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CZARTORYSKI, FRYDERYK MICHAL, PRINCE ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 722 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CZARTORYSKI, FRYDERYK MICHAL, See also:PRINCE (1696-1775) , See also:Polish statesman, was See also:born in 1696. Of small means and no position, he owed his See also:elevation in the See also:world to extraordinary ability, directed by an energetic but patriotic ambition. After a careful See also:education on the best See also:French See also:models, which he completed at See also:Paris, See also:Florence and See also:Rome, he attached himself to the See also:court of See also:Dresden, and through the See also:influence of See also:Count See also:Fleming, the leading See also:minister there, obtained the See also:vice-chancellorship of Lithuania and many other dignities. Czartoryski was one of the many Polish nobles who, when See also:Augustus II. was seriously See also:ill at Bialyvostok in 1727, signed the See also:secret See also:declaration guaranteeing the Polish See also:succession to his son; but this did not prevent him from repudiating his obligations when See also:Stanislaus Leszczynski was placed upon the See also:throne by the influence of See also:France in 1733• When Stanislaus abdicated in 1735 Czartoryski voted for Augustus III. (of See also:Saxony), who gladly employed him and his See also:family to counteract the influence of the irreconcilable Potokis. For the next See also:forty years Czartoryski was certainly the leading Polish statesman. In See also:foreign affairs he was the first to favour an See also:alliance with See also:Russia, See also:Austria and See also:England, as opposed to France and Prussia—a See also:system difficult to sustain and not always beneficial to See also:Poland or Saxony. In Poland Czartoryski was at the See also:head of the party of reform. His See also:palace was the See also:place where the most promising See also:young gentlemen of the See also:day were educated and sent abroad that they might return as his coadjutors in the See also:great See also:work. His See also:plan aimed at the restoration of the royal See also:prerogative and the abolition of the liberum See also:veto, an abuse that made any durable improvement impossible. These patriotic endeavours made the Czartoryskis very unpopular with the ignorant szlachta, but for many years they had the See also:firm and See also:constant support of the Saxon court, especially after See also:Bruhl succeeded Fleming. Czartoryski reached the height of his See also:power in 1752 when he was entrusted with the great See also:seal of Lithuania; but after thatdate the influence of his See also:rival Mniszek began to prevail at Dresden, whereupon Czartoryski sought a reconciliation with his See also:political opponents at See also:home and foreign support both in England and Russia.

In 1.755 he sent his See also:

nephew Stanislaus See also:Poniatowski to St See also:Petersburg as Saxon minister, a See also:mission which failed completely. Czartoryski's See also:philo-See also:Russian policy had by this See also:time estranged Bruhl, but he frustrated all the plans of the Saxon court by dissolving the diets of 1760, 1762 and 1762. In 1763 he went a step farther and proposed the dethronement of Augustus III., who died the same See also:year. During the ensuing See also:interregnum the prince See also:chancellor laboured See also:night and day at the See also:convocation See also:diet of 1764 to reform the constitution, and it was with displeasure that he saw his incompetent nephew Stanislaus finally elected See also:king in 1765. But though disgusted with the weakness of the king and obliged to abandon at last all See also:hope of the amelioration of his See also:country, Czartoryski continued to hold See also:office till the last; and as chancellor of Lithuania he sealed all the See also:partition See also:treaties. He died in the full See also:possession of his faculties and was considered by the Russian minister See also:Repnin " the soundest head in the See also:kingdom." It is a See also:mistake, however, to regard Czartoryski as the See also:sole reforming statesman of his day, and despite his great services there were occasions when the See also:partisan in him got the better of the statesman. His foreign policy, moreover, was very vacillating, and he changed his " system " more frequently perhaps than any contemporary diplomatist. But when all is said he must remain one of the noblest names in Polish See also:history. See the See also:Correspondence of Czartoryski in the Collections of the Russian See also:Historical Society, vols. 7, to, 13, 48, 51, 67 (St Petersburg, 189o, &c.) ; Wladyslaw Tadeusz Kisielewski, Reforms of the Czartorysccy (Pol.) (Sambor, 188o) ; See also:Adalbert Roepell, Polen um See also:die Mitte See also:des X VIII. Jahrhunderts (See also:Gotha, '876); Jacques See also:Victor See also:Albert de See also:Broglie, Le Secret du roi (Paris, 1878) ; Antoni Waliszewki, The Potoccy and the Czartorysccy (Pol.) ; Carl Heinrich Heyking, Aus Polens and Kurlands letzten Tagen (See also:Berlin, 1897) ; Ludwik Denbicki, Pulawy (Pol.) (See also:Lemberg, 1887-1888). (R.

N.

End of Article: CZARTORYSKI, FRYDERYK MICHAL, PRINCE (1696-1775)

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