came to live with her in Saxony in 1685. Anna Sophie had her eldest son engaged to her niece, Princess Sophia Hedwig of Denmark against the will of the Saxon court; however, when her son succeeded his father as elector in 1691, he broke the engagement.

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Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony

Dowager Electress

Her husband died in 1692 in Tübingen of an epidemic illness, probably cholera or the plague, and was buried in the Cathedral of Freiberg. The next year, Anna Sophie attempted to end the love affair between her elder son, then Elector Johann Georg IV, and his mistress, Magdalene Sibylle “Billa” of Neidschutz, with whom he had been living openly since his father’s death.

Her late husband had tried to break up the couple, perhaps motivated by fears that a close blood relationship existed between the lovers—for Billa may have been his own daughter by Ursula Margarethe of Haugwitz, and therefore John George IV’s half-sister. John George IV was either ignorant of the possibility that he and Billa were committing incest, or he disregarded the claim as a malicious rumor.

Anna Sophie forced her son into marrying Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach, a German noblewoman, and the eldest child of Johann Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, and Johannetta of Sayn-Wittgenstein. but the marriage proved a disastrous failure. Johann Georg IV not only abandoned his bride, leaving her at the Hofe (the official residence of the Elector) to be with his mistress at another palace, but eventually tried to murder her so he could marry Billa.

Anna Sophie brought up her grandson Friedrich August, born on October 17, 1696, the only child of her second son and his estranged, self-exiled wife, Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.

The boy would one day succeed his father as King August III of Poland. Anna Sophie and her daughter-in-law got on well, both women agreeing especially on matters of religion, and Eberhardine visited her son often.

In her later years, Anna Sophie lived with her sister Wilhelmina Ernestine at Castle Lichtenburg. She died in Prettin.

May 7, 1553: Birth of Prince Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia

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Albert Frederick of Prussia, Brandenburg-Prussia, Duchy of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, House of Hohenzollern, Joachim-Friedrich, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Maria Eleanor of Cleves

Albrecht-Friedrich (May 7, 1553 – August 28, 1618) was the Duke of Prussia, from 1568 until his death. He was a son of Duke Albrecht of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and Anna Marie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the daughter of Duke Eric I of Brunswick-Calenberg (1470–1540) and Elizabeth of Brandenburg (1510–1558). He was the second and last Prussian duke of the Ansbach branch of the Hohenzollern family.

Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia

Duke of Prussia

Albrecht-Friedrich became Duke of Prussia after paying feudal homage to his cousin, the King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, on July 19, 1569 in Lublin. The homage was described by the Polish chronicler Jan Kochanowski in his work Proporzec (“Standard”). During the 1573 Polish election, Albrecht-Friedrich attempted to gain acceptance to the Polish senate but was opposed by the powerful Jan Zamoyski (later Grand Hetman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland) who feared the influence of Protestants in the Polish legislative body.

Albrecht-Friedrich initially refused to recognize the election of Stefan Bathory and supported the candidacy of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II of Austria to the Polish throne. However, at the Toruń sejm of October 1576 he gave his support to the new monarch.

As the great grandson of the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, and as a Duke in Prussia who was fluent in Polish, Albrecht-Friedrich was himself seriously considered for a time as a possible candidate for the Polish throne. He particularly enjoyed the support of Polish Lutherans.

Marriage

Albert-Friedrich was married in 1573 to Marie Eleonore of Cleves, a daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and Archduchess Maria of Austria (1531–1581). Archduchess Maria was a daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Marie Eleonore of Cleves was also the niece of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

Marie Eleonore of Cleves

While Marie Eleonore’s her father was a Reform Catholic, she was of a strong willed character and displayed firm Lutheran sympathies early on. Her father was afraid that she would influence her younger sisters with her religious views, and therefore wished to have her married to someone of her own religious convictions as soon as possible in order to remove her from his domains, and thus considered grooms for his daughter that he would not otherwise have considered. Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia, was thus accepted as a suitor, despite showing mental disorders.

In 1572 he began to exhibit signs of mental disorder. In early 1578, the regency was taken over by his cousin, Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1539–1603). After Georg-Friedrich death in 1603, the Polish King Sigismund III Vasa appointed Joachim-Friedrich as regent in 1605, and permitted his son, Johann-Sigismund, to succeed him in 1611. The latter became Duke of Prussia after Albrecht-Friedrich’s death in 1618.

With Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach taking over the regency of the Duchy of Prussia, this made the position of Marie Eleonore more difficult at the Ducal court of Köningsberg. In 1591, she returned with her daughters to Jülich, where she remained until 1592. She arranged the marriage of her daughters to German princes to avoid them being married by the regency council to Polish suitors, and by the marriage alliances she arranged, she ensured that the Duchy of Julich would come to the Brandenburg after the death of her brother.

Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

Here is a list of the children of Albrecht-Friedrich of Prussia and Marie Eleonore of Cleves and their spouses:

1. Anna of Prussia (1576 – 1625). Married Johann-Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg.
2. Marie of Prussia (1579 – 1649). Married Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
3. Albrecht-Friedrich of Prussia (1 June 1580 – 8 October 1580).
4. Sophie of Prussia (1582 – 1610). Married Wilhelm Kettler of Courland.
5. Eleanor of Prussia (1583 – 1607). Married Joachim-Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg.
6. Wilhelm-Friedrich of Prussia (1585 – 1586).
7. Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia (1586 – 1659). Married John George I, Elector of Saxony.

Since neither of Albrecht-Friedrich’s two sons survived until adulthood, at his death on August 28, 1618, the Duchy of Prussia passed to his son-in-law Johann-Sigismund, Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg, combining the two territories under a single dynasty and forming Brandenburg-Prussia. This new State of Brandenburg-Prussia would be the foundation upon on which both the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire were built.

This date in History: November 24, 1764, Coronation of Stanislaw II Augustus, the last King of Poland.

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Augustus III of Poland, Cathereine the Great, Catherine II of Russia, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland, Partition of Poland, Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth, Russian Empire, Stanislaw August, Stanislaw II Augustus of Poland, Stanisław Poniatowski

Stanisław II Augustus (also Stanisław August Poniatowski, January 17, 1732 – February 12, 1798), who reigned as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, was the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He remains a controversial figure in Polish history. Recognized as a great patron of the arts and sciences and an initiator and firm supporter of progressive reforms, he is also remembered as the King of the Commonwealth whose election was marred by Russian intervention. He is criticized primarily for his failure to stand against the partitions, and thus to prevent the destruction of the Polish state.

He was one of eight surviving children and fourth son of Princess Konstancja Czartoryska and of Count Stanisław Poniatowski, Ciołek coat of arms, Castellanof Kraków. He was a great-grandson of the poet, courtier and alleged traitor, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn and through his great-grandmother, Catherine Gordon, lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, he was related to the House of Stuart and thereby connected to the leading families of Scotland, Spain and France. The Poniatowski family had achieved high status among the Polish nobility (szlachta) of the time.

In 1750, he travelled to Berlin where he met a British diplomat, Charles Hanbury Williams, who became his mentor and friend. In 1751, Poniatowski was elected to the Treasury Tribunal in Radom, where he served as a commissioner. He spent most of January 1752 at the Austrian court in Vienna. Later that year, after serving at the Radom Tribunal and meeting King Augustus III of Poland, he was elected deputy of the Sejm (Polish parliament).

Young Catherine the Great

In Saint Petersburg, Williams introduced Poniatowski to the 26-year-old Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeievna, the future Empress Catherine II the Great. The two became lovers. Whatever his feelings for Catherine, it is likely Poniatowski also saw an opportunity to use the relationship for his own benefit, using her influence to bolster his career. Poniatowski had to leave St. Petersburg in July 1756 due to court intrigue. Through the combined influence of Catherine, that of Russian Empress Elizabeth and of chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Poniatowski was able to rejoin the Russian court now as ambassador of Saxony the following January. Still in St. Petersburg, he appears to have been a source of intrigue between various European governments, some supporting his appointment, others demanding his withdrawal He eventually left the Russian capital on August 14, 1758.

In 1762, when Catherine ascended the Russian throne, she sent him several letters professing her support for his own ascension to the Polish throne, but asking him to stay away from St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, Poniatowski hoped that Catherine would consider his offer of marriage, an idea seen as plausible by some international observers. He participated in the failed plot by the Familia to stage a coup d’état against King Augustus III. In August 1763, however, Catherine advised him and the Familia that she would not support a coup as long as King Augustus III was alive.

Upon the death of Poland’s King Augustus III October 5, 1763, lobbying began for the election of the new king. Catherine threw her support behind Poniatowski. The Russians spent about 2.5m rubles in aid of his election. Poniatowski’s supporters and opponents engaged in some military posturing and even minor clashes. In the end, the Russian army was deployed only a few miles from the election sejm, which met at Wola near Warsaw. In the event, there were no other serious contenders, and during the convocation sejm on September 7, 1764, 32-year-old Poniatowski was elected king, with 5,584 votes. He swore the pacta conventa on November 13, and a formal coronation took place in Warsaw on November 25. The new King’s “uncles” in the Familiawould have preferred another nephew on the throne, Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, characterized by one of his contemporaries as débauché, sinon dévoyé (in French: debauched if not depraved), but Czartoryski had declined to seek office.

“Stanisław II Augustus”, as he now styled himself combining the names of his two immediate royal predecessors, began his rule with only mixed support within the nation. It was mainly the small nobility who favoured his election. In his first years on the throne he attempted to introduce a number of reforms. He founded the Knights School, and began to form a diplomatic service, with semi-permanent diplomatic representatives throughout Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

In the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772), Poniatowski supported the Russian army’s repression of the Bar Confederation. In 1770, the Council of the Bar Confederation proclaimed him dethroned. The following year, he was kidnapped by Bar Confederates and was briefly held prisoner outside of Warsaw, but he managed to escape. In view of the continuing weakness of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Austria, Russia, and Prussia collaborated to threaten military intervention in exchange for substantial territorial concessions from the Commonwealth – a decision they made without consulting Poniatowski or any other Polish parties.

Although Poniatowski protested against the First Partition of the Commonwealth (1772), he was powerless to do anything about it. He considered abdication, but decided against it. During the Partition Sejm of 1773–1775, in which Russia was represented by ambassador Otto von Stackelberg, with no allied assistance forthcoming from abroad and with the armies of the partitioning powers occupying Warsaw to compel the Sejm by force of arms, no alternative was available save submission to their will. Eventually Poniatowski and the Sejm acceded to the “partition treaty”.

In July 1792, when Warsaw was threatened with siege by the Russians, the king came to believe that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat. Having received assurances from Russian ambassador Yakov Bulgakov that no territorial changes would occur, a cabinet of ministers called the Guard of Laws (or Guardians of Law, Polish: Straż Praw) voted eight to four in favor of surrender. On July 24, 1792, Poniatowski joined the Targowica Confederation.

The Polish Army disintegrated. Many reform leaders, believing their cause lost, went into self-exile, although they hoped that Poniatowski would be able to negotiate an acceptable compromise with the Russians, as he had done in the past. Poniatowski had not saved the Commonwealth, however. He and the reformers had lost much of their influence, both within the country and with Catherine. Neither were the Targowica Confederates victorious. To their surprise, there ensued the Second Partition of Poland. With the new deputies bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, the Grodno Sejm took place. On 23 November 1793, it annulled all acts of the Great Sejm, including the Constitution. Faced with his powerlessness, Poniatowski once again considered abdication; in the meantime he tried to salvage whatever reforms he could.

Poniatowski’s plans had been ruined by the Kościuszko Uprising. The King had not encouraged it, but once it began he supported it, seeing no other honourable option. Its defeat marked the end of the Commonwealth. Poniatowski tried to govern the country in the brief period after the fall of the Uprising, but on December 2, 1794, Catherine demanded he leave Warsaw, a request to which he acceded on January 7, 1795, leaving the capital under Russian military escort and settling briefly in Grodno.

On 24 October 1795, the Act of the final, Third Partition of Poland was signed. One month and one day later, on 25 November, Poniatowski signed his abdication. Reportedly, his sister, Ludwika Maria Zamoyska and her daughter also his favourite niece, Urszula Zamoyska, who had been threatened with confiscation of their property, had contributed to persuading him to sign the abdication: they feared that his refusal would lead to a Russian confiscation of their properties and their ruin.

Catherine died on November 17, 1796, succeeded by her son, Paul I of Russia. On February 15, 1797, Poniatowski left for Saint Petersburg. He had hoped to be allowed to travel abroad, but was unable to secure permission to do so. A virtual prisoner in St. Petersburg’s Marble Palace, he subsisted on a pension granted to him by Catherine. Despite financial troubles, he still supported some of his former allies, and continued to try to represent the Polish cause at the Russian court. He also worked on his memoirs.

Poniatowski died of a stroke on February 12, 1798. Emperor Paul I sponsored a royal state funeral, and on 3 March he was buried at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. In 1938, when the Soviet Union planned to demolish the Church, his remains were transferred to the Second Polish Republic, and interred in a church at Wołczyn, his birthplace. This was done in secret, and caused controversy in Poland when the issue became known. In 1990, due to the poor state of the Wołoczyn Church (then in the Byelorussian SSR), his body was once more exhumed and brought to Poland, to St. John’s Cathedral in Warsaw, where, on May 3, 1791, he had celebrated the adoption of the Constitution that he had co-authored. A final funeral ceremony was held on February 14, 1995.

On this date in History: May 30, 1574. Death of King Charles IX of France.

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Charles IX of France, Duke of Anjou, Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth of Austria, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Henry III of France, Henry IV of France, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Poland, Kings and Queens of France, Mary Queen of Scots, Philip II of Spain

On this date in History: May 30, 1574. Death of King Charles IX of France and the accession of his brother, the Duke of Anjou, as King Henri III of France.

King Charles IX of France

Born Prince Charles Maximilian de Valois, third son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici, in the royal chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and styled Duke of Angoulêm from birth, he was created Duke of Orléans after the death of his older brother Louis, his parents’ second son, who had died in infancy on October 24, 1560.

King Henri II died on July 10, 1559, and was succeeded by his eldest son, King Francis II (who married Mary I, Queen of Scots on April 6, 1558). After Francis II’s short rule, (Francis II died December 5, 1560) the ten-year-old Charles Maximilian was immediately proclaimed King Charles IX of France. When Francis II died, the Privy Council appointed his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, as governor of France (gouvernante de France), with sweeping powers, at first acting as regent for her young son. On May 15, 1561, Charles IX was consecrated in the cathedral at Reims. Prince Antoine of Bourbon, himself in line to the French throne and husband to Queen Joan III of Navarre, was appointed Lieutenant-General of France.

On November 26, 1570 Charles IX married Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria of Spain (daughter of Carl V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, and Isabella of Portugal). With her flawless white skin, long blond hair and perfect physique, Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was considered one of the great beauties of the era. She was also regarded as demure, pious, and warmhearted but naive and intensely innocent because of her sheltered upbringing.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria

Very early, around 1559, a match between Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria and the future King Charles IX of France was suggested. In 1562, the Maréchal de Vieilleville, a member of the French delegation sent to Vienna, after seeing the eight-year-old princess, exclaimed: “Your Majesty, this is the Queen of France!“. Although Vieilleville was not entitled to make an offer, Elisabeth’s grandfather, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, appeared interested: gifts were exchanged and contacts initiated between the two courts — but no one bothered to teach French to the young princess.

In 1559, after the failure of marriage plans with King Frederik II of Denmark and Prince Sebastian of Portugal, the French offer was seriously considered. Catherine de’ Medici, mother of Charles IX, and the power behind the throne, initially preferred Elisabeth’s elder sister Anna; but the latter was already chosen as the new wife of her uncle King Felipe II of Spain. Catherine de’ Medici finally agreed to the marriage with the younger Elisabeth, as France absolutely needed a Catholic marriage in order to combat the Protestant party, the Huguenots, as well as to cement an alliance between the Habsburg and the French Crown. Charles IX and Elizabeth of Austria failed to produce a male heir and the king and queen produced one daughter on October 27, 1572, born in the Louvre Palace. The child was named Marie Elisabeth after her grandmother, Empress Maria, and Queen Elizabeth I of England, who were her godmothers. In 1573, Charles IX fathered an illegitimate son, Charles, Duke of Angoulême, with his mistress, Marie Touchet.

Most of Charles IX ‘s nearly fourteen year reign was dominated by religious wars. After decades of tension, war broke out between Protestants and Catholics after the massacre of Vassy in 1562. In 1572, after several unsuccessful peace attempts, Charles ordered the marriage of his sister Margaret of Valois to King Henri III of Navarre (the future King Henri IV of France), a major Protestant nobleman who was in the line of succession to the French throne, in a last desperate bid to reconcile his people. Facing popular hostility against this policy of appeasement, Charles allowed the massacre of all Huguenot leaders who gathered in Paris for the royal wedding at the instigation of his mother Catherine de’ Medici. This event, known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, was a significant blow to the Huguenot movement, though religious civil warfare soon began anew. Charles sought to take advantage of the disarray of the Huguenots by ordering the Siege of La Rochelle, but was unable to take the Protestant stronghold.

In the aftermath of the massacre, the king’s fragile mental and physical constitution weakened drastically. His moods swung from boasting about the extremity of the massacre to exclamations that the screams of the murdered Huguenots kept ringing in his ears. Frantically, he blamed alternately himself – “What blood shed! What murders!”, he cried to his nurse. “What evil counsel I have followed! O my God, forgive me… I am lost! I am lost!” – or his mother – “Who but you is the cause of all of this? God’s blood, you are the cause of it all!” Catherine responded by declaring she had a lunatic for a son.

Charles’ physical condition, tending towards tuberculosis, deteriorated to the point where, by spring of 1574, his hoarse coughing turned bloody and his hemorrhages grew more violent.

On his last day, Charles IX called for King Henri III of Navarre, embraced him, and said, “Brother, you are losing a good friend. Had I believed all that I was told, you would not be alive. But I always loved you… I trust you alone to look after my wife and son. Pray God for me. Farewell.”

King Henri III of France

The previous year, May 16, 1573, Polish nobles chose Henri, Duke of Anjou, brother of King Charles IX, as the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Charles IX died on May 30, 1574, at the Château de Vincennes, aged twenty-three years and was succeeded by his brother as King Henri III of France. upon learning of the death of his brother Henri left Poland and headed back to France. Henri’s absence provoked a constitutional crisis that the Polish Parliament attempted to resolve by notifying Henri hat his throne would be lost if he did not return from France by May 12, 1575. His failure to return to Poland caused Parliament to declare his throne vacant.

Final Abdication of King Stanislaus I of Poland

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August II of Poland, August III of Poland, Carl XII of Sweden, Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Poland, Louis XV of France., Peter the Great of Russia, Stanislaus I of Poland

On this date in History: Final abdication of King Stanislaus I of Poland, January 27, 1736.

Stanislaus I (October 20,1677 – February 23, 1766) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Lorraine and a count of the Holy Roman Empire. Reigned as King of Poland.

Stanislaus was born, Stanislaus Leszczyński, into a powerful magnate family of Greater Poland. Because of his family’s great wealth this gave him the opportunity to travel to western Europe in his youth. In 1702 King Carl XII of Sweden invaded Poland as part of a continuing series of conflicts between the powers of northern Europe. Carl XII forced the Polish nobility to depose Poland’s king, Augustus II the Strong, and then placed Stanisław on the throne on October 4, 1704.

In 1709 Carl XII was defeated by the Russians, under Czar Peter I the Great, at the Battle of Poltava and returned to Sweden. In the absence of Swedish support, former king Augustus II returned to Poland and regained the Polish throne. Stanislaus left the country to settle in the French province of Alsace. In 1725 Stanisław’s daughter Marie Leszczyńska married King Louis XV of France.

When Augustus II died in 1733, Stanisłaus sought to regain the Polish throne with the help of French support for his candidacy. Stanislaus’ son-in-law Louis XV supported his claims to the Polish throne which led to the War of the Polish Succession.

In September 1733, Stanislaus himself arrived at Warsaw, having traveled night and day through central Europe disguised as a coachman. On the following day, despite many protests, Stanislaus was duly elected King of Poland for the second time. However, Russia was opposed to any nominee of France and Sweden. Russia protested against his election at once, in favor of the new Elector of Saxony, Friedrich-August II, (son of Augustus II of Poland) as being the legitimate candidate of her Austrian ally.

After Friedrich-August II of Saxony was proclaimed King August III of Poland at Warsaw, a Russian army of 20,000 under Peter Lacy, proceeded to besiege Stanislaus at Danzig where he was entrenched with his partisans (including the Primate and the French and Swedish ministers) to await the relief that had been promised by France.

On May 20, 1735 the long-expected French fleet appeared and disembarked 2,400 men on Westerplatte. A week later, this little army bravely tried to force the Russian entrenchments, but was finally compelled to surrender. This was the first time that France and Russia had met as foes in the field. On 30 June 1735, Danzig capitulated unconditionally, after sustaining a siege of 135 days which cost the Russians 8,000 men.

Disguised as a peasant, Stanisłaus fled Poland and reappeared at Königsberg where he briefly met the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia. While at Königsberg he issued a manifesto to his partisans which resulted in the formation of a confederation on his behalf. A Polish envoy was sent to Paris to urge France to invade Saxony with at least 40,000 men. In Ukraine too, Count Nicholas Potocki kept on foot to support Stanislaus a motley host of 50,000 men, which was ultimately scattered by the Russians.

On January 27, 1736, Stanisław again abdicated the throne, but received in compensation the Duchy of Lorraine and of Bar for life, which was to revert to France on his death. In 1738, he sold his estates of Rydzyna and Leszno to Count (later Prince) Alexander Joseph Sułkowski. He settled at Lunéville, founded there in 1750 both the Académie de Stanislas and Bibliothèque municipale de Nancy, and devoted himself for the rest of his life to science and philanthropy, engaging most notably in controversy with Rousseau. He also published Głos wolny wolność ubezpieczający, one of the most important political treatises of the Polish Enlightenment.

Stanisłaus was still alive when his great-great-granddaughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, was born in 1762. She was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II and his wife Princess Isabella de Bourbon-Parma (herself the daughter of Princess Louise Élisabeth of France who, in turn, was the granddaughter of King Stanislaus). In his last years, his close friend, the Hungarian-born Marshal of France Ladislas Ignace de Berchenylived on his estate to provide company.

Stanislaus Leszczyński died in 1766, aged 88 as a result of serious burns – his silk attire caught fire from a spark while the King was snoozing near the fireplace in his palace in Lunéville. He was medically treated for several days but died of wounds on 23 February. He was the longest living Polish king.

Originally buried in the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours, Nancy, following the French Revolution his remains were brought back to Polandand buried in the royal tomb of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.