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STANISLAUS II

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 776 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STANISLAUS II . See also:AUGUSTUS [See also:PONIATOWSKI] (1732-1798), See also:king of See also:Poland, the son of Stanislaw Poniatowski, See also:palatine of See also:Cracow, the friend and See also:companion of See also:Charles XII. of See also:Sweden. See also:Born in 1732 he owed his advance in See also:life to the See also:influence of his uncles the powerful Czartoryscy, who sent him to St See also:Petersburg in the See also:suite of the See also:English See also:ambassador Hanbury See also:Williams. Subsequently, through the influence of the See also:Russian See also:chancellor, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, he was accredited to the Russian See also:court as the ambassador of See also:Saxony. Through Williams he was introduced to the See also:grand duchess See also:Catherine, who was irresistibly attracted to the handsome and brilliant See also:young nobleman, for whom she abandoned all her other lovers. Poniatowski was concerned in the mysterious and disreputable See also:conspiracy which sought to set aside the See also:succession of the grand See also:duke See also:Peter and his son See also:Paul in favour of Catherine, a conspiracy frustrated by the unexpected recovery of the empress See also:Elizabeth and the consequent See also:arrest of the conspirators. Stanislaus returned to See also:Warsaw much discredited, but nevertheless was (See also:Sept. 7, 1764) elected king of Poland through the overwhelming influence of Catherine (she had promised him the See also:crown as See also:early as See also:October 1763), and was crowned on the 25th of See also:November, to the disgust of his uncles, who would have preferred another See also:nephew, See also:Prince See also:Adam Casimir Czartoryscy, as king, but were obliged to submit to the dictation of the Russian court. The best that can be said for Stanislaus as king of Poland is that with all his romantic ideas and excellent intentions he remained from first to last the creature of circumstances. He had climbed to the See also:throne by very slippery ways, he was dependent for a considerable See also:part of his enormous income on the woman who had compensated him with a crown for the loss of her affections, he was detested by the See also:nobility, who regarded him as a See also:base-born upstart and yet had to put up with him. Thus in every way his position was most difficult; yet he tried to do his See also:duty. Iir the beginning of his reign he See also:broke away from the leading-strings of his uncles and inaugurated some useful economical reforms.

After the first See also:

partition (as a result of which, by the way, his debts amounting to 7,000,000 guldens were paid by the See also:Diet and his See also:civil listwas raised to 216,000 guldens per annum) he entered enthusiastically into the attempts of the patriots to restore the See also:power and prosperity of their See also:country, while the eloquent oration which he delivered before the Diet on taking the See also:oath to defend the constitution of the 3rd of May 1791, moved the susceptible deputies to tears. But when the See also:confederation of Targowica, with the See also:secret support of See also:Russia, was formed against the constitution, he was one of the first to accede to it, thus completely paralysing the See also:action of the See also:army which, under his younger See also:brother Prince See also:Joseph and Thaddeus See also:Kosciuszko, was performing prodigies. In fact, by the end of his life, Stanislaus had become an See also:expert in the See also:art of " acceding " and " hedging. " Of resolute and See also:independent action he was quite incapable; in fact, his whole career is little more than a See also:record of humiliations. Thus in 1782 when he waited upon Catherine at Kaniow during her triumphal progress to the See also:Crimea, she kept her See also:ancient, See also:grey-haired See also:lover waiting for See also:weeks, and while See also:half contemptuously promising to respect the integrity of Poland, she curtly declined to be See also:present at a supper which he had prepared for her at See also:great cost. A few years later he was forcibly abducted by the Confederates of See also:Bar, who did not know what to do with their See also:captive, and allowed him to return to his court in a confused, bedraggled See also:condition. On the outbreak of the insurrection of 1794 he was obliged to See also:sue for his very life to Kosciuszko, and suffered the indignity of seeing his effigy expunged from the coinage a See also:year before he was obliged to abdicate his throne. The last years of his life were employed in his sumptuous See also:prison at St Petersburg (where he died in 1798) in See also:writing his See also:memoirs. Of his innumerable mistresses the most notable was Mme Lullie, the widow of an See also:upholsterer, on whom he lavished a See also:fortune. He also contracted a secret See also:marriage with the countess Grabowska. Yet he was capable of the most romantic friendships, as See also:witness his See also:correspondence with Mme See also:Geoffrin, whom he invited to Warsaw, where on her arrival she found rooms provided for her exactly like those she had See also:left at See also:Paris—the same See also:size, the same See also:kind of carpets, the same See also:furniture, down even to the very See also:book which she had been See also:reading the evening before her departure, placed exactly as she had left it with a marker at the very See also:place where she had left off. Stanislaus had indeed a generous See also:heart, frequently paid the debts of his See also:friends or of deserving scholars whose cases were brought to his See also:notice, and was exceedingly See also:good to the poor.

He also encouraged the arts and sciences, and his Wednesday See also:

literary suppers were for some See also:time the most brilliant social functions of the See also:Polish See also:capital. The best description of Stanislaus is by the See also:Swedish See also:minister Engestrom, who was presented to him early in 1788. " The king of Poland, " he says, " has the finest See also:head I ever saw, but an expression of deep See also:melancholy detracts from the beauty of his countenance.... He is broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and of such lofty stature that his legs seem disproportionately See also:short. . . . He has all the dazzling qualities necessary to sustain his dignity in public. He speaks the Polish, Latin, See also:German, See also:Italian, See also:French and English See also:tongues perfectly . . . and his conversation fills strangers with admiration. . . . As a grand-See also: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 See also:women.

" See Lars von Engestrom, Minnen och Anteckningar, vol. i. (Stock-holm, 1876) ; Correspondance inedite de Stanislas Poniatowski aver Madame Geoffrin (Paris, 1875) ; See also:

Jan Kibinski, Recollections of the Times of Stanislaw Augustus (Pol. Cracow, 1899) ; Memoires secrets et inedits de Stanislas Auguste (See also:Leipzig, 1862) ; Stanislaw and Prince Joseph Poniatowski in the See also:Light of their Private Correspondence, in French, edited in Polish by Bronisiaw Dembinski (See also:Lemberg, 1904), Stanislaus's diaries and letters, which were for many years in the Russian See also:foreign See also:office, have been published in the Vestnik Evropy for See also:January 1908. See also R. N. See also:Bain's, The Last King of Poland and his Contemporaries (1909). (R. N.

End of Article: STANISLAUS II

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