The Rise To Power

Slav Origins:

Most Scholars agree that the original Slav homeland lay within the boundaries of modern Poland in the Odra (Oder) and Wisla (Vistula) basins. The Slavs subsequently expanded into territories to the east, south and west and became increasingly differentiated until, by AD 800, three main geographical and linguistic divisions had arisen; the East Slavs inhabiting a large part of European Russia, the South Slavs who settled in the Balkan Peninsula, and the West Slavs who settled in what is now Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

The West Slavs suffered different fates; the Lusatians and Veleti were absorbed by German expansion, the Czechs and Moravians merged to form the nucleus of the Czech Kingdom, whilst the Slovaks became part of the kingdom of Hungary. The remaining tribes, including the Polanie, Wislanie, Pomorzanie and the Mazovians, joined together (in time) to form the Polish State.

Foundation: 966-1138.

The Polish Baptism of 966 came about as a result of the concerns of Mieszko, or Mieczyslaw I, chief of the Polanie, raised by the establishment of the German Empire of Otto I (962). He decided to marry Dobrava, the daughter of Boleslav I of Bohemia, and accepted Christianity for himself and his people, thus preserving their independence. In 1000, at the Congress of Gniezno an independent Polish Church organisation was set up with the agreement of Otto III, but formed according to the Czech, rather than German, system. Thus the Polish Church could turn directly to Rome, and the Pope, for protection and would not fall under the influence of the Germans.

The Coronation of Boleslaw Chrobry (the Brave) As the first king of Poland, in 1024, established Poland's right as an independent kingdom.

Disintegration and Reunification: 1138 - 1370.

In 1138 the Testament of Boleslaw III shattered the precarious unity of Poland by dividing the realm among Boleslaw's sons. This was the start of 150 years of dynastic struggle, in which the Church played a vital role in maintaining some semblance of national unity.

In 1226, Duke Konrad of Mazovia invited the Teutonic Order to combat pagan Prussian tribes from the base a Chelmno, thereby introducing a much more formidable enemy on the crucial Baltic coast. In time the Order turned on the Poles and began to grab large chunks of Polish territory, finally invading Gdansk in 1308 and massacring its Polish inhabitants. At the same time, a steady influx of German colonists helped to consolidate the Order's wealth and power.

1241, 1259 and 1287 saw devastating Tartar invasions. During the consequent reconstruction many new urban centres developed whilst older ones expanded. As part of the process of repopulation large numbers of foreign settlers arrived and rural colonisation took place. Many of these new settlers were Germans and, whilst some were gradually "Polonised" others merely helped strengthen German political influence (especially in Silesia).

It is during this period that the first Jewish settlers came to Poland where they were treated with more tolerance than in the rest of Europe, so-much-so that the Polish Synod was berated by the Papal Legate, in 1266, for allowing Jews to dress like anyone else and being able to live without restrictions in Poland, and for a royal charter having been granted them by Boleslaw the Pious in 1264.

A brief period of Czech rule from 1300 - 1305, under Vaclav II, reunited a main part of Poland, stimulating a national reconstruction led by Wladyslaw Lokietek. Then, in 1320, Wladyslaw I (Lokietek) was coronated; the first ruler of the reunited kingdom.

In 1333-1370 Casimir the Great (Kazimierz Wielki) built Poland into a major Central-European power, increasing her territory 2.5 times, bringing it's size up to 270,000 sq.kms. There is a saying that "he found Poland built of wood, and left her in stone," so great was his activity as founder and planner of towns.

Under Casimir, in 1346, the first Polish Legal Code was made, and in 1364 the foundations of Krakow University (the second oldest in central Europe) were formed. Trade also became important due to Poland's position on the commercial routes leading from East to West and from South to North.

The Jagiellonians, 1386-1572. Rise to Greatness.

Casimir was the last King of a purely Polish state. Hence forward, dynastic problems provoked a series of unions with neighbouring states: Hungary (1370-84; 1434-44; 1576-86); Lithuania (1386-1795); Sweden (1587-1600); and Saxony (1697-1764). Only the Lithuanian union succeeded, creating a state which dominated east-central Europe until the seventeenth century (the Polish Commonwealth).

In 1386 the marriage of Jadwiga, King (sic) of Poland, to Jogaila, pagan Grand-Duke of Lithuania, baptised as Wladyslaw Jagiello, initiated the Lithuanian union, inspired by the common purpose of resisting the Teutonic Order. Then, in 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenburg), Wladyslaw Jagiello crushed the Teutonic Order. The Catholic Polish knights were a minority in an army made up of Lithuanian pagans, Orthodox Christians, Lithuanian Muslim Tartars and "heretical" Bohemian Hussites. This victory helped strengthen the bond between the Poles and the Lithuanians and, in 1413, led to the Treaty of Union at Horodlo.

In 1440 the Magyars offered Wladyslaw III (Wladyslaw Jagiello's son) the crown of Hungary; Poland's attention shifted to the plains of Hungary and the growing Turkish threat. In 1444, the combined Polish Hungarian forces were defeated by the Turks at Varna on the Black Sea and Wladyslaw was killed. For a brief period the Hungarian throne passed out of Polish hands. Wladyslaw III's brother, Casimir IV, started a prolonged war against the Teutonic Order in order to recover Pomerania and Gdansk. The subsequent victory in 1466, led to the Peace of Torun by which the Order was humiliated and Prussia was partitioned: Royal (West) Prussia came under direct Polish rule, the Grand-Master of the Order keeping Ducal (east) Prussia as a vassal to the Polish Crown. During the Reformation The Grand Master split with Rome, and by becoming a vassal of the Polish King was able to turn East Prussia into a Duchy.

In 1471 Casimir was elected King of the Czechs. His son, Wladyslaw became King of Bohemia and Hungary in 1490.

1490-1526 saw the Jagiellonian rule in Hungary, and the peak of Central European dominance. The dual realm now stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and from the borders of Silesia to within 300 miles of Moscow. It contained a rich mixture of nationalities and beliefs; Poles in the west and centre, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians in the north, Lutheran Germans in Prussian and the western frontier, Orthodox Ukrainians and Byelorussians in the east, Moslem Tartars in the east also (these are the oldest Moslem communities in the Christian world) alongside the Karaites (a mixture of Khazar and Kiptchatska-Polovetska peoples, and practising a unique mixture of Judaism and Islam), and Jews scattered throughout.

This period saw some important developments in the government of Poland; in 1430 the law "Nieminem Captivabimus" (the Polish "Habeas Corpus"), in 1493 the establishment of a Parliament with two houses, the Senate (dignitaries, archbishops, and officers of the realm) and the Sejm (elected representatives). In 1505 the Statute of "Nihil Novi" enacted that nothing new could be decided without Parliament's consent.

This "Golden Age" saw many foreign scholars, writers, artists and architects attracted to Poland, especially from Renaissance Italy. It was also the age of Copernicus and of the first great figures in Polish literature; Mikolaj Rey (the first to write exclusively in Polish) and Jan Kochanowski (the "father" of Polish poetry).

This was also, in Europe, a time of religious diversion and persecution. When pressed to take sides in the dispute between Catholics and Protestants, the king, Zygmunt August, said: "I am the King of the people-not the judge of their consciences." This spirit of tolerance attracted many refugees from religious persecution throughout the history of Poland before the partitions; Jews in the 13th century, Hussites in the 15th, and Catholics from England and Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Union of Lublin was a formal union of Poland and Lithuania; the "Rzeczpospolita Polska" (the Polish Commonwealth). This was formed in 1569.

The Elected Monarchy.

With the death of Zygmunt, the last of the Jagiellonians in 1574, there was nobody who could legally convene the Sejm. An "interrex" (Regent), the Archbishop of Gniezno, was appointed by the Senate and a special "Convocational Sejm" was called which decided to let the "szlachta" (nobility) the elect a king in a free election. Prior to his coronation the king-elect had to swear to uphold the Constitution and all "szlachta" privileges.

The first elected monarch was Henri d'Anjou, but he resigned half-way through the year in the hope of succeeding to the French throne instead. The second election winner was the Transylvanian Voivod (Prince), Stefan Batory, who became one of Poland's most celebrated rulers, great in both war and peace.

Batory carried out important reforms, encouraged further overseas trade and created the first regular Polish infantry by conscripting peasants from the Royal estates. In 1579 he created the University at Wilno (the eastern most outpost of Western European culture).

Between 1579 and 1582 Batory came to the aid of Inflanty (Livonia: modern day Estonia and Latvia) which has been attacked by the Muscovite Tsar, Ivan the Terrible. After a successful

campaign and a brilliant victory at Pskov Batory accepted the Muscovite plea for peace; Livonia joined the Commonwealth and Poland was now recognised as the greatest power in Central Europe and only the Turkish Sultan ruled over more extensive territories.

After the unexpected death of Batory in 1586, the third election brought the Swedish crown prince, Zygmunt Vasa, to the throne. There would eventually be three Vasa Kings and the period would see long rivalry and wars between Poland and Sweden for the control of the Baltic. Under his reign the Polish magnates (great lords) rose to a position of power and would eventually destroy Poland through their greed.

In 1595 and 1596 the Synods of Brzesc (Brest) Litewski saw the Ruthenian (now Byelorussian and Ukrainian) Orthodox clergy recognise the supremacy of the Pope whilst retaining their distinctive religious rites and liturgy.

King Zygmunt III Vasa decided to move the capital from Krakow to Warsaw, the junction of all major routes crisscrossing the Commonwealth. This was done in 1596.

From 1609 Poland became involved in a series of wars and was invaded by Swedes, Turks and Muscovites in such numbers that the country was almost submerged by enemy forces; this period became known as the "Deluge". The devastation and loss of life were tremendous and Poland was only saved by a number of outstanding military commanders (Jan Zamoyski, Stanislaw Zolkiewski, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and Stanislaw Koniecpolski) who archived some great victories (Kluszyn, 1610; Kircholm, 1605; Chocim, 1612).

One historic episode during the "Deluge" was the defence of Czestochowa, Poland's most sacred shrine containing the picture of the Virgin Mary (the "Black Madonna"), by a small force led by the Prior and his monks against a besieging army of 9,000 Swedes. This defence actually changed the course of the war.

A particular danger came from within as the Cossacks (a Turkish word meaning "freebooter"), a people of mixed origin but mainly Ruthenian and Pole, constantly changed sides, breaking their oath of allegiance to the Polish King. In 1648 the Cossack Hetman, Chmielnicki, led a great uprising which was put down. Chmielnicki now used the Ukraine as a pawn between the powers of Poland, Muscovy and Turkey which resulted in further wars. In 1658, at Hadziacz, an agreement between the King and the new Cossack Hetman, Wyhowski, was to enable Ruthenia to join the Commonwealth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania but a further Cossack rebellion, in 1659, instigated by Muscovy (herself attempting to annex the Ukraine) and Polish involvement in war with Sweden, meant that the agreement bore no fruit and in 1667, by the treaty of Andruszowo, the Ukraine was divided evenly along the Dnieper between the Commonwealth and Muscovy. For the Polish Commonwealth this was a disaster since it weakened an important frontier area and left a discontented people open to manipulation by Poland's enemies.

Following a stormy election, Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki, called "Piast" (referring to Poland's earliest dynasty) was elected in 1669. He proved to be largely ineffective and became a tool of the magnates.

Later, in 1672. the Turks invaded the Commonwealth and imposed the treaty of Buczacz on the Poles by which Turkey occupied Podolia and the southern part of the Kiev region. In

1673, Hetman Jan Sobieski scored a splendid victory over the Turks at Chocim which, though not changing the provisions of the treaty, enabled Sobieski's election to the throne.

1674-1696 heralded the reign of Jan III Sobieski, a great military leader who had virtually annihilated the Turkish forces at Chocim and had been given by them the nickname of the "Fearful Lion of the North." Unable to break into Europe through Poland, the Turks invaded Hungary and Austria in 1683 and swept all before them. 130,000 Turks besieged Vienna and threatened to overpower Europe. Sobieski, at the request of the Pope, marched on Vienna, sent the "Hussaria" into their last great charge and took the Turks unawares. It was a turning point in history.

The Polish Army

Polish armies had to operate in all types of terrain and climates (baking plains in the south to freezing bogs and forests in the north, wilderness or city). The enemy varied from slow-moving pikemen and musketeers to nimble, swift-attacking horsemen and invariably the fighting was far from home and lacking in ancillary services. Polish military thinking was therefore based on the ideas of mobility, adaptability and self-sufficiency.

The old Hussite idea of forming a gigantic square, a mobile fortress quickly formed if caught out in the open, became standard practice in all operations against Tartars and Turks. The Poles also devised the idea of operating in divisions since this gave them all-important mobility and ability to live off the land (this was at a time when most European armies marched in a great mass). Another tradition was that of the deep cavalry raid sweeping ahead of the main army, sometimes covering a thousand miles in a great arc behind enemy lines. The crux of any battle was the cavalry charge, not a massed attack by heavy armour, but light cavalry supported by artillery, probing for weak points to be exploited by the heavy cavalry deployed in a chequerboard pattern so that the bringing down of one rank or section did not affect the others.

The Poles set great store by artillery and were years in advance of their enemies until the eighteenth century, using light cannon with accurate bombardment and mobility being the crucial factors. They also used rocketry to great effect (Siemienowicz published a treatise on multi-stage rocketry in 1650).

The infantry was lightly dressed without helmets or armour and armed with musket, short sword and hatchet. Only one man in eight carried a pike. In the 1550's a Polish regiment of 200 men could fire 150 shots in five minutes (contemporary Spanish brigades of 10,000 men could only deliver 750 in the same time). Polish infantry possessed ten times greater firepower on a man-to-man basis than standard European infantries.

The cavalry was the backbone of the Commonwealth's military power, outnumbering the infantry by three to one. The crossed Turkish and European breeds to produce horses with speed and endurance, and rode on eastern saddles in order to place less strain on the horse. Because of these factors they could cover tremendous distances (upto 120 kilometres a day) without killing their mounts. Their curved sabres were the finest cutting weapon ever in use in a European army and accounted for their endurance in battle.

The pride and glory of the cavalry, its mailed first, was the Husaria, the winged cavalry. Operating in regiments of about 300, the front rank carried an astonishing lance of up to

twenty feet in length (thus outreaching infantry pikes and allowing the Husaria to cut straight through an enemy square). They also carried a sabre or rapier with a six - foot blade (another weapon which was unique to the Poles), as well as a pair of pistols, a short carbine, a bow and arrows and a variety of other weapons, the most lethal of which was the "czekan", a long steel hammer which could go through heads and helmets like butter.

The ultimate weapon of the Husaria was psychological. As well as wearing helmets, thick steel breastplates and shoulder and arm guards the Husaria also wore wings; great wooden arcs bristling with eagle feathers attached to the back of the saddle or the shoulders. Over their shoulders they wore the skin of a tiger or leopard as a cloak. Their harnesses, saddles and horse-cloths were embroidered and embellished with gold and gems and their long lances were painted with stripes like a stick of rock and decorated with a five-foot-long silk pennant which, along with the wings and jingling jewellery, made a frightful sound (described as "an evil hiss" by some) and sight during the charge. They even sometimes painted their horses red and white.

For over a century, the Husaria were the lords of the battlefield, delivering the decisive blow in many an important engagement; at Kircholm (1605) 4,000 Poles accounted for 14,000 Swedes, at Klushino (1610) 6,000 Poles (of only 200 were infantry) defeated 30,000 Muscovite and 5,000 German and Scottish mercenaries, at Gniew (1656) 5,500 Polish cavalry defeated 13,000 Swedes and outside Vienna (1683) the Husaria saved Europe from the, until then, unstoppable might of the Ottoman Empire.

After Vienna every lancer must be a Pole or dress like one, and since there were not enough Poles to go round armies were compelled to raise their own lancers dressed and equipped on the Polish model. Napoleon had his Polish lancers who rendered him good service, especially at Somo Sierra in Spain (when a squadron of 125 men cleared 9,000 entrenched infantry and four batteries in the space of seven minutes) and once again the Poles were able to inspire the rest of Europe. There have been few more gorgeously dressed soldiers in all the history of armies than the lancers of the nineteenth century. The lance cap was modelled on the Polish style and even called the "chapka" (hat). The short, double-breasted jacket of scarlet or blue was similarly known as a "ulanka" and German and Austrian lancers were called "uhlans". To the glittering uniforms, waving plumes, and splendidly caparisoned saddle-cloths there was also added the colour and flutter of the waving lance pennant.

Decline and Partition

The Reign of Anarchy:

The wars of the 17th. Century had left Poland ruined; her population had decreased by a third and the victory at Vienna was the Commonwealth's last military success. The need for reform had become obvious even during the reign of Zygmunt III Vasa and the Jesuit preacher, Piotr Skarga, had blamed social injustice as the main cause of evil. The general decline was especially noticed in the Sejm; the parliamentary system grew awkward and ineffective as deputies used the notorious "Liberum Veto", which allowed any deputy to prevent legislation since all resolutions had to be carried unanimously.

The idea of consensus rule was, in principle, a good one but the "liberum Veto" was first used in 1652 by a deputy in the pay or power of a magnate. It soon became obvious to Poland's neighbours that the veto could be used to their own political ends and they soon clubbed

together to "defend Polish freedoms". The "szlachta" themselves, becoming less influential as they lost their military valour and, in many cases, impoverished, saw the veto as the last symbol of their ability to play a role in the running of the Commonwealth.

The Decline of Poland:

In 1697 the Elector of Saxony, Augustus, was elected King. From 1700 - 1721, Augustus II allied himself with Russia and became involved in war with Sweden for control of the Baltic (the Great Northern War). Poland became a battlefield and the Polish throne the prize. In 1704 Sweden won, Augustus was removed and the Voivode of Poznan, Stanislaw Leszczynski, was elected in his place. In 1709 the Russians defeated the Swedes at Poltava and Augustus was returned to the throne.

Conflict between Augustus and the Sejm almost ended in civil war in 1717, only prevented by a Russian offer of mediation; 18,000 Russian troops surrounded the chamber where the deputies met, they were denied the right to speak whilst the Russian "mediator" dictated the Russian " solution". This Sejm became known as the "Dumb Sejm" and the Republic became little more than a Russian client state; this was the start of the Russian "Protectorate" in which Poland was forced to reduce her standing army. On Augustus' death, in 1733, Leszczynski was again elected King but the Russians interfered by sending in an army and rerunning the election; Augustus' son, Frederick Augustus, was elected.

The sixty-six years of Saxon rule, from 1697 - 1763, were a national disaster and drove the country to the brink of anarchy. Most ominous was the fact that in 1732 Russia, Prussia and Austria had entered into a secret alliance to maintain the paralysis of law and order within Poland. This pact became known as the "Alliance of the Three Black Eagles" (since all three powers had a black eagle in their coat-of-arms).

The reign of the magnate, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, 1764 - 1795, a favourite of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was totally controlled by Russia. Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland.

From 1768 - 1772, an anti-Russian rising known as the "Confederation of Bar" was crushed by the Russians. Over 5000 captured "szlachta" were sent to Siberia. Among the few who escaped was Kazimierz Pulaski who was to play an important role in the United States' struggle for independence.

The Partitions of Poland: 1772 - 1795.

Taking advantage of a now weakened Poland, Prussia, Russia and Austria agreed to annex parts of the country in 1772. The Commonwealth lost 733,000 sq.km (23%) of her former territory and 4,500,000 of her population; Prussia took the smallest, but economically best, area; Austria took the most heavily populated areas, whilst Russia took the largest, but least important. To give the crime some legality the Sejm was forced to ratify the partition in 1773, despite the resistance of some Deputies, led by Tadeusz Rejtan.

Despite the disaster of this first partition, Poland underwent a national revival in 1773, thanks to the efforts of Poniatowski. The first step was the creation of the "Komisija Edukacji Narodowej" ("Committee of National Education"), the first Ministry of Education in Europe. Hundreds of schools were founded and the standard of education was raised. Writers, poets,

artists and scholars were encouraged by the King and the ideas of the Enlightenment were taking hold. This was the period of Adam Naruszewicz, the historian, Ignacy Krasicki, satirist and poet, Wojciech Boguslawski, "father" of the Polish theatre, and Franciszek Karpinski, whose hymns are still sung in Poland to this day.

Taking advantage of Russia's involvement in a war against Turkey, the King launched a reform programme (1788-1792) and the task was carried out by the "Four-Year" or "Great Sejm" which established a new Constitution; the Constitution of the Third of May. Established in 1791, under this Constitution the "liberum Veto" was abolished and a majority rule introduced, and personal freedoms guaranteed to all the people. The Constitution was hailed in the United States, England and France, but was seen as a threat to the absolute rulers of Prussia, Austria and, especially, Russia. So, in 1792, at Russia's instigation a handful of magnates led by Ksawery Branicki, Szczesny Potocki and Seweryn Rzewuski betrayed the Commonwealth and formed the Confederation of Targowica against the new Constitution and then "asked" for help. Russian troops crossed the borders and war broke out. The King's nephew, Joseph Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a veteran of the American War of Independence, put up heroic resistance but all hope faded away when the Prussians joined in, attacking the Polish armies in the rear. Many patriots were forced to flee.

In 1793 Russia and Prussia signed the Second Partition Treaty, seizing more than half the country and about four million more of the population. The last Sejm of the Commonwealth, which met at Grodno, was forced to legalise the partition and abolish most of the reforms of the "Great Sejm".

Popular discontent led to Insurrection, proclaimed by Kosciuszko (as Supreme Commander) in Krakow's Market Place on March 24th, 1794. Thousands of Poles rallied to the standard followed by a victory at Raclawice in which peasant scythbearers played an important role. The people of Warsaw, led by the cobbler Jan Kilinski, rose against and defeated the strongest Russian regiment in Poland. Berek Joselewicz commanded the first Jewish military formation since Biblical times. In May 7th, Kosciuszko issued the Polaniec Manifesto which abolished serfdom.

Eventually, in October, the combined strength of Russia and Prussia defeated Kosciuszko's forces at Maciejowice (where he was captured) and, in November, Warsaw was taken by the Russians who slaughtered the population of the suburb, Praga, including women and children.

Then, in 1795, the third partition wiped what was left of Poland off the map. The King was forced to abdicate and taken to St. Petersburg (where he died in 1798). Many captured Poles were sent to Siberia but thousands more escaped to Italy where, in 1797, they formed a Polish Legion, led by General Henryk Dabrowski, fighting for Napoleon Bonaparte against Austria. The Poles hoped that by fighting on the French side against the Powers that had partitioned Poland they could free their country. Dabrowski's Legion wore traditional uniforms which bore the motto: "All free men are Brothers!" They marched to a song written by Jozef Wybicki:

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginiela bugy my zyjemy,Co nam obca przemoc wziela, szabla odbierzemy.Marsz marsz, Dabrowski, z ziemi Wloskiej do Polski!Za twoim przewodem zlaczym sie z narodem."

"Poland is not dead whilst we live,What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back.March march, Dabrowski, from Italy's soil to Poland!Through your leadership we will reunite the nation."

When, in the twentieth century, Poland became and independent nation once more this marching song became the National Anthem.

Revolution and Rebirth

Napoleonic Poland: The Duchy of Warsaw

The Poles felt that one way of restoring independence was to fight for Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1791 Dabrowski organised two legions to fight the Austrians in Lombardy and, later, for the French in the Iberian Peninsula.

Kniaziewicz organised the Polish Danube Legion to fight against the Germans in 1799.

Napoleon used the Polish Legions in all his campaigns: against Russia, Austria and Prussia, in Egypt, in the West Indies (Santo Domingo), and in Spain (where they fought the British and inspired the formation of the English lancers equipped with Polish-style uniforms and weapons). Some of the Poles became very disillusioned with Bonaparte, realising that they were being manipulated.

Later, in 1806, the French armies defeated the Prussians at Jena and entered Posen (Poznan) led by the Poles under Dabrowski. A year later Napoleon and the Tzar, Alexander, met at Tilsit and agreed to set up a Polish State made up of the lands the Prussians had taken in the second partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon used the Duchy as a pawn in his political game and in 1812 called upon the Lithuanians to rebel as an excuse to attack Russia. The Poles, flocking to his standard in the hope of resurrecting the Commonwealth, formed the largest non-French contingent, 98,000 men. Polish Lancers were the first to cross the Niemen into Russia, the first to enter Moscow, played a crucial part in the battle of Borodino and, under Poniatowski, covered the disastrous French retreat, being the last out of Russia - 72,000 never returned.

Despite the cynical way that Napoleon treated the Poles they remained loyal to him and, when he went into exile on Elba the only guards that Napoleon was allowed were Polish Lancers.

The "Congress Kingdom"

In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Duchy was partitioned and a large part went to Russia. In Austria and Prussia there was repression of all Polish attempts to maintain the national culture, but in Russia, fortunately, the Tzar, Alexander I, was a liberal ruler who agreed to the setting up of a semi-autonomous "Congress Kingdom" with its own parliament and constitution. This became a time of peace and economic recovery. In 1817 the University of Warsaw was founded. But the accession of Tzar Nicholas I to the throne in 1825 saw the establishment of a more repressive regime.

In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as

an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into action. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection. The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

The 1830 Revolution inspired the work of two great Poles living in exile: Chopin, the composer, and Mickiewicz, the poet.

The "Great Emigration"

The failure of the Insurrection forced thousands of Poles to flee to the West; Paris became the spiritual capital. Many of these exiles contributed greatly to Polish and European culture. Joachim Lelewel became Poland's greatest historian, Chopin her greatest composer, and Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski and Norwid among her greatest poets. Adam Czartoryski set up court at the Hotel Lambert, in Paris, which played an important part in keeping the Polish question alive in European politics.

"For Your Freedom and Ours"

The insurrection in the semi-independent City of Krakow in 1846 was doomed from the start. The insurrectionists had hoped to gain the support of the local peasantry (recalling the victory at Raclawice) but the peasants, having never benefited from the liberal ideals proposed by the intelligensia, used the insurrection as an excuse to rid themselves of their landlords; it was the last "jacquerie" (or peasants' uprising) in European history. The insurrectionist forces were defeated by a combination of Austrian and peasant forces at the battle of Gdow and the insurrection was put down with great brutality by the Austrians, resulting in the abolition of the Commonwealth of Krakow.

In 1848 "the Springtime of Nations" (a revolutionary movement towards greater democracy in much of Europe) saw large-scale contributions by the Poles. In Italy, Mickiewicz organised a small legion to fight for Italian independence from Austria, whilst in Hungary, Generals Dembinski and Bem led 3,000 Poles in the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. There were also unsuccessful uprisings in Poznan (Posen), against the Prussians, and in Eastern Galicia, against the Austrians.

Starting in 1863, the "January Uprising" against the Russians lasted for more than a year and a half. A Provisional government was established and more than 1,200 skirmishes were fought, mostly in the deep forests under the command of Romuald Traugutt. Italian help came from the "Garibaldi Legion" led by Colonel Francesco Nullo. In 1864 Traugutt and four other members of the Provisional government were captured in Warsaw and publicly executed.

The Uprising was finally put down in 1865, and the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a severe policy of persecution and "Russification" established. The University of Warsaw and all schools were closed down, use of the Polish language was forbidden in most public places and the Catholic Church was persecuted. The Kingdom of Poland became known as the "Vistula Province".

In the Prussian occupied zone the aim was to totally destroy the Polish language and culture. From 1872 German became compulsory in all schools and it was a crime to be caught speaking in Polish. There was a systematic attempt to uproot Polish Peasants from their land. A special permit was needed to rebuild any farm buildings damaged or destroyed by fire or flood, but none were ever granted to Poles. One peasant, Wojciech Drzumala, challenged this law by living in a converted wagon.

In Austrian Poland, Galicia, conditions were different. After 1868 the Poles had a degree of self-government, the Polish language was kept as the official language and the Universities of Krakow and Lwow were allowed to function. As a result this area witnessed a splendid revival of Polish culture, including the works of the painter Jan Matejko, and the writers Kraszewski, Prus and Sienkiewicz.

All three powers kept Poland economically weak in this period of technological progress. Despite this the Poles managed to make some progress: the textile industry began to flourish in Lodz (the "Polish Manchester") and coal-mining developed rapidly. In Prussian Poland, despite ruthless oppression, the Poles concentrated on light industry and agriculture (and before long Poznan became the chief source of food for the whole of Germany). In Silesia, under German rule since 1742, the development of mining and heavy industry made her a chief industrial centre and thus the Prussian attempt to exterminate all traces of Polish language and culture was at its most ruthless, yet they survived.

Despite its abolition by Kosciuszko in 1794 the partitioning powers restored serfdom. It was not abolished in Prussia until 1823, in Austria until 1848 and in Russia until 1861 (but not in her "Polish" territories).

In 1905 the Russo-Japanese War saw a series of humiliating defeats for the Russians and civil unrest in Russia. In Poland there was a wave of strikes and demonstrations demanding civil rights. Polish pupils went on strike, walking out of Russian schools and a private organisation, the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" ("Polish Education Society"), was set up under the patronage of the great novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Then, in 1906, Jozef Pilsudski, a founder-member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), began to set up a number of paramilitary organisations which attacked Tzarist officials and carried out raids on post offices, tax-offices and mail-trains. In Galicia the Austrian authorities turned a blind eye to the setting up of a number of "sporting" clubs, followed by a Riflemen's Union. In 1912, Pilsudski reorganised these on military lines and by 1914 had nearly 12,000 men under arms.

The First World War: 1914-1918

On the outbreak of war the Poles found themselves conscripted into the armies of Germany, Austria and Russia, and forced to fight each other in a war that was not theirs. Although many Poles sympathised with France and Britain they found it hard to fight with them on the Russian side. They also had little sympathy with the Germans. Pilsudski considered Russia as the greater enemy and formed Polish Legions to fight for Austria but independently. Other Galician Poles went to fight against the Italians when they entered the war in 1915, thus preventing any clash of conscience.

Almost all the fighting on the Eastern Front took place on Polish soil.

On the collapse of the Tzarist regime in Russia in 1917, the main purpose for fighting alongside the Central Powers, Germany and Austria, disappeared. They had made many promises of setting up an independent Poland but had proved to be very slow in carrying these promises out. When Pilsudski's Legions were required to swear allegiance to Germany they refused and Pilsudski was imprisoned. In 1918 when, at Brest Litovsk, the Central Powers signed a peace treaty with Russia, which was detrimental to Poland, the Second Brigade under General Haller revolted and marched into the Ukraine where they joined other Polish forces already formed there and fought against the Germans, eventually being surrounded and defeated.

At the outbreak of the revolution in Russia Polish army units had joined together to form the First Polish Corps under General Jozef Dowbor Munsnicki and tried to reach Poland but were disarmed by the Germans. Escapees and volunteers reorganised themselves into a new army at Murmansk in the Arctic and fought alongside the British on the shores of the Whits Sea and beside the French at Odessa, as well as in the Far East at Siberia. Later they managed to reach Poland.

Roman Dmowski, founder of the right-wing Nationalist League, had foreseen that Germany was the real enemy and gone to France where the "Bayonne Legion" was already fighting alongside the French Army. He and Paderewski formed a Polish Army which consisted of volunteers from the United States, Canada and Brazil together with Poles who had been conscripted into the German and Austrian armies and had become POWs. This Army became known as "Haller's Army" after its commander who had escaped from Russia to France.

Rebirth: 1918-1922

All sides, from Tzar Nicholas of Russia to President Wilson (in his Fourteen Points) had promised the restoration of Poland yet in the end the Poles regained independence through their own actions when, first Russia, and then the Central Powers collapsed as a result of the War.

In 1918, on the 11th November, Pilsudski, having been released by the Germans, proclaimed Polish Independence and Became Head of State and Commander-in-Chief, with Paderewski as Prime Minister. An uprising liberated Poznan and, shortly after, Pomerania (which gave access to the Baltic).

In the chaos that followed the collapse of the Powers new states had arisen: Lithuania, Czechoslovakia and the Ukrainian Republic. All these states laid claims on territory occupied by Poles.

The Poles liberated Wilno from the Lithuanians in 1919, reoccupied the area around Cieszyn (which had been invaded by the Czechs) and annexed the Western Ukraine when the Ukrainian Republic, which had been supported by Poland, collapsed under attack from Soviet forces.

The Red Army, having crushed all counter-revolutionary forces inside Russia, now turned its attention on Poland. By August 1920 they were at the gates of Warsaw. On August 15th the Polish Army under Pilsudski, Haller and Sikorski fought the Battle of Warsaw (the "Miracle on the Vistula"), routed the Red Army and saved a weakened Europe from Soviet conquest.

An Armistice was signed at Riga in October, followed by a Peace Treaty in March 1921 which determined and secured Poland's eastern frontiers.

In 1922 part of Upper Silesia was awarded to Poland by a Geneva Convention following three uprisings by the Polish population who had been handed over to Germany at the Peace Treaty of Versailles.

The Second Republic: 1921-1939

On March 17th, 1921, a modern, democratic constitution was voted in. The task that lay ahead was difficult. The country was ruined economically and, after a hundred and twenty years of foreign rule, there was no tradition of civil service.

Marshal Pilsudski resigned from office in 1922, and the newly-elected President, Gabriel Narutowicz, took office only to be assassinated a week later.

Seeing that the government lacked power because of party strife, Pilsudski took control by a coup d'etat in 1926 and established the Sanacja regime intended to clean-up ("sanitise") political life. By 1930 this had become a virtual dictatorship.

Despite all her problems Poland was able to rebuild her economy. By 1939 she was the 8th largest steel producer in the world and had developed her mining, textiles and chemical industries. Poland had been awarded limited access to the sea by the Peace of Versailles (the "Polish Corridor") but her chief port, Gdansk (Danzig) was made a free city (put under Polish protection) and so, in 1924, a new port, Gdynia, was built which, by 1938, became the busiest port in the Baltic.

There were continual disputes with the Germans because access to the sea had split Germany into two and because they wanted Danzig under their control. There problems increased when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany.

In 1939, under constant threat from Germany, Poland entered into a full military alliance with Britain and France

In August, Germany and Russia signed a secret agreement concerning the future of Poland.

The Second World War

Invasion:

On September 1st., 1939, 1.8 million German troops invaded Poland on three fronts; East Prussia in the north, Germany in the west and Slovakia in the south. They had 2600 tanks against the Polish 180, and over 2000 aircraft against the Polish 420. Their "Blitzkrieg" tactics, coupled with their bombing of defenceless towns and refugees, had never been seen before and, at first, caught the Poles off-guard. By September 14th. Warsaw was surrounded. At this stage the poles reacted, holding off the Germans at Kutno and regrouping behind the Wisla (Vistula) and Bzura rivers. Although Britain and France declared war on September 3rd. the Poles received no help - yet it had been agreed that the Poles should fight a defensive campaign for only 2 weeks during which time the Allies could get their forces together and attack from the west.

There are many "myths" that surround the September Campaign; the fictional Polish cavalry charges against German tanks (actually reported by the Italian press and used as propaganda by the Germans), the alleged destruction of the Polish Air Force on the ground, or claims that Polish armour failed to achieve any success against the invaders. In reality, and despite the fact that Poland was only just beginning to modernise her armed forces and had been forced (by Britain and France) to delay mobilisation (which they claimed might be interpreted as aggressive behaviour) so that, at the time of invasion, only about one-third of her total potential manpower was mobilised, Polish forces ensured that the September campaign was no "walk-over". The Wehrmacht had so under-rated Polish anti-tank capabilities (the Polish-designed anti-tank gun was one of the best in the world at that time) that they had gone into action with white "balkankreuz", or crosses, prominently displayed in eight locations; these crosses made excellent aiming points for Polish gun-sights and forced the Germans to radically rethink their national insignia, initially overpainting them in yellow and then, for their later campaigns, adopting the modified "balkankreuz" similar to that used by the Luftwaffe. The recently-designed 7TP "czolg lekki", or light tank, the first in the world to be designed with a diesel engine, proved to be superior to German tanks of the same class (the PzKpfw I and II) inflicting serious damage to the German forces, limited only by the fact that they were not used in concentrated groups. They were absorbed by the Germans into their own Panzer divisions at the end of the campaign.

On September 17th. Soviet forces invaded from the east. Warsaw surrendered 2 weeks later, the garrison on the Hel peninsula surrendered on October 2nd., and the Polesie Defence group, after fighting on two fronts against both German and Soviet forces, surrendered on October 5th. The Poles had held on for twice as long as had been expected and had done more damage to the Germans than the combined British and French forces were to do in 1940. The Germans lost 50,000 men, 697 planes and 993 tanks and armoured cars.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians managed to escape to France and Britain whilst many more went "underground" . A government-in-exile was formed with Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz as President and General Wladyslaw Sikorski as Prime Minister.

The Fourth Partition:

Under the German-Soviet pact Poland was divided; the Soviets took, and absorbed into the Soviet Union, the eastern half (Byelorussia and the West Ukraine), the Germans incorporated Pomerania, Posnania and Silesia into the Reich whilst the rest was designated as the General-Gouvernement (a colony ruled from Krakow by Hitler's friend, Hans Frank).

In the Soviet zone 1.5 million Poles (including women and children) were transported to labour camps in Siberia and other areas. Many thousands of captured Polish officers were shot at several secret forest sites; the first to be discovered being Katyn, near Smolensk.

The Germans declared their intention of eliminating the Polish race (a task to be completed by 1975) alongside the Jews. This process of elimination, the "Holocaust", was carried out systematically. All members of the "intelligentsia" were hunted down in order to destroy Polish culture and leadership (many were originally exterminated at Oswiencim - better known by its German name, Auschwitz). Secret universities and schools, a "Cultural Underground", were formed (the penalty for belonging to one was death). In the General-Gouvernement there were about 100,000 secondary school pupils and over 10,000 university students involved in secret education.

The Polish Jews were herded into Ghettos where they were slowly starved and cruelly offered hopes of survival but, in fact, ended up being shot or gassed. In the end they were transported, alongside non-Jewish Poles, Gypsies and Soviet POWs, to extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka; at Auschwitz over 4 million were exterminated. 2000 concentration camps were built in Poland, which became the major site of the extermination programme, since this was where most of the intended victims lived.

Many non-Jewish Poles were either transported to Germany and used as slave labour or simply executed. In the cities the Germans would round-up and kill indiscriminately as a punishment for any underground or anti-German or pro-Jewish activity. In the countryside they kept prominent citizens as hostages who would be executed if necessary. Sometimes they liquidated whole villages; at least 300 villages were destroyed. Hans Frank said, "If I wanted to put up a poster for every seven Poles shot, the forests of Poland would not suffice to produce the paper for such posters."

Despite such horror the Poles refused to give in or cooperate (there were no Polish collaborators as in other occupied countries). The Polish Underground or AK (Armia Krajowa or Home Army) was the largest in Europe with 400,000 men. The Jewish resistance movement was set up separately because of the problem of being imprisoned within the ghettos. Both these organisations caused great damage to the Nazi military machine. Many non-Jewish Poles saved the lives of thousands of Jews despite the fact that the penalty, if caught, was death (in fact, Poland was the only occupied nation where aiding Jews was punishable by death).

Fighting on all Fronts:

The Polish Army, Navy and Air Force reorganised abroad and continued to fight the Germans. In fact they have the distinction of being the only nation to fight on every front in the War. In 1940 they fought in France, in the Norwegian campaign they earned a reputation for bravery at Narvik, and in Africa the Carpathian Brigade fought at Tobruk.

Polish Squadrons played an important role in the Battle of Britain, accounting for 12% of all German aircraft destroyed at the cost of 33 lives. By the end of the war they had flown a total of 86,527 sorties, lost 1669 men and shot down 500 German planes and 190 V1 rockets.

The Polish Navy, which had escaped intact, consisted of 60 vessels, including 2 cruisers, 9 destroyers and 5 submarines ( one of which was the famous "Orzel") which were involved in 665 actions at sea. The first German ship sunk in the war was sunk by Polish ships. The Navy also took part in the D-Day landings.

When the Soviet Union was attacked by Germany, in June 1941, Polish POWs were released from prison camps and set up an army headed by General Anders. Many civilians were taken under the protection of this army which was allowed to make its way to Persia (modern-day Iran) and then on to Egypt. This army, the Polish Second Corps, fought with distinction in Italy, their most notable victory being that at Monte Cassino, in May 1944, and which opened up the road to Rome for the Allies as a whole. One of the "heroes" of the Polish Second Corps was Wojtek, a brown bear adopted in Iran as their mascot; at Monte Cassino Wojtek actually helped in the fighting by carrying ammunition for the guns. He died, famous and well-loved, in Edinburgh Zoo in 1964, aged 22.

All the Polish forces took part in the Allied invasion of Europe and liberation of France, playing a particularly crucial role in the significant Battle of the Falaise Gap. The Polish Parachute Brigade took part in the disastrous Battle of Arnhem in Holland. In 1945, the Poles captured the German port of Wilhelmshaven.

In 1943 a division of Polish soldiers was formed in Russia under Soviet control and fought on the Eastern Front. They fought loyally alongside the Soviet troops, despite the suffering they had experienced in Soviet hands, and they distinguished themselves in breaking through the last German lines of defence, the "Pomeranian Rampart", in the fighting in Saxony and in the capture of Berlin.

The "Home Army", under the command of General Stefan Roweki (code-named "Grot"), and after his capture in 1943 (he was later murdered), by General Tadeusz Komorowski (code-named "Bor"), fought a very varied war; at times in open combat in brigade or division strength, at times involved in sabotage, often acting as execution squads eliminating German officials, and often fighting a psychological campaign against German military and civilians. It was a costly war since the Germans always took reprisals.

The Intelligence Service of the Home Army captured and sent parts of the V1 to London for examination, providing information on German military movements (giving advanced warning of the German plan to invade Russia), and gave the RAF full information about Peenemunde, where the Germans were producing V2 rockets.

Betrayal:

The crime of Katyn was discovered in 1943 and created a rift in Polish-Soviet relations. From now on the Home Army was attacked by Soviet propaganda as collaborating with the Germans and being called on to rise against the Germans once the Red Army reached the outskirts of Warsaw.

Secretly, at Teheran, the British and Americans agreed to letting the Russians profit from their invasion of Poland in 1939 and allowing them to keep the lands that had been absorbed. The "accidental" death of General Sikorski at this time helped keep protests at a minimum.

When the Russians crossed into Poland the Home Army cooperated in the fight against the Germans and contributed greatly to the victories at Lwow, Wilno and Lublin only to find themselves surrounded and disarmed by their "comrades-in-arms" and deported to labour camps in Siberia.

On August 1, 1944, with the Russian forces on the right bank of the Vistula, the Home Army rose in Warsaw; the Warsaw Rising. Heroic street-fighting involving the whole population, using the sewers as lines of communication and escape, under heavy bombardment, lasted for 63 days. The city was completely destroyed. Not only did the Russians cease to advance but they also refused to allow Allied planes to land on Russian airfields after dropping supplies. After surrendering many civilians and soldiers were executed or sent to concentration camps to be exterminated and Warsaw was razed to the ground.

The defeat in Warsaw destroyed the political and military institutions of the Polish underground and left the way open for a Soviet take-over.

With the liberation of Lublin in July 1944 a Russian-sponsored Polish Committee for National Liberation (a Communist Government in all but name) had been set up and the British had put great pressure, mostly unsuccessful, on the Government-in-exile to accept this status quo. At Yalta, in February 1945, the Allies put Poland within the Russian zone of influence in a post-war Europe. To most Poles the meaning of these two events was perfectly clear; Poland had been betrayed. At one stage the Polish Army, still fighting in Italy and Germany, was prepared to withdraw from the front lines in protest; after all, they were supposed to be fighting for Polish liberation. It is a reflection on Polish honour that no such withdrawal took place since it could leave large gaps in the front lines and so was considered too dangerous for their Allied comrades-in-arms.

The war ended on May 8th, 1945.

The Cost:

The Poles are the people who really lost the war.

Over half a million fighting men and women, and 6 million civilians (or 22% of the total population) died. About 50% of these were Polish Christians and 50% were Polish Jews. Approximately 5,384,000, or 89.9% of Polish war losses (Jews and Gentiles) were the victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, annihilation of ghettos, epidemics, starvation, excessive work and ill treatment. So many Poles were sent to concentration camps that virtually every family had someone close to them who had been tortured or murdered there.

There were one million war orphans and over half a million invalids.

The country lost 38% of its national assets (Britain lost 0.8%, France lost 1.5%). Half the country was swallowed up by the Soviet Union including the two great cultural centres of Lwow and Wilno.

Many Poles could not return to the country for which they has fought because they belonged to the "wrong" political group or came from eastern Poland and had thus become Soviet citizens. Others were arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities for belonging to the Home Army.

Although "victors" they were not allowed to partake in victory celebrations.

Through fighting "For Our Freedom and Yours" they had exchanged one master for another and were, for many years to come, treated as "the enemy" by the very Allies who had betrayed them at Teheran and Yalta.

Post War Poland

The Polish Committee of National Liberation was set up in 1944 by the Communist Poles and Russians at Lublin, and a few days later, was recognised as the temporary Polish government by the USSR.

The Poles had been promised the old lands up to the Oder and Neisse rivers, occupied by Germany, in return for the eastern part of Poland. This promise was never made formal, nor was it completely accepted by the western Allies. In May 1945, at the end of the war, the

Provisional government occupied these western territories. The Polish population of the old eastern provinces, including Lwow, moved west as their territories were absorbed by the USSR; the German population was largely removed to the German Democratic Republic (later to become known as East Germany). This new Poland corresponded very closely to the Poland of 1138, and now contained very few of the minorities (such as the Lithuanians, Ruthenes and Jews) which had given the Commonwealth such variety.

In the January elections of 1947 the main non communist politicians were defeated (by use of fraud and violence) and emigrated. Wladyslaw Gomulka, leader of the Polish Worker's Party (Communist), became undisputed leader of Poland, then, in September 1948, Gomulka was dismissed. An era of full Stalinist dictatorship and headlong industrialisation began under the leadership of Boleslaw Bierut. In December the Polish Worker's Party and the Polish Socialist Party fused into the Polish United Worker's Party.

After discovering that they had been cheated of some of their wages, 15000 workers of the Cegielski and Stalin works demonstrated in 1956, and, when attacked, rioted. These were the Poznan riots which lead to "The Polish October" when Stalinism was overthrown. Gomulka managed to persuade Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, that he could control the situation, and so Soviet troops which were on stand by were not used (unlike in Hungary where the situation led to bloodshed in the Hungarian Uprising). Gomulka returned to power and a new, more independent relationship with the USSR was established.

With the political thaw, in 1968 the universities became centres for discussion and learning again. The Israeli victory over the Soviet backed Arabs in 1967 was greeted with glee; "Our Jews have given the Soviet Arabs a drumming!" Anti Russian feelings grew until, when the authorities banned a production of Mickiewicz's anti Russian "Forefathers' Eve" in January, student riots broke out in Warsaw and Krakow. These were forcibly put down and a period of repression against Intellectuals and Jews ensued. Gomulka found himself under pressure from the repressive Nationalist "Partisan" faction, led by Mieczyslaw Moczar, and reluctantly had to "encourage" the Jews to emigrate (his own wife was Jewish). He got Soviet backing by letting Polish armed forces take part in the Warsaw Pact repression of the Czechoslovak attempt to create a more liberal situation.

A sudden increase in the price of food in December 1970 led to riots in the Baltic cities; Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin, which were repressed with great bloodshed. The fighting spread and led to the replacement of Gomulka by Edward Gierek, who managed to calm down the situation by preventing the price rises and promising reforms. A policy of rapid industrialisation, based on Western imports and credits (a policy which was to bankrupt Poland), and an artificial rising of living standards began.

To ease the foreign debt, by 1976 Gierek had to take steps. He increased, amongst others, the price of "luxury" consumer goods, and in June, a 60% increase in food prices. Violent strikes in Warsaw and Radom led to a cancellation of the price increases, but also led to repression by the Citizens' Militia (ZOMO) and severe sentences. Opposition groups were set up, like KOR (Committee for the Defence of the Workers). The economy "overheated" and led to a period of acute consumer shortages, especially meat, and a soaring foreign debt.

In October 1978, Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal of Krakow, was elected Pope. The Polish sense of "destiny" began to surface. In June, 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Poland at a time when the economic crisis was deepening.

Fresh price rises in July 1980 touched off nation wide strikes. In August they reached the Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, where Lech Walesa became leader. At the end of August the Gdansk Agreement created Solidarity as an independent, self managing trade union.

On December 13, 1981, General Jaruzelski, prime minister, minister of defence and first secretary of PZPR, declared a state of martial law and suspended Solidarity. Gradually, as the country's political and economic life returned to normal, martial law was lifted (July 1983). From 1986 onwards, there was great discussion as to the way the country could develop which led, in 1988, to a referendum and fresh elections which opened the way to the massive changes of 1989 and the return of Democracy.

In December 1990, Lech Walesa was sworn in as the first non Communist Polish President since WW2.

The Great DynastiesPiast;

The first Polish Dynasty is named after its legendary founder of the 9th. century, a peasant named Piast. It was Naruszewicz who, in his "History of the Polish Nation" (1780 - 86), first gave the name "Piast" to the Polanian dynasty which claimed descent from Piast but had never used the name themselves. According to legend the evil prince Popiel was eaten by mice as punishment for the murder of his family. After his death it was decided to elect the wheelwright, Piast, as ruler because of his virtuous nature. The names of the early dynasty have been passed down as Ziemowit, Leszko and Ziemomysl, the father of Mieszko. Mieszko I, or Mieczyslaw I (b. ?922; d. 992), chief of the Polanie (962 - 992), is the founder of Poland. He imposed a fiscal system by introducing the denarii (silver pennies) in the 980s, and set up a network of defences (the royal grod). Becoming concerned by the establishment of the German Empire of Otto I (962), Mieszko entered into an alliance with the Czechs, marrying Dobrava, the daughter of Boleslav I of Bohemia, and accepted Christianity for himself and his people; the Polish Baptism of 966. He placed his lands in the hands of the Holy See thus putting it under the protection of Rome; whilst submitting to the Empire he had, in this act, assured security and independence for his emerging nation. Mieszko established a bishopric in Poznan (968) and its first bishop, Jordan, probably come from Rome. Mieszko's move was an astute political one since it opened access (particularly through the German clergy that now came to Poland) to the military knowledge and political systems of the West (which he made full use of by entering into marriage alliances with the great families of the Empire). Contemporary accounts credited Mieszko with significant military forces with which he invaded Pomerania and, after defeating Hodo, the Margrave of the Ostmark at Cedynia (972), reached the Oder in 976. He defeated Otto II, who had come to assist Hodo, in 979, becoming undisputed lord of Pomerania. He marked his success by founding the city of Gdansk (Danzig, 980) through which he could control the mouth of the Wisla. In 983 Mieszko aided Otto III, to whom he had paid allegiance, in the war against the Lutitians and then helped recover Misnia (Meissen) from the Czechs (986). Mieszko entered into a number of dynastic alliances including ones with Hungary, Kiev and Scandinavia, aiding his son-in-law, Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, to reconquer his kingdom of England; his grandson was Canute the Great.

Mieszko's son, Boleslaw I Chrobry (the Brave), (b. 967; d. 1025), the first King of Poland, 992 - 1025, established Poland's right as an independent kingdom. He seized Krakow from Bohemia (996). In 997 he organised a mission, under the leadership of the Bohemian bishop

St. Adalbert of Prague (Sw. Wojciech; b. Libice, c.956; d. 997), to christianize the Prussians. St. Adalbert was killed by the pagans. According to legend, Boleslaw ransomed back the body of St. Adalbert and had him buried in Gniezno Cathedral where he had been ordained. Boleslaw was able to get Gniezno elevated to the rank of metropolitan see (1000), thus emancipating the Polish Church from German control. Relations with the Empire underwent a rapid change with the death of Otto III (1002) and soon led to a series of wars. Boleslaw seized the Lusatian Marches and held them against Otto's successor, Henry II. The wars continued until peace was settled at Budziszyn (Bautzen, 1018), much to Poland's advantage though Henry had managed to alienate the western Slavs against Christian Poland, thus preparing the ground for conquest and germanisation of this region in the future. Boleslaw also campaigned in the east when Kievian forces (in alliance with the Germans) launched an invasion (1013). He undertook an expedition against Grand Prince Yaroslav I the Wise in order to restore his own son-in-law, Swiatopelk, to the throne of Kiev (1018). Legend has it that on entering Kiev, Boleslaw struck the gate with his sword and dented the blade; this sword, Szczerbiec, was later used at the coronation of all Polish Kings. Boleslaw himself was not crowned until 1024. Ranked among Poland's greatest rulers, Boleslaw reorganised the administration and taxation of his state, and created a large standing army. He is said to have driven iron stakes into both the Saal and the Dnieper to mark his conquests.

Boleslaw's son, Mieszko II ( b. 990; d. 1034), King 1025 - 1034, rashly attacked the Emperor Conrad II and thereafter exposed his realm to the rivalry of his brothers and the aggression of Kiev and the Empire. He was overthrown by his elder brother, Bezprym (who had been repudiated by his father) and had to flee (1031) but regained his throne on the murder of Bezprym (1032) only to lose his own life at the hands of a disgruntled court official. In only a few years the Polish State and Christianity within the nation were both threatened severely as many who had never renounced their paganism revolted, and the Czechs invaded (1038). Christianity had been forced on the populace by the ruling elite for their own political ends and it is important to note that the real Christianisation of Poland did not occur until the establishment of the monasteries in the 12th Century. Mieszko II's son, Kazimierz I Odnowiciel (the Restorer) (b. 1015; d. 1058), King 1038 - 1058, was hardly more successful and also had to flee to Hungary when civil war broke out. After regaining the throne in 1040 he made Krakow the capital of Poland (reflecting not only the economic growth of that city but also the level of destruction and disruption elsewhere). Kazimierz's son, Boleslaw II Smialy (the Bold) (b. ?1039; d. ?1083), king 1058 - 1079, moved against the Emperor, Henry IV, who was engaged, initially, in a struggle against the German princes, then a Saxon uprising before entering into a battle for supremacy with Pope Gregory VII (the Investiture Struggle, 1075 - 1122). The Pope allied himself with the vassal princes hostile to Henry - one of whom was Boleslaw who declared Polish independence from the Empire and was sent a crown (his coronation was at Christmas 1076). Boleslaw seized Kiev twice and entered into a long power struggle against Bohemia. In 1079 Boleslaw had Bishop Stanislaw of Krakow executed (the Polish Becket, canonised in 1257); it is possible that Stanislaw had been party to a Bohemian-German attempt to remove Boleslaw and thus bring Poland into the sphere of the Empire and the anti-Pope, Clement. Boleslaw was expelled in a later revolt and replaced by his weak brother, Wladyslaw Herman (b. 1043; d. 1102), ruled 1079 - 1102. Wladyslaw distanced himself from any involvement in the east and it is during this period that the Ruthenians colonised the lands of the Dniester and the San and we see the growth of Halicz. Wladyslaw's son, Boleslaw III Krzywousty (the Wry-Mouthed) (b. 1086; d. 1138), Prince 1102 - 1138, was an extremely capable ruler who earned the respect of his people. He exiled his half-brother and co-ruler, Zbigniew (1107) who, in 1109, with the aid of the Emperor Henry V, attempted to cross the Odra but was thwarted by the rugged resistance of Glogow,

when the Germans used hostages obtained during a truce as human shields for their siege towers - to no avail. Boleslaw defeated the Emperor and the Duke of Bohemia at the battle of Psie Pole, near Wroclaw, 1109, forcing them to renounce all claims to Polish territory. In a series of stubbornly resisted campaigns he also recaptured Eastern Pomerania (1122) but had to swear fealty to the Emperor Lothar II (1135) in order to regain Dymin and the Island of Rugen. Unfortunately Boleslaw failed to stem the decentralising tendencies undermining the state, nor did he regain the title of king.

One of the enduring weaknesses of the Piast dynasty lay in the fact that the Poles failed to accept primogeniture. In 1138 the nobles forced Boleslaw to divide his realm among his sons in order to prevent a power struggle; the Testament of Boleslaw III. Each of the territorial subdivisions (Silesia, Great Poland, Mazovia, and Sandomir) was to be held as the hereditary domain of one of Boleslaw's sons. The senior member of the family also held Krakow and Pomerania, ruling as grand prince over the loosely federated state. Rather than strengthen the state by providing a means of secure succession this act, which merely served to create a number of independent principalities vying with each other for supremacy, was the start of 150 years of dynastic struggle which shattered the precarious unity of Poland and saw a period of internal strife with a series of rulers: Wladyslaw II Wygnaniec (the Exile), of Silesia (b. 1105; d.1159), ruled 1138 - 1146; Boleslaw IV Kedzierzawy (the Curly), of Mazovia (b.1127; d. 1173), ruled 1146 - 1173; Mieszko III Stary (the Old), of Wielkopolska, ruled 1173 - 1177 and 1194 - 1202; Kazimierz II Sprawiedliwy (the Just) (b. 1138; d. 1194), of Sandomierz, ruled 1177 - 1194, organising the Polish senate and introducing laws protecting Polish peasants. He united Sandomierz and Mazovia and was made Duke of Krakow (1177). Although he secured hereditary rights to the crown for his descendants (1180) the dynastic struggles continued until Wladyslaw I Lokietek restored royal authority in 1320.

Mieszko III's son, Wladyslaw III Laskonogi (Longshanks) of Wielkopolska, ruled 1202; Leszek Bialy (the White) of Sandomierz, ruled 1202 - 1227, whose intervention in the politics of Ruthenia (in 1205), alongside his brother, Konrad of Mazovia (b. c.1191; d. 1247), led to its division into the twin principalities of Halicz and Vladimir. In a move of disastrous consequences to the future history of Poland, Duke Konrad (more concerned with the dynastic struggles to the south) invited the Teutonic Order (who had recently been expelled from Hungary by Andrew II) to combat pagan Prussian tribes in the north-east from a base set up at Chelmno (1226), thereby introducing a much more formidable enemy on the crucial Baltic coast. Henryk I Brodaty (the Bearded) of Silesia, ruled 1234 - 1238; Henryk II Pobozny (the Pious) of Silesia, ruled 1238 - 1241, in 1241 devastating Tartar (or Mongol) invasions (in which Kiev was conquered and Muscovy fell under the yoke of the Golden Horde for over two centuries, and, in Hungary, created an opportunity for the Vlachs to settle on the plains of the western banks of the Lower Danube) led to a military defeat of the armies of Silesia and Wielkopolska at Legnica (Liegnitz) where Henryk, their commander, was killed. Whilst Poland fell further into a state of fragmentation and unrule, Europe was saved when the Tartars withdrew on receiving news of the death of their Great Khan, Ogedei. Settling in the Crimea the Tartars became a long-standing threat to Poland. It is from this invasion that Krakow commemorates the Hejnal, the truncated bugle call from the tower of the Kosciol Mariacki. The brother of Leszek Bialy, Konrad of Mazovia (b. c.1191; d. 1247), who had invited the Teutonic Order into Poland, ruled 1241 - 43. His physician, Nicolaus Polonus, became noted for his medical works written at Montpellier towards the end of the thirteenth century.

Boleslaw V Wstydliwy (the Modest), ruled 1243 - 1279, and married the Blessed Kinga (Hungarian: Cunegunda; 1224 - 1292), daughter of Bela IV of Hungary, credited with founding the salt mines of Wieliczka and named Patroness of Poland and Lithuania by Pope Clement XI (1715). It is during this period that the first Jewish settlers came to Poland where they were treated with more tolerance than in the rest of Europe, so-much-so that the Polish Synod was berated by the Papal Legate, in 1266, for allowing Jews to dress like anyone else and being able to live without restrictions in Poland, and for a royal charter, the Kalisz Statute, having been granted them by Boleslaw in 1264. This statute placed the Jews, as servi camerae ("bondsmen of the prince's treasury"), under Boleslaw's direct jurisdiction, granting them economic and religious freedom, protection of life and property, and the right to follow their customs within their communities.

There was a further Tartar invasion in 1259. The depopulation that the Tartar invasions brought about led to the settlement of Polish territory by German colonists, some of whom had been invited in by the local prince (as in Silesia). The reign of Leszek Czarny (the Black), 1279 - 1288, saw the last of the Tartar invasions (1287), followed by Henryk IV Probus, prince of Silesia and Krakow, who ruled 1289 - 1290. By this time the Church's position in Poland had been strengthened through the work of Archbishops Kietlicz (1199 - 1219) and Pelka who had imposed strict discipline upon the clergy and obtained immunity from taxation. Their successor, Jakub Swinka, Archbishop of Gniezno, worked avidly for a strong central power in Poland in order to preserve the interests of the Church. Encouraged by Swinka, Henryk sought papal consent to crown himself King of Poland but his sudden death (he was treacherously poisoned) prevented the realisation of that plan. It is his personal insignia, the crowned white eagle against a red field that his successor, Przemyslaw (King 1295 - 1296), adopted as a symbol for the Kingdom of Poland. Swinka had been able to engineer an agreement between Przemyslaw and his close rival, Wladyslaw Lokietek, son of Kazimierz I of Kujawy, to set up an anti-Bohemian coalition and technically brought an end to the territorial division of Poland.

In the vacuum created by the assassination of Przemyslaw by the Margraves of Brandenburg (who feared the rise of a Polish kingdom with access to the Baltic Sea), Wladyslaw Lokietek and Henryk of Glogow contested the succession, but it was Waclaw (Wenceslas) II of Bohemia (1271 - 1305), expanding his state via Silesia and already in possession of the duchies of Krakow and Sandomierz, who occupied Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and was crowned (1300). During the struggle for the Polish throne, Waclaw gained the support of the magnates of Krakow and Sandomierz by guaranteeing them civil rights in the Act of Lutomysl (1291). Waclaw became entangled in a dispute over succession to the vacant Hungarian crown (1301) during which he provoked the hostility of Pope Boniface VIII, the Hungarian nobility and the rulers of Southern Germany. Lokietek, who had been forced into exile, used this situation to obtain the support of both the Pope and the nobles of Upper Hungary in his claim to the crown and a Hungarian-German coalition was formed (1304). Waclaw attempted to gain the support of Brandenburg by offering to hand over Eastern Pomerania and Gdansk but only managed to alienate his Polish allies who revolted (1305). After the death of Waclaw (1305) Lokietek, supported by Hungarian forces, managed to take Malopolska (Little Poland), Krakow (1306), and (by 1314) Wielkopolska.

Premyslid (Przemyslid);

The only native ruling house in Bohemia, the Premyslid dynasty (a contemporary of the Piast dynasty), provided a King of Poland towards the end of the troubled 13th Century in what was

a complex, but interesting, climax to their struggle for power in East Central Europe. The Premyslids claimed descent from a legendary plowman, Premysl, and had their ancestral home in the city of Prague. They succeeded in laying the foundations of a Czech state towards the end of the ninth century by eliminating their opponents, the Vrsovic and Slavnik clans (the only Vrsovic to escape the massacre of his family was St. Vojtech/Wojciech/Adalbert who, in relief at his salvation, became a Christian missionary and was martyred by the Prussians). During the reign of St. Vaclav (the Good King Wenceslas of the Christmas carol) the Czech lands entered into an alliance with Saxony, thus laying the foundations for closer relations with the restored Holy Roman Empire. After the murder of Vaclav (929) by his brother and successor, Boleslav I, the Premyslids went through a period of infighting which left the realm vulnerable to outside intervention: Bohemia was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire (962) at just about the same time that Mieszko was looking for ways of preserving the independence of the Polane.

Bohemia ranked among the most advanced of the European feudal states, being at the forefront of economic power and cultural achievement. In keeping with this growing importance, the Premyslid dynasty was granted a royal crown; in 1086, Vratislaw was made King of Bohemia by Henry IV and, after struggles over the succession the Czechs accepted primogeniture (1158). Vaclav (Wenceslaus), son of Premysl Otakar I, married Kunigunde, a Hohenstaufen princess (1224) thus linking Premyslid destiny even more closely with that of the Empire. With the exception of a brief passage of the Tartars through Moravia, the Bohemian Kingdom escaped the destruction visited on Poland and Hungary, as a result, when the Babenburg line died out, the Austrians elected Vaclav's son, Premysl Otakar (b. ?1230; d. 1278), as Duke (1251).

Premysl Otakar II the Great (reigned 1253-1278) became the most powerful sovereign in Central Europe. His acquisition of Austria met with opposition from Hungary and most of the Polish dukes and in the following struggle the Babenberg heritage became split up, with only Austria proper left to Bohemia. It was not before 1269 that Premysl extended his domination over Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Premysl coveted Poland. Poland was vulnerable; it was divided between several members of the Piast dynasty, and had been hard hit by the aggressive Mongol invasion in 1241. It was also under constant attack from the Lithuanians and Prussians. Premysl promised the dukes of Poland aid in holding off their enemies and over the next twenty years launched two Crusades in the east; against the Prussians in 1255 (the Teutonic Order named their new settlement on the Pregel river after him; Konigsberg) and the Lithuanians in 1267. At the height of his power, Premysl Otakar II lost support from the Papacy who objected to his choice of Bishop for the newly-conquered/converted lands, angered the Teutonic Order who objected to his growing influence in Lithuania, alienated the Polish nobility who feared being absorbed in a Czech empire, and (upon the extinction of the Hohenstaufen lineage,1273) failed in his bid for Imperial election to Rudolf of Habsburg, Rudolf I demanded Otakar's Austrian acquisitions which he was forced to surrender (1276), having been abandoned by his allies and his own nobility, receiving back Bohemia and Moravia as fiefs. He was killed at the battle of Marchfeld (1278) in an attempt to reclaim his lost provinces.

Bohemia came under German regency until 1283, when Otakar's son, Premyslid Vaclav (b. 1271; d. 1305) assumed the title of King of Bohemia (Vaclav II). This period witnessed yet further growth of German and Imperial influence in Bohemia, now penetrating into Polish Silesia. From 1283 the real power in Bohemia lay in the hands of Vaclav's stepfather, Zavis, and Vaclav only assumed total authority in 1290. Vaclav reduced the power of the nobles by

introducing Roman law (which gave the king the sole right to legislate). During his reign the mining of Czech silver at Kutna Hora flourished and after carrying out fiscal reforms he introduced the Czech silver groschen (grossus Pragensis) - one of the strongest European currencies of the time. Vaclav was encouraged, by Rudolph I, to become involved in Polish politics where he had some claim, through his father, to parts of Silesia. After the death of Henryk IV Probus, Vlaclav took Krakow with the assistance of the nobles of Malopolska who were looking for security in these troubled times. Waclaw gained the support of the magnates of Krakow and Sandomierz by guaranteeing them civil rights in the Act of Lutomysl (1291).

Prior to this moment only the native Piasts had been involved in the dynastic struggles and, despite all the divisions of Polish territory, none had previously come under foreign rule. Vaclav's intervention raised a very serious threat because through him Poland could become incorporated into the Empire, something which had been carefully avoided for so many centuries. Archbishop Swinka, the prime mover for reunification and a strong central monarchy in Poland had been able to engineer an agreement between Przemyslaw and his close rival, Wladyslaw Lokietek, to set up an anti-Bohemian coalition and technically brought an end to the territorial division of Poland. Because of lack of unity among the Piasts, Przemyslaw had to recognise Vaclav's control of Krakow and be satisfied with Wielkopolska only. In order to counter the growing threat presented by Vaclaw, Archbishop Swinka persuaded the Pope to consent to Przemyslaw's coronation (1295). In the vacuum created by Przemyslaw's assassination (1296), during which Lokietek was involved in a power struggle with Henry of Glogow, Vaclav occupied Wielkopolska, Pomorze and Kujawy (1300). He also married Przemyslaw's daughter, Ryska Elzbieta. Vaclav was now seen (even by Swinka) as the only alternative and was crowned King (Waclaw II) in 1300, uniting at the same time Cracow and Gniezno. Vaclav/Waclaw ruled in absentia and set up the office of starosta to administer his lands (an office that was later modified by the Poles to suit themselves). The Czech groschen made its way into Poland and influenced Kazimierz III Wielki's own introduction of the "grossi Cracovienses".

When the last of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty, Andrew III, died (1301), Vaclav/Waclaw's son, Vaclav, was elected king of Hungary. The Pope objected strenuously to this coronation as Hungary was in fief to the Papacy. Wladyslaw Lokietek, now in exile, joined forces with the Magnates of Upper Hungary (opposed to Vaclav) and the Pope in plotting the demise of Czech power in Hungary and Croatia. In 1301, Albrecht I (King of Germany; 1298 - 1308) confiscated the Bohemian kingdom as a fief of the Empire, forcing Vaclav/Waclaw to go to war with him. Vaclav/Waclaw attempted to gain the support of Brandenburg by offering to hand over Eastern Pomerania and Gdansk but only managed to alienate his Polish allies who revolted (1305). Lokietek, supported by Hungarian forces, managed to take much of Malopolska. When Vaclav/Waclaw died in 1305 his son and successor Vaclav III (b.1289; d. 1306), King of Hungary (1301-5) and Bohemia (1305-6), found himself opposed in both Hungary and Poland. Vaclav signed a treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor and continued his father's aggressive policy in Poland. Unable to assert his authority in Hungary, he relinquished his claim to Duke Otto of Bavaria (1305) but tried, however, to assert his hereditary claim to the Polish crown. He was assassinated at Olomouc whilst on his way from Prague to Poland (1306). Vaclav III was the last male member of the Premyslid line.

The Piast Restoration;

In Poland, the sudden disappearance of the last two Premyslids provided the best opportunity to finally reunite the nation under Wladyslaw Lokietek. John of Luxemburg (who was to die

on the field at Crecy, 1346), son of Henry VII (elected King of Germany in 1308), inherited Bohemia through his marriage to Vaclav's sister and was elected king of Bohemia (1310). This German King of Bohemia would be one of Poland's most dangerous opponents as he was strongly convinced that he had also inherited Premyslid claims to the crown of Poland, and decided to continue their Silesian policy which had already brought some of the local dukes in that border province under the suzerainty of the Bohemian crown. In intimate co-operation with the Teutonic Order, he represented the trend of German expansion toward the East. In Hungary one of the French Anjous of Naples, Charles Robert, emerged as the successful candidate (1308). With the support of the Papacy he established a dynasty there which continued Hungary's independent tradition and checked the possible progress of German influence.

In 1320, Wladyslaw I Lokietek (the elbow-high)(b. ?1260; d. 1333) was crowned; the first ruler of the reunited kingdom 1306 - 1333. All his successors were kings. His major concern was the further encroachment of the Teutonic Knights into Polish territory. In 1308 Gdansk was besieged by the Brandenburg Margraves, Otto and Waldemar. Wladyslaw secured the help of the Teutonic Order in order to lift the siege but, having entered Gdansk, they then treacherously slaughtered Wladyslaw's men and took over the city themselves (14 November 1308); by 1311 they occupied most of Polish Pomerania and, in alliance with John of Luxemburg (elected king of Bohemia, 1310), invaded Wielkopolska itself (1331). Although defeating the Order at Plowce (1331) Wladyslaw was unable to deliver a decisive defeat. Wladyslaw, faced by intractable enemies and lacking the resources to overcome them, strengthened his kingdom through alliances with Hungary and Lithuania created by the marriages of his children.

There is a saying that Wladyslaw's son, Kazimierz III Wielki (Kazimierz the Great) (b. 1309; d. 1370), King 1333-1370, "found Poland built of wood, and left her in stone," so great was his activity as founder and planner of towns but it also signifies the great task that faced him in creating a strong and stable state out of a very weak inheritance. He established a truce (1333) and then peace (the Treaty of Kalisz, 1343) with The Teutonic Order and peace with the Czechs (1334). He worked with Hungary to establish order and officially recognised John of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, as suzerain over the Piast domains in Silesia (1339). In the vacuum that opened up with the collapse of Kievan Rus, he seized the principality of Halicz (Galicia, 1340) and defeated the Lithuanians (1353). Kazimierz built Poland into a major Central-European power, increasing her territory 2.5 times, bringing it's size up to 270,000 sq.kms. Under Kazimierz, in 1346, the first Polish Legal Code was made, and in 1364 the foundations of Krakow University (the second oldest in Central Europe) were formed. Trade also became important due to Poland's position on the commercial routes leading from East to West and from South to North. The establishment of regular grain exports to Constantinople led to the colonization of Ruthenia. Kazimierz befriended the peasants (hence becoming known as "Krol Chlopi"; the "Peasant's King") and widened Jewish rights under the Kalisz Statute to the whole country. He was the last of the Piast dynasty. He was succeeded by his sister's son, King Louis of Anjou, "the Great" of Hungary, (from 1370 - 82) whose daughter, Jadwiga, was crowned "King" of Poland in 1384. Branches of the Piast family continued to rule in Mazovia (until 1526) and Silesia (up to 1675). The Silesian Piasts, as vassals of Bohemia and mediate princes of the Holy Roman Empire, retained the ducal title and held the Duchy of Oppeln (until 1532) and the Principalities of Brieg, Liegnitz, and Wohlau until the line died out in 1675.

Anjou;

Descended from that branch of the family that were the Kings of Naples, Louis (b. 1326; d. 1382) the Great, King of Hungary (1342 - 82), was appointed heir to the Polish throne by the nobility and leading clergy of Poland upon the death of Kazimierz II Wielky (1370). Kazimierz had divided his kingdom in his will, bequeathing Leczyca, Sieradz and Kujawy to his grandson, Kazko (heir to Slupsk), and Galicia, Wielkopolska, Krakow and Sandomierz to Louis. Fearing such a division of a kingdom just recently united, the will was ruled invalid and the crown offered to Louis (King, 1370 - 82). In order to protect the succession Louis granted a number of privileges to the nobility through the Statute of Kosice (1374) which would establish a tradition that would restrict the freedom of action of future monarchs and would prevent modernisation in years to come. The union of the two countries did not prove successful, in fact Louis rarely visited Poland after his coronation at Krakow preferring to rule through regents. He was more concerned in strengthening his own dynasty centred on Hungary and as a result had become involved in a long struggle with Venice for the control of the Adriatic (in three wars; 1342 - 46, 1357 - 58, and 1378 - 81), succeeding in 1381. He also went to war with Lithuania over Red Ruthenia which he acquired in 1377. After a number of unpopular decisions including the transfer of some disputed territory to Brandenburg there were riots in Krakow culminating in the deaths of a number of his officials (1376). Louis relinquished his powers over to a council of Malopolska nobles (1380). Despite the failure of the union a bond was created between Hungarians and Poles that would last even to this day.

After Louis' sudden death, his elder daughter, Maria, was elected queen of Hungary whilst his younger daughter, the grandniece of Kazimierz Wielky, Jadwiga (original Hungarian, Hedvig, b. Buda, 1370; d. 1399), was elected King of Poland (1384 - 99) on condition that the union with Hungary was abandoned. Jadwiga had been betrothed in childhood to Wilhelm of Habsburg who arrived in Krakow, in 1384, to claim his bride only to be forcefully ejected. At the insistence of the nobles (who were looking for a protection of their newly acquired privileges and an alliance against the threat of an expanding Teutonic Order in the North), she married Jogaila (Jagiello), Grand-Duke of Lithuania, in 1386, thus paving the way for the great Jagiellonian Dynasty and the eventual union between the two nations. A most unhappy Jadwiga turned to a life of charity and care for the poor, dying young - of complications during childbirth - and leaving no heirs. Her greatest achievement was the provision of funds for the restoration of the University of Krakow. She was buried at the Great Altar in Wawel Cathedral; her remains were transferred to the white marble sarcophagus designed by Madeyski.

Jagiellon; The Rise to Greatness

The Jagiellonian Dynasty (1386 - 1572) which succeeded the Piast Dynasty is a period when we see Poland at her greatest. In 1386 the marriage of Jadwiga, King of Poland, to Jogaila (b. 1350; d. Grodek, near Lwow, 1434), pagan Grand-Duke of Lithuania (1377 - 1401), son of Algirdas (Olgierd), baptised as Wladyslaw II Jagiello, initiated the Lithuanian union, inspired by the common purpose of resisting the Teutonic Order; Jagiello had already been engaged in a war against the Teutonic Order in 1377 - 82. Then, on July 15 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenburg), Wladyslaw Jagiello crushed the Teutonic Order, one of the strongest military organisations in Europe. The Catholic Polish knights were a minority in an army made up of Lithuanian pagans, Orthodox Christians, Lithuanian Muslim Tartars and "heretical" Bohemian Hussites. This victory helped strengthen the bond between the Poles and the Lithuanians and, in 1413, led to the Treaty of Union at Horodlo. The Act of Union also established the territorial office of wojewoda (voivode or provincial governor) and initiated a new administrative and defensive structure. The defeat of the Order at Grunwald

also eased restraints on trade in the Baltic. The Teutonic Order received a further rebuff at the Council of Constance (1414 - 18) when the Rector of Krakow University, Wlodkowic, condemned crusading and listed detailed charges against the excesses of the Teutonic Order; the Order's attempt to portray Jagiello as a pagan tyrant was condemned by the Council and the status of Poland as a Christian state grew to such an extent that even Henry V of England asked for Jagiello's intervention in his war with France. Their hatred of the Germans encouraged the Hussites to offer Jagiello the Bohemian crown when they refused to recognize the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund (who had backed the Teutonic Order), as their king upon the death of Wenceslas IV (1420). Jagiello declined the offer because he needed the support of the Church in his struggle against the Teutonic Order but also at the insistence of the magnates who were concerned about the possible social consequences of the pro-Hussite sympathies amongst the szlachta. After the death of Jadwiga Jagiello remarried three more times; his fourth wife was the Muscovite princess, Sophia Holszanska, who bore him three sons (two of whom survived; Wladyslaw and Kazimierz). In 1430, through the Act of Krakow, Wladyslaw Jagiello introduced the law "Neminem Captivabimus" ("We shall detain no-one unless he is convicted by law"; the Polish "Habeas Corpus"), the first such law in Europe, and granted the szlachta the right to elect the king, thus laying the foundations for the Republic of Nobles. During his reign Poland became a great power; Jagiello's attempts to bring the Ruthenian Orthodox Church back into a union with Rome, his defeat of the Teutonic Order and Christianisation of Samogitia, his subtle game of supporting the Hussites in order to frustrate the anti-Polish strategies of the Holy Roman Emperor and his mastery over the Tartars, led to the consecration of Poland's role in the East.

Jagiello's ascendancy to the title of Grand-Duke of Lithuania had been opposed by his relatives and had only been secured by the ruthless putting down of all opposition (including the imprisonment and murder of his uncle Kejstut, Prince of Troki, at Krewo, 1382). He entered into a delicate alliance with his cousin, the son of Kiejstut, Vytautas (Witold, b. 1350; d. 1430), who, with the backing of the Teutonic Order, was a rival candidate for the title of Grand-Duke. Jagiello recognised Vytautas as Grand-Duke of Lithuania by the Treaty of Vilnius/Wilno (1401) on the condition that Poland and Lithuania be permanently united by a common foreign policy. Vytautas, with the backing of Jagiello, accepted the Bohemian crown and appointed his nephew, Zygmunt Korybut (d. 1435), as governor (1422); this move actually led to civil war between the Ultraquists (the Bohemian Hussite nobility allied to the city of Prague) who supported Korybut, and the Taborites (zealous militant Hussites) under Ziska. Jagiello's acquiescence (in allowing Vytautas to accept the crown) led the Pope, Martin V, to proclaim a crusade against Poland, and a coalition was formed - as a result of which, Vytautas was compelled to resign, Zygmunt was recalled by Jagiello and an edict issued against the Hussites and their allies (Wielun, 1424). Zygmunt went on (in the following year) to take on the role of "King elect" and even joined the Hussite uprising.

When Vytautas died (1430), Jagiello's brother Svidrigaila (Swidrygiello: d. 1452) was named to replace him as Grand-Duke (1430) - without consultation with the Polish nobility (as laid down by the Treaty of Horodlo). In a power struggle that reflected the problems of the new union and could have divided the dynasty into separate houses, Svidrigaila refused to recognise Poland's supremacy as laid down in 1401 and 1413, and the Poles now laid claims to Wolin (Volhynia). Svidrigaila entered into an alliance with the Teutonic Order and a brief campaign ensued in which the Poles proved successful (1432). When Svidrigaila refused to negotiate a peace and renewed his alliance with the Order it was decided to replace him. Vytautas' brother Zygmunt became Grand-Duke (1434 - 40). In the Act of Troki (1434) Zygmunt drew the szlachta of Halicz and Podolia into the protective arms of Polish civil

rights. In 1435 an alliance of Svidrigaila, Zygmunt Korybut and the Livonian branch of the Order was defeated at Wilkomierz (a victory that was to the Lithuanians what Grunwald had been to the Poles). Svidrigaila escaped to Moldavia but returned to Volhynia to be a constant problem until he died. Zygmunt, eventually, also begun to intrigue against the crown, and his cruel administration led to his assassination. In a coup (managed by the Lithuanian nobles) which almost severed Polish - Lithuanian links, he was replaced by Jagiello's youngest son, Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk.

Wladyslaw III Warnenczyk (b. Krakow, 1424; d. Varna, 1444), son of Jagiello and Sophia, was king of Poland 1434 - 44. Having inherited the crown at the age of 10, most decisions were made by the Regent, the powerful Bishop of Krakow, Zbigniew Olesnicki who worked hard to suppress the Hussites in Poland; it was largely because of him that the union with Bohemia, eagerly sought by the Hussites, did not come to pass. In 1440, through the manoeuvrings of Olesnicki, the Magyars offered Wladyslaw the crown of Hungary as Ladislas I (1440 - 44); Poland's attention shifted to the plains of Hungary and the growing Turkish threat. It is Hungary that had been the real bastion of Christendom, fighting a constant war against the Ottoman Turks. In 1443 Wladyslaw and his chief Hungarian supporter, the Vajda of Transylvania, Janos Hunyadi, led a combined Polish-Hungarian army of 40,000 into the Balkans and forced the Sultan, Murad II, to evacuate Serbia and Albania by the Peace of Szeged (August 1444). Very shortly after the peace was signed Wladyslaw broke it, under pressure from the Papal Legate (Cardinal Julian de Cesarinis), and continued his crusade. In November 1444, the combined Polish-Hungarian forces were defeated by the Turks at Varna on the Black Sea and Wladyslaw was killed. Whilst the disaster proved fortuitous for the Poles (since the resources laid aside for war against the Turks were to prove invaluable in the war against the Teutonic Order), the consequences of the destruction at Varna were dramatic for the Balkans which rapidly returned under Turkish control; Constantinople fell not long after (1453) and her mantle (as leader of the Orthodox Church) fell to the Tzars and Moscow (the 3rd Rome). The loss of access to India via the Black Sea and land routes led the Europeans to search for an alternative route by sea and hence to the discovery of the New World.

Wladyslaw III's brother, Kazimierz IV Jagiellonczyk (b. 1427; d. 1492), Grand-Duke of Lithuania , became king (1447 - 92). He worked hard to maintain the political union between Poland and Lithuania without prejudicing the independence of Lithuania which he saw as his personal estate. He managed to preserve the hereditary rule of the Jagiellonians as Grand-Dukes, keeping that separate from any role as monarch of the union. Kazimierz exploited the schism in the Western Church (during which time there were two Popes) by curbing the power of the clergy and subordinating the Church to the state. When the Prussians revolted against their overlord, the Teutonic Order, Kazimierz saw this as an opportunity to end, once and for all, their power. Requiring the support of the szlachta (nobility) to conduct a war against the Teutonic Order Kazimierz conceded, through the Act of Nieszawa (1454), that no new taxes or military levies could be raised without the consent of the szlachta and established the Sejmik, a regional consultative legislature which began to swing power away from the magnates to the szlachta and, in time, would evolve into the Sejm, the national legislature (Parliament); yet another step towards the Republic of Nobles.

Kazimierz started a prolonged war against the Order, the Thirteen Years' War, in order to recover Pomerania and Gdansk (1454 - 66). The Peace of Torun/Thorn (1466) humiliated the Order and Prussia was partitioned: West Prussia (including the city of Gdansk/Danzig) coming under direct Polish rule (thus recovering her access to the sea), whilst East Prussia

became a vassal to the Polish Crown. At the beginning of the war Kazimierz had found himself opposed by both the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope but he neutralised their hostility by allying himself with George of Podebrad (1462), who had been elected King of Bohemia (1458) by the Hussite Utraquists (who had defeated the Taborites in the recent civil war). Matias Hunyadi (also known as Korwin or Matthias Corvinus, 1458 - 90), the son of Janos Hunyadi and King of Hungary, supported by the Catholic-German faction in Bohemia, became Kazimierz's most dangerous rival. Korwin occupied Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia (1468) resulting in an eight-year war. When Podebrad died Kazimierz's eldest son, Wladyslaw, was elected king of Bohemia (1471) and came to a diplomatic agreement with Corvinus in the Peace of Olomouc (Olmutz, 1478); Korwin would keep the territories he had conquered whilst Wladyslaw would rule Bohemia proper. When, in turn, Corvinus died (1490) Wladyslaw was elected king of Hungary (after a brief contest for the crown with his brother Jan Olbracht which soured Polish-Hungarian relationships).

In 1475 the Ottoman Turks captured the stronghold of Kilia, commanding the mouth of the Danube, and Bialgorod (Akkerman) on the Dneister (1484). This seriously threatened Polish sovereignty in Moldavia and Polish trade routes, forcing Kazimierz to take action - the first time Poland would be engaged in warfare with the Turks independently of any links with Hungary. In 1485 he drove the Turks out of Moldavia but failed to regain the captured fortresses. In turn, the Turks encouraged the Transvolga Tartars to cease raiding the Crimean Tartars and raid Polish lands instead. Kazimierz managed to arrange a truce with the Turks and for the remainder of his reign there was no further trouble, but the threat remained.

Kazimierz's real failure was to build up any sort of defence against the expansion of Muscovy which had begun to threaten Lithuania's role as the leading power in the east. He signed a treaty with Vasili II of Moscow which fixed the spheres of their respective influences (1449) but Vasili was succeeded by Ivan the Terrible who was determined to create the "Third Rome". Ivan ended the independence of Novgorod (1478) which had looked in vain for help from Lithuania, and by 1486 his threat was such that a number of Russian princes, vassals of Lithuania, went over to the Muscovite grand duke because of the lack of protection from Kazimierz.

Kazimierz's reign became famed as a "Golden Age" which saw many foreign scholars, writers, artists and architects attracted to Poland, especially from Renaissance Italy. One of the most important late Gothic sculptors, Wit Stwosz (Viet Stoss, 1438 - 1533) of Nuremberg, established a workshop in Krakow (1477 - 1496) where he produced the wonderful altar of the Mariacki (St. Mary's) with its "The Dormition of the Virgin" (1477 - 89) and the tomb of Kazimierz IV in the Wawel Cathedral (1492). It was also a time when home-grown talent would reach new levels as epitomised in the neo-Latin works of Sarbiewski and the "History" of Jan Dlugosz. Trade benefited from a number of initiatives including the declaration (1447) that all rivers were the property of the Crown and free for general use. The acquisition of Prussia and its seaports (1466), and the whole of the Wisla coming under Polish control, saw a rise in river traffic, an enormous increase in exports (particularly through Gdansk) and a marked improvement in the economic life of the nation.

In 1454 Kazimierz entered into a marriage that would further his dynastic aims and his wife, Elizabeth of Habsburg, became known as the "Mother of Kings" as five of her sons wore crowns. His son, Wladyslaw (b. 1456; d. 1516) became King of Bohemia (1471 - 1516) and Hungary (1490 - 1516) but was a weak and vacillating ruler who became dominated by his nobles and lost territory to the Habsburgs. Kazimierz and Elizabeth's second son, St.

Kazimierz (b. Krakow, 1458; d. Grodno, 1484) was educated by the historian, Dlugosz, and Filippo Buonaccorsi (Callimachus). When the king's business involved a prolonged stay in Lithuania (1479), Kazimierz, always intended to inherit the throne, was placed in charge and administered the State commendably (1481 - 1483). Shortly afterwards he fell victim to a severe lung infection, which, as a result of his fasting and mortifications, he succumbed to whilst on a journey to Lithuania. Kazimierz was buried in the Cathedral at Wilno. After his death he was venerated as a saint and, after an inquiry which was completed in 1520, Kazimierz was canonised by Adrian VI (1522). The patron of Poland Lithuania, St. Kazimierz's feastday is 4 March.

Kazimierz IV was succeeded by his sons Jan Olbracht, Aleksander and Zygmunt.

Jan Olbracht,1492 - 1501, became involved in fighting the Crimean Tartars on the Black Sea coast. His reign is important for witnessing, at Piotrkow (1493 and 1496), the final evolution from regional parliaments (Sejmiks) to a bicameral national parliament; the Sejm. The Sejm of 1496 granted many privileges to the nobility but, in so doing, restricted the rights of the peasants and created a system of legal serfdom in Poland. The manor would become an important economic centre exporting its goods down river and, in the laws exempting nobles from paying export duties when shipping their products abroad or importing foreign wares for personal use, the landlord would have economic advantages over the merchants that would work against the healthy growth of trade within the cities (which, in any case, had no say in the running of the country). Jan Olbracht expelled the Jews from Krakow proper (1495), moving them to Kazimierz (at that time across the Wisla but still under the royal protection offered by the enclave on Wawel Hill), and gave their land to the University, which had coveted the land and is still located there.

Aleksander, (b. 1461; d. 1506), reigned 1501 - 06. On accession to the throne Aleksander was obliged to issue a new act of union, the Act of Melnik (1501), which stipulated that the king of Poland would also be the Grand-Duke of Lithuania (thus the Jagiellonians lost their hereditary rights in Lithuania). It also reduced the powers of the king to that of President of the Senate which could refuse obedience to the king in instances of "tyrannical behaviour" on his part. The Statute of "Nihil Novi" (1505) enacted that nothing new could be decided without Parliament's consent. Aleksander worked hard to westernise Lithuania and it is in his reign that Polish was spoken at the court in Wilno. The growing inability of Lithuania to protect herself became very apparent as the Muscovites and Tartars ravaged the whole country at will and were only prevented from conquering it altogether by their inability to capture the chief fortresses.

Zygmunt I Stary (b.1467; d.1548),1506 - 48, struggled in vain with the nobles to raise money in order to adequately defend the nation. He waged war against Muscovy (during which Smolensk, in an important strategic position, was lost, 1514), Walachia and Moldavia (1508 - 28). The constant raids of the Moldavians and Tartars were to eventually result in the ravishing of Ruthenia and the Ukraine, the annihilation of flourishing settlements and a virtual end to the Polonisation of the area which was to become known as the "Wild Plains". Zygmunt aided his nephew, Louis II (b. 1506; d. 1526), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1516 - 26), against the Turks at the battle of Mohacs (where Louis was killed, thus bringing the Jagiellonian Dynasty in Hungary to an end, 1526) and the siege of Vienna (1529). Assisted by his Italian wife, Bona Sforza of Milan, the niece of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian, he promoted the Renaissance in Poland and proved to be a wise administrator, encouraging currency reforms. This was also the period of the Reformation; many of the sons of the

szlachta who attended foreign universities were inspired by Calvinism which encouraged freedom of speech, and it was quite successful in Lithuania where as many as 2000 noble families adopted it, but whilst it stimulated intellectual activity, the Reformation failed to gain much ground in the long term because of differences between the various sects and also because the vast majority of the population remained Catholic. Lutheranism was taken up by the Prussian nobility; Albrecht Hohenzollern, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, split with both the Holy Roman Empire and Rome and, by becoming a vassal of the Polish King ("the Prussian Homage" 1525) - at Martin Luther's suggestion, was able to turn East Prussia into a Duchy. It was this Hohenzollern dynasty that was to play a key role in the destruction of the Rzeczpospolita (Republic of Nobles) in 1795. After the death of the last of its Piast rulers (1526) Zygmunt also absorbed the Duchy of Mazovia, which had previously been a vassal principality with an autonomous government, into the Polish state (1529). His daughter Katarzyna (b. 1525; d. 1583) married John III Vasa, their son being Zygmunt III Vasa.

Zygmunt I Stary's son, Zygmunt II August (b. 1520; d. 1572), reigned from 1548 - 72 and was the last of the Jagiellonians. During his reign the influence of the Reformation was extended; whilst remaining a steadfast adherent to Rome he nether-the-less read Protestant books and took part in theological discussions. Calvin dedicated his "Commentary on the Mass" to him. When pressed to take sides in the dispute between Catholics and Protestants, Zygmunt August said: "I am the King of the people - not the judge of their consciences." This spirit of tolerance attracted many refugees from religious persecution to Poland especially during the 1540s and 1550s. The Sejm, dominated by reformist nobles, passed legislation constraining ecclesiastical jurisdiction (1552, 1556, 1562).

Zygmunt's tolerance did not extend to the szlachta who had begun demanding a greater say in the running of the nation and a great distrust had grown between the two parties. The Polish szlachta had been enthusiastic for a strengthening of the union between Poland and Lithuania for some time but the immensely rich and powerful Lithuanian magnates, serving only their own interests, were opposed to such a union. After the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, (1545), Zygmunt August secretly married Barbara Radziwill (1547) from the powerful Lithuanian magnate family. Once this marriage became known, the szlachta, fearing that the Radziwills, with their new influence, could further delay a union with Lithuania, tried to get the marriage annulled - without success, thus widening the gulf between themselves and the king. When Livonia, threatened by Muscovite expansion towards the Baltic, sought protection from Zygmunt August she was incorporated into Lithuania by the Act of Wilno (1561). Then, when Ivan the Terrible invaded Livonia, Zygmunt August entered into a war against Muscovy, the Livonian War (1558 - 83), in order to secure his control over Livonia and the Baltic seacoast - creating Poland's first fleet in the process (1563). The Muscovite danger, which had increased with the internal political consolidation under Ivan the Terrible, the obvious inability of the Lithuanians to defend themselves and the financial burden of the war on the Lithuanian magnates' coffers, made it very evident that some strengthening of relations between the two states was now desirable. Furthermore, the incorporation of Podlasie, Volhynia and the province of Kiev into the Polish Crown gave Poland a frontier with Muscovy (March 1569). In July 1569 the inevitable happened: the Union of Lublin was a formal union of Poland and Lithuania; the "Rzeczpospolita" (the Republic of Nobles) with one elected head (the King) and a national parliament (the Sejm).

The Great Dynasties

Piast;

The first Polish Dynasty is named after its legendary founder of the 9th. century, a peasant named Piast. It was Naruszewicz who, in his "History of the Polish Nation" (1780 - 86), first gave the name "Piast" to the Polanian dynasty which claimed descent from Piast but had never used the name themselves. According to legend the evil prince Popiel was eaten by mice as punishment for the murder of his family. After his death it was decided to elect the wheelwright, Piast, as ruler because of his virtuous nature. The names of the early dynasty have been passed down as Ziemowit, Leszko and Ziemomysl, the father of Mieszko. Mieszko I, or Mieczyslaw I (b. ?922; d. 992), chief of the Polanie (962 - 992), is the founder of Poland. He imposed a fiscal system by introducing the denarii (silver pennies) in the 980s, and set up a network of defences (the royal grod). Becoming concerned by the establishment of the German Empire of Otto I (962), Mieszko entered into an alliance with the Czechs, marrying Dobrava, the daughter of Boleslav I of Bohemia, and accepted Christianity for himself and his people; the Polish Baptism of 966. He placed his lands in the hands of the Holy See thus putting it under the protection of Rome; whilst submitting to the Empire he had, in this act, assured security and independence for his emerging nation. Mieszko established a bishopric in Poznan (968) and its first bishop, Jordan, probably come from Rome. Mieszko's move was an astute political one since it opened access (particularly through the German clergy that now came to Poland) to the military knowledge and political systems of the West (which he made full use of by entering into marriage alliances with the great families of the Empire). Contemporary accounts credited Mieszko with significant military forces with which he invaded Pomerania and, after defeating Hodo, the Margrave of the Ostmark at Cedynia (972), reached the Oder in 976. He defeated Otto II, who had come to assist Hodo, in 979, becoming undisputed lord of Pomerania. He marked his success by founding the city of Gdansk (Danzig, 980) through which he could control the mouth of the Wisla. In 983 Mieszko aided Otto III, to whom he had paid allegiance, in the war against the Lutitians and then helped recover Misnia (Meissen) from the Czechs (986). Mieszko entered into a number of dynastic alliances including ones with Hungary, Kiev and Scandinavia, aiding his son-in-law, Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, to reconquer his kingdom of England; his grandson was Canute the Great.

Mieszko's son, Boleslaw I Chrobry (the Brave), (b. 967; d. 1025), the first King of Poland, 992 - 1025, established Poland's right as an independent kingdom. He seized Krakow from Bohemia (996). In 997 he organised a mission, under the leadership of the Bohemian bishop St. Adalbert of Prague (Sw. Wojciech; b. Libice, c.956; d. 997), to christianize the Prussians. St. Adalbert was killed by the pagans. According to legend, Boleslaw ransomed back the body of St. Adalbert and had him buried in Gniezno Cathedral where he had been ordained. Boleslaw was able to get Gniezno elevated to the rank of metropolitan see (1000), thus emancipating the Polish Church from German control. Relations with the Empire underwent a rapid change with the death of Otto III (1002) and soon led to a series of wars. Boleslaw seized the Lusatian Marches and held them against Otto's successor, Henry II. The wars continued until peace was settled at Budziszyn (Bautzen, 1018), much to Poland's advantage though Henry had managed to alienate the western Slavs against Christian Poland, thus preparing the ground for conquest and germanisation of this region in the future. Boleslaw also campaigned in the east when Kievian forces (in alliance with the Germans) launched an invasion (1013). He undertook an expedition against Grand Prince Yaroslav I the Wise in order to restore his own son-in-law, Swiatopelk, to the throne of Kiev (1018). Legend has it that on entering Kiev, Boleslaw struck the gate with his sword and dented the blade; this sword, Szczerbiec, was later used at the coronation of all Polish Kings. Boleslaw himself was

not crowned until 1024. Ranked among Poland's greatest rulers, Boleslaw reorganised the administration and taxation of his state, and created a large standing army. He is said to have driven iron stakes into both the Saal and the Dnieper to mark his conquests.

Boleslaw's son, Mieszko II ( b. 990; d. 1034), King 1025 - 1034, rashly attacked the Emperor Conrad II and thereafter exposed his realm to the rivalry of his brothers and the aggression of Kiev and the Empire. He was overthrown by his elder brother, Bezprym (who had been repudiated by his father) and had to flee (1031) but regained his throne on the murder of Bezprym (1032) only to lose his own life at the hands of a disgruntled court official. In only a few years the Polish State and Christianity within the nation were both threatened severely as many who had never renounced their paganism revolted, and the Czechs invaded (1038). Christianity had been forced on the populace by the ruling elite for their own political ends and it is important to note that the real Christianisation of Poland did not occur until the establishment of the monasteries in the 12th Century. Mieszko II's son, Kazimierz I Odnowiciel (the Restorer) (b. 1015; d. 1058), King 1038 - 1058, was hardly more successful and also had to flee to Hungary when civil war broke out. After regaining the throne in 1040 he made Krakow the capital of Poland (reflecting not only the economic growth of that city but also the level of destruction and disruption elsewhere). Kazimierz's son, Boleslaw II Smialy (the Bold) (b. ?1039; d. ?1083), king 1058 - 1079, moved against the Emperor, Henry IV, who was engaged, initially, in a struggle against the German princes, then a Saxon uprising before entering into a battle for supremacy with Pope Gregory VII (the Investiture Struggle, 1075 - 1122). The Pope allied himself with the vassal princes hostile to Henry - one of whom was Boleslaw who declared Polish independence from the Empire and was sent a crown (his coronation was at Christmas 1076). Boleslaw seized Kiev twice and entered into a long power struggle against Bohemia. In 1079 Boleslaw had Bishop Stanislaw of Krakow executed (the Polish Becket, canonised in 1257); it is possible that Stanislaw had been party to a Bohemian-German attempt to remove Boleslaw and thus bring Poland into the sphere of the Empire and the anti-Pope, Clement. Boleslaw was expelled in a later revolt and replaced by his weak brother, Wladyslaw Herman (b. 1043; d. 1102), ruled 1079 - 1102. Wladyslaw distanced himself from any involvement in the east and it is during this period that the Ruthenians colonised the lands of the Dniester and the San and we see the growth of Halicz. Wladyslaw's son, Boleslaw III Krzywousty (the Wry-Mouthed) (b. 1086; d. 1138), Prince 1102 - 1138, was an extremely capable ruler who earned the respect of his people. He exiled his half-brother and co-ruler, Zbigniew (1107) who, in 1109, with the aid of the Emperor Henry V, attempted to cross the Odra but was thwarted by the rugged resistance of Glogow, when the Germans used hostages obtained during a truce as human shields for their siege towers - to no avail. Boleslaw defeated the Emperor and the Duke of Bohemia at the battle of Psie Pole, near Wroclaw, 1109, forcing them to renounce all claims to Polish territory. In a series of stubbornly resisted campaigns he also recaptured Eastern Pomerania (1122) but had to swear fealty to the Emperor Lothar II (1135) in order to regain Dymin and the Island of Rugen. Unfortunately Boleslaw failed to stem the decentralising tendencies undermining the state, nor did he regain the title of king.

One of the enduring weaknesses of the Piast dynasty lay in the fact that the Poles failed to accept primogeniture. In 1138 the nobles forced Boleslaw to divide his realm among his sons in order to prevent a power struggle; the Testament of Boleslaw III. Each of the territorial subdivisions (Silesia, Great Poland, Mazovia, and Sandomir) was to be held as the hereditary domain of one of Boleslaw's sons. The senior member of the family also held Krakow and Pomerania, ruling as grand prince over the loosely federated state. Rather than strengthen the state by providing a means of secure succession this act, which merely served to create a

number of independent principalities vying with each other for supremacy, was the start of 150 years of dynastic struggle which shattered the precarious unity of Poland and saw a period of internal strife with a series of rulers: Wladyslaw II Wygnaniec (the Exile), of Silesia (b. 1105; d.1159), ruled 1138 - 1146; Boleslaw IV Kedzierzawy (the Curly), of Mazovia (b.1127; d. 1173), ruled 1146 - 1173; Mieszko III Stary (the Old), of Wielkopolska, ruled 1173 - 1177 and 1194 - 1202; Kazimierz II Sprawiedliwy (the Just) (b. 1138; d. 1194), of Sandomierz, ruled 1177 - 1194, organising the Polish senate and introducing laws protecting Polish peasants. He united Sandomierz and Mazovia and was made Duke of Krakow (1177). Although he secured hereditary rights to the crown for his descendants (1180) the dynastic struggles continued until Wladyslaw I Lokietek restored royal authority in 1320.

Mieszko III's son, Wladyslaw III Laskonogi (Longshanks) of Wielkopolska, ruled 1202; Leszek Bialy (the White) of Sandomierz, ruled 1202 - 1227, whose intervention in the politics of Ruthenia (in 1205), alongside his brother, Konrad of Mazovia (b. c.1191; d. 1247), led to its division into the twin principalities of Halicz and Vladimir. In a move of disastrous consequences to the future history of Poland, Duke Konrad (more concerned with the dynastic struggles to the south) invited the Teutonic Order (who had recently been expelled from Hungary by Andrew II) to combat pagan Prussian tribes in the north-east from a base set up at Chelmno (1226), thereby introducing a much more formidable enemy on the crucial Baltic coast. Henryk I Brodaty (the Bearded) of Silesia, ruled 1234 - 1238; Henryk II Pobozny (the Pious) of Silesia, ruled 1238 - 1241, in 1241 devastating Tartar (or Mongol) invasions (in which Kiev was conquered and Muscovy fell under the yoke of the Golden Horde for over two centuries, and, in Hungary, created an opportunity for the Vlachs to settle on the plains of the western banks of the Lower Danube) led to a military defeat of the armies of Silesia and Wielkopolska at Legnica (Liegnitz) where Henryk, their commander, was killed. Whilst Poland fell further into a state of fragmentation and unrule, Europe was saved when the Tartars withdrew on receiving news of the death of their Great Khan, Ogedei. Settling in the Crimea the Tartars became a long-standing threat to Poland. It is from this invasion that Krakow commemorates the Hejnal, the truncated bugle call from the tower of the Kosciol Mariacki. The brother of Leszek Bialy, Konrad of Mazovia (b. c.1191; d. 1247), who had invited the Teutonic Order into Poland, ruled 1241 - 43. His physician, Nicolaus Polonus, became noted for his medical works written at Montpellier towards the end of the thirteenth century.

Boleslaw V Wstydliwy (the Modest), ruled 1243 - 1279, and married the Blessed Kinga (Hungarian: Cunegunda; 1224 - 1292), daughter of Bela IV of Hungary, credited with founding the salt mines of Wieliczka and named Patroness of Poland and Lithuania by Pope Clement XI (1715). It is during this period that the first Jewish settlers came to Poland where they were treated with more tolerance than in the rest of Europe, so-much-so that the Polish Synod was berated by the Papal Legate, in 1266, for allowing Jews to dress like anyone else and being able to live without restrictions in Poland, and for a royal charter, the Kalisz Statute, having been granted them by Boleslaw in 1264. This statute placed the Jews, as servi camerae ("bondsmen of the prince's treasury"), under Boleslaw's direct jurisdiction, granting them economic and religious freedom, protection of life and property, and the right to follow their customs within their communities.

There was a further Tartar invasion in 1259. The depopulation that the Tartar invasions brought about led to the settlement of Polish territory by German colonists, some of whom had been invited in by the local prince (as in Silesia). The reign of Leszek Czarny (the Black), 1279 - 1288, saw the last of the Tartar invasions (1287), followed by Henryk IV Probus,

prince of Silesia and Krakow, who ruled 1289 - 1290. By this time the Church's position in Poland had been strengthened through the work of Archbishops Kietlicz (1199 - 1219) and Pelka who had imposed strict discipline upon the clergy and obtained immunity from taxation. Their successor, Jakub Swinka, Archbishop of Gniezno, worked avidly for a strong central power in Poland in order to preserve the interests of the Church. Encouraged by Swinka, Henryk sought papal consent to crown himself King of Poland but his sudden death (he was treacherously poisoned) prevented the realisation of that plan. It is his personal insignia, the crowned white eagle against a red field that his successor, Przemyslaw (King 1295 - 1296), adopted as a symbol for the Kingdom of Poland. Swinka had been able to engineer an agreement between Przemyslaw and his close rival, Wladyslaw Lokietek, son of Kazimierz I of Kujawy, to set up an anti-Bohemian coalition and technically brought an end to the territorial division of Poland.

In the vacuum created by the assassination of Przemyslaw by the Margraves of Brandenburg (who feared the rise of a Polish kingdom with access to the Baltic Sea), Wladyslaw Lokietek and Henryk of Glogow contested the succession, but it was Waclaw (Wenceslas) II of Bohemia (1271 - 1305), expanding his state via Silesia and already in possession of the duchies of Krakow and Sandomierz, who occupied Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and was crowned (1300). During the struggle for the Polish throne, Waclaw gained the support of the magnates of Krakow and Sandomierz by guaranteeing them civil rights in the Act of Lutomysl (1291). Waclaw became entangled in a dispute over succession to the vacant Hungarian crown (1301) during which he provoked the hostility of Pope Boniface VIII, the Hungarian nobility and the rulers of Southern Germany. Lokietek, who had been forced into exile, used this situation to obtain the support of both the Pope and the nobles of Upper Hungary in his claim to the crown and a Hungarian-German coalition was formed (1304). Waclaw attempted to gain the support of Brandenburg by offering to hand over Eastern Pomerania and Gdansk but only managed to alienate his Polish allies who revolted (1305). After the death of Waclaw (1305) Lokietek, supported by Hungarian forces, managed to take Malopolska (Little Poland), Krakow (1306), and (by 1314) Wielkopolska.

Premyslid (Przemyslid);

The only native ruling house in Bohemia, the Premyslid dynasty (a contemporary of the Piast dynasty), provided a King of Poland towards the end of the troubled 13th Century in what was a complex, but interesting, climax to their struggle for power in East Central Europe. The Premyslids claimed descent from a legendary plowman, Premysl, and had their ancestral home in the city of Prague. They succeeded in laying the foundations of a Czech state towards the end of the ninth century by eliminating their opponents, the Vrsovic and Slavnik clans (the only Vrsovic to escape the massacre of his family was St. Vojtech/Wojciech/Adalbert who, in relief at his salvation, became a Christian missionary and was martyred by the Prussians). During the reign of St. Vaclav (the Good King Wenceslas of the Christmas carol) the Czech lands entered into an alliance with Saxony, thus laying the foundations for closer relations with the restored Holy Roman Empire. After the murder of Vaclav (929) by his brother and successor, Boleslav I, the Premyslids went through a period of infighting which left the realm vulnerable to outside intervention: Bohemia was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire (962) at just about the same time that Mieszko was looking for ways of preserving the independence of the Polane.

Bohemia ranked among the most advanced of the European feudal states, being at the forefront of economic power and cultural achievement. In keeping with this growing

importance, the Premyslid dynasty was granted a royal crown; in 1086, Vratislaw was made King of Bohemia by Henry IV and, after struggles over the succession the Czechs accepted primogeniture (1158). Vaclav (Wenceslaus), son of Premysl Otakar I, married Kunigunde, a Hohenstaufen princess (1224) thus linking Premyslid destiny even more closely with that of the Empire. With the exception of a brief passage of the Tartars through Moravia, the Bohemian Kingdom escaped the destruction visited on Poland and Hungary, as a result, when the Babenburg line died out, the Austrians elected Vaclav's son, Premysl Otakar (b. ?1230; d. 1278), as Duke (1251).

Premysl Otakar II the Great (reigned 1253-1278) became the most powerful sovereign in Central Europe. His acquisition of Austria met with opposition from Hungary and most of the Polish dukes and in the following struggle the Babenberg heritage became split up, with only Austria proper left to Bohemia. It was not before 1269 that Premysl extended his domination over Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Premysl coveted Poland. Poland was vulnerable; it was divided between several members of the Piast dynasty, and had been hard hit by the aggressive Mongol invasion in 1241. It was also under constant attack from the Lithuanians and Prussians. Premysl promised the dukes of Poland aid in holding off their enemies and over the next twenty years launched two Crusades in the east; against the Prussians in 1255 (the Teutonic Order named their new settlement on the Pregel river after him; Konigsberg) and the Lithuanians in 1267. At the height of his power, Premysl Otakar II lost support from the Papacy who objected to his choice of Bishop for the newly-conquered/converted lands, angered the Teutonic Order who objected to his growing influence in Lithuania, alienated the Polish nobility who feared being absorbed in a Czech empire, and (upon the extinction of the Hohenstaufen lineage,1273) failed in his bid for Imperial election to Rudolf of Habsburg, Rudolf I demanded Otakar's Austrian acquisitions which he was forced to surrender (1276), having been abandoned by his allies and his own nobility, receiving back Bohemia and Moravia as fiefs. He was killed at the battle of Marchfeld (1278) in an attempt to reclaim his lost provinces.

Bohemia came under German regency until 1283, when Otakar's son, Premyslid Vaclav (b. 1271; d. 1305) assumed the title of King of Bohemia (Vaclav II). This period witnessed yet further growth of German and Imperial influence in Bohemia, now penetrating into Polish Silesia. From 1283 the real power in Bohemia lay in the hands of Vaclav's stepfather, Zavis, and Vaclav only assumed total authority in 1290. Vaclav reduced the power of the nobles by introducing Roman law (which gave the king the sole right to legislate). During his reign the mining of Czech silver at Kutna Hora flourished and after carrying out fiscal reforms he introduced the Czech silver groschen (grossus Pragensis) - one of the strongest European currencies of the time. Vaclav was encouraged, by Rudolph I, to become involved in Polish politics where he had some claim, through his father, to parts of Silesia. After the death of Henryk IV Probus, Vlaclav took Krakow with the assistance of the nobles of Malopolska who were looking for security in these troubled times. Waclaw gained the support of the magnates of Krakow and Sandomierz by guaranteeing them civil rights in the Act of Lutomysl (1291).

Prior to this moment only the native Piasts had been involved in the dynastic struggles and, despite all the divisions of Polish territory, none had previously come under foreign rule. Vaclav's intervention raised a very serious threat because through him Poland could become incorporated into the Empire, something which had been carefully avoided for so many centuries. Archbishop Swinka, the prime mover for reunification and a strong central monarchy in Poland had been able to engineer an agreement between Przemyslaw and his close rival, Wladyslaw Lokietek, to set up an anti-Bohemian coalition and technically brought

an end to the territorial division of Poland. Because of lack of unity among the Piasts, Przemyslaw had to recognise Vaclav's control of Krakow and be satisfied with Wielkopolska only. In order to counter the growing threat presented by Vaclaw, Archbishop Swinka persuaded the Pope to consent to Przemyslaw's coronation (1295). In the vacuum created by Przemyslaw's assassination (1296), during which Lokietek was involved in a power struggle with Henry of Glogow, Vaclav occupied Wielkopolska, Pomorze and Kujawy (1300). He also married Przemyslaw's daughter, Ryska Elzbieta. Vaclav was now seen (even by Swinka) as the only alternative and was crowned King (Waclaw II) in 1300, uniting at the same time Cracow and Gniezno. Vaclav/Waclaw ruled in absentia and set up the office of starosta to administer his lands (an office that was later modified by the Poles to suit themselves). The Czech groschen made its way into Poland and influenced Kazimierz III Wielki's own introduction of the "grossi Cracovienses".

When the last of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty, Andrew III, died (1301), Vaclav/Waclaw's son, Vaclav, was elected king of Hungary. The Pope objected strenuously to this coronation as Hungary was in fief to the Papacy. Wladyslaw Lokietek, now in exile, joined forces with the Magnates of Upper Hungary (opposed to Vaclav) and the Pope in plotting the demise of Czech power in Hungary and Croatia. In 1301, Albrecht I (King of Germany; 1298 - 1308) confiscated the Bohemian kingdom as a fief of the Empire, forcing Vaclav/Waclaw to go to war with him. Vaclav/Waclaw attempted to gain the support of Brandenburg by offering to hand over Eastern Pomerania and Gdansk but only managed to alienate his Polish allies who revolted (1305). Lokietek, supported by Hungarian forces, managed to take much of Malopolska. When Vaclav/Waclaw died in 1305 his son and successor Vaclav III (b.1289; d. 1306), King of Hungary (1301-5) and Bohemia (1305-6), found himself opposed in both Hungary and Poland. Vaclav signed a treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor and continued his father's aggressive policy in Poland. Unable to assert his authority in Hungary, he relinquished his claim to Duke Otto of Bavaria (1305) but tried, however, to assert his hereditary claim to the Polish crown. He was assassinated at Olomouc whilst on his way from Prague to Poland (1306). Vaclav III was the last male member of the Premyslid line.

The Piast Restoration;

In Poland, the sudden disappearance of the last two Premyslids provided the best opportunity to finally reunite the nation under Wladyslaw Lokietek. John of Luxemburg (who was to die on the field at Crecy, 1346), son of Henry VII (elected King of Germany in 1308), inherited Bohemia through his marriage to Vaclav's sister and was elected king of Bohemia (1310). This German King of Bohemia would be one of Poland's most dangerous opponents as he was strongly convinced that he had also inherited Premyslid claims to the crown of Poland, and decided to continue their Silesian policy which had already brought some of the local dukes in that border province under the suzerainty of the Bohemian crown. In intimate co-operation with the Teutonic Order, he represented the trend of German expansion toward the East. In Hungary one of the French Anjous of Naples, Charles Robert, emerged as the successful candidate (1308). With the support of the Papacy he established a dynasty there which continued Hungary's independent tradition and checked the possible progress of German influence.

In 1320, Wladyslaw I Lokietek (the elbow-high)(b. ?1260; d. 1333) was crowned; the first ruler of the reunited kingdom 1306 - 1333. All his successors were kings. His major concern was the further encroachment of the Teutonic Knights into Polish territory. In 1308 Gdansk was besieged by the Brandenburg Margraves, Otto and Waldemar. Wladyslaw secured the

help of the Teutonic Order in order to lift the siege but, having entered Gdansk, they then treacherously slaughtered Wladyslaw's men and took over the city themselves (14 November 1308); by 1311 they occupied most of Polish Pomerania and, in alliance with John of Luxemburg (elected king of Bohemia, 1310), invaded Wielkopolska itself (1331). Although defeating the Order at Plowce (1331) Wladyslaw was unable to deliver a decisive defeat. Wladyslaw, faced by intractable enemies and lacking the resources to overcome them, strengthened his kingdom through alliances with Hungary and Lithuania created by the marriages of his children.

There is a saying that Wladyslaw's son, Kazimierz III Wielki (Kazimierz the Great) (b. 1309; d. 1370), King 1333-1370, "found Poland built of wood, and left her in stone," so great was his activity as founder and planner of towns but it also signifies the great task that faced him in creating a strong and stable state out of a very weak inheritance. He established a truce (1333) and then peace (the Treaty of Kalisz, 1343) with The Teutonic Order and peace with the Czechs (1334). He worked with Hungary to establish order and officially recognised John of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, as suzerain over the Piast domains in Silesia (1339). In the vacuum that opened up with the collapse of Kievan Rus, he seized the principality of Halicz (Galicia, 1340) and defeated the Lithuanians (1353). Kazimierz built Poland into a major Central-European power, increasing her territory 2.5 times, bringing it's size up to 270,000 sq.kms. Under Kazimierz, in 1346, the first Polish Legal Code was made, and in 1364 the foundations of Krakow University (the second oldest in Central Europe) were formed. Trade also became important due to Poland's position on the commercial routes leading from East to West and from South to North. The establishment of regular grain exports to Constantinople led to the colonization of Ruthenia. Kazimierz befriended the peasants (hence becoming known as "Krol Chlopi"; the "Peasant's King") and widened Jewish rights under the Kalisz Statute to the whole country. He was the last of the Piast dynasty. He was succeeded by his sister's son, King Louis of Anjou, "the Great" of Hungary, (from 1370 - 82) whose daughter, Jadwiga, was crowned "King" of Poland in 1384. Branches of the Piast family continued to rule in Mazovia (until 1526) and Silesia (up to 1675). The Silesian Piasts, as vassals of Bohemia and mediate princes of the Holy Roman Empire, retained the ducal title and held the Duchy of Oppeln (until 1532) and the Principalities of Brieg, Liegnitz, and Wohlau until the line died out in 1675.

Anjou;

Descended from that branch of the family that were the Kings of Naples, Louis (b. 1326; d. 1382) the Great, King of Hungary (1342 - 82), was appointed heir to the Polish throne by the nobility and leading clergy of Poland upon the death of Kazimierz II Wielky (1370). Kazimierz had divided his kingdom in his will, bequeathing Leczyca, Sieradz and Kujawy to his grandson, Kazko (heir to Slupsk), and Galicia, Wielkopolska, Krakow and Sandomierz to Louis. Fearing such a division of a kingdom just recently united, the will was ruled invalid and the crown offered to Louis (King, 1370 - 82). In order to protect the succession Louis granted a number of privileges to the nobility through the Statute of Kosice (1374) which would establish a tradition that would restrict the freedom of action of future monarchs and would prevent modernisation in years to come. The union of the two countries did not prove successful, in fact Louis rarely visited Poland after his coronation at Krakow preferring to rule through regents. He was more concerned in strengthening his own dynasty centred on Hungary and as a result had become involved in a long struggle with Venice for the control of the Adriatic (in three wars; 1342 - 46, 1357 - 58, and 1378 - 81), succeeding in 1381. He also went to war with Lithuania over Red Ruthenia which he acquired in 1377. After a number of

unpopular decisions including the transfer of some disputed territory to Brandenburg there were riots in Krakow culminating in the deaths of a number of his officials (1376). Louis relinquished his powers over to a council of Malopolska nobles (1380). Despite the failure of the union a bond was created between Hungarians and Poles that would last even to this day.

After Louis' sudden death, his elder daughter, Maria, was elected queen of Hungary whilst his younger daughter, the grandniece of Kazimierz Wielky, Jadwiga (original Hungarian, Hedvig, b. Buda, 1370; d. 1399), was elected King of Poland (1384 - 99) on condition that the union with Hungary was abandoned. Jadwiga had been betrothed in childhood to Wilhelm of Habsburg who arrived in Krakow, in 1384, to claim his bride only to be forcefully ejected. At the insistence of the nobles (who were looking for a protection of their newly acquired privileges and an alliance against the threat of an expanding Teutonic Order in the North), she married Jogaila (Jagiello), Grand-Duke of Lithuania, in 1386, thus paving the way for the great Jagiellonian Dynasty and the eventual union between the two nations. A most unhappy Jadwiga turned to a life of charity and care for the poor, dying young - of complications during childbirth - and leaving no heirs. Her greatest achievement was the provision of funds for the restoration of the University of Krakow. She was buried at the Great Altar in Wawel Cathedral; her remains were transferred to the white marble sarcophagus designed by Madeyski.

Jagiellon; The Rise to Greatness

The Jagiellonian Dynasty (1386 - 1572) which succeeded the Piast Dynasty is a period when we see Poland at her greatest. In 1386 the marriage of Jadwiga, King of Poland, to Jogaila (b. 1350; d. Grodek, near Lwow, 1434), pagan Grand-Duke of Lithuania (1377 - 1401), son of Algirdas (Olgierd), baptised as Wladyslaw II Jagiello, initiated the Lithuanian union, inspired by the common purpose of resisting the Teutonic Order; Jagiello had already been engaged in a war against the Teutonic Order in 1377 - 82. Then, on July 15 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenburg), Wladyslaw Jagiello crushed the Teutonic Order, one of the strongest military organisations in Europe. The Catholic Polish knights were a minority in an army made up of Lithuanian pagans, Orthodox Christians, Lithuanian Muslim Tartars and "heretical" Bohemian Hussites. This victory helped strengthen the bond between the Poles and the Lithuanians and, in 1413, led to the Treaty of Union at Horodlo. The Act of Union also established the territorial office of wojewoda (voivode or provincial governor) and initiated a new administrative and defensive structure. The defeat of the Order at Grunwald also eased restraints on trade in the Baltic. The Teutonic Order received a further rebuff at the Council of Constance (1414 - 18) when the Rector of Krakow University, Wlodkowic, condemned crusading and listed detailed charges against the excesses of the Teutonic Order; the Order's attempt to portray Jagiello as a pagan tyrant was condemned by the Council and the status of Poland as a Christian state grew to such an extent that even Henry V of England asked for Jagiello's intervention in his war with France. Their hatred of the Germans encouraged the Hussites to offer Jagiello the Bohemian crown when they refused to recognize the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund (who had backed the Teutonic Order), as their king upon the death of Wenceslas IV (1420). Jagiello declined the offer because he needed the support of the Church in his struggle against the Teutonic Order but also at the insistence of the magnates who were concerned about the possible social consequences of the pro-Hussite sympathies amongst the szlachta. After the death of Jadwiga Jagiello remarried three more times; his fourth wife was the Muscovite princess, Sophia Holszanska, who bore him three sons (two of whom survived; Wladyslaw and Kazimierz). In 1430, through the Act of Krakow, Wladyslaw Jagiello introduced the law "Neminem Captivabimus" ("We shall detain

no-one unless he is convicted by law"; the Polish "Habeas Corpus"), the first such law in Europe, and granted the szlachta the right to elect the king, thus laying the foundations for the Republic of Nobles. During his reign Poland became a great power; Jagiello's attempts to bring the Ruthenian Orthodox Church back into a union with Rome, his defeat of the Teutonic Order and Christianisation of Samogitia, his subtle game of supporting the Hussites in order to frustrate the anti-Polish strategies of the Holy Roman Emperor and his mastery over the Tartars, led to the consecration of Poland's role in the East.

Jagiello's ascendancy to the title of Grand-Duke of Lithuania had been opposed by his relatives and had only been secured by the ruthless putting down of all opposition (including the imprisonment and murder of his uncle Kejstut, Prince of Troki, at Krewo, 1382). He entered into a delicate alliance with his cousin, the son of Kiejstut, Vytautas (Witold, b. 1350; d. 1430), who, with the backing of the Teutonic Order, was a rival candidate for the title of Grand-Duke. Jagiello recognised Vytautas as Grand-Duke of Lithuania by the Treaty of Vilnius/Wilno (1401) on the condition that Poland and Lithuania be permanently united by a common foreign policy. Vytautas, with the backing of Jagiello, accepted the Bohemian crown and appointed his nephew, Zygmunt Korybut (d. 1435), as governor (1422); this move actually led to civil war between the Ultraquists (the Bohemian Hussite nobility allied to the city of Prague) who supported Korybut, and the Taborites (zealous militant Hussites) under Ziska. Jagiello's acquiescence (in allowing Vytautas to accept the crown) led the Pope, Martin V, to proclaim a crusade against Poland, and a coalition was formed - as a result of which, Vytautas was compelled to resign, Zygmunt was recalled by Jagiello and an edict issued against the Hussites and their allies (Wielun, 1424). Zygmunt went on (in the following year) to take on the role of "King elect" and even joined the Hussite uprising.

When Vytautas died (1430), Jagiello's brother Svidrigaila (Swidrygiello: d. 1452) was named to replace him as Grand-Duke (1430) - without consultation with the Polish nobility (as laid down by the Treaty of Horodlo). In a power struggle that reflected the problems of the new union and could have divided the dynasty into separate houses, Svidrigaila refused to recognise Poland's supremacy as laid down in 1401 and 1413, and the Poles now laid claims to Wolin (Volhynia). Svidrigaila entered into an alliance with the Teutonic Order and a brief campaign ensued in which the Poles proved successful (1432). When Svidrigaila refused to negotiate a peace and renewed his alliance with the Order it was decided to replace him. Vytautas' brother Zygmunt became Grand-Duke (1434 - 40). In the Act of Troki (1434) Zygmunt drew the szlachta of Halicz and Podolia into the protective arms of Polish civil rights. In 1435 an alliance of Svidrigaila, Zygmunt Korybut and the Livonian branch of the Order was defeated at Wilkomierz (a victory that was to the Lithuanians what Grunwald had been to the Poles). Svidrigaila escaped to Moldavia but returned to Volhynia to be a constant problem until he died. Zygmunt, eventually, also begun to intrigue against the crown, and his cruel administration led to his assassination. In a coup (managed by the Lithuanian nobles) which almost severed Polish - Lithuanian links, he was replaced by Jagiello's youngest son, Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk.

Wladyslaw III Warnenczyk (b. Krakow, 1424; d. Varna, 1444), son of Jagiello and Sophia, was king of Poland 1434 - 44. Having inherited the crown at the age of 10, most decisions were made by the Regent, the powerful Bishop of Krakow, Zbigniew Olesnicki who worked hard to suppress the Hussites in Poland; it was largely because of him that the union with Bohemia, eagerly sought by the Hussites, did not come to pass. In 1440, through the manoeuvrings of Olesnicki, the Magyars offered Wladyslaw the crown of Hungary as Ladislas I (1440 - 44); Poland's attention shifted to the plains of Hungary and the growing

Turkish threat. It is Hungary that had been the real bastion of Christendom, fighting a constant war against the Ottoman Turks. In 1443 Wladyslaw and his chief Hungarian supporter, the Vajda of Transylvania, Janos Hunyadi, led a combined Polish-Hungarian army of 40,000 into the Balkans and forced the Sultan, Murad II, to evacuate Serbia and Albania by the Peace of Szeged (August 1444). Very shortly after the peace was signed Wladyslaw broke it, under pressure from the Papal Legate (Cardinal Julian de Cesarinis), and continued his crusade. In November 1444, the combined Polish-Hungarian forces were defeated by the Turks at Varna on the Black Sea and Wladyslaw was killed. Whilst the disaster proved fortuitous for the Poles (since the resources laid aside for war against the Turks were to prove invaluable in the war against the Teutonic Order), the consequences of the destruction at Varna were dramatic for the Balkans which rapidly returned under Turkish control; Constantinople fell not long after (1453) and her mantle (as leader of the Orthodox Church) fell to the Tzars and Moscow (the 3rd Rome). The loss of access to India via the Black Sea and land routes led the Europeans to search for an alternative route by sea and hence to the discovery of the New World.

Wladyslaw III's brother, Kazimierz IV Jagiellonczyk (b. 1427; d. 1492), Grand-Duke of Lithuania , became king (1447 - 92). He worked hard to maintain the political union between Poland and Lithuania without prejudicing the independence of Lithuania which he saw as his personal estate. He managed to preserve the hereditary rule of the Jagiellonians as Grand-Dukes, keeping that separate from any role as monarch of the union. Kazimierz exploited the schism in the Western Church (during which time there were two Popes) by curbing the power of the clergy and subordinating the Church to the state. When the Prussians revolted against their overlord, the Teutonic Order, Kazimierz saw this as an opportunity to end, once and for all, their power. Requiring the support of the szlachta (nobility) to conduct a war against the Teutonic Order Kazimierz conceded, through the Act of Nieszawa (1454), that no new taxes or military levies could be raised without the consent of the szlachta and established the Sejmik, a regional consultative legislature which began to swing power away from the magnates to the szlachta and, in time, would evolve into the Sejm, the national legislature (Parliament); yet another step towards the Republic of Nobles.

Kazimierz started a prolonged war against the Order, the Thirteen Years' War, in order to recover Pomerania and Gdansk (1454 - 66). The Peace of Torun/Thorn (1466) humiliated the Order and Prussia was partitioned: West Prussia (including the city of Gdansk/Danzig) coming under direct Polish rule (thus recovering her access to the sea), whilst East Prussia became a vassal to the Polish Crown. At the beginning of the war Kazimierz had found himself opposed by both the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope but he neutralised their hostility by allying himself with George of Podebrad (1462), who had been elected King of Bohemia (1458) by the Hussite Utraquists (who had defeated the Taborites in the recent civil war). Matias Hunyadi (also known as Korwin or Matthias Corvinus, 1458 - 90), the son of Janos Hunyadi and King of Hungary, supported by the Catholic-German faction in Bohemia, became Kazimierz's most dangerous rival. Korwin occupied Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia (1468) resulting in an eight-year war. When Podebrad died Kazimierz's eldest son, Wladyslaw, was elected king of Bohemia (1471) and came to a diplomatic agreement with Corvinus in the Peace of Olomouc (Olmutz, 1478); Korwin would keep the territories he had conquered whilst Wladyslaw would rule Bohemia proper. When, in turn, Corvinus died (1490) Wladyslaw was elected king of Hungary (after a brief contest for the crown with his brother Jan Olbracht which soured Polish-Hungarian relationships).

In 1475 the Ottoman Turks captured the stronghold of Kilia, commanding the mouth of the Danube, and Bialgorod (Akkerman) on the Dneister (1484). This seriously threatened Polish sovereignty in Moldavia and Polish trade routes, forcing Kazimierz to take action - the first time Poland would be engaged in warfare with the Turks independently of any links with Hungary. In 1485 he drove the Turks out of Moldavia but failed to regain the captured fortresses. In turn, the Turks encouraged the Transvolga Tartars to cease raiding the Crimean Tartars and raid Polish lands instead. Kazimierz managed to arrange a truce with the Turks and for the remainder of his reign there was no further trouble, but the threat remained.

Kazimierz's real failure was to build up any sort of defence against the expansion of Muscovy which had begun to threaten Lithuania's role as the leading power in the east. He signed a treaty with Vasili II of Moscow which fixed the spheres of their respective influences (1449) but Vasili was succeeded by Ivan the Terrible who was determined to create the "Third Rome". Ivan ended the independence of Novgorod (1478) which had looked in vain for help from Lithuania, and by 1486 his threat was such that a number of Russian princes, vassals of Lithuania, went over to the Muscovite grand duke because of the lack of protection from Kazimierz.

Kazimierz's reign became famed as a "Golden Age" which saw many foreign scholars, writers, artists and architects attracted to Poland, especially from Renaissance Italy. One of the most important late Gothic sculptors, Wit Stwosz (Viet Stoss, 1438 - 1533) of Nuremberg, established a workshop in Krakow (1477 - 1496) where he produced the wonderful altar of the Mariacki (St. Mary's) with its "The Dormition of the Virgin" (1477 - 89) and the tomb of Kazimierz IV in the Wawel Cathedral (1492). It was also a time when home-grown talent would reach new levels as epitomised in the neo-Latin works of Sarbiewski and the "History" of Jan Dlugosz. Trade benefited from a number of initiatives including the declaration (1447) that all rivers were the property of the Crown and free for general use. The acquisition of Prussia and its seaports (1466), and the whole of the Wisla coming under Polish control, saw a rise in river traffic, an enormous increase in exports (particularly through Gdansk) and a marked improvement in the economic life of the nation.

In 1454 Kazimierz entered into a marriage that would further his dynastic aims and his wife, Elizabeth of Habsburg, became known as the "Mother of Kings" as five of her sons wore crowns. His son, Wladyslaw (b. 1456; d. 1516) became King of Bohemia (1471 - 1516) and Hungary (1490 - 1516) but was a weak and vacillating ruler who became dominated by his nobles and lost territory to the Habsburgs. Kazimierz and Elizabeth's second son, St. Kazimierz (b. Krakow, 1458; d. Grodno, 1484) was educated by the historian, Dlugosz, and Filippo Buonaccorsi (Callimachus). When the king's business involved a prolonged stay in Lithuania (1479), Kazimierz, always intended to inherit the throne, was placed in charge and administered the State commendably (1481 - 1483). Shortly afterwards he fell victim to a severe lung infection, which, as a result of his fasting and mortifications, he succumbed to whilst on a journey to Lithuania. Kazimierz was buried in the Cathedral at Wilno. After his death he was venerated as a saint and, after an inquiry which was completed in 1520, Kazimierz was canonised by Adrian VI (1522). The patron of Poland Lithuania, St. Kazimierz's feastday is 4 March.

Kazimierz IV was succeeded by his sons Jan Olbracht, Aleksander and Zygmunt.

Jan Olbracht,1492 - 1501, became involved in fighting the Crimean Tartars on the Black Sea coast. His reign is important for witnessing, at Piotrkow (1493 and 1496), the final evolution

from regional parliaments (Sejmiks) to a bicameral national parliament; the Sejm. The Sejm of 1496 granted many privileges to the nobility but, in so doing, restricted the rights of the peasants and created a system of legal serfdom in Poland. The manor would become an important economic centre exporting its goods down river and, in the laws exempting nobles from paying export duties when shipping their products abroad or importing foreign wares for personal use, the landlord would have economic advantages over the merchants that would work against the healthy growth of trade within the cities (which, in any case, had no say in the running of the country). Jan Olbracht expelled the Jews from Krakow proper (1495), moving them to Kazimierz (at that time across the Wisla but still under the royal protection offered by the enclave on Wawel Hill), and gave their land to the University, which had coveted the land and is still located there.

Aleksander, (b. 1461; d. 1506), reigned 1501 - 06. On accession to the throne Aleksander was obliged to issue a new act of union, the Act of Melnik (1501), which stipulated that the king of Poland would also be the Grand-Duke of Lithuania (thus the Jagiellonians lost their hereditary rights in Lithuania). It also reduced the powers of the king to that of President of the Senate which could refuse obedience to the king in instances of "tyrannical behaviour" on his part. The Statute of "Nihil Novi" (1505) enacted that nothing new could be decided without Parliament's consent. Aleksander worked hard to westernise Lithuania and it is in his reign that Polish was spoken at the court in Wilno. The growing inability of Lithuania to protect herself became very apparent as the Muscovites and Tartars ravaged the whole country at will and were only prevented from conquering it altogether by their inability to capture the chief fortresses.

Zygmunt I Stary (b.1467; d.1548),1506 - 48, struggled in vain with the nobles to raise money in order to adequately defend the nation. He waged war against Muscovy (during which Smolensk, in an important strategic position, was lost, 1514), Walachia and Moldavia (1508 - 28). The constant raids of the Moldavians and Tartars were to eventually result in the ravishing of Ruthenia and the Ukraine, the annihilation of flourishing settlements and a virtual end to the Polonisation of the area which was to become known as the "Wild Plains". Zygmunt aided his nephew, Louis II (b. 1506; d. 1526), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1516 - 26), against the Turks at the battle of Mohacs (where Louis was killed, thus bringing the Jagiellonian Dynasty in Hungary to an end, 1526) and the siege of Vienna (1529). Assisted by his Italian wife, Bona Sforza of Milan, the niece of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian, he promoted the Renaissance in Poland and proved to be a wise administrator, encouraging currency reforms. This was also the period of the Reformation; many of the sons of the szlachta who attended foreign universities were inspired by Calvinism which encouraged freedom of speech, and it was quite successful in Lithuania where as many as 2000 noble families adopted it, but whilst it stimulated intellectual activity, the Reformation failed to gain much ground in the long term because of differences between the various sects and also because the vast majority of the population remained Catholic. Lutheranism was taken up by the Prussian nobility; Albrecht Hohenzollern, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, split with both the Holy Roman Empire and Rome and, by becoming a vassal of the Polish King ("the Prussian Homage" 1525) - at Martin Luther's suggestion, was able to turn East Prussia into a Duchy. It was this Hohenzollern dynasty that was to play a key role in the destruction of the Rzeczpospolita (Republic of Nobles) in 1795. After the death of the last of its Piast rulers (1526) Zygmunt also absorbed the Duchy of Mazovia, which had previously been a vassal principality with an autonomous government, into the Polish state (1529). His daughter Katarzyna (b. 1525; d. 1583) married John III Vasa, their son being Zygmunt III Vasa.

Zygmunt I Stary's son, Zygmunt II August (b. 1520; d. 1572), reigned from 1548 - 72 and was the last of the Jagiellonians. During his reign the influence of the Reformation was extended; whilst remaining a steadfast adherent to Rome he nether-the-less read Protestant books and took part in theological discussions. Calvin dedicated his "Commentary on the Mass" to him. When pressed to take sides in the dispute between Catholics and Protestants, Zygmunt August said: "I am the King of the people - not the judge of their consciences." This spirit of tolerance attracted many refugees from religious persecution to Poland especially during the 1540s and 1550s. The Sejm, dominated by reformist nobles, passed legislation constraining ecclesiastical jurisdiction (1552, 1556, 1562).

Zygmunt's tolerance did not extend to the szlachta who had begun demanding a greater say in the running of the nation and a great distrust had grown between the two parties. The Polish szlachta had been enthusiastic for a strengthening of the union between Poland and Lithuania for some time but the immensely rich and powerful Lithuanian magnates, serving only their own interests, were opposed to such a union. After the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, (1545), Zygmunt August secretly married Barbara Radziwill (1547) from the powerful Lithuanian magnate family. Once this marriage became known, the szlachta, fearing that the Radziwills, with their new influence, could further delay a union with Lithuania, tried to get the marriage annulled - without success, thus widening the gulf between themselves and the king. When Livonia, threatened by Muscovite expansion towards the Baltic, sought protection from Zygmunt August she was incorporated into Lithuania by the Act of Wilno (1561). Then, when Ivan the Terrible invaded Livonia, Zygmunt August entered into a war against Muscovy, the Livonian War (1558 - 83), in order to secure his control over Livonia and the Baltic seacoast - creating Poland's first fleet in the process (1563). The Muscovite danger, which had increased with the internal political consolidation under Ivan the Terrible, the obvious inability of the Lithuanians to defend themselves and the financial burden of the war on the Lithuanian magnates' coffers, made it very evident that some strengthening of relations between the two states was now desirable. Furthermore, the incorporation of Podlasie, Volhynia and the province of Kiev into the Polish Crown gave Poland a frontier with Muscovy (March 1569). In July 1569 the inevitable happened: the Union of Lublin was a formal union of Poland and Lithuania; the "Rzeczpospolita" (the Republic of Nobles) with one elected head (the King) and a national parliament (the Sejm).

Main Index Guide to Krakow Polish History

The Great DynastiesPiast;

The first Polish Dynasty is named after its legendary founder of the 9th. century, a peasant named Piast. It was Naruszewicz who, in his "History of the Polish Nation" (1780 - 86), first gave the name "Piast" to the Polanian dynasty which claimed descent from Piast but had never used the name themselves. According to legend the evil prince Popiel was eaten by mice as punishment for the murder of his family. After his death it was decided to elect the wheelwright, Piast, as ruler because of his virtuous nature. The names of the early dynasty have been passed down as Ziemowit, Leszko and Ziemomysl, the father of Mieszko. Mieszko I, or Mieczyslaw I (b. ?922; d. 992), chief of the Polanie (962 - 992), is the founder of Poland. He imposed a fiscal system by introducing the denarii (silver pennies) in the 980s, and set up a network of defences (the royal grod). Becoming concerned by the establishment of the

German Empire of Otto I (962), Mieszko entered into an alliance with the Czechs, marrying Dobrava, the daughter of Boleslav I of Bohemia, and accepted Christianity for himself and his people; the Polish Baptism of 966. He placed his lands in the hands of the Holy See thus putting it under the protection of Rome; whilst submitting to the Empire he had, in this act, assured security and independence for his emerging nation. Mieszko established a bishopric in Poznan (968) and its first bishop, Jordan, probably come from Rome. Mieszko's move was an astute political one since it opened access (particularly through the German clergy that now came to Poland) to the military knowledge and political systems of the West (which he made full use of by entering into marriage alliances with the great families of the Empire). Contemporary accounts credited Mieszko with significant military forces with which he invaded Pomerania and, after defeating Hodo, the Margrave of the Ostmark at Cedynia (972), reached the Oder in 976. He defeated Otto II, who had come to assist Hodo, in 979, becoming undisputed lord of Pomerania. He marked his success by founding the city of Gdansk (Danzig, 980) through which he could control the mouth of the Wisla. In 983 Mieszko aided Otto III, to whom he had paid allegiance, in the war against the Lutitians and then helped recover Misnia (Meissen) from the Czechs (986). Mieszko entered into a number of dynastic alliances including ones with Hungary, Kiev and Scandinavia, aiding his son-in-law, Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, to reconquer his kingdom of England; his grandson was Canute the Great.

Mieszko's son, Boleslaw I Chrobry (the Brave), (b. 967; d. 1025), the first King of Poland, 992 - 1025, established Poland's right as an independent kingdom. He seized Krakow from Bohemia (996). In 997 he organised a mission, under the leadership of the Bohemian bishop St. Adalbert of Prague (Sw. Wojciech; b. Libice, c.956; d. 997), to christianize the Prussians. St. Adalbert was killed by the pagans. According to legend, Boleslaw ransomed back the body of St. Adalbert and had him buried in Gniezno Cathedral where he had been ordained. Boleslaw was able to get Gniezno elevated to the rank of metropolitan see (1000), thus emancipating the Polish Church from German control. Relations with the Empire underwent a rapid change with the death of Otto III (1002) and soon led to a series of wars. Boleslaw seized the Lusatian Marches and held them against Otto's successor, Henry II. The wars continued until peace was settled at Budziszyn (Bautzen, 1018), much to Poland's advantage though Henry had managed to alienate the western Slavs against Christian Poland, thus preparing the ground for conquest and germanisation of this region in the future. Boleslaw also campaigned in the east when Kievian forces (in alliance with the Germans) launched an invasion (1013). He undertook an expedition against Grand Prince Yaroslav I the Wise in order to restore his own son-in-law, Swiatopelk, to the throne of Kiev (1018). Legend has it that on entering Kiev, Boleslaw struck the gate with his sword and dented the blade; this sword, Szczerbiec, was later used at the coronation of all Polish Kings. Boleslaw himself was not crowned until 1024. Ranked among Poland's greatest rulers, Boleslaw reorganised the administration and taxation of his state, and created a large standing army. He is said to have driven iron stakes into both the Saal and the Dnieper to mark his conquests.

Boleslaw's son, Mieszko II ( b. 990; d. 1034), King 1025 - 1034, rashly attacked the Emperor Conrad II and thereafter exposed his realm to the rivalry of his brothers and the aggression of Kiev and the Empire. He was overthrown by his elder brother, Bezprym (who had been repudiated by his father) and had to flee (1031) but regained his throne on the murder of Bezprym (1032) only to lose his own life at the hands of a disgruntled court official. In only a few years the Polish State and Christianity within the nation were both threatened severely as many who had never renounced their paganism revolted, and the Czechs invaded (1038). Christianity had been forced on the populace by the ruling elite for their own political ends

and it is important to note that the real Christianisation of Poland did not occur until the establishment of the monasteries in the 12th Century. Mieszko II's son, Kazimierz I Odnowiciel (the Restorer) (b. 1015; d. 1058), King 1038 - 1058, was hardly more successful and also had to flee to Hungary when civil war broke out. After regaining the throne in 1040 he made Krakow the capital of Poland (reflecting not only the economic growth of that city but also the level of destruction and disruption elsewhere). Kazimierz's son, Boleslaw II Smialy (the Bold) (b. ?1039; d. ?1083), king 1058 - 1079, moved against the Emperor, Henry IV, who was engaged, initially, in a struggle against the German princes, then a Saxon uprising before entering into a battle for supremacy with Pope Gregory VII (the Investiture Struggle, 1075 - 1122). The Pope allied himself with the vassal princes hostile to Henry - one of whom was Boleslaw who declared Polish independence from the Empire and was sent a crown (his coronation was at Christmas 1076). Boleslaw seized Kiev twice and entered into a long power struggle against Bohemia. In 1079 Boleslaw had Bishop Stanislaw of Krakow executed (the Polish Becket, canonised in 1257); it is possible that Stanislaw had been party to a Bohemian-German attempt to remove Boleslaw and thus bring Poland into the sphere of the Empire and the anti-Pope, Clement. Boleslaw was expelled in a later revolt and replaced by his weak brother, Wladyslaw Herman (b. 1043; d. 1102), ruled 1079 - 1102. Wladyslaw distanced himself from any involvement in the east and it is during this period that the Ruthenians colonised the lands of the Dniester and the San and we see the growth of Halicz. Wladyslaw's son, Boleslaw III Krzywousty (the Wry-Mouthed) (b. 1086; d. 1138), Prince 1102 - 1138, was an extremely capable ruler who earned the respect of his people. He exiled his half-brother and co-ruler, Zbigniew (1107) who, in 1109, with the aid of the Emperor Henry V, attempted to cross the Odra but was thwarted by the rugged resistance of Glogow, when the Germans used hostages obtained during a truce as human shields for their siege towers - to no avail. Boleslaw defeated the Emperor and the Duke of Bohemia at the battle of Psie Pole, near Wroclaw, 1109, forcing them to renounce all claims to Polish territory. In a series of stubbornly resisted campaigns he also recaptured Eastern Pomerania (1122) but had to swear fealty to the Emperor Lothar II (1135) in order to regain Dymin and the Island of Rugen. Unfortunately Boleslaw failed to stem the decentralising tendencies undermining the state, nor did he regain the title of king.

One of the enduring weaknesses of the Piast dynasty lay in the fact that the Poles failed to accept primogeniture. In 1138 the nobles forced Boleslaw to divide his realm among his sons in order to prevent a power struggle; the Testament of Boleslaw III. Each of the territorial subdivisions (Silesia, Great Poland, Mazovia, and Sandomir) was to be held as the hereditary domain of one of Boleslaw's sons. The senior member of the family also held Krakow and Pomerania, ruling as grand prince over the loosely federated state. Rather than strengthen the state by providing a means of secure succession this act, which merely served to create a number of independent principalities vying with each other for supremacy, was the start of 150 years of dynastic struggle which shattered the precarious unity of Poland and saw a period of internal strife with a series of rulers: Wladyslaw II Wygnaniec (the Exile), of Silesia (b. 1105; d.1159), ruled 1138 - 1146; Boleslaw IV Kedzierzawy (the Curly), of Mazovia (b.1127; d. 1173), ruled 1146 - 1173; Mieszko III Stary (the Old), of Wielkopolska, ruled 1173 - 1177 and 1194 - 1202; Kazimierz II Sprawiedliwy (the Just) (b. 1138; d. 1194), of Sandomierz, ruled 1177 - 1194, organising the Polish senate and introducing laws protecting Polish peasants. He united Sandomierz and Mazovia and was made Duke of Krakow (1177). Although he secured hereditary rights to the crown for his descendants (1180) the dynastic struggles continued until Wladyslaw I Lokietek restored royal authority in 1320.

Mieszko III's son, Wladyslaw III Laskonogi (Longshanks) of Wielkopolska, ruled 1202; Leszek Bialy (the White) of Sandomierz, ruled 1202 - 1227, whose intervention in the politics of Ruthenia (in 1205), alongside his brother, Konrad of Mazovia (b. c.1191; d. 1247), led to its division into the twin principalities of Halicz and Vladimir. In a move of disastrous consequences to the future history of Poland, Duke Konrad (more concerned with the dynastic struggles to the south) invited the Teutonic Order (who had recently been expelled from Hungary by Andrew II) to combat pagan Prussian tribes in the north-east from a base set up at Chelmno (1226), thereby introducing a much more formidable enemy on the crucial Baltic coast. Henryk I Brodaty (the Bearded) of Silesia, ruled 1234 - 1238; Henryk II Pobozny (the Pious) of Silesia, ruled 1238 - 1241, in 1241 devastating Tartar (or Mongol) invasions (in which Kiev was conquered and Muscovy fell under the yoke of the Golden Horde for over two centuries, and, in Hungary, created an opportunity for the Vlachs to settle on the plains of the western banks of the Lower Danube) led to a military defeat of the armies of Silesia and Wielkopolska at Legnica (Liegnitz) where Henryk, their commander, was killed. Whilst Poland fell further into a state of fragmentation and unrule, Europe was saved when the Tartars withdrew on receiving news of the death of their Great Khan, Ogedei. Settling in the Crimea the Tartars became a long-standing threat to Poland. It is from this invasion that Krakow commemorates the Hejnal, the truncated bugle call from the tower of the Kosciol Mariacki. The brother of Leszek Bialy, Konrad of Mazovia (b. c.1191; d. 1247), who had invited the Teutonic Order into Poland, ruled 1241 - 43. His physician, Nicolaus Polonus, became noted for his medical works written at Montpellier towards the end of the thirteenth century.

Boleslaw V Wstydliwy (the Modest), ruled 1243 - 1279, and married the Blessed Kinga (Hungarian: Cunegunda; 1224 - 1292), daughter of Bela IV of Hungary, credited with founding the salt mines of Wieliczka and named Patroness of Poland and Lithuania by Pope Clement XI (1715). It is during this period that the first Jewish settlers came to Poland where they were treated with more tolerance than in the rest of Europe, so-much-so that the Polish Synod was berated by the Papal Legate, in 1266, for allowing Jews to dress like anyone else and being able to live without restrictions in Poland, and for a royal charter, the Kalisz Statute, having been granted them by Boleslaw in 1264. This statute placed the Jews, as servi camerae ("bondsmen of the prince's treasury"), under Boleslaw's direct jurisdiction, granting them economic and religious freedom, protection of life and property, and the right to follow their customs within their communities.

There was a further Tartar invasion in 1259. The depopulation that the Tartar invasions brought about led to the settlement of Polish territory by German colonists, some of whom had been invited in by the local prince (as in Silesia). The reign of Leszek Czarny (the Black), 1279 - 1288, saw the last of the Tartar invasions (1287), followed by Henryk IV Probus, prince of Silesia and Krakow, who ruled 1289 - 1290. By this time the Church's position in Poland had been strengthened through the work of Archbishops Kietlicz (1199 - 1219) and Pelka who had imposed strict discipline upon the clergy and obtained immunity from taxation. Their successor, Jakub Swinka, Archbishop of Gniezno, worked avidly for a strong central power in Poland in order to preserve the interests of the Church. Encouraged by Swinka, Henryk sought papal consent to crown himself King of Poland but his sudden death (he was treacherously poisoned) prevented the realisation of that plan. It is his personal insignia, the crowned white eagle against a red field that his successor, Przemyslaw (King 1295 - 1296), adopted as a symbol for the Kingdom of Poland. Swinka had been able to engineer an agreement between Przemyslaw and his close rival, Wladyslaw Lokietek, son of

Kazimierz I of Kujawy, to set up an anti-Bohemian coalition and technically brought an end to the territorial division of Poland.

In the vacuum created by the assassination of Przemyslaw by the Margraves of Brandenburg (who feared the rise of a Polish kingdom with access to the Baltic Sea), Wladyslaw Lokietek and Henryk of Glogow contested the succession, but it was Waclaw (Wenceslas) II of Bohemia (1271 - 1305), expanding his state via Silesia and already in possession of the duchies of Krakow and Sandomierz, who occupied Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and was crowned (1300). During the struggle for the Polish throne, Waclaw gained the support of the magnates of Krakow and Sandomierz by guaranteeing them civil rights in the Act of Lutomysl (1291). Waclaw became entangled in a dispute over succession to the vacant Hungarian crown (1301) during which he provoked the hostility of Pope Boniface VIII, the Hungarian nobility and the rulers of Southern Germany. Lokietek, who had been forced into exile, used this situation to obtain the support of both the Pope and the nobles of Upper Hungary in his claim to the crown and a Hungarian-German coalition was formed (1304). Waclaw attempted to gain the support of Brandenburg by offering to hand over Eastern Pomerania and Gdansk but only managed to alienate his Polish allies who revolted (1305). After the death of Waclaw (1305) Lokietek, supported by Hungarian forces, managed to take Malopolska (Little Poland), Krakow (1306), and (by 1314) Wielkopolska.

Premyslid (Przemyslid);

The only native ruling house in Bohemia, the Premyslid dynasty (a contemporary of the Piast dynasty), provided a King of Poland towards the end of the troubled 13th Century in what was a complex, but interesting, climax to their struggle for power in East Central Europe. The Premyslids claimed descent from a legendary plowman, Premysl, and had their ancestral home in the city of Prague. They succeeded in laying the foundations of a Czech state towards the end of the ninth century by eliminating their opponents, the Vrsovic and Slavnik clans (the only Vrsovic to escape the massacre of his family was St. Vojtech/Wojciech/Adalbert who, in relief at his salvation, became a Christian missionary and was martyred by the Prussians). During the reign of St. Vaclav (the Good King Wenceslas of the Christmas carol) the Czech lands entered into an alliance with Saxony, thus laying the foundations for closer relations with the restored Holy Roman Empire. After the murder of Vaclav (929) by his brother and successor, Boleslav I, the Premyslids went through a period of infighting which left the realm vulnerable to outside intervention: Bohemia was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire (962) at just about the same time that Mieszko was looking for ways of preserving the independence of the Polane.

Bohemia ranked among the most advanced of the European feudal states, being at the forefront of economic power and cultural achievement. In keeping with this growing importance, the Premyslid dynasty was granted a royal crown; in 1086, Vratislaw was made King of Bohemia by Henry IV and, after struggles over the succession the Czechs accepted primogeniture (1158). Vaclav (Wenceslaus), son of Premysl Otakar I, married Kunigunde, a Hohenstaufen princess (1224) thus linking Premyslid destiny even more closely with that of the Empire. With the exception of a brief passage of the Tartars through Moravia, the Bohemian Kingdom escaped the destruction visited on Poland and Hungary, as a result, when the Babenburg line died out, the Austrians elected Vaclav's son, Premysl Otakar (b. ?1230; d. 1278), as Duke (1251).

Premysl Otakar II the Great (reigned 1253-1278) became the most powerful sovereign in Central Europe. His acquisition of Austria met with opposition from Hungary and most of the Polish dukes and in the following struggle the Babenberg heritage became split up, with only Austria proper left to Bohemia. It was not before 1269 that Premysl extended his domination over Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Premysl coveted Poland. Poland was vulnerable; it was divided between several members of the Piast dynasty, and had been hard hit by the aggressive Mongol invasion in 1241. It was also under constant attack from the Lithuanians and Prussians. Premysl promised the dukes of Poland aid in holding off their enemies and over the next twenty years launched two Crusades in the east; against the Prussians in 1255 (the Teutonic Order named their new settlement on the Pregel river after him; Konigsberg) and the Lithuanians in 1267. At the height of his power, Premysl Otakar II lost support from the Papacy who objected to his choice of Bishop for the newly-conquered/converted lands, angered the Teutonic Order who objected to his growing influence in Lithuania, alienated the Polish nobility who feared being absorbed in a Czech empire, and (upon the extinction of the Hohenstaufen lineage,1273) failed in his bid for Imperial election to Rudolf of Habsburg, Rudolf I demanded Otakar's Austrian acquisitions which he was forced to surrender (1276), having been abandoned by his allies and his own nobility, receiving back Bohemia and Moravia as fiefs. He was killed at the battle of Marchfeld (1278) in an attempt to reclaim his lost provinces.

Bohemia came under German regency until 1283, when Otakar's son, Premyslid Vaclav (b. 1271; d. 1305) assumed the title of King of Bohemia (Vaclav II). This period witnessed yet further growth of German and Imperial influence in Bohemia, now penetrating into Polish Silesia. From 1283 the real power in Bohemia lay in the hands of Vaclav's stepfather, Zavis, and Vaclav only assumed total authority in 1290. Vaclav reduced the power of the nobles by introducing Roman law (which gave the king the sole right to legislate). During his reign the mining of Czech silver at Kutna Hora flourished and after carrying out fiscal reforms he introduced the Czech silver groschen (grossus Pragensis) - one of the strongest European currencies of the time. Vaclav was encouraged, by Rudolph I, to become involved in Polish politics where he had some claim, through his father, to parts of Silesia. After the death of Henryk IV Probus, Vlaclav took Krakow with the assistance of the nobles of Malopolska who were looking for security in these troubled times. Waclaw gained the support of the magnates of Krakow and Sandomierz by guaranteeing them civil rights in the Act of Lutomysl (1291).

Prior to this moment only the native Piasts had been involved in the dynastic struggles and, despite all the divisions of Polish territory, none had previously come under foreign rule. Vaclav's intervention raised a very serious threat because through him Poland could become incorporated into the Empire, something which had been carefully avoided for so many centuries. Archbishop Swinka, the prime mover for reunification and a strong central monarchy in Poland had been able to engineer an agreement between Przemyslaw and his close rival, Wladyslaw Lokietek, to set up an anti-Bohemian coalition and technically brought an end to the territorial division of Poland. Because of lack of unity among the Piasts, Przemyslaw had to recognise Vaclav's control of Krakow and be satisfied with Wielkopolska only. In order to counter the growing threat presented by Vaclaw, Archbishop Swinka persuaded the Pope to consent to Przemyslaw's coronation (1295). In the vacuum created by Przemyslaw's assassination (1296), during which Lokietek was involved in a power struggle with Henry of Glogow, Vaclav occupied Wielkopolska, Pomorze and Kujawy (1300). He also married Przemyslaw's daughter, Ryska Elzbieta. Vaclav was now seen (even by Swinka) as the only alternative and was crowned King (Waclaw II) in 1300, uniting at the same time Cracow and Gniezno. Vaclav/Waclaw ruled in absentia and set up the office of starosta to

administer his lands (an office that was later modified by the Poles to suit themselves). The Czech groschen made its way into Poland and influenced Kazimierz III Wielki's own introduction of the "grossi Cracovienses".

When the last of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty, Andrew III, died (1301), Vaclav/Waclaw's son, Vaclav, was elected king of Hungary. The Pope objected strenuously to this coronation as Hungary was in fief to the Papacy. Wladyslaw Lokietek, now in exile, joined forces with the Magnates of Upper Hungary (opposed to Vaclav) and the Pope in plotting the demise of Czech power in Hungary and Croatia. In 1301, Albrecht I (King of Germany; 1298 - 1308) confiscated the Bohemian kingdom as a fief of the Empire, forcing Vaclav/Waclaw to go to war with him. Vaclav/Waclaw attempted to gain the support of Brandenburg by offering to hand over Eastern Pomerania and Gdansk but only managed to alienate his Polish allies who revolted (1305). Lokietek, supported by Hungarian forces, managed to take much of Malopolska. When Vaclav/Waclaw died in 1305 his son and successor Vaclav III (b.1289; d. 1306), King of Hungary (1301-5) and Bohemia (1305-6), found himself opposed in both Hungary and Poland. Vaclav signed a treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor and continued his father's aggressive policy in Poland. Unable to assert his authority in Hungary, he relinquished his claim to Duke Otto of Bavaria (1305) but tried, however, to assert his hereditary claim to the Polish crown. He was assassinated at Olomouc whilst on his way from Prague to Poland (1306). Vaclav III was the last male member of the Premyslid line.

The Piast Restoration;

In Poland, the sudden disappearance of the last two Premyslids provided the best opportunity to finally reunite the nation under Wladyslaw Lokietek. John of Luxemburg (who was to die on the field at Crecy, 1346), son of Henry VII (elected King of Germany in 1308), inherited Bohemia through his marriage to Vaclav's sister and was elected king of Bohemia (1310). This German King of Bohemia would be one of Poland's most dangerous opponents as he was strongly convinced that he had also inherited Premyslid claims to the crown of Poland, and decided to continue their Silesian policy which had already brought some of the local dukes in that border province under the suzerainty of the Bohemian crown. In intimate co-operation with the Teutonic Order, he represented the trend of German expansion toward the East. In Hungary one of the French Anjous of Naples, Charles Robert, emerged as the successful candidate (1308). With the support of the Papacy he established a dynasty there which continued Hungary's independent tradition and checked the possible progress of German influence.

In 1320, Wladyslaw I Lokietek (the elbow-high)(b. ?1260; d. 1333) was crowned; the first ruler of the reunited kingdom 1306 - 1333. All his successors were kings. His major concern was the further encroachment of the Teutonic Knights into Polish territory. In 1308 Gdansk was besieged by the Brandenburg Margraves, Otto and Waldemar. Wladyslaw secured the help of the Teutonic Order in order to lift the siege but, having entered Gdansk, they then treacherously slaughtered Wladyslaw's men and took over the city themselves (14 November 1308); by 1311 they occupied most of Polish Pomerania and, in alliance with John of Luxemburg (elected king of Bohemia, 1310), invaded Wielkopolska itself (1331). Although defeating the Order at Plowce (1331) Wladyslaw was unable to deliver a decisive defeat. Wladyslaw, faced by intractable enemies and lacking the resources to overcome them, strengthened his kingdom through alliances with Hungary and Lithuania created by the marriages of his children.

There is a saying that Wladyslaw's son, Kazimierz III Wielki (Kazimierz the Great) (b. 1309; d. 1370), King 1333-1370, "found Poland built of wood, and left her in stone," so great was his activity as founder and planner of towns but it also signifies the great task that faced him in creating a strong and stable state out of a very weak inheritance. He established a truce (1333) and then peace (the Treaty of Kalisz, 1343) with The Teutonic Order and peace with the Czechs (1334). He worked with Hungary to establish order and officially recognised John of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, as suzerain over the Piast domains in Silesia (1339). In the vacuum that opened up with the collapse of Kievan Rus, he seized the principality of Halicz (Galicia, 1340) and defeated the Lithuanians (1353). Kazimierz built Poland into a major Central-European power, increasing her territory 2.5 times, bringing it's size up to 270,000 sq.kms. Under Kazimierz, in 1346, the first Polish Legal Code was made, and in 1364 the foundations of Krakow University (the second oldest in Central Europe) were formed. Trade also became important due to Poland's position on the commercial routes leading from East to West and from South to North. The establishment of regular grain exports to Constantinople led to the colonization of Ruthenia. Kazimierz befriended the peasants (hence becoming known as "Krol Chlopi"; the "Peasant's King") and widened Jewish rights under the Kalisz Statute to the whole country. He was the last of the Piast dynasty. He was succeeded by his sister's son, King Louis of Anjou, "the Great" of Hungary, (from 1370 - 82) whose daughter, Jadwiga, was crowned "King" of Poland in 1384. Branches of the Piast family continued to rule in Mazovia (until 1526) and Silesia (up to 1675). The Silesian Piasts, as vassals of Bohemia and mediate princes of the Holy Roman Empire, retained the ducal title and held the Duchy of Oppeln (until 1532) and the Principalities of Brieg, Liegnitz, and Wohlau until the line died out in 1675.

Anjou;

Descended from that branch of the family that were the Kings of Naples, Louis (b. 1326; d. 1382) the Great, King of Hungary (1342 - 82), was appointed heir to the Polish throne by the nobility and leading clergy of Poland upon the death of Kazimierz II Wielky (1370). Kazimierz had divided his kingdom in his will, bequeathing Leczyca, Sieradz and Kujawy to his grandson, Kazko (heir to Slupsk), and Galicia, Wielkopolska, Krakow and Sandomierz to Louis. Fearing such a division of a kingdom just recently united, the will was ruled invalid and the crown offered to Louis (King, 1370 - 82). In order to protect the succession Louis granted a number of privileges to the nobility through the Statute of Kosice (1374) which would establish a tradition that would restrict the freedom of action of future monarchs and would prevent modernisation in years to come. The union of the two countries did not prove successful, in fact Louis rarely visited Poland after his coronation at Krakow preferring to rule through regents. He was more concerned in strengthening his own dynasty centred on Hungary and as a result had become involved in a long struggle with Venice for the control of the Adriatic (in three wars; 1342 - 46, 1357 - 58, and 1378 - 81), succeeding in 1381. He also went to war with Lithuania over Red Ruthenia which he acquired in 1377. After a number of unpopular decisions including the transfer of some disputed territory to Brandenburg there were riots in Krakow culminating in the deaths of a number of his officials (1376). Louis relinquished his powers over to a council of Malopolska nobles (1380). Despite the failure of the union a bond was created between Hungarians and Poles that would last even to this day.

After Louis' sudden death, his elder daughter, Maria, was elected queen of Hungary whilst his younger daughter, the grandniece of Kazimierz Wielky, Jadwiga (original Hungarian, Hedvig, b. Buda, 1370; d. 1399), was elected King of Poland (1384 - 99) on condition that the union with Hungary was abandoned. Jadwiga had been betrothed in childhood to Wilhelm of

Habsburg who arrived in Krakow, in 1384, to claim his bride only to be forcefully ejected. At the insistence of the nobles (who were looking for a protection of their newly acquired privileges and an alliance against the threat of an expanding Teutonic Order in the North), she married Jogaila (Jagiello), Grand-Duke of Lithuania, in 1386, thus paving the way for the great Jagiellonian Dynasty and the eventual union between the two nations. A most unhappy Jadwiga turned to a life of charity and care for the poor, dying young - of complications during childbirth - and leaving no heirs. Her greatest achievement was the provision of funds for the restoration of the University of Krakow. She was buried at the Great Altar in Wawel Cathedral; her remains were transferred to the white marble sarcophagus designed by Madeyski.

Jagiellon; The Rise to Greatness

The Jagiellonian Dynasty (1386 - 1572) which succeeded the Piast Dynasty is a period when we see Poland at her greatest. In 1386 the marriage of Jadwiga, King of Poland, to Jogaila (b. 1350; d. Grodek, near Lwow, 1434), pagan Grand-Duke of Lithuania (1377 - 1401), son of Algirdas (Olgierd), baptised as Wladyslaw II Jagiello, initiated the Lithuanian union, inspired by the common purpose of resisting the Teutonic Order; Jagiello had already been engaged in a war against the Teutonic Order in 1377 - 82. Then, on July 15 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenburg), Wladyslaw Jagiello crushed the Teutonic Order, one of the strongest military organisations in Europe. The Catholic Polish knights were a minority in an army made up of Lithuanian pagans, Orthodox Christians, Lithuanian Muslim Tartars and "heretical" Bohemian Hussites. This victory helped strengthen the bond between the Poles and the Lithuanians and, in 1413, led to the Treaty of Union at Horodlo. The Act of Union also established the territorial office of wojewoda (voivode or provincial governor) and initiated a new administrative and defensive structure. The defeat of the Order at Grunwald also eased restraints on trade in the Baltic. The Teutonic Order received a further rebuff at the Council of Constance (1414 - 18) when the Rector of Krakow University, Wlodkowic, condemned crusading and listed detailed charges against the excesses of the Teutonic Order; the Order's attempt to portray Jagiello as a pagan tyrant was condemned by the Council and the status of Poland as a Christian state grew to such an extent that even Henry V of England asked for Jagiello's intervention in his war with France. Their hatred of the Germans encouraged the Hussites to offer Jagiello the Bohemian crown when they refused to recognize the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund (who had backed the Teutonic Order), as their king upon the death of Wenceslas IV (1420). Jagiello declined the offer because he needed the support of the Church in his struggle against the Teutonic Order but also at the insistence of the magnates who were concerned about the possible social consequences of the pro-Hussite sympathies amongst the szlachta. After the death of Jadwiga Jagiello remarried three more times; his fourth wife was the Muscovite princess, Sophia Holszanska, who bore him three sons (two of whom survived; Wladyslaw and Kazimierz). In 1430, through the Act of Krakow, Wladyslaw Jagiello introduced the law "Neminem Captivabimus" ("We shall detain no-one unless he is convicted by law"; the Polish "Habeas Corpus"), the first such law in Europe, and granted the szlachta the right to elect the king, thus laying the foundations for the Republic of Nobles. During his reign Poland became a great power; Jagiello's attempts to bring the Ruthenian Orthodox Church back into a union with Rome, his defeat of the Teutonic Order and Christianisation of Samogitia, his subtle game of supporting the Hussites in order to frustrate the anti-Polish strategies of the Holy Roman Emperor and his mastery over the Tartars, led to the consecration of Poland's role in the East.

Jagiello's ascendancy to the title of Grand-Duke of Lithuania had been opposed by his relatives and had only been secured by the ruthless putting down of all opposition (including the imprisonment and murder of his uncle Kejstut, Prince of Troki, at Krewo, 1382). He entered into a delicate alliance with his cousin, the son of Kiejstut, Vytautas (Witold, b. 1350; d. 1430), who, with the backing of the Teutonic Order, was a rival candidate for the title of Grand-Duke. Jagiello recognised Vytautas as Grand-Duke of Lithuania by the Treaty of Vilnius/Wilno (1401) on the condition that Poland and Lithuania be permanently united by a common foreign policy. Vytautas, with the backing of Jagiello, accepted the Bohemian crown and appointed his nephew, Zygmunt Korybut (d. 1435), as governor (1422); this move actually led to civil war between the Ultraquists (the Bohemian Hussite nobility allied to the city of Prague) who supported Korybut, and the Taborites (zealous militant Hussites) under Ziska. Jagiello's acquiescence (in allowing Vytautas to accept the crown) led the Pope, Martin V, to proclaim a crusade against Poland, and a coalition was formed - as a result of which, Vytautas was compelled to resign, Zygmunt was recalled by Jagiello and an edict issued against the Hussites and their allies (Wielun, 1424). Zygmunt went on (in the following year) to take on the role of "King elect" and even joined the Hussite uprising.

When Vytautas died (1430), Jagiello's brother Svidrigaila (Swidrygiello: d. 1452) was named to replace him as Grand-Duke (1430) - without consultation with the Polish nobility (as laid down by the Treaty of Horodlo). In a power struggle that reflected the problems of the new union and could have divided the dynasty into separate houses, Svidrigaila refused to recognise Poland's supremacy as laid down in 1401 and 1413, and the Poles now laid claims to Wolin (Volhynia). Svidrigaila entered into an alliance with the Teutonic Order and a brief campaign ensued in which the Poles proved successful (1432). When Svidrigaila refused to negotiate a peace and renewed his alliance with the Order it was decided to replace him. Vytautas' brother Zygmunt became Grand-Duke (1434 - 40). In the Act of Troki (1434) Zygmunt drew the szlachta of Halicz and Podolia into the protective arms of Polish civil rights. In 1435 an alliance of Svidrigaila, Zygmunt Korybut and the Livonian branch of the Order was defeated at Wilkomierz (a victory that was to the Lithuanians what Grunwald had been to the Poles). Svidrigaila escaped to Moldavia but returned to Volhynia to be a constant problem until he died. Zygmunt, eventually, also begun to intrigue against the crown, and his cruel administration led to his assassination. In a coup (managed by the Lithuanian nobles) which almost severed Polish - Lithuanian links, he was replaced by Jagiello's youngest son, Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk.

Wladyslaw III Warnenczyk (b. Krakow, 1424; d. Varna, 1444), son of Jagiello and Sophia, was king of Poland 1434 - 44. Having inherited the crown at the age of 10, most decisions were made by the Regent, the powerful Bishop of Krakow, Zbigniew Olesnicki who worked hard to suppress the Hussites in Poland; it was largely because of him that the union with Bohemia, eagerly sought by the Hussites, did not come to pass. In 1440, through the manoeuvrings of Olesnicki, the Magyars offered Wladyslaw the crown of Hungary as Ladislas I (1440 - 44); Poland's attention shifted to the plains of Hungary and the growing Turkish threat. It is Hungary that had been the real bastion of Christendom, fighting a constant war against the Ottoman Turks. In 1443 Wladyslaw and his chief Hungarian supporter, the Vajda of Transylvania, Janos Hunyadi, led a combined Polish-Hungarian army of 40,000 into the Balkans and forced the Sultan, Murad II, to evacuate Serbia and Albania by the Peace of Szeged (August 1444). Very shortly after the peace was signed Wladyslaw broke it, under pressure from the Papal Legate (Cardinal Julian de Cesarinis), and continued his crusade. In November 1444, the combined Polish-Hungarian forces were defeated by the Turks at Varna on the Black Sea and Wladyslaw was killed. Whilst the disaster proved fortuitous for the

Poles (since the resources laid aside for war against the Turks were to prove invaluable in the war against the Teutonic Order), the consequences of the destruction at Varna were dramatic for the Balkans which rapidly returned under Turkish control; Constantinople fell not long after (1453) and her mantle (as leader of the Orthodox Church) fell to the Tzars and Moscow (the 3rd Rome). The loss of access to India via the Black Sea and land routes led the Europeans to search for an alternative route by sea and hence to the discovery of the New World.

Wladyslaw III's brother, Kazimierz IV Jagiellonczyk (b. 1427; d. 1492), Grand-Duke of Lithuania , became king (1447 - 92). He worked hard to maintain the political union between Poland and Lithuania without prejudicing the independence of Lithuania which he saw as his personal estate. He managed to preserve the hereditary rule of the Jagiellonians as Grand-Dukes, keeping that separate from any role as monarch of the union. Kazimierz exploited the schism in the Western Church (during which time there were two Popes) by curbing the power of the clergy and subordinating the Church to the state. When the Prussians revolted against their overlord, the Teutonic Order, Kazimierz saw this as an opportunity to end, once and for all, their power. Requiring the support of the szlachta (nobility) to conduct a war against the Teutonic Order Kazimierz conceded, through the Act of Nieszawa (1454), that no new taxes or military levies could be raised without the consent of the szlachta and established the Sejmik, a regional consultative legislature which began to swing power away from the magnates to the szlachta and, in time, would evolve into the Sejm, the national legislature (Parliament); yet another step towards the Republic of Nobles.

Kazimierz started a prolonged war against the Order, the Thirteen Years' War, in order to recover Pomerania and Gdansk (1454 - 66). The Peace of Torun/Thorn (1466) humiliated the Order and Prussia was partitioned: West Prussia (including the city of Gdansk/Danzig) coming under direct Polish rule (thus recovering her access to the sea), whilst East Prussia became a vassal to the Polish Crown. At the beginning of the war Kazimierz had found himself opposed by both the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope but he neutralised their hostility by allying himself with George of Podebrad (1462), who had been elected King of Bohemia (1458) by the Hussite Utraquists (who had defeated the Taborites in the recent civil war). Matias Hunyadi (also known as Korwin or Matthias Corvinus, 1458 - 90), the son of Janos Hunyadi and King of Hungary, supported by the Catholic-German faction in Bohemia, became Kazimierz's most dangerous rival. Korwin occupied Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia (1468) resulting in an eight-year war. When Podebrad died Kazimierz's eldest son, Wladyslaw, was elected king of Bohemia (1471) and came to a diplomatic agreement with Corvinus in the Peace of Olomouc (Olmutz, 1478); Korwin would keep the territories he had conquered whilst Wladyslaw would rule Bohemia proper. When, in turn, Corvinus died (1490) Wladyslaw was elected king of Hungary (after a brief contest for the crown with his brother Jan Olbracht which soured Polish-Hungarian relationships).

In 1475 the Ottoman Turks captured the stronghold of Kilia, commanding the mouth of the Danube, and Bialgorod (Akkerman) on the Dneister (1484). This seriously threatened Polish sovereignty in Moldavia and Polish trade routes, forcing Kazimierz to take action - the first time Poland would be engaged in warfare with the Turks independently of any links with Hungary. In 1485 he drove the Turks out of Moldavia but failed to regain the captured fortresses. In turn, the Turks encouraged the Transvolga Tartars to cease raiding the Crimean Tartars and raid Polish lands instead. Kazimierz managed to arrange a truce with the Turks and for the remainder of his reign there was no further trouble, but the threat remained.

Kazimierz's real failure was to build up any sort of defence against the expansion of Muscovy which had begun to threaten Lithuania's role as the leading power in the east. He signed a treaty with Vasili II of Moscow which fixed the spheres of their respective influences (1449) but Vasili was succeeded by Ivan the Terrible who was determined to create the "Third Rome". Ivan ended the independence of Novgorod (1478) which had looked in vain for help from Lithuania, and by 1486 his threat was such that a number of Russian princes, vassals of Lithuania, went over to the Muscovite grand duke because of the lack of protection from Kazimierz.

Kazimierz's reign became famed as a "Golden Age" which saw many foreign scholars, writers, artists and architects attracted to Poland, especially from Renaissance Italy. One of the most important late Gothic sculptors, Wit Stwosz (Viet Stoss, 1438 - 1533) of Nuremberg, established a workshop in Krakow (1477 - 1496) where he produced the wonderful altar of the Mariacki (St. Mary's) with its "The Dormition of the Virgin" (1477 - 89) and the tomb of Kazimierz IV in the Wawel Cathedral (1492). It was also a time when home-grown talent would reach new levels as epitomised in the neo-Latin works of Sarbiewski and the "History" of Jan Dlugosz. Trade benefited from a number of initiatives including the declaration (1447) that all rivers were the property of the Crown and free for general use. The acquisition of Prussia and its seaports (1466), and the whole of the Wisla coming under Polish control, saw a rise in river traffic, an enormous increase in exports (particularly through Gdansk) and a marked improvement in the economic life of the nation.

In 1454 Kazimierz entered into a marriage that would further his dynastic aims and his wife, Elizabeth of Habsburg, became known as the "Mother of Kings" as five of her sons wore crowns. His son, Wladyslaw (b. 1456; d. 1516) became King of Bohemia (1471 - 1516) and Hungary (1490 - 1516) but was a weak and vacillating ruler who became dominated by his nobles and lost territory to the Habsburgs. Kazimierz and Elizabeth's second son, St. Kazimierz (b. Krakow, 1458; d. Grodno, 1484) was educated by the historian, Dlugosz, and Filippo Buonaccorsi (Callimachus). When the king's business involved a prolonged stay in Lithuania (1479), Kazimierz, always intended to inherit the throne, was placed in charge and administered the State commendably (1481 - 1483). Shortly afterwards he fell victim to a severe lung infection, which, as a result of his fasting and mortifications, he succumbed to whilst on a journey to Lithuania. Kazimierz was buried in the Cathedral at Wilno. After his death he was venerated as a saint and, after an inquiry which was completed in 1520, Kazimierz was canonised by Adrian VI (1522). The patron of Poland Lithuania, St. Kazimierz's feastday is 4 March.

Kazimierz IV was succeeded by his sons Jan Olbracht, Aleksander and Zygmunt.

Jan Olbracht,1492 - 1501, became involved in fighting the Crimean Tartars on the Black Sea coast. His reign is important for witnessing, at Piotrkow (1493 and 1496), the final evolution from regional parliaments (Sejmiks) to a bicameral national parliament; the Sejm. The Sejm of 1496 granted many privileges to the nobility but, in so doing, restricted the rights of the peasants and created a system of legal serfdom in Poland. The manor would become an important economic centre exporting its goods down river and, in the laws exempting nobles from paying export duties when shipping their products abroad or importing foreign wares for personal use, the landlord would have economic advantages over the merchants that would work against the healthy growth of trade within the cities (which, in any case, had no say in the running of the country). Jan Olbracht expelled the Jews from Krakow proper (1495), moving them to Kazimierz (at that time across the Wisla but still under the royal protection

offered by the enclave on Wawel Hill), and gave their land to the University, which had coveted the land and is still located there.

Aleksander, (b. 1461; d. 1506), reigned 1501 - 06. On accession to the throne Aleksander was obliged to issue a new act of union, the Act of Melnik (1501), which stipulated that the king of Poland would also be the Grand-Duke of Lithuania (thus the Jagiellonians lost their hereditary rights in Lithuania). It also reduced the powers of the king to that of President of the Senate which could refuse obedience to the king in instances of "tyrannical behaviour" on his part. The Statute of "Nihil Novi" (1505) enacted that nothing new could be decided without Parliament's consent. Aleksander worked hard to westernise Lithuania and it is in his reign that Polish was spoken at the court in Wilno. The growing inability of Lithuania to protect herself became very apparent as the Muscovites and Tartars ravaged the whole country at will and were only prevented from conquering it altogether by their inability to capture the chief fortresses.

Zygmunt I Stary (b.1467; d.1548),1506 - 48, struggled in vain with the nobles to raise money in order to adequately defend the nation. He waged war against Muscovy (during which Smolensk, in an important strategic position, was lost, 1514), Walachia and Moldavia (1508 - 28). The constant raids of the Moldavians and Tartars were to eventually result in the ravishing of Ruthenia and the Ukraine, the annihilation of flourishing settlements and a virtual end to the Polonisation of the area which was to become known as the "Wild Plains". Zygmunt aided his nephew, Louis II (b. 1506; d. 1526), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1516 - 26), against the Turks at the battle of Mohacs (where Louis was killed, thus bringing the Jagiellonian Dynasty in Hungary to an end, 1526) and the siege of Vienna (1529). Assisted by his Italian wife, Bona Sforza of Milan, the niece of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian, he promoted the Renaissance in Poland and proved to be a wise administrator, encouraging currency reforms. This was also the period of the Reformation; many of the sons of the szlachta who attended foreign universities were inspired by Calvinism which encouraged freedom of speech, and it was quite successful in Lithuania where as many as 2000 noble families adopted it, but whilst it stimulated intellectual activity, the Reformation failed to gain much ground in the long term because of differences between the various sects and also because the vast majority of the population remained Catholic. Lutheranism was taken up by the Prussian nobility; Albrecht Hohenzollern, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, split with both the Holy Roman Empire and Rome and, by becoming a vassal of the Polish King ("the Prussian Homage" 1525) - at Martin Luther's suggestion, was able to turn East Prussia into a Duchy. It was this Hohenzollern dynasty that was to play a key role in the destruction of the Rzeczpospolita (Republic of Nobles) in 1795. After the death of the last of its Piast rulers (1526) Zygmunt also absorbed the Duchy of Mazovia, which had previously been a vassal principality with an autonomous government, into the Polish state (1529). His daughter Katarzyna (b. 1525; d. 1583) married John III Vasa, their son being Zygmunt III Vasa.

Zygmunt I Stary's son, Zygmunt II August (b. 1520; d. 1572), reigned from 1548 - 72 and was the last of the Jagiellonians. During his reign the influence of the Reformation was extended; whilst remaining a steadfast adherent to Rome he nether-the-less read Protestant books and took part in theological discussions. Calvin dedicated his "Commentary on the Mass" to him. When pressed to take sides in the dispute between Catholics and Protestants, Zygmunt August said: "I am the King of the people - not the judge of their consciences." This spirit of tolerance attracted many refugees from religious persecution to Poland especially during the 1540s and 1550s. The Sejm, dominated by reformist nobles, passed legislation constraining ecclesiastical jurisdiction (1552, 1556, 1562).

Zygmunt's tolerance did not extend to the szlachta who had begun demanding a greater say in the running of the nation and a great distrust had grown between the two parties. The Polish szlachta had been enthusiastic for a strengthening of the union between Poland and Lithuania for some time but the immensely rich and powerful Lithuanian magnates, serving only their own interests, were opposed to such a union. After the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, (1545), Zygmunt August secretly married Barbara Radziwill (1547) from the powerful Lithuanian magnate family. Once this marriage became known, the szlachta, fearing that the Radziwills, with their new influence, could further delay a union with Lithuania, tried to get the marriage annulled - without success, thus widening the gulf between themselves and the king. When Livonia, threatened by Muscovite expansion towards the Baltic, sought protection from Zygmunt August she was incorporated into Lithuania by the Act of Wilno (1561). Then, when Ivan the Terrible invaded Livonia, Zygmunt August entered into a war against Muscovy, the Livonian War (1558 - 83), in order to secure his control over Livonia and the Baltic seacoast - creating Poland's first fleet in the process (1563). The Muscovite danger, which had increased with the internal political consolidation under Ivan the Terrible, the obvious inability of the Lithuanians to defend themselves and the financial burden of the war on the Lithuanian magnates' coffers, made it very evident that some strengthening of relations between the two states was now desirable. Furthermore, the incorporation of Podlasie, Volhynia and the province of Kiev into the Polish Crown gave Poland a frontier with Muscovy (March 1569). In July 1569 the inevitable happened: the Union of Lublin was a formal union of Poland and Lithuania; the "Rzeczpospolita" (the Republic of Nobles) with one elected head (the King) and a national parliament (the Sejm).

The Elected Monarchy

With the death of Zygmunt, the last of the Jagiellonians in 1574, there was nobody who could legally convene the Sejm. An "interrex" (Regent), the Archbishop of Gniezno, was appointed by the Senate and a special "Convocational Sejm" was called which decided to let the "szlachta" (nobility) the elect a king in a free election. Prior to his coronation the king-elect had to swear to uphold the Constitution and all "szlachta" privileges. In 1573, Henri de Valois, younger brother to Charles IX of France, was elected king by an overwhelming majority. In May 1574 Charles died suddenly and Henri had become King of France. It was generally agreed that he should hold both crowns and go back to France in the autumn but, in his impatience Henri slipped away early. Affronted, the Poles presented him with the ultimatum of returning by May 1575 or the throne would be declared vacant.

In December, under the influence of Jan Zamoyski, Stefan Batory (b. Szilagysomlyo, Transylvania 1533; d. nr Grodno 1586), Prince of Transylvania (1571 - 76) was elected king of Poland (1575 - 86) by the szlachta (the nobility). Batory was the son of Istvan Bathory, governor of Transylvania for the Habsburg king of Hungary. He won renown as a soldier with John Sigismund Zapolya, prince of the newly independent Transylvania and was elected as Zapolya's successor (1571). As king of Poland, Batory carried out important reforms, encouraged further overseas trade and creating the first regular Polish infantry by conscripting peasants from the Royal estates. He was also the first to employ Cossacks on a regular basis. He overcame the revolt of Danzig (1577), which was given autonomy in its internal affairs (at a price) and in a war with Muscovy (1579 - 82), after a successful campaign and a brilliant victory at Pskov, Batory defeated Ivan the Terrible in the Livonian War (1558 - 83). By the Treaty of Vam Zapolsky, Ivan returned all Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced

his claims on Livonia; Livonia joined the Commonwealth and Poland was now recognised as the greatest power in Central Europe and only the Turkish Sultan ruled over more extensive territories. In 1579 he created the University at Wilno. By the 1550s eighty per cent of the world's Jews lived in Poland. Batory gave the Jews their own national assembly drawn from the local self-governing communities (Kahal). In 1583 Batory granted the postal monopoly to Sebastian Montelupi who organised a regular postal system both internally and abroad. After his sudden death, Batory was succeeded, in the 1587 election, by Sigismund (Zygmunt) Vasa, son of John III Vasa of Sweden.

Vasa;

The Vasa were a dynasty of Swedish Kings whose name is derived from the family estate around Uppsala. The founder of the dynasty was Gustav Eriksson Vasa who became, firstly, Regent of Sweden (1521) and then King Gustavus I Vasa (1523 - 60). After the unexpected death of Batory in 1586, there was a major crisis when the pro-Hapsburg Zborowski faction forced through the election of Archduke Maximilian and almost brought the nation to a state of civil war. The great Renaissance politician (and staunch anti-Austrian), Jan Zamoyski confronted Maximilian and held Krakow for the Swedish crown prince, grandson of Gustavus I and son of John III of Sweden, Zygmunt III Vasa (b. Gripsholm, 1566; d. Warsaw,1632), who came to the throne 1587 - 1632. There would eventually be three Vasa Kings and the period would see long rivalry and wars between Poland and Sweden for the control of the Baltic. Under Zygmunt's reign the Polish magnates (great lords) rose to a position of power and would eventually destroy Poland through their greed; he was also in constant struggle with Jan Zamoyski, the Chancellor (1587 - 1605) whose diplomatic and military successes he regarded with suspicion. Zygmunt was forced to work with Zamoyski when he overreached himself in arranging a secret marriage with the Austrian Archduchess Anna (1592) and was subsequently humiliated by the Inquisition Diet of 1592. In the same year he received the Sejm's permission to become King of Sweden but was only crowned (1594) after promising to uphold Swedish Lutheranism.

Returning to Poland, Zygmunt left his uncle, Charles Suderman, as Regent of Sweden. He then decided to move the capital from Krakow to Warsaw (1596), which was closer to Sweden and the junction of all major routes criss-crossing the Commonwealth. When his uncle rose in rebellion Zygmunt invaded Sweden (thus losing any support there was for him amongst the Swedish nobility) only to be defeated at Stangebro (1598). In 1599 the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) dethroned Zygmunt offering the crown to his four-year-old son, Wladyslaw, on condition that he would come to Sweden and accept Lutheranism. Zygmunt refused to accept these conditions and lost the crown of Sweden to his uncle (who was crowned Charles IX, 1604 - 11). Zygmunt never relinquished the throne and his foreign policy was, from that point onwards, directed at regaining the Swedish crown.

From 1605, after the death of Zamoyski, Poland became involved in internal problems as a result of Zygmunt's absolutionist tendencies (the Zebrzydowski rebellion, 1606 - 8) and wars with Sweden (1617 - 29) and the Turks (1620 - 21). During the Swedish War, Gustavus II Adolphus (the son of Charles IX) seized Riga (1621) and almost all of Livonia. The Poles also, inevitably, became involved in the internal "troubles" of Muscovy ("Smuta", 1605 onwards), usually at the request of the boyars, but the events surrounding the short-lived careers of the two "False Dimitris" did not benefit the Republic. In 1610, after a successful military campaign, Zygmunt proposed his own son, Wladyslaw, as candidate to the Muscovite throne but Wladyslaw's refusal to convert to the Orthodox faith led to the driving out of the

Poles and the enthroning of the first Romanov (1613). The devastation and loss of life were tremendous and Poland was only saved by a number of outstanding military commanders; Stanislaw Zolkiewski, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Stefan Czarniecki (b. 1599; d. 1665) and Stanislaw Koniecpolski who achieved some great victories (Kluszyn, 1610; Kircholm, 1605; Chocim, 1612).

This was also the period that saw the Republic at its greatest territorial extent and economically the nation was prosperous (but there were also new extremes of wealth and poverty). Religious tolerance was maintained despite Zygmunt's own Catholic fanaticism (his greatest success was the establishment of the Uniates; the union of the greater part of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church with Rome in 1596 ratified at the Synod of Brzesc). The followers of Fausto Sozzini (Socinius, b. 1539; d. 1604), the Polish Brethren, founded a centre of protestant culture at Rakow (which became known as the Sarmatian Athens), between Kielce and Sandomierz, where they published the Rakowian Catechism (1604), the most well-known statement of Unitarian theology at the time and an important expression of radical thought. When the Hussites suffered the crushing defeat at the battle of White Mountain (1620) many were forced into exile, some making their way to Poland and influencing the Arian movement there. The Jewish community thrived and spread out from the cities into the provinces; but by linking their fortunes with greedy lords through the "arenda" system (whereby an estate would be leased out by an absentee lord to a manager who could exploit it and those who worked it) they exposed themselves to the hatred of the peasantry.

Zygmunt's son, Wladyslaw IV (b. 1595; d. 1648), King 1632 - 1648, served as a youth in the Muscovite campaigns (1610 - 12 and 1617 - 18). On his accession to the throne he fought a war with Muscovy and won a victorious peace (1634). He made a favourable settlement with the Turks (1634) and with Sweden (1635). He was involved in serious disputes with the Sejm and unsuccessfully attempted to establish order in the last years of his reign. For some time the Arian movement had thrived in the climate of religious tolerance that Poland had offered but their own success led to their downfall. In 1641 all Arians were forced to convert or leave the country, resulting in mass exodus. A particular danger came from within when, in 1648, the Cossacks, mainly of Ruthenian and Polish origin, for a variety of reasons but chiefly due to the arrogance of the magnates who were treating the free Cossacks as serfs, broke their oath of allegiance to the Polish King under the instigation of their Hetman, Chmielnicki. Wladyslaw died whilst this revolt was still in force. Wladyslaw travelled widely visiting Florence where he was honoured by the Italian composer, Francesco Caccini who wrote a composition "La Liberazione di Ruggero dell Isola di Alcina" dedicated to him. He corresponded with Galileo, ordering telescopes from him, and modelled for Peter Paul Rubens in his studio in Antwerp.

Wladyslaw's son, Jan II Kazimierz (b. 1609; d. 1672), was a Jesuit and Cardinal (1640) and had to be absolved of his religious vows by the Pope in order to be able to take on his duties as King 1648 - 1668. In the continued revolt of the Cossacks, Chmielnicki used the Ukraine as a pawn between the powers of Poland, Muscovy and Turkey which resulted in further wars, with the Tartars (1649), and a disastrous 13 - year war with Muscovy (1654 - 67). Janusz Radziwill, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, defeated by Tsar Alexei of Muscovy during Chmielnicki's revolt (1654), appealed for help from Charles X Gustavus of Sweden, himself fearful of Muscovite expansion. He invaded Poland in 1655. This period in which the Republic was inundated by enemy forces, and the chaos that accompanied it, became known as the "Deluge" ("Potop"). The collapse of Polish resistance led to the desertion of many Polish officers and szlachta (the nobility) from Jan Kazimierz to Charles. In October

Radziwill signed an agreement at Kiejdany which detached Lithuania from Poland, placing it under the protection of Sweden. In the following guerrilla war, where Polish forces were supported by Tartars fearful of the further expansion of Muscovy into the vacuum caused by the war with Sweden, and Danish and Dutch fleets came to the defence of Gdansk, it is the defence of Czestochowa, at the monastery of Jasna Gora, (1655), Poland's most sacred shrine containing the picture of the Virgin Mary (the "Black Madonna"), by a small force led by Prior Kordecki and his monks against a besieging army of 9,000 Swedes, that actually changed the course of the war and became a signal for a general uprising that resulted in the eventual expulsion of the Swedes from the Republic. In 1658, at Hadziacz, an agreement between the King and the new Cossack Hetman, Wyhowski, was to enable Ruthenia to join the Commonwealth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania but a further Cossack rebellion (1659) instigated by Muscovy (herself attempting to annex the Ukraine) and Polish involvement in war with Sweden (1655 - 60), meant that the agreement bore no fruit and in 1667, by the treaty of Andruszowo, the Ukraine was divided evenly along the Dnieper between the Commonwealth and Muscovy. For the Polish Commonwealth this was a disaster since it weakened an important frontier area and left a discontented people open to manipulation by Poland's enemies.

The general decline was especially noticed in the Sejm; the parliamentary system grew awkward and ineffective as deputies used the notorious "Liberum Veto", which allowed any deputy to prevent legislation since all resolutions had to be carried unanimously. The idea of consensus rule was, in principle, a good one but the "Liberum Veto" was first used in a manner that destroyed the working of the Sejm, in 1652, by a Jan Sicinski on the orders of Janusz Radziwill. It soon became obvious to Poland's neighbours that the veto could be used to their own political ends and they soon clubbed together to "defend Polish freedoms". The szlachta, themselves, becoming less influential as they lost their military valour and, in many cases, impoverished, saw the veto as the last symbol of their ability to play a role in the running of the Commonwealth.

This was also a period of great rivalry and suspicion between the pro-Bourbon factions (led by the Queen, Louise-Marie) and the pro-Habsburg szlachta (many of whom were in the pockets of Vienna. The need for reform had become obvious and the Jesuit preacher, Piotr Skarga, had blamed social injustice as the main cause of evil. The final indignity came when, as a direct result of attempting to introduce reforms that would modernise the state, Jerzy Lubomirski, the Grand Marshal, rebelled against the King. The royal faction was defeated at the battle of Matwy (1666) but not long afterwards Lubomirski came and begged for a pardon which was granted; the whole farce had merely served to damage the prestige of the crown. Shortly after his chief support, Queen Louise-Marie, died (1667) Jan Kazimierz took refuge in Silesia, resigned as King (1668) and retired to France as Abbe de Saint-Germain. The farcical elections that followed led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki.

Wisniowiecki;

The Wisnioweckis were a noble Ukrainian family. During the early 1500s the idea of hiring the Cossacks to guard the Dnieper crossings by building fortresses on its islands was proposed but never developed, it was Dmitri (d.1563), a magnate from Southern Volhynia who independently founded the first Cossack fortress, Niz, at Chortyca, out of which grew the Sicz of Zaporoze. After a failed attempt to involve Poland-Lithuania in a war against the Tartars, he became heavily involved in Moldavian affairs only to be betrayed to the Turks and

executed for piracy. Dmitri is credited with being the first to create a stable organisation for the Cossacks and for putting the Cossack-Ukrainian cause on the map. His son signed the Union of Lublin and his grandson led a notorious expedition to Moldavia (1616). His great-grandson was Prince Jarema (b. 1612; d. 1651), Voivode of Ruthenia and chief enemy of Chmielnicki.

The farcical elections that followed the resignation of Jan II Kazimierz, the last of the Vasas (1668), led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity, the favourite of the szlachta (the nobility) suspicious of foreigners and seeking a "new Piast", despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Jarema's son, Michal Korybut (b. 1640; d. 1673), king (1669 - 1673); he proved to be a weak monarch unable to control the magnates who nicknamed him "le Singe". In 1672 the Turkish invasion of Podolia led to the fall of the fortress of Kamieniec Podolsk and, with the country in a state of chaos, the Poles sued for peace; at the Treaty of Buczacz the Poles lost what was left of Podolia and the Ukraine and had to pay a humiliating annual tribute. Michal Korybut died suddenly whilst a new invasion was in force, on the eve of Chocim; he was succeeded by the victor of that battle, Jan Sobieski.

Sobieski, Jan III (b. Olesko, nr. Lwow, 1674; d. 1696) the son of Jakub Sobieski, the Castellan of Krakow and Voivode of Ruthenia, Jan Sobieski was educated in Krakow. A great military leader, Sobieski entered military service in 1648, seeing action against both the Tartars and Cossacks (1651 - 52) and Swedes under Lubomirski and Czarniecki, although, along with many other officers who had deserted the royal cause in the dark days of the Deluge, he had briefly accepted a commission under Swedish King, Charles X (1655 - 56). He was first entered the Sejm in 1659. Sobieski was appointed Commander - in - Chief of the Polish Army (1665) and Grand Hetman in 1668. Besieged by an army of Cossacks and Tartars at Podhajce he raised 8000 men at his own expense and forced the enemy to retire. Later, when the Turks seized the fortress of Kamieniec (1672), Sobieski beat the Turkish forces back and virtually annihilated them at Chocim (1673), earning from them the nickname of the "Fearful Lion of the North". He was elected King a few months later (1674 - 96). The climax of his career came in 1683 when, with 20,000 Polish troops he relieved the Turkish siege of Vienna. Unable to break into Europe through Poland, the Turks had invaded Hungary and Austria in 1683 and swept all before them. 130,000 Turks besieged Vienna and threatened to overpower Europe. Sobieski, at the request of the Pope, marched on Vienna through rugged mountain passes and sent the Husaria into their last great charge, taking the Turks unawares. It was a turning point in history. Combined with the Imperial Army, he drove the Turks back to the Raab. He was acclaimed as the hero of Christendom - Jan Matejko's painting of "Sobieski at Vienna" hangs in the Vatican. His later years were a failure, unable to overturn the political decline of Poland; he was unable to solve Poland's problems on the Baltic or on the eastern frontier because the long years of campaigning and wars had drained her resources and, in 1686, in an unbelievably naive move, the Grzymultowski Peace literally gave away the entire Ukraine and transformed "Muscovy" into "Russia" - enabling her to emerge as the major power in Eastern Europe. He was a patron of science and literature and his marvellous palace at Wilanow, on the outskirts of Warsaw reflect his domestic grandeur. The elections after the death of Sobieski were contentious; his son, Jakub (b. 1667; d. 1737), was forced to withdraw for lack of funds, and the French candidate was cheated of victory by bribery and corruption so that the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus was elected king, Augustus II. It would be the beginning of the end. Sobieski's granddaughter, Clementina (b. 1702; d.1735), married James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender"; their son was Charles Edward Louis Philip Kazimierz, the "young Pretender" - "Bonny Prince Charlie".

Wettin;

The Wettins were a German dynasty that was active, in the Tenth century, in pushing Germany's eastern frontier into Slav lands. By c.1100 they had acquired the Margrave of Meissen and extended their rule over Thuringia and Saxony. In 1485 the dynasty divided into the Ernestine and Albertine branches. The Albertines became the Electors of Saxony (1547) and provided two kings of Poland, Augustus II and Augustus III. The sixty-six years of Saxon rule, from 1697 - 1763, were a national disaster and drove the country to the brink of anarchy. The causes are twofold: firstly, from the outset the Saxon kings fell into a partnership with Russia in which they became more and more dependent on the support of the stronger partner; secondly, The Republic, which had been severely weakened by the period of warfare and internal strife of the seventeenth century, was reduced to the state of a helpless bystander in the wars of the eighteenth. The nation was further undermined as the powerful land-owning magnates began to look to the preservation their own self-interests in whatever manner they could, whilst the less powerful szlachta attempted to hang on to the only power they held - their traditional rights - even at the expense of important reforms. The Republic had no standing army, it was a citizen army with only a small core of professionals. Whilst Sobieski had carried out important reforms which had significantly improved the army's tactical and technological stature there was a heavy reliance on foreign infantry and there was no centralised funding. There was, also, internal resistance to the idea of a regular army which could be used by an autocratic ruler to restrict personal liberties (as in Prussia, for example). Poland also became sandwiched between two rising powers; Russia, ruled by Peter the Great, and Prussia which the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III, was to declare a kingdom in 1701.

The Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus (b. Dresden, 1670; d. 1733), who had unsuccessfully commanded the imperial Army against the Turks (1695 - 96), converted to Catholicism (the Republic was "worth a mass") and was elected king Augustus II of Poland in 1697 after a contentious election which, in many ways, reflected the disintegration of the nation. His reign started auspiciously with the treaty of Karlowicz by which the former provinces of Podolia and the Ukraine, including the important fortress of Kamieniec, were restored to Poland by the Turks (1699). In the mistaken belief that Sweden was in decline and with the intention of acquiring Livonia for Saxony, Augustus entered into a disastrous three-way alliance with Frederick IV of Denmark and Peter I the Great of Russia (1672 - 1725) that would eventually embroil Poland in the Great Northern War (1700-21). Although the Sejm refused to support him, Augustus invaded Livonia and laid siege to Riga. The Swedish king, Charles XII (the "Lion of the North", 1682 - 1718) defeated the Danes who had invaded Schleswig (1700), destroyed the Russian Army at Narva (November 1700) and raised the siege of Riga (1701). Charles then invaded Poland with the intention of deposing Augustus from the Polish throne as a punishment for his central role in the anti-Swedish alliance. He seized Warsaw and defeated Augustus at Kliszow (where the Polish Army, having failed in two charges against the Swedish infantry, refused to fight on, 1702) and Pultusk (1703). Charles XII then imposed his candidate, Stanislaw Leszczynski (1704 - 09), on the Polish throne.

The Leszczynskis were a noble Polish family which played a prominent part during the 16th. to 18th. centuries. The general, Rafael Leszczynski, was the father of Stanislaw I Leszczynski (b. Lwow, 1677; d. 1766), king of Poland (1704 - 09, and 1733 - 35). When Augustus II of Saxony and Poland allied himself with Russia (1700 - 1721) against Sweden in the Great Northern War, Leszczynski, the Voivode of Poznan, proved to be a staunch opponent and

gained the support of Charles XII of Sweden. In 1704 Sweden won, Augustus was removed and Leszczynski was elected in his place. In 1709 the Russians defeated the Swedes at Poltava and Augustus was returned to the throne. Leszczynski settled in Alsace (1709) and, later, became governor of Zweibruken in the Palatinate (1718 - 25). In 1725, his daughter, Maria (b. Wroclaw, 1703; d. 1768), married Louis XV of France who ensured that, on Augustus' death, in 1733, Leszczynski was again elected King. The War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) followed, Stanislaw was supported by France and Spain, while Austria and Russia supported Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony, Augustus II's son. Leszczynski was besieged at Danzig, receiving only moral support from France, while his rival received full military aid from Russia. Inevitably, he was obliged to flee from Danzig (1734) and accept the terms of the Treaty of Vienna (1735) by which he kept the royal title but renounced his actual rights in favour of Frederick Augustus. Leszczynski was awarded the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar (1737) by Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor, in exchange for Tuscany and also received a pension from France. He maintained court at Luneville and Nancy which was a model of the Enlightenment. Leszczynski corresponded with the finest thinkers of his time, most notably with Rousseau who, on his request, drafted a new constitution for Poland. He wrote the influential reforming tract, "A Free Voice Insuring Freedom" (1749), and "Oeuvres du Philosophe Bienfaisant" (published 1767).

The unconstitutional manner of Leszczynski's election (where a hastily thrown together Sejm had been surrounded by armed Swedish troops ready to enforce Charles' will) divided the country into pro-Leszczynski and pro-Augustus camps; the Northern War had now, for the Poles, become a civil war. An attempt by Augustus to regain Poland was stopped at Fraustadt (February 1706). Charles XII invaded Saxony in August 1706 and seized Leipzig; Augustus sued for peace and abdicated the throne of Poland (Treaty of Altranstadt, 1706). Augustus was restored after the Swedish invasion of Russia failed at the battle of Poltava (1709) - in which an important role was played by Polish peasants harassing the Swedish columns, and the pro-Saxon Confederates of Sandomierz who prevented reinforcements from reaching the Swedes. By the end of this war Russia was able to interfere freely in the internal affairs of the nation. Augustus maintained a Saxon Army in Poland which reinforced the Polish view that he was intending to turn the Polish throne into that of an absolute monarch. Conflict between Augustus and the Sejm almost ended in civil war with the setting up of the Confederation of Tarnogrod (1715), only prevented by a Russian offer of mediation; 18,000 Russian troops surrounded the chamber where the deputies met, they were denied the right to speak whilst the Russian "mediator" dictated the Russian " solution". This Sejm became known as the "Dumb Sejm" and the Republic became little more than a Russian client state; a "Protectorate".

The emasculation of both Augustus and the Sejm lead to the dissipation of power into the hands of a small group of magnates who ruled their own lands as princes making independent political alliances depending on the state of their finances or interests; "a state within the state". The army had virtually disappeared as a fighting force; morale had collapsed, technical proficiency declined, corruption was rife, nobles absented themselves from duty or preferred to serve the magnates: all this at a time when the Republic's neighbours were undergoing massive militarisation. In the Northern War Russia seized Livonia and began to dominate the Baltic; Augustus, awake to the Russian threat, entered into an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, and England (who both had their own reasons to be wary of the sudden rise of Russia) to cast off Russian interference in Poland (Vienna, 1719) but the Sejm rejected the treaty (1720), at which point Augustus condemned their shameful weakness. Now Augustus attempted to establish another treaty with Prussia aimed directly at the partition of

Poland - but nothing came of this for Russia made a secret pact with Prussia at Potsdam (1720) to maintain the paralysis of law and order within Poland by protecting Polish "rights" such as the Liberum Veto.

It was in this period that intolerance towards religious dissidents was intensified and perhaps the lowest point in the history of the Republic came in 1724 when the mayor of Torun and nine other Protestants were executed because they had failed to prevent anti-Jesuit excesses. The English protested at this outrage and, when Poland was partitioned (1772), the image of a bigoted and intolerant nation put aside any feelings of sympathy that there might have been. The Russo-Prussian alliance of 1730 went so far as to pledge to protect religious minorities and to secure their former privileges (despite the fact that these two states refused to offer similar rights to their own religious minorities). The Convocation Sejm of 1733 was to bring Poland into line with the rest of Europe with its ending of religious freedoms and debarring of non-Catholics from holding office or acting as representatives in the Sejm; a move that was to have its repercussions in 1766 when Russia and Prussia would use their pledges to protect the rights of dissidents as an excuse to prevent reform and a revival of the Polish state.

Augustus was a patron of the arts, greatly embellishing his capital, Dresden, and created the Meissen china industry. He is also known as Augustus the Strong but this is more in reference to his numerous affairs and his prodigious number of, largely illegitimate, offspring.

On Augustus' death, in 1733, the French candidate, Leszczynski, was again elected King; this sparked off the War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) during which Polish resistance, the Confederation of Dzikow under the leadership of Adam Tarlo, was crushed by combined Prussian and Russian armies. The Russians sent in an army and reran the election; their candidate, Augustus' son, Frederik Augustus II (b. Dresden, 1696; d. 1763) was elected king, Augustus III, in 1734. Augustus spent his reign almost exclusively in Dresden, only fleeing to Poland when the Prussians occupied Saxony during the Seven Years War; Poland was ruled by his adviser Bruhl and son-in-law, Mniszech. He supported Prussia in the first Silesian War (1740 - 42) but sided with Austria in the second Silesian War (1744 - 45), was defeated and forced to pay indemnity. The Electorate of Saxony was occupied by Prussia during the Seven Years War - the third Silesian War (1756 - 63); during this war, by which Prussia gained Silesia, Poland's neutrality was ignored and she became a staging area for the deployment of the combatants. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia recouped his war costs by flooding Poland with counterfeit money and imposing illegal tolls on the Wisla. Prussia and Russia continued to renew their alliances by which Poland would be kept weakened. At Augustus' death, the Russians forced the election of Stanislaw Poniatowski, destined to become the last King of Poland.

Poniatowski;

The Poniatowskis were a noble family of Italian origin including; Stanislaw (b. 1676; d. 1762), a general and diplomat who joined Charles XII of Sweden in support of Stanislaw Leszczynski, and fought at Poltava (1709). He represented Charles at the Porte. Stanislaw was the brother-in-law of Michal and August Czartoryski and formed part of that powerful group aiming at reform, "the Family". His son, Stanislaw II Augustus (b. Wolczyn, 1732; d. St. Petersburg, 1798), was a refined man who, after his education, spent a great deal of time in the West, mainly Paris and London. He was sent to St. Petersburg (1757) to gain support for the proposed overthrow of Augustus III but succeeded instead in becoming a lover of the future Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. On the death of Augustus III, Catherine used

her influence to ensure that Stanislaw Augustus became King (1764 - 1795); Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland.

On acceding to the throne Stanislaw Augustus attempted to show that he was no puppet by setting up a range of commissions and ministries aimed at improving the process of government, carrying out financial and educational reforms and establishing a military school (the Szkola Rycerska); it was obvious that a Polish revival was under way. At this point Prussia and Russia raised the whole issue of the rights of Lutheran and Orthodox dissidents knowing that this would stir up trouble (1766). The issue was discussed in the Sejm in chaotic conditions, the Papal Nuncio protested and the proposed changes were rejected. As a result two Confederations were formed, that of the Protestants at Thorn and the Orthodox dissidents at Slupsk strongly supported by Russian troops. More significantly the Confederation of Radom (1767) was formed by a number of Catholic szlachta who had been skilfully manipulated by Russian diplomats. Now a treaty was imposed on Poland and forced through the Sejm (1768), which hypocritically protected the rights of the szlachta to elect the king and maintain the "Liberum Veto" - thus using these ancient privileges as a means to make the state impotent. A number of representatives of the Sejm who opposed Russian demands were arrested and deported to Kaluga in Russia. A large number of the szlachta, disgusted at this turn of events, revolted by setting up the Confederation of Bar (1768 - 72). Russian attempts to put the rising down were hindered by having to repress a peasant uprising in the Polish Ukraine, and by the Ottoman Turks who declared war on Russia (1768). After four years struggle, during which Stanislaw Augustus was actually kidnapped by some of the Bar Confederates (though he managed to escape in the bungled affair), the rising was eventually crushed and over 5000 captured szlachta were sent to Siberia; among the few who escaped was Kazimierz Pulaski who was to play an important role in the United States' struggle for independence.

The campaigns of 1768 - 72 so devastated Poland and weakened the government that the nation was unable to put up any meaningful resistance when Prussia, Russia and Austria agreed to annex parts of Poland in 1772. The Commonwealth lost 224,173.5 sq.km (29.5%) of her former territory and 4,020,000 of her population (a reduction by 35.2%): Prussia took the smallest, but economically best, area (5%) - cutting Poland off from the Baltic - and severed its feudal dependence on the Polish Crown; Austria took the most heavily populated areas (11.8%), whilst Russia took the largest, but least important (12.7%). To give the crime some legality the Sejm was forced to ratify the partition in 1773, despite the resistance of some Deputies, led by Tadeusz Rejtan. Amazingly some of the szlachta saw partition as a plot between Poniatowski and the Russians in order to introduce an absolute monarchy into Poland.

Despite the disaster of this first partition, Poland underwent a national revival in 1773, thanks to the efforts of Stanislaw Augustus. The first step was the creation of the "Komisija Edukacji Narodowej" ("Committee of National Education"), the first Ministry of Education in Europe; hundreds of schools were founded and the standard of education was raised. Writers, poets, artists and scholars were encouraged by the King and the ideas of the Enlightenment were taking hold. This was the period of Naruszewicz, Krasicki, Boguslawski, and Karpinski. Taking advantage of Russia's involvement in a war against Turkey, the King launched a reform programme (1788-1792) and the task was carried out by the "Four-Year" or "Great Sejm" which established a new Constitution; the Constitution of the Third of May, 1791, in which the "Liberum Veto" was abolished, majority rule introduced, and personal freedoms guaranteed to all the people. The Constitution was hailed in the United States, England and

France, but was seen as a threat to the absolute rulers of Prussia, Austria and, especially, Russia. In 1792, at Russia's instigation, a handful of magnates led by Ksawery Branicki, Szczesny Potocki and Seweryn Rzewuski betrayed the Commonwealth and formed the Confederation of Targowica against the new Constitution and then "asked" for help. Russian troops crossed the borders and war broke out. The King's nephew, Joseph Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a veteran of the American War of Independence, put up heroic resistance but all hope faded away when Stanislaw Augustus, under pressure from his ministers who could see the writing on the wall, declared his adherence to the Confederation of Targowica (August 1792). Meanwhile the Prussians attacked the Polish armies in the rear. The dismayed Army dispersed; many patriots were forced to flee. In 1793 Russia and Prussia signed the Second Partition Treaty, seizing more than half the country and about four million more of the population. The last Sejm of the Commonwealth, which met at Grodno, was forced to legalise the partition and abolish most of the reforms of the "Great Sejm". Popular discontent led to Insurrection, proclaimed by Kosciuszko on 24 March 1794, followed by victory at Raclawice and Warsaw.

Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (b. nr. Slonim, 12 February 1746. d. Soleure, Switzerland,1817) is one of the giants of Polish history. At an early age Kosciuszko decided to join the military and studied at the Warsaw Cadet School, and in France, engineering and artillery. He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence where he was appointed colonel of engineers in the Continental army (Oct.18 1776). During the southern advance of Burgoyne after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga (1777) he effectively delayed the British thus granting the Americans valuable time to build up their forces and he made important tactical decisions concerning the battle of Saratoga which followed. He was in charge of construction of the fortifications at West Point (1778 - 80) which made full use of the natural terrain and interlocking fields of fire. Kosciuszko proposed the establishment of a technical military school where all officers would be trained in engineering and the sciences which became the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was one of the founders of the Society of Cincinnati. In 1783 the American Congress awarded him citizenship and promoted him to the rank of Brigadier.

During the Russo-Polish War (1792- 93), or the War of the Second Partition, he defended the Bug at Dubienka for five days with only 4000 men against 18,000. After the Second Partition of 1792, following the growing humiliation of the nation by Catherine the Great, in an effort to stop the destruction of Poland, Kosciuszko went to France to propose a league of republics which would oppose the league of sovereigns. The French were vague in their response and Kosciuszko had to return empty-handed. When, on 21 February 1794 the Russians ordered a further reduction of the army and the arrest of suspected subversives, the seeds had been sown for a national uprising. Finding that Polish officers were already in the act of revolting against the limitation of the army to 15,000 men, his hand forced, Kosciuszko arrived in Krakow on 23rd March, proclaimed the Act of Insurrection on the 24th with his famous oath in the Rynek;

"I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swear in the sight of God to the whole Polish nation that I will use the power entrusted to me for the personal oppression of none, but will only use it for the defence of the integrity of the boundaries, the regaining of the independence of the nation, and the solid establishment of universal freedom. So help me God and the Innocent Passion of His Son."

and was appointed dictator and commander-in-chief. His army of peasants defeated a greatly superior force of Russians at Raclawice, as a result of which a national insurrection flared up in Lithuania and Warsaw. The red four-cornered caps worn by the Krakow peasants were adopted by the National Cavalry, and later worn by the Polish lancers in Napoleon's army, after which they became traditional wear for lancer units in all European armies. At Szczekociny, on 6 May, Kosciuszko was outnumbered by the Prussians under Frederick William, and defeated, leaving the way open for the occupation of Krakow (which they entered on 15 June). On 7 May his Polanice Manifesto gave freedom to the peasants. The new government's army could not withstand the combined forces of Austria, Prussia and Russia and was annihilated at the bloody battle of Maciejowice, 10 October, where Kosciuszko was seriously wounded and captured. In November, Warsaw was taken by the Russians who slaughtered the population of the suburb, Praga, including women and children. Then, in 1795, the Third Partition wiped what was left of Poland off the map. The King, Stanislaw Augustus, was forced to abdicate and taken captive to St. Petersburg (where he died in 1798).

The Elected Monarchy

With the death of Zygmunt, the last of the Jagiellonians in 1574, there was nobody who could legally convene the Sejm. An "interrex" (Regent), the Archbishop of Gniezno, was appointed by the Senate and a special "Convocational Sejm" was called which decided to let the "szlachta" (nobility) the elect a king in a free election. Prior to his coronation the king-elect had to swear to uphold the Constitution and all "szlachta" privileges. In 1573, Henri de Valois, younger brother to Charles IX of France, was elected king by an overwhelming majority. In May 1574 Charles died suddenly and Henri had become King of France. It was generally agreed that he should hold both crowns and go back to France in the autumn but, in his impatience Henri slipped away early. Affronted, the Poles presented him with the ultimatum of returning by May 1575 or the throne would be declared vacant.

In December, under the influence of Jan Zamoyski, Stefan Batory (b. Szilagysomlyo, Transylvania 1533; d. nr Grodno 1586), Prince of Transylvania (1571 - 76) was elected king of Poland (1575 - 86) by the szlachta (the nobility). Batory was the son of Istvan Bathory, governor of Transylvania for the Habsburg king of Hungary. He won renown as a soldier with John Sigismund Zapolya, prince of the newly independent Transylvania and was elected as Zapolya's successor (1571). As king of Poland, Batory carried out important reforms, encouraged further overseas trade and creating the first regular Polish infantry by conscripting peasants from the Royal estates. He was also the first to employ Cossacks on a regular basis. He overcame the revolt of Danzig (1577), which was given autonomy in its internal affairs (at a price) and in a war with Muscovy (1579 - 82), after a successful campaign and a brilliant victory at Pskov, Batory defeated Ivan the Terrible in the Livonian War (1558 - 83). By the Treaty of Vam Zapolsky, Ivan returned all Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced his claims on Livonia; Livonia joined the Commonwealth and Poland was now recognised as the greatest power in Central Europe and only the Turkish Sultan ruled over more extensive territories. In 1579 he created the University at Wilno. By the 1550s eighty per cent of the world's Jews lived in Poland. Batory gave the Jews their own national assembly drawn from the local self-governing communities (Kahal). In 1583 Batory granted the postal monopoly to Sebastian Montelupi who organised a regular postal system both internally and abroad. After his sudden death, Batory was succeeded, in the 1587 election, by Sigismund (Zygmunt) Vasa, son of John III Vasa of Sweden.

Vasa;

The Vasa were a dynasty of Swedish Kings whose name is derived from the family estate around Uppsala. The founder of the dynasty was Gustav Eriksson Vasa who became, firstly, Regent of Sweden (1521) and then King Gustavus I Vasa (1523 - 60). After the unexpected death of Batory in 1586, there was a major crisis when the pro-Hapsburg Zborowski faction forced through the election of Archduke Maximilian and almost brought the nation to a state of civil war. The great Renaissance politician (and staunch anti-Austrian), Jan Zamoyski confronted Maximilian and held Krakow for the Swedish crown prince, grandson of Gustavus I and son of John III of Sweden, Zygmunt III Vasa (b. Gripsholm, 1566; d. Warsaw,1632), who came to the throne 1587 - 1632. There would eventually be three Vasa Kings and the period would see long rivalry and wars between Poland and Sweden for the control of the Baltic. Under Zygmunt's reign the Polish magnates (great lords) rose to a position of power and would eventually destroy Poland through their greed; he was also in constant struggle with Jan Zamoyski, the Chancellor (1587 - 1605) whose diplomatic and military successes he regarded with suspicion. Zygmunt was forced to work with Zamoyski when he overreached himself in arranging a secret marriage with the Austrian Archduchess Anna (1592) and was subsequently humiliated by the Inquisition Diet of 1592. In the same year he received the Sejm's permission to become King of Sweden but was only crowned (1594) after promising to uphold Swedish Lutheranism.

Returning to Poland, Zygmunt left his uncle, Charles Suderman, as Regent of Sweden. He then decided to move the capital from Krakow to Warsaw (1596), which was closer to Sweden and the junction of all major routes criss-crossing the Commonwealth. When his uncle rose in rebellion Zygmunt invaded Sweden (thus losing any support there was for him amongst the Swedish nobility) only to be defeated at Stangebro (1598). In 1599 the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) dethroned Zygmunt offering the crown to his four-year-old son, Wladyslaw, on condition that he would come to Sweden and accept Lutheranism. Zygmunt refused to accept these conditions and lost the crown of Sweden to his uncle (who was crowned Charles IX, 1604 - 11). Zygmunt never relinquished the throne and his foreign policy was, from that point onwards, directed at regaining the Swedish crown.

From 1605, after the death of Zamoyski, Poland became involved in internal problems as a result of Zygmunt's absolutionist tendencies (the Zebrzydowski rebellion, 1606 - 8) and wars with Sweden (1617 - 29) and the Turks (1620 - 21). During the Swedish War, Gustavus II Adolphus (the son of Charles IX) seized Riga (1621) and almost all of Livonia. The Poles also, inevitably, became involved in the internal "troubles" of Muscovy ("Smuta", 1605 onwards), usually at the request of the boyars, but the events surrounding the short-lived careers of the two "False Dimitris" did not benefit the Republic. In 1610, after a successful military campaign, Zygmunt proposed his own son, Wladyslaw, as candidate to the Muscovite throne but Wladyslaw's refusal to convert to the Orthodox faith led to the driving out of the Poles and the enthroning of the first Romanov (1613). The devastation and loss of life were tremendous and Poland was only saved by a number of outstanding military commanders; Stanislaw Zolkiewski, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Stefan Czarniecki (b. 1599; d. 1665) and Stanislaw Koniecpolski who achieved some great victories (Kluszyn, 1610; Kircholm, 1605; Chocim, 1612).

This was also the period that saw the Republic at its greatest territorial extent and economically the nation was prosperous (but there were also new extremes of wealth and poverty). Religious tolerance was maintained despite Zygmunt's own Catholic fanaticism (his greatest success was the establishment of the Uniates; the union of the greater part of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church with Rome in 1596 ratified at the Synod of Brzesc). The

followers of Fausto Sozzini (Socinius, b. 1539; d. 1604), the Polish Brethren, founded a centre of protestant culture at Rakow (which became known as the Sarmatian Athens), between Kielce and Sandomierz, where they published the Rakowian Catechism (1604), the most well-known statement of Unitarian theology at the time and an important expression of radical thought. When the Hussites suffered the crushing defeat at the battle of White Mountain (1620) many were forced into exile, some making their way to Poland and influencing the Arian movement there. The Jewish community thrived and spread out from the cities into the provinces; but by linking their fortunes with greedy lords through the "arenda" system (whereby an estate would be leased out by an absentee lord to a manager who could exploit it and those who worked it) they exposed themselves to the hatred of the peasantry.

Zygmunt's son, Wladyslaw IV (b. 1595; d. 1648), King 1632 - 1648, served as a youth in the Muscovite campaigns (1610 - 12 and 1617 - 18). On his accession to the throne he fought a war with Muscovy and won a victorious peace (1634). He made a favourable settlement with the Turks (1634) and with Sweden (1635). He was involved in serious disputes with the Sejm and unsuccessfully attempted to establish order in the last years of his reign. For some time the Arian movement had thrived in the climate of religious tolerance that Poland had offered but their own success led to their downfall. In 1641 all Arians were forced to convert or leave the country, resulting in mass exodus. A particular danger came from within when, in 1648, the Cossacks, mainly of Ruthenian and Polish origin, for a variety of reasons but chiefly due to the arrogance of the magnates who were treating the free Cossacks as serfs, broke their oath of allegiance to the Polish King under the instigation of their Hetman, Chmielnicki. Wladyslaw died whilst this revolt was still in force. Wladyslaw travelled widely visiting Florence where he was honoured by the Italian composer, Francesco Caccini who wrote a composition "La Liberazione di Ruggero dell Isola di Alcina" dedicated to him. He corresponded with Galileo, ordering telescopes from him, and modelled for Peter Paul Rubens in his studio in Antwerp.

Wladyslaw's son, Jan II Kazimierz (b. 1609; d. 1672), was a Jesuit and Cardinal (1640) and had to be absolved of his religious vows by the Pope in order to be able to take on his duties as King 1648 - 1668. In the continued revolt of the Cossacks, Chmielnicki used the Ukraine as a pawn between the powers of Poland, Muscovy and Turkey which resulted in further wars, with the Tartars (1649), and a disastrous 13 - year war with Muscovy (1654 - 67). Janusz Radziwill, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, defeated by Tsar Alexei of Muscovy during Chmielnicki's revolt (1654), appealed for help from Charles X Gustavus of Sweden, himself fearful of Muscovite expansion. He invaded Poland in 1655. This period in which the Republic was inundated by enemy forces, and the chaos that accompanied it, became known as the "Deluge" ("Potop"). The collapse of Polish resistance led to the desertion of many Polish officers and szlachta (the nobility) from Jan Kazimierz to Charles. In October Radziwill signed an agreement at Kiejdany which detached Lithuania from Poland, placing it under the protection of Sweden. In the following guerrilla war, where Polish forces were supported by Tartars fearful of the further expansion of Muscovy into the vacuum caused by the war with Sweden, and Danish and Dutch fleets came to the defence of Gdansk, it is the defence of Czestochowa, at the monastery of Jasna Gora, (1655), Poland's most sacred shrine containing the picture of the Virgin Mary (the "Black Madonna"), by a small force led by Prior Kordecki and his monks against a besieging army of 9,000 Swedes, that actually changed the course of the war and became a signal for a general uprising that resulted in the eventual expulsion of the Swedes from the Republic. In 1658, at Hadziacz, an agreement between the King and the new Cossack Hetman, Wyhowski, was to enable Ruthenia to join the Commonwealth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania but a further Cossack rebellion

(1659) instigated by Muscovy (herself attempting to annex the Ukraine) and Polish involvement in war with Sweden (1655 - 60), meant that the agreement bore no fruit and in 1667, by the treaty of Andruszowo, the Ukraine was divided evenly along the Dnieper between the Commonwealth and Muscovy. For the Polish Commonwealth this was a disaster since it weakened an important frontier area and left a discontented people open to manipulation by Poland's enemies.

The general decline was especially noticed in the Sejm; the parliamentary system grew awkward and ineffective as deputies used the notorious "Liberum Veto", which allowed any deputy to prevent legislation since all resolutions had to be carried unanimously. The idea of consensus rule was, in principle, a good one but the "Liberum Veto" was first used in a manner that destroyed the working of the Sejm, in 1652, by a Jan Sicinski on the orders of Janusz Radziwill. It soon became obvious to Poland's neighbours that the veto could be used to their own political ends and they soon clubbed together to "defend Polish freedoms". The szlachta, themselves, becoming less influential as they lost their military valour and, in many cases, impoverished, saw the veto as the last symbol of their ability to play a role in the running of the Commonwealth.

This was also a period of great rivalry and suspicion between the pro-Bourbon factions (led by the Queen, Louise-Marie) and the pro-Habsburg szlachta (many of whom were in the pockets of Vienna. The need for reform had become obvious and the Jesuit preacher, Piotr Skarga, had blamed social injustice as the main cause of evil. The final indignity came when, as a direct result of attempting to introduce reforms that would modernise the state, Jerzy Lubomirski, the Grand Marshal, rebelled against the King. The royal faction was defeated at the battle of Matwy (1666) but not long afterwards Lubomirski came and begged for a pardon which was granted; the whole farce had merely served to damage the prestige of the crown. Shortly after his chief support, Queen Louise-Marie, died (1667) Jan Kazimierz took refuge in Silesia, resigned as King (1668) and retired to France as Abbe de Saint-Germain. The farcical elections that followed led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki.

Wisniowiecki;

The Wisnioweckis were a noble Ukrainian family. During the early 1500s the idea of hiring the Cossacks to guard the Dnieper crossings by building fortresses on its islands was proposed but never developed, it was Dmitri (d.1563), a magnate from Southern Volhynia who independently founded the first Cossack fortress, Niz, at Chortyca, out of which grew the Sicz of Zaporoze. After a failed attempt to involve Poland-Lithuania in a war against the Tartars, he became heavily involved in Moldavian affairs only to be betrayed to the Turks and executed for piracy. Dmitri is credited with being the first to create a stable organisation for the Cossacks and for putting the Cossack-Ukrainian cause on the map. His son signed the Union of Lublin and his grandson led a notorious expedition to Moldavia (1616). His great-grandson was Prince Jarema (b. 1612; d. 1651), Voivode of Ruthenia and chief enemy of Chmielnicki.

The farcical elections that followed the resignation of Jan II Kazimierz, the last of the Vasas (1668), led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity, the favourite of the szlachta (the nobility) suspicious of foreigners and seeking a "new Piast", despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Jarema's son, Michal Korybut (b. 1640; d. 1673), king (1669 - 1673); he proved to be a weak monarch unable to control the magnates who nicknamed him "le Singe". In 1672

the Turkish invasion of Podolia led to the fall of the fortress of Kamieniec Podolsk and, with the country in a state of chaos, the Poles sued for peace; at the Treaty of Buczacz the Poles lost what was left of Podolia and the Ukraine and had to pay a humiliating annual tribute. Michal Korybut died suddenly whilst a new invasion was in force, on the eve of Chocim; he was succeeded by the victor of that battle, Jan Sobieski.

Sobieski, Jan III (b. Olesko, nr. Lwow, 1674; d. 1696) the son of Jakub Sobieski, the Castellan of Krakow and Voivode of Ruthenia, Jan Sobieski was educated in Krakow. A great military leader, Sobieski entered military service in 1648, seeing action against both the Tartars and Cossacks (1651 - 52) and Swedes under Lubomirski and Czarniecki, although, along with many other officers who had deserted the royal cause in the dark days of the Deluge, he had briefly accepted a commission under Swedish King, Charles X (1655 - 56). He was first entered the Sejm in 1659. Sobieski was appointed Commander - in - Chief of the Polish Army (1665) and Grand Hetman in 1668. Besieged by an army of Cossacks and Tartars at Podhajce he raised 8000 men at his own expense and forced the enemy to retire. Later, when the Turks seized the fortress of Kamieniec (1672), Sobieski beat the Turkish forces back and virtually annihilated them at Chocim (1673), earning from them the nickname of the "Fearful Lion of the North". He was elected King a few months later (1674 - 96). The climax of his career came in 1683 when, with 20,000 Polish troops he relieved the Turkish siege of Vienna. Unable to break into Europe through Poland, the Turks had invaded Hungary and Austria in 1683 and swept all before them. 130,000 Turks besieged Vienna and threatened to overpower Europe. Sobieski, at the request of the Pope, marched on Vienna through rugged mountain passes and sent the Husaria into their last great charge, taking the Turks unawares. It was a turning point in history. Combined with the Imperial Army, he drove the Turks back to the Raab. He was acclaimed as the hero of Christendom - Jan Matejko's painting of "Sobieski at Vienna" hangs in the Vatican. His later years were a failure, unable to overturn the political decline of Poland; he was unable to solve Poland's problems on the Baltic or on the eastern frontier because the long years of campaigning and wars had drained her resources and, in 1686, in an unbelievably naive move, the Grzymultowski Peace literally gave away the entire Ukraine and transformed "Muscovy" into "Russia" - enabling her to emerge as the major power in Eastern Europe. He was a patron of science and literature and his marvellous palace at Wilanow, on the outskirts of Warsaw reflect his domestic grandeur. The elections after the death of Sobieski were contentious; his son, Jakub (b. 1667; d. 1737), was forced to withdraw for lack of funds, and the French candidate was cheated of victory by bribery and corruption so that the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus was elected king, Augustus II. It would be the beginning of the end. Sobieski's granddaughter, Clementina (b. 1702; d.1735), married James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender"; their son was Charles Edward Louis Philip Kazimierz, the "young Pretender" - "Bonny Prince Charlie".

Wettin;

The Wettins were a German dynasty that was active, in the Tenth century, in pushing Germany's eastern frontier into Slav lands. By c.1100 they had acquired the Margrave of Meissen and extended their rule over Thuringia and Saxony. In 1485 the dynasty divided into the Ernestine and Albertine branches. The Albertines became the Electors of Saxony (1547) and provided two kings of Poland, Augustus II and Augustus III. The sixty-six years of Saxon rule, from 1697 - 1763, were a national disaster and drove the country to the brink of anarchy. The causes are twofold: firstly, from the outset the Saxon kings fell into a partnership with Russia in which they became more and more dependent on the support of the stronger partner;

secondly, The Republic, which had been severely weakened by the period of warfare and internal strife of the seventeenth century, was reduced to the state of a helpless bystander in the wars of the eighteenth. The nation was further undermined as the powerful land-owning magnates began to look to the preservation their own self-interests in whatever manner they could, whilst the less powerful szlachta attempted to hang on to the only power they held - their traditional rights - even at the expense of important reforms. The Republic had no standing army, it was a citizen army with only a small core of professionals. Whilst Sobieski had carried out important reforms which had significantly improved the army's tactical and technological stature there was a heavy reliance on foreign infantry and there was no centralised funding. There was, also, internal resistance to the idea of a regular army which could be used by an autocratic ruler to restrict personal liberties (as in Prussia, for example). Poland also became sandwiched between two rising powers; Russia, ruled by Peter the Great, and Prussia which the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III, was to declare a kingdom in 1701.

The Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus (b. Dresden, 1670; d. 1733), who had unsuccessfully commanded the imperial Army against the Turks (1695 - 96), converted to Catholicism (the Republic was "worth a mass") and was elected king Augustus II of Poland in 1697 after a contentious election which, in many ways, reflected the disintegration of the nation. His reign started auspiciously with the treaty of Karlowicz by which the former provinces of Podolia and the Ukraine, including the important fortress of Kamieniec, were restored to Poland by the Turks (1699). In the mistaken belief that Sweden was in decline and with the intention of acquiring Livonia for Saxony, Augustus entered into a disastrous three-way alliance with Frederick IV of Denmark and Peter I the Great of Russia (1672 - 1725) that would eventually embroil Poland in the Great Northern War (1700-21). Although the Sejm refused to support him, Augustus invaded Livonia and laid siege to Riga. The Swedish king, Charles XII (the "Lion of the North", 1682 - 1718) defeated the Danes who had invaded Schleswig (1700), destroyed the Russian Army at Narva (November 1700) and raised the siege of Riga (1701). Charles then invaded Poland with the intention of deposing Augustus from the Polish throne as a punishment for his central role in the anti-Swedish alliance. He seized Warsaw and defeated Augustus at Kliszow (where the Polish Army, having failed in two charges against the Swedish infantry, refused to fight on, 1702) and Pultusk (1703). Charles XII then imposed his candidate, Stanislaw Leszczynski (1704 - 09), on the Polish throne.

The Leszczynskis were a noble Polish family which played a prominent part during the 16th. to 18th. centuries. The general, Rafael Leszczynski, was the father of Stanislaw I Leszczynski (b. Lwow, 1677; d. 1766), king of Poland (1704 - 09, and 1733 - 35). When Augustus II of Saxony and Poland allied himself with Russia (1700 - 1721) against Sweden in the Great Northern War, Leszczynski, the Voivode of Poznan, proved to be a staunch opponent and gained the support of Charles XII of Sweden. In 1704 Sweden won, Augustus was removed and Leszczynski was elected in his place. In 1709 the Russians defeated the Swedes at Poltava and Augustus was returned to the throne. Leszczynski settled in Alsace (1709) and, later, became governor of Zweibruken in the Palatinate (1718 - 25). In 1725, his daughter, Maria (b. Wroclaw, 1703; d. 1768), married Louis XV of France who ensured that, on Augustus' death, in 1733, Leszczynski was again elected King. The War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) followed, Stanislaw was supported by France and Spain, while Austria and Russia supported Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony, Augustus II's son. Leszczynski was besieged at Danzig, receiving only moral support from France, while his rival received full military aid from Russia. Inevitably, he was obliged to flee from Danzig (1734) and accept the

terms of the Treaty of Vienna (1735) by which he kept the royal title but renounced his actual rights in favour of Frederick Augustus. Leszczynski was awarded the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar (1737) by Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor, in exchange for Tuscany and also received a pension from France. He maintained court at Luneville and Nancy which was a model of the Enlightenment. Leszczynski corresponded with the finest thinkers of his time, most notably with Rousseau who, on his request, drafted a new constitution for Poland. He wrote the influential reforming tract, "A Free Voice Insuring Freedom" (1749), and "Oeuvres du Philosophe Bienfaisant" (published 1767).

The unconstitutional manner of Leszczynski's election (where a hastily thrown together Sejm had been surrounded by armed Swedish troops ready to enforce Charles' will) divided the country into pro-Leszczynski and pro-Augustus camps; the Northern War had now, for the Poles, become a civil war. An attempt by Augustus to regain Poland was stopped at Fraustadt (February 1706). Charles XII invaded Saxony in August 1706 and seized Leipzig; Augustus sued for peace and abdicated the throne of Poland (Treaty of Altranstadt, 1706). Augustus was restored after the Swedish invasion of Russia failed at the battle of Poltava (1709) - in which an important role was played by Polish peasants harassing the Swedish columns, and the pro-Saxon Confederates of Sandomierz who prevented reinforcements from reaching the Swedes. By the end of this war Russia was able to interfere freely in the internal affairs of the nation. Augustus maintained a Saxon Army in Poland which reinforced the Polish view that he was intending to turn the Polish throne into that of an absolute monarch. Conflict between Augustus and the Sejm almost ended in civil war with the setting up of the Confederation of Tarnogrod (1715), only prevented by a Russian offer of mediation; 18,000 Russian troops surrounded the chamber where the deputies met, they were denied the right to speak whilst the Russian "mediator" dictated the Russian " solution". This Sejm became known as the "Dumb Sejm" and the Republic became little more than a Russian client state; a "Protectorate".

The emasculation of both Augustus and the Sejm lead to the dissipation of power into the hands of a small group of magnates who ruled their own lands as princes making independent political alliances depending on the state of their finances or interests; "a state within the state". The army had virtually disappeared as a fighting force; morale had collapsed, technical proficiency declined, corruption was rife, nobles absented themselves from duty or preferred to serve the magnates: all this at a time when the Republic's neighbours were undergoing massive militarisation. In the Northern War Russia seized Livonia and began to dominate the Baltic; Augustus, awake to the Russian threat, entered into an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, and England (who both had their own reasons to be wary of the sudden rise of Russia) to cast off Russian interference in Poland (Vienna, 1719) but the Sejm rejected the treaty (1720), at which point Augustus condemned their shameful weakness. Now Augustus attempted to establish another treaty with Prussia aimed directly at the partition of Poland - but nothing came of this for Russia made a secret pact with Prussia at Potsdam (1720) to maintain the paralysis of law and order within Poland by protecting Polish "rights" such as the Liberum Veto.

It was in this period that intolerance towards religious dissidents was intensified and perhaps the lowest point in the history of the Republic came in 1724 when the mayor of Torun and nine other Protestants were executed because they had failed to prevent anti-Jesuit excesses. The English protested at this outrage and, when Poland was partitioned (1772), the image of a bigoted and intolerant nation put aside any feelings of sympathy that there might have been. The Russo-Prussian alliance of 1730 went so far as to pledge to protect religious minorities

and to secure their former privileges (despite the fact that these two states refused to offer similar rights to their own religious minorities). The Convocation Sejm of 1733 was to bring Poland into line with the rest of Europe with its ending of religious freedoms and debarring of non-Catholics from holding office or acting as representatives in the Sejm; a move that was to have its repercussions in 1766 when Russia and Prussia would use their pledges to protect the rights of dissidents as an excuse to prevent reform and a revival of the Polish state.

Augustus was a patron of the arts, greatly embellishing his capital, Dresden, and created the Meissen china industry. He is also known as Augustus the Strong but this is more in reference to his numerous affairs and his prodigious number of, largely illegitimate, offspring.

On Augustus' death, in 1733, the French candidate, Leszczynski, was again elected King; this sparked off the War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) during which Polish resistance, the Confederation of Dzikow under the leadership of Adam Tarlo, was crushed by combined Prussian and Russian armies. The Russians sent in an army and reran the election; their candidate, Augustus' son, Frederik Augustus II (b. Dresden, 1696; d. 1763) was elected king, Augustus III, in 1734. Augustus spent his reign almost exclusively in Dresden, only fleeing to Poland when the Prussians occupied Saxony during the Seven Years War; Poland was ruled by his adviser Bruhl and son-in-law, Mniszech. He supported Prussia in the first Silesian War (1740 - 42) but sided with Austria in the second Silesian War (1744 - 45), was defeated and forced to pay indemnity. The Electorate of Saxony was occupied by Prussia during the Seven Years War - the third Silesian War (1756 - 63); during this war, by which Prussia gained Silesia, Poland's neutrality was ignored and she became a staging area for the deployment of the combatants. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia recouped his war costs by flooding Poland with counterfeit money and imposing illegal tolls on the Wisla. Prussia and Russia continued to renew their alliances by which Poland would be kept weakened. At Augustus' death, the Russians forced the election of Stanislaw Poniatowski, destined to become the last King of Poland.

Poniatowski;

The Poniatowskis were a noble family of Italian origin including; Stanislaw (b. 1676; d. 1762), a general and diplomat who joined Charles XII of Sweden in support of Stanislaw Leszczynski, and fought at Poltava (1709). He represented Charles at the Porte. Stanislaw was the brother-in-law of Michal and August Czartoryski and formed part of that powerful group aiming at reform, "the Family". His son, Stanislaw II Augustus (b. Wolczyn, 1732; d. St. Petersburg, 1798), was a refined man who, after his education, spent a great deal of time in the West, mainly Paris and London. He was sent to St. Petersburg (1757) to gain support for the proposed overthrow of Augustus III but succeeded instead in becoming a lover of the future Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. On the death of Augustus III, Catherine used her influence to ensure that Stanislaw Augustus became King (1764 - 1795); Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland.

On acceding to the throne Stanislaw Augustus attempted to show that he was no puppet by setting up a range of commissions and ministries aimed at improving the process of government, carrying out financial and educational reforms and establishing a military school (the Szkola Rycerska); it was obvious that a Polish revival was under way. At this point Prussia and Russia raised the whole issue of the rights of Lutheran and Orthodox dissidents knowing that this would stir up trouble (1766). The issue was discussed in the Sejm in chaotic conditions, the Papal Nuncio protested and the proposed changes were rejected. As a result

two Confederations were formed, that of the Protestants at Thorn and the Orthodox dissidents at Slupsk strongly supported by Russian troops. More significantly the Confederation of Radom (1767) was formed by a number of Catholic szlachta who had been skilfully manipulated by Russian diplomats. Now a treaty was imposed on Poland and forced through the Sejm (1768), which hypocritically protected the rights of the szlachta to elect the king and maintain the "Liberum Veto" - thus using these ancient privileges as a means to make the state impotent. A number of representatives of the Sejm who opposed Russian demands were arrested and deported to Kaluga in Russia. A large number of the szlachta, disgusted at this turn of events, revolted by setting up the Confederation of Bar (1768 - 72). Russian attempts to put the rising down were hindered by having to repress a peasant uprising in the Polish Ukraine, and by the Ottoman Turks who declared war on Russia (1768). After four years struggle, during which Stanislaw Augustus was actually kidnapped by some of the Bar Confederates (though he managed to escape in the bungled affair), the rising was eventually crushed and over 5000 captured szlachta were sent to Siberia; among the few who escaped was Kazimierz Pulaski who was to play an important role in the United States' struggle for independence.

The campaigns of 1768 - 72 so devastated Poland and weakened the government that the nation was unable to put up any meaningful resistance when Prussia, Russia and Austria agreed to annex parts of Poland in 1772. The Commonwealth lost 224,173.5 sq.km (29.5%) of her former territory and 4,020,000 of her population (a reduction by 35.2%): Prussia took the smallest, but economically best, area (5%) - cutting Poland off from the Baltic - and severed its feudal dependence on the Polish Crown; Austria took the most heavily populated areas (11.8%), whilst Russia took the largest, but least important (12.7%). To give the crime some legality the Sejm was forced to ratify the partition in 1773, despite the resistance of some Deputies, led by Tadeusz Rejtan. Amazingly some of the szlachta saw partition as a plot between Poniatowski and the Russians in order to introduce an absolute monarchy into Poland.

Despite the disaster of this first partition, Poland underwent a national revival in 1773, thanks to the efforts of Stanislaw Augustus. The first step was the creation of the "Komisija Edukacji Narodowej" ("Committee of National Education"), the first Ministry of Education in Europe; hundreds of schools were founded and the standard of education was raised. Writers, poets, artists and scholars were encouraged by the King and the ideas of the Enlightenment were taking hold. This was the period of Naruszewicz, Krasicki, Boguslawski, and Karpinski. Taking advantage of Russia's involvement in a war against Turkey, the King launched a reform programme (1788-1792) and the task was carried out by the "Four-Year" or "Great Sejm" which established a new Constitution; the Constitution of the Third of May, 1791, in which the "Liberum Veto" was abolished, majority rule introduced, and personal freedoms guaranteed to all the people. The Constitution was hailed in the United States, England and France, but was seen as a threat to the absolute rulers of Prussia, Austria and, especially, Russia. In 1792, at Russia's instigation, a handful of magnates led by Ksawery Branicki, Szczesny Potocki and Seweryn Rzewuski betrayed the Commonwealth and formed the Confederation of Targowica against the new Constitution and then "asked" for help. Russian troops crossed the borders and war broke out. The King's nephew, Joseph Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a veteran of the American War of Independence, put up heroic resistance but all hope faded away when Stanislaw Augustus, under pressure from his ministers who could see the writing on the wall, declared his adherence to the Confederation of Targowica (August 1792). Meanwhile the Prussians attacked the Polish armies in the rear. The dismayed Army dispersed; many patriots were forced to flee. In 1793 Russia and Prussia

signed the Second Partition Treaty, seizing more than half the country and about four million more of the population. The last Sejm of the Commonwealth, which met at Grodno, was forced to legalise the partition and abolish most of the reforms of the "Great Sejm". Popular discontent led to Insurrection, proclaimed by Kosciuszko on 24 March 1794, followed by victory at Raclawice and Warsaw.

Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (b. nr. Slonim, 12 February 1746. d. Soleure, Switzerland,1817) is one of the giants of Polish history. At an early age Kosciuszko decided to join the military and studied at the Warsaw Cadet School, and in France, engineering and artillery. He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence where he was appointed colonel of engineers in the Continental army (Oct.18 1776). During the southern advance of Burgoyne after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga (1777) he effectively delayed the British thus granting the Americans valuable time to build up their forces and he made important tactical decisions concerning the battle of Saratoga which followed. He was in charge of construction of the fortifications at West Point (1778 - 80) which made full use of the natural terrain and interlocking fields of fire. Kosciuszko proposed the establishment of a technical military school where all officers would be trained in engineering and the sciences which became the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was one of the founders of the Society of Cincinnati. In 1783 the American Congress awarded him citizenship and promoted him to the rank of Brigadier.

During the Russo-Polish War (1792- 93), or the War of the Second Partition, he defended the Bug at Dubienka for five days with only 4000 men against 18,000. After the Second Partition of 1792, following the growing humiliation of the nation by Catherine the Great, in an effort to stop the destruction of Poland, Kosciuszko went to France to propose a league of republics which would oppose the league of sovereigns. The French were vague in their response and Kosciuszko had to return empty-handed. When, on 21 February 1794 the Russians ordered a further reduction of the army and the arrest of suspected subversives, the seeds had been sown for a national uprising. Finding that Polish officers were already in the act of revolting against the limitation of the army to 15,000 men, his hand forced, Kosciuszko arrived in Krakow on 23rd March, proclaimed the Act of Insurrection on the 24th with his famous oath in the Rynek;

"I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swear in the sight of God to the whole Polish nation that I will use the power entrusted to me for the personal oppression of none, but will only use it for the defence of the integrity of the boundaries, the regaining of the independence of the nation, and the solid establishment of universal freedom. So help me God and the Innocent Passion of His Son."

and was appointed dictator and commander-in-chief. His army of peasants defeated a greatly superior force of Russians at Raclawice, as a result of which a national insurrection flared up in Lithuania and Warsaw. The red four-cornered caps worn by the Krakow peasants were adopted by the National Cavalry, and later worn by the Polish lancers in Napoleon's army, after which they became traditional wear for lancer units in all European armies. At Szczekociny, on 6 May, Kosciuszko was outnumbered by the Prussians under Frederick William, and defeated, leaving the way open for the occupation of Krakow (which they entered on 15 June). On 7 May his Polanice Manifesto gave freedom to the peasants. The new government's army could not withstand the combined forces of Austria, Prussia and Russia and was annihilated at the bloody battle of Maciejowice, 10 October, where Kosciuszko was seriously wounded and captured. In November, Warsaw was taken by the Russians who

slaughtered the population of the suburb, Praga, including women and children. Then, in 1795, the Third Partition wiped what was left of Poland off the map. The King, Stanislaw Augustus, was forced to abdicate and taken captive to St. Petersburg (where he died in 1798).

The Elected Monarchy

With the death of Zygmunt, the last of the Jagiellonians in 1574, there was nobody who could legally convene the Sejm. An "interrex" (Regent), the Archbishop of Gniezno, was appointed by the Senate and a special "Convocational Sejm" was called which decided to let the "szlachta" (nobility) the elect a king in a free election. Prior to his coronation the king-elect had to swear to uphold the Constitution and all "szlachta" privileges. In 1573, Henri de Valois, younger brother to Charles IX of France, was elected king by an overwhelming majority. In May 1574 Charles died suddenly and Henri had become King of France. It was generally agreed that he should hold both crowns and go back to France in the autumn but, in his impatience Henri slipped away early. Affronted, the Poles presented him with the ultimatum of returning by May 1575 or the throne would be declared vacant.

In December, under the influence of Jan Zamoyski, Stefan Batory (b. Szilagysomlyo, Transylvania 1533; d. nr Grodno 1586), Prince of Transylvania (1571 - 76) was elected king of Poland (1575 - 86) by the szlachta (the nobility). Batory was the son of Istvan Bathory, governor of Transylvania for the Habsburg king of Hungary. He won renown as a soldier with John Sigismund Zapolya, prince of the newly independent Transylvania and was elected as Zapolya's successor (1571). As king of Poland, Batory carried out important reforms, encouraged further overseas trade and creating the first regular Polish infantry by conscripting peasants from the Royal estates. He was also the first to employ Cossacks on a regular basis. He overcame the revolt of Danzig (1577), which was given autonomy in its internal affairs (at a price) and in a war with Muscovy (1579 - 82), after a successful campaign and a brilliant victory at Pskov, Batory defeated Ivan the Terrible in the Livonian War (1558 - 83). By the Treaty of Vam Zapolsky, Ivan returned all Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced his claims on Livonia; Livonia joined the Commonwealth and Poland was now recognised as the greatest power in Central Europe and only the Turkish Sultan ruled over more extensive territories. In 1579 he created the University at Wilno. By the 1550s eighty per cent of the world's Jews lived in Poland. Batory gave the Jews their own national assembly drawn from the local self-governing communities (Kahal). In 1583 Batory granted the postal monopoly to Sebastian Montelupi who organised a regular postal system both internally and abroad. After his sudden death, Batory was succeeded, in the 1587 election, by Sigismund (Zygmunt) Vasa, son of John III Vasa of Sweden.

Vasa;

The Vasa were a dynasty of Swedish Kings whose name is derived from the family estate around Uppsala. The founder of the dynasty was Gustav Eriksson Vasa who became, firstly, Regent of Sweden (1521) and then King Gustavus I Vasa (1523 - 60). After the unexpected death of Batory in 1586, there was a major crisis when the pro-Hapsburg Zborowski faction forced through the election of Archduke Maximilian and almost brought the nation to a state of civil war. The great Renaissance politician (and staunch anti-Austrian), Jan Zamoyski confronted Maximilian and held Krakow for the Swedish crown prince, grandson of Gustavus I and son of John III of Sweden, Zygmunt III Vasa (b. Gripsholm, 1566; d. Warsaw,1632),

who came to the throne 1587 - 1632. There would eventually be three Vasa Kings and the period would see long rivalry and wars between Poland and Sweden for the control of the Baltic. Under Zygmunt's reign the Polish magnates (great lords) rose to a position of power and would eventually destroy Poland through their greed; he was also in constant struggle with Jan Zamoyski, the Chancellor (1587 - 1605) whose diplomatic and military successes he regarded with suspicion. Zygmunt was forced to work with Zamoyski when he overreached himself in arranging a secret marriage with the Austrian Archduchess Anna (1592) and was subsequently humiliated by the Inquisition Diet of 1592. In the same year he received the Sejm's permission to become King of Sweden but was only crowned (1594) after promising to uphold Swedish Lutheranism.

Returning to Poland, Zygmunt left his uncle, Charles Suderman, as Regent of Sweden. He then decided to move the capital from Krakow to Warsaw (1596), which was closer to Sweden and the junction of all major routes criss-crossing the Commonwealth. When his uncle rose in rebellion Zygmunt invaded Sweden (thus losing any support there was for him amongst the Swedish nobility) only to be defeated at Stangebro (1598). In 1599 the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) dethroned Zygmunt offering the crown to his four-year-old son, Wladyslaw, on condition that he would come to Sweden and accept Lutheranism. Zygmunt refused to accept these conditions and lost the crown of Sweden to his uncle (who was crowned Charles IX, 1604 - 11). Zygmunt never relinquished the throne and his foreign policy was, from that point onwards, directed at regaining the Swedish crown.

From 1605, after the death of Zamoyski, Poland became involved in internal problems as a result of Zygmunt's absolutionist tendencies (the Zebrzydowski rebellion, 1606 - 8) and wars with Sweden (1617 - 29) and the Turks (1620 - 21). During the Swedish War, Gustavus II Adolphus (the son of Charles IX) seized Riga (1621) and almost all of Livonia. The Poles also, inevitably, became involved in the internal "troubles" of Muscovy ("Smuta", 1605 onwards), usually at the request of the boyars, but the events surrounding the short-lived careers of the two "False Dimitris" did not benefit the Republic. In 1610, after a successful military campaign, Zygmunt proposed his own son, Wladyslaw, as candidate to the Muscovite throne but Wladyslaw's refusal to convert to the Orthodox faith led to the driving out of the Poles and the enthroning of the first Romanov (1613). The devastation and loss of life were tremendous and Poland was only saved by a number of outstanding military commanders; Stanislaw Zolkiewski, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Stefan Czarniecki (b. 1599; d. 1665) and Stanislaw Koniecpolski who achieved some great victories (Kluszyn, 1610; Kircholm, 1605; Chocim, 1612).

This was also the period that saw the Republic at its greatest territorial extent and economically the nation was prosperous (but there were also new extremes of wealth and poverty). Religious tolerance was maintained despite Zygmunt's own Catholic fanaticism (his greatest success was the establishment of the Uniates; the union of the greater part of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church with Rome in 1596 ratified at the Synod of Brzesc). The followers of Fausto Sozzini (Socinius, b. 1539; d. 1604), the Polish Brethren, founded a centre of protestant culture at Rakow (which became known as the Sarmatian Athens), between Kielce and Sandomierz, where they published the Rakowian Catechism (1604), the most well-known statement of Unitarian theology at the time and an important expression of radical thought. When the Hussites suffered the crushing defeat at the battle of White Mountain (1620) many were forced into exile, some making their way to Poland and influencing the Arian movement there. The Jewish community thrived and spread out from the cities into the provinces; but by linking their fortunes with greedy lords through the "arenda" system

(whereby an estate would be leased out by an absentee lord to a manager who could exploit it and those who worked it) they exposed themselves to the hatred of the peasantry.

Zygmunt's son, Wladyslaw IV (b. 1595; d. 1648), King 1632 - 1648, served as a youth in the Muscovite campaigns (1610 - 12 and 1617 - 18). On his accession to the throne he fought a war with Muscovy and won a victorious peace (1634). He made a favourable settlement with the Turks (1634) and with Sweden (1635). He was involved in serious disputes with the Sejm and unsuccessfully attempted to establish order in the last years of his reign. For some time the Arian movement had thrived in the climate of religious tolerance that Poland had offered but their own success led to their downfall. In 1641 all Arians were forced to convert or leave the country, resulting in mass exodus. A particular danger came from within when, in 1648, the Cossacks, mainly of Ruthenian and Polish origin, for a variety of reasons but chiefly due to the arrogance of the magnates who were treating the free Cossacks as serfs, broke their oath of allegiance to the Polish King under the instigation of their Hetman, Chmielnicki. Wladyslaw died whilst this revolt was still in force. Wladyslaw travelled widely visiting Florence where he was honoured by the Italian composer, Francesco Caccini who wrote a composition "La Liberazione di Ruggero dell Isola di Alcina" dedicated to him. He corresponded with Galileo, ordering telescopes from him, and modelled for Peter Paul Rubens in his studio in Antwerp.

Wladyslaw's son, Jan II Kazimierz (b. 1609; d. 1672), was a Jesuit and Cardinal (1640) and had to be absolved of his religious vows by the Pope in order to be able to take on his duties as King 1648 - 1668. In the continued revolt of the Cossacks, Chmielnicki used the Ukraine as a pawn between the powers of Poland, Muscovy and Turkey which resulted in further wars, with the Tartars (1649), and a disastrous 13 - year war with Muscovy (1654 - 67). Janusz Radziwill, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, defeated by Tsar Alexei of Muscovy during Chmielnicki's revolt (1654), appealed for help from Charles X Gustavus of Sweden, himself fearful of Muscovite expansion. He invaded Poland in 1655. This period in which the Republic was inundated by enemy forces, and the chaos that accompanied it, became known as the "Deluge" ("Potop"). The collapse of Polish resistance led to the desertion of many Polish officers and szlachta (the nobility) from Jan Kazimierz to Charles. In October Radziwill signed an agreement at Kiejdany which detached Lithuania from Poland, placing it under the protection of Sweden. In the following guerrilla war, where Polish forces were supported by Tartars fearful of the further expansion of Muscovy into the vacuum caused by the war with Sweden, and Danish and Dutch fleets came to the defence of Gdansk, it is the defence of Czestochowa, at the monastery of Jasna Gora, (1655), Poland's most sacred shrine containing the picture of the Virgin Mary (the "Black Madonna"), by a small force led by Prior Kordecki and his monks against a besieging army of 9,000 Swedes, that actually changed the course of the war and became a signal for a general uprising that resulted in the eventual expulsion of the Swedes from the Republic. In 1658, at Hadziacz, an agreement between the King and the new Cossack Hetman, Wyhowski, was to enable Ruthenia to join the Commonwealth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania but a further Cossack rebellion (1659) instigated by Muscovy (herself attempting to annex the Ukraine) and Polish involvement in war with Sweden (1655 - 60), meant that the agreement bore no fruit and in 1667, by the treaty of Andruszowo, the Ukraine was divided evenly along the Dnieper between the Commonwealth and Muscovy. For the Polish Commonwealth this was a disaster since it weakened an important frontier area and left a discontented people open to manipulation by Poland's enemies.

The general decline was especially noticed in the Sejm; the parliamentary system grew awkward and ineffective as deputies used the notorious "Liberum Veto", which allowed any deputy to prevent legislation since all resolutions had to be carried unanimously. The idea of consensus rule was, in principle, a good one but the "Liberum Veto" was first used in a manner that destroyed the working of the Sejm, in 1652, by a Jan Sicinski on the orders of Janusz Radziwill. It soon became obvious to Poland's neighbours that the veto could be used to their own political ends and they soon clubbed together to "defend Polish freedoms". The szlachta, themselves, becoming less influential as they lost their military valour and, in many cases, impoverished, saw the veto as the last symbol of their ability to play a role in the running of the Commonwealth.

This was also a period of great rivalry and suspicion between the pro-Bourbon factions (led by the Queen, Louise-Marie) and the pro-Habsburg szlachta (many of whom were in the pockets of Vienna. The need for reform had become obvious and the Jesuit preacher, Piotr Skarga, had blamed social injustice as the main cause of evil. The final indignity came when, as a direct result of attempting to introduce reforms that would modernise the state, Jerzy Lubomirski, the Grand Marshal, rebelled against the King. The royal faction was defeated at the battle of Matwy (1666) but not long afterwards Lubomirski came and begged for a pardon which was granted; the whole farce had merely served to damage the prestige of the crown. Shortly after his chief support, Queen Louise-Marie, died (1667) Jan Kazimierz took refuge in Silesia, resigned as King (1668) and retired to France as Abbe de Saint-Germain. The farcical elections that followed led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki.

Wisniowiecki;

The Wisnioweckis were a noble Ukrainian family. During the early 1500s the idea of hiring the Cossacks to guard the Dnieper crossings by building fortresses on its islands was proposed but never developed, it was Dmitri (d.1563), a magnate from Southern Volhynia who independently founded the first Cossack fortress, Niz, at Chortyca, out of which grew the Sicz of Zaporoze. After a failed attempt to involve Poland-Lithuania in a war against the Tartars, he became heavily involved in Moldavian affairs only to be betrayed to the Turks and executed for piracy. Dmitri is credited with being the first to create a stable organisation for the Cossacks and for putting the Cossack-Ukrainian cause on the map. His son signed the Union of Lublin and his grandson led a notorious expedition to Moldavia (1616). His great-grandson was Prince Jarema (b. 1612; d. 1651), Voivode of Ruthenia and chief enemy of Chmielnicki.

The farcical elections that followed the resignation of Jan II Kazimierz, the last of the Vasas (1668), led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity, the favourite of the szlachta (the nobility) suspicious of foreigners and seeking a "new Piast", despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Jarema's son, Michal Korybut (b. 1640; d. 1673), king (1669 - 1673); he proved to be a weak monarch unable to control the magnates who nicknamed him "le Singe". In 1672 the Turkish invasion of Podolia led to the fall of the fortress of Kamieniec Podolsk and, with the country in a state of chaos, the Poles sued for peace; at the Treaty of Buczacz the Poles lost what was left of Podolia and the Ukraine and had to pay a humiliating annual tribute. Michal Korybut died suddenly whilst a new invasion was in force, on the eve of Chocim; he was succeeded by the victor of that battle, Jan Sobieski.

Sobieski, Jan III (b. Olesko, nr. Lwow, 1674; d. 1696) the son of Jakub Sobieski, the Castellan of Krakow and Voivode of Ruthenia, Jan Sobieski was educated in Krakow. A great military leader, Sobieski entered military service in 1648, seeing action against both the Tartars and Cossacks (1651 - 52) and Swedes under Lubomirski and Czarniecki, although, along with many other officers who had deserted the royal cause in the dark days of the Deluge, he had briefly accepted a commission under Swedish King, Charles X (1655 - 56). He was first entered the Sejm in 1659. Sobieski was appointed Commander - in - Chief of the Polish Army (1665) and Grand Hetman in 1668. Besieged by an army of Cossacks and Tartars at Podhajce he raised 8000 men at his own expense and forced the enemy to retire. Later, when the Turks seized the fortress of Kamieniec (1672), Sobieski beat the Turkish forces back and virtually annihilated them at Chocim (1673), earning from them the nickname of the "Fearful Lion of the North". He was elected King a few months later (1674 - 96). The climax of his career came in 1683 when, with 20,000 Polish troops he relieved the Turkish siege of Vienna. Unable to break into Europe through Poland, the Turks had invaded Hungary and Austria in 1683 and swept all before them. 130,000 Turks besieged Vienna and threatened to overpower Europe. Sobieski, at the request of the Pope, marched on Vienna through rugged mountain passes and sent the Husaria into their last great charge, taking the Turks unawares. It was a turning point in history. Combined with the Imperial Army, he drove the Turks back to the Raab. He was acclaimed as the hero of Christendom - Jan Matejko's painting of "Sobieski at Vienna" hangs in the Vatican. His later years were a failure, unable to overturn the political decline of Poland; he was unable to solve Poland's problems on the Baltic or on the eastern frontier because the long years of campaigning and wars had drained her resources and, in 1686, in an unbelievably naive move, the Grzymultowski Peace literally gave away the entire Ukraine and transformed "Muscovy" into "Russia" - enabling her to emerge as the major power in Eastern Europe. He was a patron of science and literature and his marvellous palace at Wilanow, on the outskirts of Warsaw reflect his domestic grandeur. The elections after the death of Sobieski were contentious; his son, Jakub (b. 1667; d. 1737), was forced to withdraw for lack of funds, and the French candidate was cheated of victory by bribery and corruption so that the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus was elected king, Augustus II. It would be the beginning of the end. Sobieski's granddaughter, Clementina (b. 1702; d.1735), married James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender"; their son was Charles Edward Louis Philip Kazimierz, the "young Pretender" - "Bonny Prince Charlie".

Wettin;

The Wettins were a German dynasty that was active, in the Tenth century, in pushing Germany's eastern frontier into Slav lands. By c.1100 they had acquired the Margrave of Meissen and extended their rule over Thuringia and Saxony. In 1485 the dynasty divided into the Ernestine and Albertine branches. The Albertines became the Electors of Saxony (1547) and provided two kings of Poland, Augustus II and Augustus III. The sixty-six years of Saxon rule, from 1697 - 1763, were a national disaster and drove the country to the brink of anarchy. The causes are twofold: firstly, from the outset the Saxon kings fell into a partnership with Russia in which they became more and more dependent on the support of the stronger partner; secondly, The Republic, which had been severely weakened by the period of warfare and internal strife of the seventeenth century, was reduced to the state of a helpless bystander in the wars of the eighteenth. The nation was further undermined as the powerful land-owning magnates began to look to the preservation their own self-interests in whatever manner they could, whilst the less powerful szlachta attempted to hang on to the only power they held - their traditional rights - even at the expense of important reforms. The Republic had no

standing army, it was a citizen army with only a small core of professionals. Whilst Sobieski had carried out important reforms which had significantly improved the army's tactical and technological stature there was a heavy reliance on foreign infantry and there was no centralised funding. There was, also, internal resistance to the idea of a regular army which could be used by an autocratic ruler to restrict personal liberties (as in Prussia, for example). Poland also became sandwiched between two rising powers; Russia, ruled by Peter the Great, and Prussia which the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III, was to declare a kingdom in 1701.

The Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus (b. Dresden, 1670; d. 1733), who had unsuccessfully commanded the imperial Army against the Turks (1695 - 96), converted to Catholicism (the Republic was "worth a mass") and was elected king Augustus II of Poland in 1697 after a contentious election which, in many ways, reflected the disintegration of the nation. His reign started auspiciously with the treaty of Karlowicz by which the former provinces of Podolia and the Ukraine, including the important fortress of Kamieniec, were restored to Poland by the Turks (1699). In the mistaken belief that Sweden was in decline and with the intention of acquiring Livonia for Saxony, Augustus entered into a disastrous three-way alliance with Frederick IV of Denmark and Peter I the Great of Russia (1672 - 1725) that would eventually embroil Poland in the Great Northern War (1700-21). Although the Sejm refused to support him, Augustus invaded Livonia and laid siege to Riga. The Swedish king, Charles XII (the "Lion of the North", 1682 - 1718) defeated the Danes who had invaded Schleswig (1700), destroyed the Russian Army at Narva (November 1700) and raised the siege of Riga (1701). Charles then invaded Poland with the intention of deposing Augustus from the Polish throne as a punishment for his central role in the anti-Swedish alliance. He seized Warsaw and defeated Augustus at Kliszow (where the Polish Army, having failed in two charges against the Swedish infantry, refused to fight on, 1702) and Pultusk (1703). Charles XII then imposed his candidate, Stanislaw Leszczynski (1704 - 09), on the Polish throne.

The Leszczynskis were a noble Polish family which played a prominent part during the 16th. to 18th. centuries. The general, Rafael Leszczynski, was the father of Stanislaw I Leszczynski (b. Lwow, 1677; d. 1766), king of Poland (1704 - 09, and 1733 - 35). When Augustus II of Saxony and Poland allied himself with Russia (1700 - 1721) against Sweden in the Great Northern War, Leszczynski, the Voivode of Poznan, proved to be a staunch opponent and gained the support of Charles XII of Sweden. In 1704 Sweden won, Augustus was removed and Leszczynski was elected in his place. In 1709 the Russians defeated the Swedes at Poltava and Augustus was returned to the throne. Leszczynski settled in Alsace (1709) and, later, became governor of Zweibruken in the Palatinate (1718 - 25). In 1725, his daughter, Maria (b. Wroclaw, 1703; d. 1768), married Louis XV of France who ensured that, on Augustus' death, in 1733, Leszczynski was again elected King. The War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) followed, Stanislaw was supported by France and Spain, while Austria and Russia supported Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony, Augustus II's son. Leszczynski was besieged at Danzig, receiving only moral support from France, while his rival received full military aid from Russia. Inevitably, he was obliged to flee from Danzig (1734) and accept the terms of the Treaty of Vienna (1735) by which he kept the royal title but renounced his actual rights in favour of Frederick Augustus. Leszczynski was awarded the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar (1737) by Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor, in exchange for Tuscany and also received a pension from France. He maintained court at Luneville and Nancy which was a model of the Enlightenment. Leszczynski corresponded with the finest thinkers of his time, most notably with Rousseau who, on his request, drafted a new constitution for Poland. He wrote the

influential reforming tract, "A Free Voice Insuring Freedom" (1749), and "Oeuvres du Philosophe Bienfaisant" (published 1767).

The unconstitutional manner of Leszczynski's election (where a hastily thrown together Sejm had been surrounded by armed Swedish troops ready to enforce Charles' will) divided the country into pro-Leszczynski and pro-Augustus camps; the Northern War had now, for the Poles, become a civil war. An attempt by Augustus to regain Poland was stopped at Fraustadt (February 1706). Charles XII invaded Saxony in August 1706 and seized Leipzig; Augustus sued for peace and abdicated the throne of Poland (Treaty of Altranstadt, 1706). Augustus was restored after the Swedish invasion of Russia failed at the battle of Poltava (1709) - in which an important role was played by Polish peasants harassing the Swedish columns, and the pro-Saxon Confederates of Sandomierz who prevented reinforcements from reaching the Swedes. By the end of this war Russia was able to interfere freely in the internal affairs of the nation. Augustus maintained a Saxon Army in Poland which reinforced the Polish view that he was intending to turn the Polish throne into that of an absolute monarch. Conflict between Augustus and the Sejm almost ended in civil war with the setting up of the Confederation of Tarnogrod (1715), only prevented by a Russian offer of mediation; 18,000 Russian troops surrounded the chamber where the deputies met, they were denied the right to speak whilst the Russian "mediator" dictated the Russian " solution". This Sejm became known as the "Dumb Sejm" and the Republic became little more than a Russian client state; a "Protectorate".

The emasculation of both Augustus and the Sejm lead to the dissipation of power into the hands of a small group of magnates who ruled their own lands as princes making independent political alliances depending on the state of their finances or interests; "a state within the state". The army had virtually disappeared as a fighting force; morale had collapsed, technical proficiency declined, corruption was rife, nobles absented themselves from duty or preferred to serve the magnates: all this at a time when the Republic's neighbours were undergoing massive militarisation. In the Northern War Russia seized Livonia and began to dominate the Baltic; Augustus, awake to the Russian threat, entered into an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, and England (who both had their own reasons to be wary of the sudden rise of Russia) to cast off Russian interference in Poland (Vienna, 1719) but the Sejm rejected the treaty (1720), at which point Augustus condemned their shameful weakness. Now Augustus attempted to establish another treaty with Prussia aimed directly at the partition of Poland - but nothing came of this for Russia made a secret pact with Prussia at Potsdam (1720) to maintain the paralysis of law and order within Poland by protecting Polish "rights" such as the Liberum Veto.

It was in this period that intolerance towards religious dissidents was intensified and perhaps the lowest point in the history of the Republic came in 1724 when the mayor of Torun and nine other Protestants were executed because they had failed to prevent anti-Jesuit excesses. The English protested at this outrage and, when Poland was partitioned (1772), the image of a bigoted and intolerant nation put aside any feelings of sympathy that there might have been. The Russo-Prussian alliance of 1730 went so far as to pledge to protect religious minorities and to secure their former privileges (despite the fact that these two states refused to offer similar rights to their own religious minorities). The Convocation Sejm of 1733 was to bring Poland into line with the rest of Europe with its ending of religious freedoms and debarring of non-Catholics from holding office or acting as representatives in the Sejm; a move that was to have its repercussions in 1766 when Russia and Prussia would use their pledges to protect the rights of dissidents as an excuse to prevent reform and a revival of the Polish state.

Augustus was a patron of the arts, greatly embellishing his capital, Dresden, and created the Meissen china industry. He is also known as Augustus the Strong but this is more in reference to his numerous affairs and his prodigious number of, largely illegitimate, offspring.

On Augustus' death, in 1733, the French candidate, Leszczynski, was again elected King; this sparked off the War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) during which Polish resistance, the Confederation of Dzikow under the leadership of Adam Tarlo, was crushed by combined Prussian and Russian armies. The Russians sent in an army and reran the election; their candidate, Augustus' son, Frederik Augustus II (b. Dresden, 1696; d. 1763) was elected king, Augustus III, in 1734. Augustus spent his reign almost exclusively in Dresden, only fleeing to Poland when the Prussians occupied Saxony during the Seven Years War; Poland was ruled by his adviser Bruhl and son-in-law, Mniszech. He supported Prussia in the first Silesian War (1740 - 42) but sided with Austria in the second Silesian War (1744 - 45), was defeated and forced to pay indemnity. The Electorate of Saxony was occupied by Prussia during the Seven Years War - the third Silesian War (1756 - 63); during this war, by which Prussia gained Silesia, Poland's neutrality was ignored and she became a staging area for the deployment of the combatants. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia recouped his war costs by flooding Poland with counterfeit money and imposing illegal tolls on the Wisla. Prussia and Russia continued to renew their alliances by which Poland would be kept weakened. At Augustus' death, the Russians forced the election of Stanislaw Poniatowski, destined to become the last King of Poland.

Poniatowski;

The Poniatowskis were a noble family of Italian origin including; Stanislaw (b. 1676; d. 1762), a general and diplomat who joined Charles XII of Sweden in support of Stanislaw Leszczynski, and fought at Poltava (1709). He represented Charles at the Porte. Stanislaw was the brother-in-law of Michal and August Czartoryski and formed part of that powerful group aiming at reform, "the Family". His son, Stanislaw II Augustus (b. Wolczyn, 1732; d. St. Petersburg, 1798), was a refined man who, after his education, spent a great deal of time in the West, mainly Paris and London. He was sent to St. Petersburg (1757) to gain support for the proposed overthrow of Augustus III but succeeded instead in becoming a lover of the future Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. On the death of Augustus III, Catherine used her influence to ensure that Stanislaw Augustus became King (1764 - 1795); Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland.

On acceding to the throne Stanislaw Augustus attempted to show that he was no puppet by setting up a range of commissions and ministries aimed at improving the process of government, carrying out financial and educational reforms and establishing a military school (the Szkola Rycerska); it was obvious that a Polish revival was under way. At this point Prussia and Russia raised the whole issue of the rights of Lutheran and Orthodox dissidents knowing that this would stir up trouble (1766). The issue was discussed in the Sejm in chaotic conditions, the Papal Nuncio protested and the proposed changes were rejected. As a result two Confederations were formed, that of the Protestants at Thorn and the Orthodox dissidents at Slupsk strongly supported by Russian troops. More significantly the Confederation of Radom (1767) was formed by a number of Catholic szlachta who had been skilfully manipulated by Russian diplomats. Now a treaty was imposed on Poland and forced through the Sejm (1768), which hypocritically protected the rights of the szlachta to elect the king and maintain the "Liberum Veto" - thus using these ancient privileges as a means to make the state impotent. A number of representatives of the Sejm who opposed Russian demands were

arrested and deported to Kaluga in Russia. A large number of the szlachta, disgusted at this turn of events, revolted by setting up the Confederation of Bar (1768 - 72). Russian attempts to put the rising down were hindered by having to repress a peasant uprising in the Polish Ukraine, and by the Ottoman Turks who declared war on Russia (1768). After four years struggle, during which Stanislaw Augustus was actually kidnapped by some of the Bar Confederates (though he managed to escape in the bungled affair), the rising was eventually crushed and over 5000 captured szlachta were sent to Siberia; among the few who escaped was Kazimierz Pulaski who was to play an important role in the United States' struggle for independence.

The campaigns of 1768 - 72 so devastated Poland and weakened the government that the nation was unable to put up any meaningful resistance when Prussia, Russia and Austria agreed to annex parts of Poland in 1772. The Commonwealth lost 224,173.5 sq.km (29.5%) of her former territory and 4,020,000 of her population (a reduction by 35.2%): Prussia took the smallest, but economically best, area (5%) - cutting Poland off from the Baltic - and severed its feudal dependence on the Polish Crown; Austria took the most heavily populated areas (11.8%), whilst Russia took the largest, but least important (12.7%). To give the crime some legality the Sejm was forced to ratify the partition in 1773, despite the resistance of some Deputies, led by Tadeusz Rejtan. Amazingly some of the szlachta saw partition as a plot between Poniatowski and the Russians in order to introduce an absolute monarchy into Poland.

Despite the disaster of this first partition, Poland underwent a national revival in 1773, thanks to the efforts of Stanislaw Augustus. The first step was the creation of the "Komisija Edukacji Narodowej" ("Committee of National Education"), the first Ministry of Education in Europe; hundreds of schools were founded and the standard of education was raised. Writers, poets, artists and scholars were encouraged by the King and the ideas of the Enlightenment were taking hold. This was the period of Naruszewicz, Krasicki, Boguslawski, and Karpinski. Taking advantage of Russia's involvement in a war against Turkey, the King launched a reform programme (1788-1792) and the task was carried out by the "Four-Year" or "Great Sejm" which established a new Constitution; the Constitution of the Third of May, 1791, in which the "Liberum Veto" was abolished, majority rule introduced, and personal freedoms guaranteed to all the people. The Constitution was hailed in the United States, England and France, but was seen as a threat to the absolute rulers of Prussia, Austria and, especially, Russia. In 1792, at Russia's instigation, a handful of magnates led by Ksawery Branicki, Szczesny Potocki and Seweryn Rzewuski betrayed the Commonwealth and formed the Confederation of Targowica against the new Constitution and then "asked" for help. Russian troops crossed the borders and war broke out. The King's nephew, Joseph Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a veteran of the American War of Independence, put up heroic resistance but all hope faded away when Stanislaw Augustus, under pressure from his ministers who could see the writing on the wall, declared his adherence to the Confederation of Targowica (August 1792). Meanwhile the Prussians attacked the Polish armies in the rear. The dismayed Army dispersed; many patriots were forced to flee. In 1793 Russia and Prussia signed the Second Partition Treaty, seizing more than half the country and about four million more of the population. The last Sejm of the Commonwealth, which met at Grodno, was forced to legalise the partition and abolish most of the reforms of the "Great Sejm". Popular discontent led to Insurrection, proclaimed by Kosciuszko on 24 March 1794, followed by victory at Raclawice and Warsaw.

Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (b. nr. Slonim, 12 February 1746. d. Soleure, Switzerland,1817) is one of the giants of Polish history. At an early age Kosciuszko decided to join the military and studied at the Warsaw Cadet School, and in France, engineering and artillery. He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence where he was appointed colonel of engineers in the Continental army (Oct.18 1776). During the southern advance of Burgoyne after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga (1777) he effectively delayed the British thus granting the Americans valuable time to build up their forces and he made important tactical decisions concerning the battle of Saratoga which followed. He was in charge of construction of the fortifications at West Point (1778 - 80) which made full use of the natural terrain and interlocking fields of fire. Kosciuszko proposed the establishment of a technical military school where all officers would be trained in engineering and the sciences which became the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was one of the founders of the Society of Cincinnati. In 1783 the American Congress awarded him citizenship and promoted him to the rank of Brigadier.

During the Russo-Polish War (1792- 93), or the War of the Second Partition, he defended the Bug at Dubienka for five days with only 4000 men against 18,000. After the Second Partition of 1792, following the growing humiliation of the nation by Catherine the Great, in an effort to stop the destruction of Poland, Kosciuszko went to France to propose a league of republics which would oppose the league of sovereigns. The French were vague in their response and Kosciuszko had to return empty-handed. When, on 21 February 1794 the Russians ordered a further reduction of the army and the arrest of suspected subversives, the seeds had been sown for a national uprising. Finding that Polish officers were already in the act of revolting against the limitation of the army to 15,000 men, his hand forced, Kosciuszko arrived in Krakow on 23rd March, proclaimed the Act of Insurrection on the 24th with his famous oath in the Rynek;

"I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swear in the sight of God to the whole Polish nation that I will use the power entrusted to me for the personal oppression of none, but will only use it for the defence of the integrity of the boundaries, the regaining of the independence of the nation, and the solid establishment of universal freedom. So help me God and the Innocent Passion of His Son."

and was appointed dictator and commander-in-chief. His army of peasants defeated a greatly superior force of Russians at Raclawice, as a result of which a national insurrection flared up in Lithuania and Warsaw. The red four-cornered caps worn by the Krakow peasants were adopted by the National Cavalry, and later worn by the Polish lancers in Napoleon's army, after which they became traditional wear for lancer units in all European armies. At Szczekociny, on 6 May, Kosciuszko was outnumbered by the Prussians under Frederick William, and defeated, leaving the way open for the occupation of Krakow (which they entered on 15 June). On 7 May his Polanice Manifesto gave freedom to the peasants. The new government's army could not withstand the combined forces of Austria, Prussia and Russia and was annihilated at the bloody battle of Maciejowice, 10 October, where Kosciuszko was seriously wounded and captured. In November, Warsaw was taken by the Russians who slaughtered the population of the suburb, Praga, including women and children. Then, in 1795, the Third Partition wiped what was left of Poland off the map. The King, Stanislaw Augustus, was forced to abdicate and taken captive to St. Petersburg (where he died in 1798).

The Elected Monarchy

With the death of Zygmunt, the last of the Jagiellonians in 1574, there was nobody who could legally convene the Sejm. An "interrex" (Regent), the Archbishop of Gniezno, was appointed by the Senate and a special "Convocational Sejm" was called which decided to let the "szlachta" (nobility) the elect a king in a free election. Prior to his coronation the king-elect had to swear to uphold the Constitution and all "szlachta" privileges. In 1573, Henri de Valois, younger brother to Charles IX of France, was elected king by an overwhelming majority. In May 1574 Charles died suddenly and Henri had become King of France. It was generally agreed that he should hold both crowns and go back to France in the autumn but, in his impatience Henri slipped away early. Affronted, the Poles presented him with the ultimatum of returning by May 1575 or the throne would be declared vacant.

In December, under the influence of Jan Zamoyski, Stefan Batory (b. Szilagysomlyo, Transylvania 1533; d. nr Grodno 1586), Prince of Transylvania (1571 - 76) was elected king of Poland (1575 - 86) by the szlachta (the nobility). Batory was the son of Istvan Bathory, governor of Transylvania for the Habsburg king of Hungary. He won renown as a soldier with John Sigismund Zapolya, prince of the newly independent Transylvania and was elected as Zapolya's successor (1571). As king of Poland, Batory carried out important reforms, encouraged further overseas trade and creating the first regular Polish infantry by conscripting peasants from the Royal estates. He was also the first to employ Cossacks on a regular basis. He overcame the revolt of Danzig (1577), which was given autonomy in its internal affairs (at a price) and in a war with Muscovy (1579 - 82), after a successful campaign and a brilliant victory at Pskov, Batory defeated Ivan the Terrible in the Livonian War (1558 - 83). By the Treaty of Vam Zapolsky, Ivan returned all Lithuanian territory it had captured and renounced his claims on Livonia; Livonia joined the Commonwealth and Poland was now recognised as the greatest power in Central Europe and only the Turkish Sultan ruled over more extensive territories. In 1579 he created the University at Wilno. By the 1550s eighty per cent of the world's Jews lived in Poland. Batory gave the Jews their own national assembly drawn from the local self-governing communities (Kahal). In 1583 Batory granted the postal monopoly to Sebastian Montelupi who organised a regular postal system both internally and abroad. After his sudden death, Batory was succeeded, in the 1587 election, by Sigismund (Zygmunt) Vasa, son of John III Vasa of Sweden.

Vasa;

The Vasa were a dynasty of Swedish Kings whose name is derived from the family estate around Uppsala. The founder of the dynasty was Gustav Eriksson Vasa who became, firstly, Regent of Sweden (1521) and then King Gustavus I Vasa (1523 - 60). After the unexpected death of Batory in 1586, there was a major crisis when the pro-Hapsburg Zborowski faction forced through the election of Archduke Maximilian and almost brought the nation to a state of civil war. The great Renaissance politician (and staunch anti-Austrian), Jan Zamoyski confronted Maximilian and held Krakow for the Swedish crown prince, grandson of Gustavus I and son of John III of Sweden, Zygmunt III Vasa (b. Gripsholm, 1566; d. Warsaw,1632), who came to the throne 1587 - 1632. There would eventually be three Vasa Kings and the period would see long rivalry and wars between Poland and Sweden for the control of the Baltic. Under Zygmunt's reign the Polish magnates (great lords) rose to a position of power and would eventually destroy Poland through their greed; he was also in constant struggle with Jan Zamoyski, the Chancellor (1587 - 1605) whose diplomatic and military successes he regarded with suspicion. Zygmunt was forced to work with Zamoyski when he overreached himself in arranging a secret marriage with the Austrian Archduchess Anna (1592) and was subsequently humiliated by the Inquisition Diet of 1592. In the same year he received the

Sejm's permission to become King of Sweden but was only crowned (1594) after promising to uphold Swedish Lutheranism.

Returning to Poland, Zygmunt left his uncle, Charles Suderman, as Regent of Sweden. He then decided to move the capital from Krakow to Warsaw (1596), which was closer to Sweden and the junction of all major routes criss-crossing the Commonwealth. When his uncle rose in rebellion Zygmunt invaded Sweden (thus losing any support there was for him amongst the Swedish nobility) only to be defeated at Stangebro (1598). In 1599 the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) dethroned Zygmunt offering the crown to his four-year-old son, Wladyslaw, on condition that he would come to Sweden and accept Lutheranism. Zygmunt refused to accept these conditions and lost the crown of Sweden to his uncle (who was crowned Charles IX, 1604 - 11). Zygmunt never relinquished the throne and his foreign policy was, from that point onwards, directed at regaining the Swedish crown.

From 1605, after the death of Zamoyski, Poland became involved in internal problems as a result of Zygmunt's absolutionist tendencies (the Zebrzydowski rebellion, 1606 - 8) and wars with Sweden (1617 - 29) and the Turks (1620 - 21). During the Swedish War, Gustavus II Adolphus (the son of Charles IX) seized Riga (1621) and almost all of Livonia. The Poles also, inevitably, became involved in the internal "troubles" of Muscovy ("Smuta", 1605 onwards), usually at the request of the boyars, but the events surrounding the short-lived careers of the two "False Dimitris" did not benefit the Republic. In 1610, after a successful military campaign, Zygmunt proposed his own son, Wladyslaw, as candidate to the Muscovite throne but Wladyslaw's refusal to convert to the Orthodox faith led to the driving out of the Poles and the enthroning of the first Romanov (1613). The devastation and loss of life were tremendous and Poland was only saved by a number of outstanding military commanders; Stanislaw Zolkiewski, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Stefan Czarniecki (b. 1599; d. 1665) and Stanislaw Koniecpolski who achieved some great victories (Kluszyn, 1610; Kircholm, 1605; Chocim, 1612).

This was also the period that saw the Republic at its greatest territorial extent and economically the nation was prosperous (but there were also new extremes of wealth and poverty). Religious tolerance was maintained despite Zygmunt's own Catholic fanaticism (his greatest success was the establishment of the Uniates; the union of the greater part of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church with Rome in 1596 ratified at the Synod of Brzesc). The followers of Fausto Sozzini (Socinius, b. 1539; d. 1604), the Polish Brethren, founded a centre of protestant culture at Rakow (which became known as the Sarmatian Athens), between Kielce and Sandomierz, where they published the Rakowian Catechism (1604), the most well-known statement of Unitarian theology at the time and an important expression of radical thought. When the Hussites suffered the crushing defeat at the battle of White Mountain (1620) many were forced into exile, some making their way to Poland and influencing the Arian movement there. The Jewish community thrived and spread out from the cities into the provinces; but by linking their fortunes with greedy lords through the "arenda" system (whereby an estate would be leased out by an absentee lord to a manager who could exploit it and those who worked it) they exposed themselves to the hatred of the peasantry.

Zygmunt's son, Wladyslaw IV (b. 1595; d. 1648), King 1632 - 1648, served as a youth in the Muscovite campaigns (1610 - 12 and 1617 - 18). On his accession to the throne he fought a war with Muscovy and won a victorious peace (1634). He made a favourable settlement with the Turks (1634) and with Sweden (1635). He was involved in serious disputes with the Sejm and unsuccessfully attempted to establish order in the last years of his reign. For some time

the Arian movement had thrived in the climate of religious tolerance that Poland had offered but their own success led to their downfall. In 1641 all Arians were forced to convert or leave the country, resulting in mass exodus. A particular danger came from within when, in 1648, the Cossacks, mainly of Ruthenian and Polish origin, for a variety of reasons but chiefly due to the arrogance of the magnates who were treating the free Cossacks as serfs, broke their oath of allegiance to the Polish King under the instigation of their Hetman, Chmielnicki. Wladyslaw died whilst this revolt was still in force. Wladyslaw travelled widely visiting Florence where he was honoured by the Italian composer, Francesco Caccini who wrote a composition "La Liberazione di Ruggero dell Isola di Alcina" dedicated to him. He corresponded with Galileo, ordering telescopes from him, and modelled for Peter Paul Rubens in his studio in Antwerp.

Wladyslaw's son, Jan II Kazimierz (b. 1609; d. 1672), was a Jesuit and Cardinal (1640) and had to be absolved of his religious vows by the Pope in order to be able to take on his duties as King 1648 - 1668. In the continued revolt of the Cossacks, Chmielnicki used the Ukraine as a pawn between the powers of Poland, Muscovy and Turkey which resulted in further wars, with the Tartars (1649), and a disastrous 13 - year war with Muscovy (1654 - 67). Janusz Radziwill, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, defeated by Tsar Alexei of Muscovy during Chmielnicki's revolt (1654), appealed for help from Charles X Gustavus of Sweden, himself fearful of Muscovite expansion. He invaded Poland in 1655. This period in which the Republic was inundated by enemy forces, and the chaos that accompanied it, became known as the "Deluge" ("Potop"). The collapse of Polish resistance led to the desertion of many Polish officers and szlachta (the nobility) from Jan Kazimierz to Charles. In October Radziwill signed an agreement at Kiejdany which detached Lithuania from Poland, placing it under the protection of Sweden. In the following guerrilla war, where Polish forces were supported by Tartars fearful of the further expansion of Muscovy into the vacuum caused by the war with Sweden, and Danish and Dutch fleets came to the defence of Gdansk, it is the defence of Czestochowa, at the monastery of Jasna Gora, (1655), Poland's most sacred shrine containing the picture of the Virgin Mary (the "Black Madonna"), by a small force led by Prior Kordecki and his monks against a besieging army of 9,000 Swedes, that actually changed the course of the war and became a signal for a general uprising that resulted in the eventual expulsion of the Swedes from the Republic. In 1658, at Hadziacz, an agreement between the King and the new Cossack Hetman, Wyhowski, was to enable Ruthenia to join the Commonwealth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania but a further Cossack rebellion (1659) instigated by Muscovy (herself attempting to annex the Ukraine) and Polish involvement in war with Sweden (1655 - 60), meant that the agreement bore no fruit and in 1667, by the treaty of Andruszowo, the Ukraine was divided evenly along the Dnieper between the Commonwealth and Muscovy. For the Polish Commonwealth this was a disaster since it weakened an important frontier area and left a discontented people open to manipulation by Poland's enemies.

The general decline was especially noticed in the Sejm; the parliamentary system grew awkward and ineffective as deputies used the notorious "Liberum Veto", which allowed any deputy to prevent legislation since all resolutions had to be carried unanimously. The idea of consensus rule was, in principle, a good one but the "Liberum Veto" was first used in a manner that destroyed the working of the Sejm, in 1652, by a Jan Sicinski on the orders of Janusz Radziwill. It soon became obvious to Poland's neighbours that the veto could be used to their own political ends and they soon clubbed together to "defend Polish freedoms". The szlachta, themselves, becoming less influential as they lost their military valour and, in many

cases, impoverished, saw the veto as the last symbol of their ability to play a role in the running of the Commonwealth.

This was also a period of great rivalry and suspicion between the pro-Bourbon factions (led by the Queen, Louise-Marie) and the pro-Habsburg szlachta (many of whom were in the pockets of Vienna. The need for reform had become obvious and the Jesuit preacher, Piotr Skarga, had blamed social injustice as the main cause of evil. The final indignity came when, as a direct result of attempting to introduce reforms that would modernise the state, Jerzy Lubomirski, the Grand Marshal, rebelled against the King. The royal faction was defeated at the battle of Matwy (1666) but not long afterwards Lubomirski came and begged for a pardon which was granted; the whole farce had merely served to damage the prestige of the crown. Shortly after his chief support, Queen Louise-Marie, died (1667) Jan Kazimierz took refuge in Silesia, resigned as King (1668) and retired to France as Abbe de Saint-Germain. The farcical elections that followed led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Michal Korybut Wisniowiecki.

Wisniowiecki;

The Wisnioweckis were a noble Ukrainian family. During the early 1500s the idea of hiring the Cossacks to guard the Dnieper crossings by building fortresses on its islands was proposed but never developed, it was Dmitri (d.1563), a magnate from Southern Volhynia who independently founded the first Cossack fortress, Niz, at Chortyca, out of which grew the Sicz of Zaporoze. After a failed attempt to involve Poland-Lithuania in a war against the Tartars, he became heavily involved in Moldavian affairs only to be betrayed to the Turks and executed for piracy. Dmitri is credited with being the first to create a stable organisation for the Cossacks and for putting the Cossack-Ukrainian cause on the map. His son signed the Union of Lublin and his grandson led a notorious expedition to Moldavia (1616). His great-grandson was Prince Jarema (b. 1612; d. 1651), Voivode of Ruthenia and chief enemy of Chmielnicki.

The farcical elections that followed the resignation of Jan II Kazimierz, the last of the Vasas (1668), led to the appointment of a Polish nonentity, the favourite of the szlachta (the nobility) suspicious of foreigners and seeking a "new Piast", despised by both Bourbon and Habsburg factions, Jarema's son, Michal Korybut (b. 1640; d. 1673), king (1669 - 1673); he proved to be a weak monarch unable to control the magnates who nicknamed him "le Singe". In 1672 the Turkish invasion of Podolia led to the fall of the fortress of Kamieniec Podolsk and, with the country in a state of chaos, the Poles sued for peace; at the Treaty of Buczacz the Poles lost what was left of Podolia and the Ukraine and had to pay a humiliating annual tribute. Michal Korybut died suddenly whilst a new invasion was in force, on the eve of Chocim; he was succeeded by the victor of that battle, Jan Sobieski.

Sobieski, Jan III (b. Olesko, nr. Lwow, 1674; d. 1696) the son of Jakub Sobieski, the Castellan of Krakow and Voivode of Ruthenia, Jan Sobieski was educated in Krakow. A great military leader, Sobieski entered military service in 1648, seeing action against both the Tartars and Cossacks (1651 - 52) and Swedes under Lubomirski and Czarniecki, although, along with many other officers who had deserted the royal cause in the dark days of the Deluge, he had briefly accepted a commission under Swedish King, Charles X (1655 - 56). He was first entered the Sejm in 1659. Sobieski was appointed Commander - in - Chief of the Polish Army (1665) and Grand Hetman in 1668. Besieged by an army of Cossacks and Tartars at Podhajce he raised 8000 men at his own expense and forced the enemy to retire.

Later, when the Turks seized the fortress of Kamieniec (1672), Sobieski beat the Turkish forces back and virtually annihilated them at Chocim (1673), earning from them the nickname of the "Fearful Lion of the North". He was elected King a few months later (1674 - 96). The climax of his career came in 1683 when, with 20,000 Polish troops he relieved the Turkish siege of Vienna. Unable to break into Europe through Poland, the Turks had invaded Hungary and Austria in 1683 and swept all before them. 130,000 Turks besieged Vienna and threatened to overpower Europe. Sobieski, at the request of the Pope, marched on Vienna through rugged mountain passes and sent the Husaria into their last great charge, taking the Turks unawares. It was a turning point in history. Combined with the Imperial Army, he drove the Turks back to the Raab. He was acclaimed as the hero of Christendom - Jan Matejko's painting of "Sobieski at Vienna" hangs in the Vatican. His later years were a failure, unable to overturn the political decline of Poland; he was unable to solve Poland's problems on the Baltic or on the eastern frontier because the long years of campaigning and wars had drained her resources and, in 1686, in an unbelievably naive move, the Grzymultowski Peace literally gave away the entire Ukraine and transformed "Muscovy" into "Russia" - enabling her to emerge as the major power in Eastern Europe. He was a patron of science and literature and his marvellous palace at Wilanow, on the outskirts of Warsaw reflect his domestic grandeur. The elections after the death of Sobieski were contentious; his son, Jakub (b. 1667; d. 1737), was forced to withdraw for lack of funds, and the French candidate was cheated of victory by bribery and corruption so that the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus was elected king, Augustus II. It would be the beginning of the end. Sobieski's granddaughter, Clementina (b. 1702; d.1735), married James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender"; their son was Charles Edward Louis Philip Kazimierz, the "young Pretender" - "Bonny Prince Charlie".

Wettin;

The Wettins were a German dynasty that was active, in the Tenth century, in pushing Germany's eastern frontier into Slav lands. By c.1100 they had acquired the Margrave of Meissen and extended their rule over Thuringia and Saxony. In 1485 the dynasty divided into the Ernestine and Albertine branches. The Albertines became the Electors of Saxony (1547) and provided two kings of Poland, Augustus II and Augustus III. The sixty-six years of Saxon rule, from 1697 - 1763, were a national disaster and drove the country to the brink of anarchy. The causes are twofold: firstly, from the outset the Saxon kings fell into a partnership with Russia in which they became more and more dependent on the support of the stronger partner; secondly, The Republic, which had been severely weakened by the period of warfare and internal strife of the seventeenth century, was reduced to the state of a helpless bystander in the wars of the eighteenth. The nation was further undermined as the powerful land-owning magnates began to look to the preservation their own self-interests in whatever manner they could, whilst the less powerful szlachta attempted to hang on to the only power they held - their traditional rights - even at the expense of important reforms. The Republic had no standing army, it was a citizen army with only a small core of professionals. Whilst Sobieski had carried out important reforms which had significantly improved the army's tactical and technological stature there was a heavy reliance on foreign infantry and there was no centralised funding. There was, also, internal resistance to the idea of a regular army which could be used by an autocratic ruler to restrict personal liberties (as in Prussia, for example). Poland also became sandwiched between two rising powers; Russia, ruled by Peter the Great, and Prussia which the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III, was to declare a kingdom in 1701.

The Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus (b. Dresden, 1670; d. 1733), who had unsuccessfully commanded the imperial Army against the Turks (1695 - 96), converted to Catholicism (the Republic was "worth a mass") and was elected king Augustus II of Poland in 1697 after a contentious election which, in many ways, reflected the disintegration of the nation. His reign started auspiciously with the treaty of Karlowicz by which the former provinces of Podolia and the Ukraine, including the important fortress of Kamieniec, were restored to Poland by the Turks (1699). In the mistaken belief that Sweden was in decline and with the intention of acquiring Livonia for Saxony, Augustus entered into a disastrous three-way alliance with Frederick IV of Denmark and Peter I the Great of Russia (1672 - 1725) that would eventually embroil Poland in the Great Northern War (1700-21). Although the Sejm refused to support him, Augustus invaded Livonia and laid siege to Riga. The Swedish king, Charles XII (the "Lion of the North", 1682 - 1718) defeated the Danes who had invaded Schleswig (1700), destroyed the Russian Army at Narva (November 1700) and raised the siege of Riga (1701). Charles then invaded Poland with the intention of deposing Augustus from the Polish throne as a punishment for his central role in the anti-Swedish alliance. He seized Warsaw and defeated Augustus at Kliszow (where the Polish Army, having failed in two charges against the Swedish infantry, refused to fight on, 1702) and Pultusk (1703). Charles XII then imposed his candidate, Stanislaw Leszczynski (1704 - 09), on the Polish throne.

The Leszczynskis were a noble Polish family which played a prominent part during the 16th. to 18th. centuries. The general, Rafael Leszczynski, was the father of Stanislaw I Leszczynski (b. Lwow, 1677; d. 1766), king of Poland (1704 - 09, and 1733 - 35). When Augustus II of Saxony and Poland allied himself with Russia (1700 - 1721) against Sweden in the Great Northern War, Leszczynski, the Voivode of Poznan, proved to be a staunch opponent and gained the support of Charles XII of Sweden. In 1704 Sweden won, Augustus was removed and Leszczynski was elected in his place. In 1709 the Russians defeated the Swedes at Poltava and Augustus was returned to the throne. Leszczynski settled in Alsace (1709) and, later, became governor of Zweibruken in the Palatinate (1718 - 25). In 1725, his daughter, Maria (b. Wroclaw, 1703; d. 1768), married Louis XV of France who ensured that, on Augustus' death, in 1733, Leszczynski was again elected King. The War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) followed, Stanislaw was supported by France and Spain, while Austria and Russia supported Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony, Augustus II's son. Leszczynski was besieged at Danzig, receiving only moral support from France, while his rival received full military aid from Russia. Inevitably, he was obliged to flee from Danzig (1734) and accept the terms of the Treaty of Vienna (1735) by which he kept the royal title but renounced his actual rights in favour of Frederick Augustus. Leszczynski was awarded the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar (1737) by Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor, in exchange for Tuscany and also received a pension from France. He maintained court at Luneville and Nancy which was a model of the Enlightenment. Leszczynski corresponded with the finest thinkers of his time, most notably with Rousseau who, on his request, drafted a new constitution for Poland. He wrote the influential reforming tract, "A Free Voice Insuring Freedom" (1749), and "Oeuvres du Philosophe Bienfaisant" (published 1767).

The unconstitutional manner of Leszczynski's election (where a hastily thrown together Sejm had been surrounded by armed Swedish troops ready to enforce Charles' will) divided the country into pro-Leszczynski and pro-Augustus camps; the Northern War had now, for the Poles, become a civil war. An attempt by Augustus to regain Poland was stopped at Fraustadt (February 1706). Charles XII invaded Saxony in August 1706 and seized Leipzig; Augustus sued for peace and abdicated the throne of Poland (Treaty of Altranstadt, 1706). Augustus

was restored after the Swedish invasion of Russia failed at the battle of Poltava (1709) - in which an important role was played by Polish peasants harassing the Swedish columns, and the pro-Saxon Confederates of Sandomierz who prevented reinforcements from reaching the Swedes. By the end of this war Russia was able to interfere freely in the internal affairs of the nation. Augustus maintained a Saxon Army in Poland which reinforced the Polish view that he was intending to turn the Polish throne into that of an absolute monarch. Conflict between Augustus and the Sejm almost ended in civil war with the setting up of the Confederation of Tarnogrod (1715), only prevented by a Russian offer of mediation; 18,000 Russian troops surrounded the chamber where the deputies met, they were denied the right to speak whilst the Russian "mediator" dictated the Russian " solution". This Sejm became known as the "Dumb Sejm" and the Republic became little more than a Russian client state; a "Protectorate".

The emasculation of both Augustus and the Sejm lead to the dissipation of power into the hands of a small group of magnates who ruled their own lands as princes making independent political alliances depending on the state of their finances or interests; "a state within the state". The army had virtually disappeared as a fighting force; morale had collapsed, technical proficiency declined, corruption was rife, nobles absented themselves from duty or preferred to serve the magnates: all this at a time when the Republic's neighbours were undergoing massive militarisation. In the Northern War Russia seized Livonia and began to dominate the Baltic; Augustus, awake to the Russian threat, entered into an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, and England (who both had their own reasons to be wary of the sudden rise of Russia) to cast off Russian interference in Poland (Vienna, 1719) but the Sejm rejected the treaty (1720), at which point Augustus condemned their shameful weakness. Now Augustus attempted to establish another treaty with Prussia aimed directly at the partition of Poland - but nothing came of this for Russia made a secret pact with Prussia at Potsdam (1720) to maintain the paralysis of law and order within Poland by protecting Polish "rights" such as the Liberum Veto.

It was in this period that intolerance towards religious dissidents was intensified and perhaps the lowest point in the history of the Republic came in 1724 when the mayor of Torun and nine other Protestants were executed because they had failed to prevent anti-Jesuit excesses. The English protested at this outrage and, when Poland was partitioned (1772), the image of a bigoted and intolerant nation put aside any feelings of sympathy that there might have been. The Russo-Prussian alliance of 1730 went so far as to pledge to protect religious minorities and to secure their former privileges (despite the fact that these two states refused to offer similar rights to their own religious minorities). The Convocation Sejm of 1733 was to bring Poland into line with the rest of Europe with its ending of religious freedoms and debarring of non-Catholics from holding office or acting as representatives in the Sejm; a move that was to have its repercussions in 1766 when Russia and Prussia would use their pledges to protect the rights of dissidents as an excuse to prevent reform and a revival of the Polish state.

Augustus was a patron of the arts, greatly embellishing his capital, Dresden, and created the Meissen china industry. He is also known as Augustus the Strong but this is more in reference to his numerous affairs and his prodigious number of, largely illegitimate, offspring.

On Augustus' death, in 1733, the French candidate, Leszczynski, was again elected King; this sparked off the War of Polish Succession (1733 - 35) during which Polish resistance, the Confederation of Dzikow under the leadership of Adam Tarlo, was crushed by combined Prussian and Russian armies. The Russians sent in an army and reran the election; their

candidate, Augustus' son, Frederik Augustus II (b. Dresden, 1696; d. 1763) was elected king, Augustus III, in 1734. Augustus spent his reign almost exclusively in Dresden, only fleeing to Poland when the Prussians occupied Saxony during the Seven Years War; Poland was ruled by his adviser Bruhl and son-in-law, Mniszech. He supported Prussia in the first Silesian War (1740 - 42) but sided with Austria in the second Silesian War (1744 - 45), was defeated and forced to pay indemnity. The Electorate of Saxony was occupied by Prussia during the Seven Years War - the third Silesian War (1756 - 63); during this war, by which Prussia gained Silesia, Poland's neutrality was ignored and she became a staging area for the deployment of the combatants. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia recouped his war costs by flooding Poland with counterfeit money and imposing illegal tolls on the Wisla. Prussia and Russia continued to renew their alliances by which Poland would be kept weakened. At Augustus' death, the Russians forced the election of Stanislaw Poniatowski, destined to become the last King of Poland.

Poniatowski;

The Poniatowskis were a noble family of Italian origin including; Stanislaw (b. 1676; d. 1762), a general and diplomat who joined Charles XII of Sweden in support of Stanislaw Leszczynski, and fought at Poltava (1709). He represented Charles at the Porte. Stanislaw was the brother-in-law of Michal and August Czartoryski and formed part of that powerful group aiming at reform, "the Family". His son, Stanislaw II Augustus (b. Wolczyn, 1732; d. St. Petersburg, 1798), was a refined man who, after his education, spent a great deal of time in the West, mainly Paris and London. He was sent to St. Petersburg (1757) to gain support for the proposed overthrow of Augustus III but succeeded instead in becoming a lover of the future Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. On the death of Augustus III, Catherine used her influence to ensure that Stanislaw Augustus became King (1764 - 1795); Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland.

On acceding to the throne Stanislaw Augustus attempted to show that he was no puppet by setting up a range of commissions and ministries aimed at improving the process of government, carrying out financial and educational reforms and establishing a military school (the Szkola Rycerska); it was obvious that a Polish revival was under way. At this point Prussia and Russia raised the whole issue of the rights of Lutheran and Orthodox dissidents knowing that this would stir up trouble (1766). The issue was discussed in the Sejm in chaotic conditions, the Papal Nuncio protested and the proposed changes were rejected. As a result two Confederations were formed, that of the Protestants at Thorn and the Orthodox dissidents at Slupsk strongly supported by Russian troops. More significantly the Confederation of Radom (1767) was formed by a number of Catholic szlachta who had been skilfully manipulated by Russian diplomats. Now a treaty was imposed on Poland and forced through the Sejm (1768), which hypocritically protected the rights of the szlachta to elect the king and maintain the "Liberum Veto" - thus using these ancient privileges as a means to make the state impotent. A number of representatives of the Sejm who opposed Russian demands were arrested and deported to Kaluga in Russia. A large number of the szlachta, disgusted at this turn of events, revolted by setting up the Confederation of Bar (1768 - 72). Russian attempts to put the rising down were hindered by having to repress a peasant uprising in the Polish Ukraine, and by the Ottoman Turks who declared war on Russia (1768). After four years struggle, during which Stanislaw Augustus was actually kidnapped by some of the Bar Confederates (though he managed to escape in the bungled affair), the rising was eventually crushed and over 5000 captured szlachta were sent to Siberia; among the few who escaped

was Kazimierz Pulaski who was to play an important role in the United States' struggle for independence.

The campaigns of 1768 - 72 so devastated Poland and weakened the government that the nation was unable to put up any meaningful resistance when Prussia, Russia and Austria agreed to annex parts of Poland in 1772. The Commonwealth lost 224,173.5 sq.km (29.5%) of her former territory and 4,020,000 of her population (a reduction by 35.2%): Prussia took the smallest, but economically best, area (5%) - cutting Poland off from the Baltic - and severed its feudal dependence on the Polish Crown; Austria took the most heavily populated areas (11.8%), whilst Russia took the largest, but least important (12.7%). To give the crime some legality the Sejm was forced to ratify the partition in 1773, despite the resistance of some Deputies, led by Tadeusz Rejtan. Amazingly some of the szlachta saw partition as a plot between Poniatowski and the Russians in order to introduce an absolute monarchy into Poland.

Despite the disaster of this first partition, Poland underwent a national revival in 1773, thanks to the efforts of Stanislaw Augustus. The first step was the creation of the "Komisija Edukacji Narodowej" ("Committee of National Education"), the first Ministry of Education in Europe; hundreds of schools were founded and the standard of education was raised. Writers, poets, artists and scholars were encouraged by the King and the ideas of the Enlightenment were taking hold. This was the period of Naruszewicz, Krasicki, Boguslawski, and Karpinski. Taking advantage of Russia's involvement in a war against Turkey, the King launched a reform programme (1788-1792) and the task was carried out by the "Four-Year" or "Great Sejm" which established a new Constitution; the Constitution of the Third of May, 1791, in which the "Liberum Veto" was abolished, majority rule introduced, and personal freedoms guaranteed to all the people. The Constitution was hailed in the United States, England and France, but was seen as a threat to the absolute rulers of Prussia, Austria and, especially, Russia. In 1792, at Russia's instigation, a handful of magnates led by Ksawery Branicki, Szczesny Potocki and Seweryn Rzewuski betrayed the Commonwealth and formed the Confederation of Targowica against the new Constitution and then "asked" for help. Russian troops crossed the borders and war broke out. The King's nephew, Joseph Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a veteran of the American War of Independence, put up heroic resistance but all hope faded away when Stanislaw Augustus, under pressure from his ministers who could see the writing on the wall, declared his adherence to the Confederation of Targowica (August 1792). Meanwhile the Prussians attacked the Polish armies in the rear. The dismayed Army dispersed; many patriots were forced to flee. In 1793 Russia and Prussia signed the Second Partition Treaty, seizing more than half the country and about four million more of the population. The last Sejm of the Commonwealth, which met at Grodno, was forced to legalise the partition and abolish most of the reforms of the "Great Sejm". Popular discontent led to Insurrection, proclaimed by Kosciuszko on 24 March 1794, followed by victory at Raclawice and Warsaw.

Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (b. nr. Slonim, 12 February 1746. d. Soleure, Switzerland,1817) is one of the giants of Polish history. At an early age Kosciuszko decided to join the military and studied at the Warsaw Cadet School, and in France, engineering and artillery. He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence where he was appointed colonel of engineers in the Continental army (Oct.18 1776). During the southern advance of Burgoyne after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga (1777) he effectively delayed the British thus granting the Americans valuable time to build up their forces and he made important tactical decisions concerning the battle of Saratoga which followed. He was in

charge of construction of the fortifications at West Point (1778 - 80) which made full use of the natural terrain and interlocking fields of fire. Kosciuszko proposed the establishment of a technical military school where all officers would be trained in engineering and the sciences which became the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was one of the founders of the Society of Cincinnati. In 1783 the American Congress awarded him citizenship and promoted him to the rank of Brigadier.

During the Russo-Polish War (1792- 93), or the War of the Second Partition, he defended the Bug at Dubienka for five days with only 4000 men against 18,000. After the Second Partition of 1792, following the growing humiliation of the nation by Catherine the Great, in an effort to stop the destruction of Poland, Kosciuszko went to France to propose a league of republics which would oppose the league of sovereigns. The French were vague in their response and Kosciuszko had to return empty-handed. When, on 21 February 1794 the Russians ordered a further reduction of the army and the arrest of suspected subversives, the seeds had been sown for a national uprising. Finding that Polish officers were already in the act of revolting against the limitation of the army to 15,000 men, his hand forced, Kosciuszko arrived in Krakow on 23rd March, proclaimed the Act of Insurrection on the 24th with his famous oath in the Rynek;

"I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swear in the sight of God to the whole Polish nation that I will use the power entrusted to me for the personal oppression of none, but will only use it for the defence of the integrity of the boundaries, the regaining of the independence of the nation, and the solid establishment of universal freedom. So help me God and the Innocent Passion of His Son."

and was appointed dictator and commander-in-chief. His army of peasants defeated a greatly superior force of Russians at Raclawice, as a result of which a national insurrection flared up in Lithuania and Warsaw. The red four-cornered caps worn by the Krakow peasants were adopted by the National Cavalry, and later worn by the Polish lancers in Napoleon's army, after which they became traditional wear for lancer units in all European armies. At Szczekociny, on 6 May, Kosciuszko was outnumbered by the Prussians under Frederick William, and defeated, leaving the way open for the occupation of Krakow (which they entered on 15 June). On 7 May his Polanice Manifesto gave freedom to the peasants. The new government's army could not withstand the combined forces of Austria, Prussia and Russia and was annihilated at the bloody battle of Maciejowice, 10 October, where Kosciuszko was seriously wounded and captured. In November, Warsaw was taken by the Russians who slaughtered the population of the suburb, Praga, including women and children. Then, in 1795, the Third Partition wiped what was left of Poland off the map. The King, Stanislaw Augustus, was forced to abdicate and taken captive to St. Petersburg (where he died in 1798).

In the Aftermath of the Partitions

Napoleonic Poland; The Duchy of Warsaw

The Poles felt that one way of restoring independence was to fight for Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1791 Dabrowski organised two legions to fight the Austrians in Lombardy and, later, for the French in the Iberian Peninsula.

Dabrowski, Jan Henryk (b. Pierzchowiec, nr. Bochnia, 1755; d. 1818) is the hero immortalised in the words of the Polish National Anthem;

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginiela poki my zyjemy,Co nam obca przemoc wziela, szabla odbierzemy.Marsz marsz, Dabrowski, z ziemi Wloskiej do Polski!Za twoim przewodem zlaczym sie z narodem."

"Poland is not dead whilst we live,What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back.March march, Dabrowski, from Italy's soil to Poland!Through your leadership we will reunite the nation."

Raised and educated in Saxony, Dabrowski served in the Saxon army where he reached the rank of Rottmeister in a guard cavalry regiment. He served against the Russians during the First Partition in 1792 and then again, in the defence of Warsaw in 1794. When Kosciuszko's Insurrection broke out the Prussian army, which had been laying siege to Warsaw, found itself in a potentially dangerous position; an armed rising in its rear and its ammunition supplies captured at Wroclawek. In their attempt to extricate themselves from this position the Prussians set off for Western Poland only to find themselves harassed in a series of minor operations led by Dabrowski which kept them engaged for weeks. He captured Bydgoszcz (2 October) and ended up driving the Prussians out from the main theatre of war. After the failure of Kosciuszko's Insurrection Dabrowski was invited to serve Russia by Suvorov and Prussia by Frederick William II but he turned them both down, making his way to Paris where he was feted for his military successes. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris. The former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation whilst their opposition was the more liberal, pro-constitutional faction, the Agency led by Kosciuszko's representative, Barss. The aim of the Deputation was to organise an uprising in Poland, organising a Polish military force in Walachia. The Agency put its emphasis on working in league with a foreign power (initially Prussia, then France); Dabrowski allied himself with the Agency. In Paris, thousands of Poles offered to fight in the service of revolutionary France and to reinforce Bonaparte's exhausted armies in Italy. When it emerged that many of the prisoners captured during the Italian campaign were Poles from Galicia, drafted into the Austrian army, it was decided that Dabrowski should organise a Polish Legion (formed in Milan, 9 January 1797) and command it in Italy (1798 - 1801); this met with a furious campaign of denunciations by the Deputation (citing certain unsavoury events in his past including his Prussian connections and favours shown him by the Russian general Suvorov) which were later redoubled when the Legions were used to repress any opposition to Napoleon rather than to live up to the Polish motto of "For our freedom and yours". Dabrowski was given command over the Polish Legions in Italy. With the establishment of the Legion, Poles deserted from the Austrian army in droves and very soon a second Polish Legion was formed (1798) under General Zajaczek (in order to appease the Deputation) and later, in 1800, a third on the Danube under General Kniaziewicz. The Polish Legions suffered terribly during the Italian campaigns; the Second Legion was virtually annihilated in the first battles on the Adige (26 March, 4 April 1799) and after the capitulation of Mantua when they were seized by the Austrians as deserters (as part of a secret agreement between the French commander Foissac-Latour and the Austrians). Dabrowski's Legion also suffered terrible casualties both in the battle on the Trebbia (17 - 19 June 1799) and during the subsequent miserable conditions in the mountains of Liguria. Dabrowski continued to serve as general of Polish troops under Napoleon: on 3 November 1806 he and Wybicki issued a revolutionary appeal to their countrymen in which they quoted Napoleon; "I want to see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation". Dabrowski played an important role during the Polish Campaign when, after the liberation of Poznan, he established a military organisation

made up of levies. When Napoleon reorganised the Polish army under the leadership of Poniatowski (taking the middle way between the extremes of Dabrowski and Zajaczek) Dabrowski could not conceal his embitterment and animosity. Dabrowski's Legion was active in West Prussia and at the siege of Gdansk (Danzig), and later in East Prussia where it saw action at Friedland (1807). As part of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, Dabrowski fought against the Austrians in 1809, the Russians in the campaign of 1812, and at the battle of Leipzig (1813). Returning to Poland in 1813 he was designated by the Tsar to reorganise the Polish army, appointed general of the cavalry in 1815, and senator palatine of the Kingdom of Poland. From his estate at Winnogora, Dabrowski acted as patron of the secret "Society of Scythemen" formed by former Napoleonic soldiers in Poznan; subsequently reformed as a branch of Warsaw's "National Freemasonry" they were to play a useful part during the November Insurrection of 1830.

Napoleon used the Polish Legions in all his campaigns; against Russia, Austria and Prussia, in Egypt, in the West Indies (Santo Domingo), and in Spain (where they fought the British and inspired the formation of the English lancers equipped with Polish-style uniforms and weapons). Some of the Poles became very disillusioned with Bonaparte, realising that they were being manipulated.

Later, in 1806, the French armies defeated the Prussians at Jena and entered Posen (Poznan) led by the Poles under Dabrowski. A year later Napoleon and the Tzar, Alexander, met at Tilsit and agreed to set up a Polish State made up of the lands the Prussians had taken in the second partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon used the Duchy as a pawn in his political game and in 1812 called upon the Lithuanians to rebel as an excuse to attack Russia. One of the great figures of this period was Jozef Poniatowski.

Amongst Stanislaw II's brothers, Michal Poniatowski (b.1736; d.1794) became Primate of Poland (1784) and Andrzej Poniatowski (b. 1735; d. 1773) was a general in the Austrian army. Andrzej's son Prince Jozef Antoni Poniatowski (b. Vienna, 7 May 1763; d. 19 October 1813) was a gifted cavalry officer who served in the Austrian Army (from 1780) and as a representative to the Russian court (1787). He was wounded at the siege of Sabatch, fighting the Turks (1788). In 1789 he became Major General of the Polish Army and fought in the Ukraine (his first lieutenant was Kosciuszko) during the Polish-Russian War (1792). Poniatowski was decorated for his role at Zielence (18 June 1792) where he led one of his early bayonet attacks that were to become his trademark (the victory was commemorated by the establishment of the decoration of the Militari Virtuti Cross). He resigned, in protest, when Stanislaw II joined the Targowica Confederacy, joining the conspiracy to kidnap the King (which came to nought). He fought against the Russians alongside Kosciuszko during the Insurrection (1792 - 94) and joined the French army in 1800. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris where the former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation. When Poniatowski became commander of the Polish forces in Napoleon's army (1806) the Deputation turned against him because of his uncle's Targowica connections. This soured his relationships with his fellow general, Zajaczek who was connected with the Deputation. Unfortunately Poniatowski had also alienated himself with Dabrowski (who was angry at having been overlooked as commander-in-chief). Poniatowski became Minister for War in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) and introduced the concept of universal conscription which helped unite the nation by making its citizens, in carrying out their duty, more aware of their nationality (1808). In 1809 he led the first successful Polish army in the field since the Partitions, against the Austrians who had invaded under the leadership of the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este. Poniatowski barred the way

to Warsaw and at the battle of Raszyn (19 April 1809), where 12,000 Poles faced 25,000 Austrians, the Polish Infantry stubbornly held their ground; it is said that Poniatowski himself took a rifle and went into the front rank with the attacking soldiers. He organised a series of cavalry raids into Galicia that outmanoeuvred superior numbers thus, at the Treaty of Schonbrunn, succeeding in reuniting Krakow and West Galicia with the Duchy. Poles swarmed to his colours from all parts. In the 1812 campaign against Russia, Polish Lancers were the first to cross the Niemen into Russia, playing a crucial part in the battles of Borodino and Smolensk (where Poniatowski was wounded), they were the first to enter Moscow and, under Poniatowski, covering the debacle of the French retreat and saving Napoleon from disaster at the Beresina, being the last out of Russia; 72,000 of the original 100,000 Poles never returned. Poniatowski continued to resist the Russians in the Duchy but in the face of overwhelming odds, and determined to preserve some element of an independent Polish army, chose to stand by Napoleon and retreat into Germany. He showed great valour at the "Battle of the Nations", Leipzig (19 October 1813), where Napoleon raised him to the rank of Marshal of France - the only foreigner to ever be so honoured: in the French retreat at Leipzig the Poles carried out a rearguard action during which the French prematurely blew up the Lindenau Bridge over the River Elster, leaving the Poles stranded on the other side. Having to cross under heavy fire, Poniatowski was mortally wounded and, driving his horse into the river, drowned. His name is inscribed on the roll of honour on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris and he, himself, is buried in the crypt of the Wawel, Krakow. His tomb bears the words "God entrusted to me the Honour of the Poles - and I will render it only to Him."

Poniatowski's ancestors served as ministers in the court of Napoleon III and of President Giscard d'Estang. Jozef's nephew, Prince Jozef Michal (b.1816; d. 1873) was a musical composer who wrote many operas, including "Don Desiderio", and several masses. He was a naturalised Tuscan citizen (1847) but later resided in Paris where he was made a senator by Napoleon III.

Despite the cynical way that Napoleon treated the Poles they remained loyal to him and, when he went into exile on Elba the only guards that Napoleon was allowed were Polish Lancers.

The Fate of Kosciuszko:

Following the death of the Tsarina Catherine II, Kosciuszko was released, going into exile to England, America (where he found himself under surveillance because of his pro-French sympathies and had to be smuggled out by his friend, Thomas Jefferson) and then to France (1798). When, in 1799, the Directory offered him the leadership of the Polish Legions he refused on the grounds that the French had shown no sign of recognising their distinct entity as a Polish national army. Kosciuszko was also uneasy about Napoleon's ambitions and these feelings were confirmed when he proclaimed himself First Consul and then betrayed the hopes of the Legions at the Treaty of Luneville (1801). From then on he distrusted Napoleon and, suspicious of his intentions, refused to support his plan for the restoration of Poland in 1806. With the fall of Napoleon Kosciuszko watched the proceedings at the Congress of Vienna with despair and pleaded with Tsar Alexander for a restoration of Poland, to no avail. He settled at Soleure, Switzerland (1817) where he died. He left all his wealth for the purpose of freeing and educating the Negroes.

"When the Polish nation called me to defend the integrity, the independence, the dignity, the glory and the liberty of the country, she knew full well that I was not the last Pole, and that with my death on the battlefield or elsewhere Poland could not, must not end. All that the

Poles have done since then in the glorious Polish legions and all that they will still do in the future to gain their country back, sufficiently proves that albeit we, the devoted soldiers of that country, are mortal, Poland is immortal"

Kosciuszko to Segur, quoted in M.M. Gardner, "Kosciuszko", London 1920.

On hearing the news of his death the government of the Free City of Krakow applied to the Tsar Alexander I (one of the "protectors", alongside the rulers of Austria and of Prussia, of the City, according to the Congress of Vienna) for permission to inter Kosciuszko within the royal tombs of the Wawel. The Tsar, eager to court the Poles, approved. On 11 April 1818 Kosciuszko's coffin was placed in a chapel in St. Florian's Church and on 22 June taken, amidst great pomp, to the Wawel. He was placed next to the sarcophagi of Sobieski and Jozef Poniatowski. Shortly afterwards it was decided to raise a mound (Kopiec Kosciuszko) to his memory; a form of commemoration unique to the city of Krakow - only two others existed at the time; those of Krakus and Wanda. The work was started in 1820 when soil from Raclawice, and then Maciejowice was brought. In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, earth from the battlefields of America was brought over and deposited on the mound.

The house at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, US, where Kosciuszko stayed during the winter of 1797-1798, was designated as the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in 1972.

The "Congress Kingdom"

In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Duchy was partitioned and a large part went to Russia. In Austria and Prussia there was repression of all Polish attempts to maintain the national culture, but in Russia, fortunately, the Tzar, Alexander I, was a liberal ruler who agreed to the setting up of a semiautonomous "Congress Kingdom" with its own parliament and constitution. This became a time of peace and economic recovery. In 1817 the University of Warsaw was founded. But the accession of Tzar Nicholas I to the throne in 1825 saw the establishment of a more repressive regime.

In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into action. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection.

Wysocki, Piotr (b. 1794; d. 1857), a Second-Lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards and instructor at the Warsaw Infantry School, conspired with Colonel Jozef Zaliwski (b. 1797; d. 1855) to bring about an armed rebellion in 1830. They met up with a band of civilian conspirators who were planning to assassinate the Grand Duke Constantine. The situation in Warsaw was tense; the authorities knew mutiny was afoot and the conspirators expected to be seized at any moment - action was inevitable. On the night of 29 November 1830 an assassination squad attacked the Belweder Palace with the intention of killing or capturing the Grand Duke whilst Wysocki led a force of cadets to seize the Arsenal. Unfortunately everything went wrong and a night of chaos ensued. The attack on the Belweder failed because the Grand Duke was hidden by his servants and when Wysocki's attack failed he had to retreat. Lacking a leader the insurgents marched into the city and asked Generals Trebicki and Potocki (who they met on the way) to take command. When they refused they were shot.

Owing to the ineptitude of the original conspirators the political leadership of the Rising passed into the hands of people who had never sought an armed rising in the first place and, hence, vacillated; the Russian Tsar, on the other hand, didn't.

The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

The 1830 Revolution inspired the work of two great Poles living in exile; Chopin, the composer, and Mickiewicz, the poet.

Chopin, Fryderyk Francois (b. Zelazowa Wola, nr. Warsaw, 22 February 1810; d. Paris,1849), born of a French father and Polish mother, was a composer and pianist whose music has been seen as the very spirit of Polishness, using Polish folk melodies as the basic inspiration of many of his works, and it can be said that he played an important part in the promotion of Polish culture and nationhood in the salons of the European bourgeoisie. He was trained at the newly-opened Warsaw Conservatoire under Elsner (the director), and first played in public at the age of nine, publishing his first work in 1825. He left Poland to study abroad in 1830 just before the Revolution which was bloodily suppressed by the Russians and inspired his emotional Etude op.10, no.12; "Revolutionary". He was never to return to Poland. Living in France he became closely linked with the Polish poets of the Emigration and followed their use of national folk traditions, building his own compositions (his Polonaises and Mazurkas) on the national dances. Among his musical innovations were his harmonies, the range of his arpeggios and chords, and his use of the pedal. He became famous and gave concerts in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and other European cities, but refused to play in Russia. He suffered from consumption which was aggravated by a trip to England (1837). He had an intimate relationship with George Sand (pseudonym of the writer, Amandine Aurore Lucie) from 1838 - 47, who took him to Majorca (1838) and nursed him back to health but the relationship broke down after he took George's daughter's side in a family argument; she later depicted him as Prince Karol in her novel "Lucrezia Floriani". He died in Paris; he is buried at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery but his heart is in an urn in a pillar of the Kosciol sw. Krzyza (Church of the Holy Cross) on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw. His works for the piano alone include 55 mazurkas, 13 polonaises, 24 preludes, 27 etudes, 19 nocturnes, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos and a number of songs. During the Second World War his music was banned by the Nazis as subversive. A crater on Mercury is named after him (64.5°S, 124°W).

Mickiewicz, Adam (b. near Nowogrodek, 24 December 1798. d. Constantinople, 185), never set foot in Warsaw or Krakow even though he is Poland's national poet and is revered as the moral leader of the nation during the dark years after the Partitions. He became a student at Wilno University (1815), publishing his first volumes of poetry in 1822 and 1823, introducing Romanticism into Polish literature. At Wilno, which was a hotbed of patriotic sympathy and discussion, he was a co-founder of the clandestine group known as the Philomaths ("Lovers of Learning") in which the members discussed a wide range of topics including the liberation of Poland. A small group of Philomaths, Mickiewicz amongst them, formed a more radical organisation, the Philarets ("Lovers of Virtue") which included a number of Russians who were later to be a part of the Decembrist conspiracy. An outbreak of patriotism in the university led to the arrest of the leading Philomats and Philarets for anti-Tsarist activity and,

in 1824, Mickiewicz was sentenced to exile in Russia (1824 - 29); to St. Petersburg, Odessa (1825) and to Moscow where he taught and made friends with a number of Russian writers, including Pushkin, Ryleiev and Bestushev (and through these latter two, many of the future Decembrist conspirators). In Odessa he wrote his "Crimean Sonnets" (1826) recording his impressions of his travels to Crimea;

"I love to lean against Ayudah's faceAnd watch the frothing waves as on they pour,Dark ranks close-pressed, then burst like snow and soarA million silver rainbows arched in space.They strike the sands, they break and interlace;Like whales in battle that beset the shore,They seize the land and then retreat once more, Shells, pearls, and corals scattered in their race..."

Sonnet XVIII; "The Rock of Ayudah", trans. D.P.Radin, 1929.

In Moscow, he wrote his first overtly political poem, "Konrad Wallenrod" (1828); about a Lithuanian child captured by the Teutonic Knights, who is brought up by them and raised to the rank of Grand Master only to lead his Order to defeat at the hands of his own people. He left Russia in 1829, barely managing to board his ship, "George V", in Konstadt before the Tsar's orders revoking his departure could reach him. Mickiewicz travelled throughout the West; in Berlin he attended the lectures given by Hegel and was the guest of Goethe at Weimar. He finally made his way to Italy and whilst in Rome heard of the Warsaw Uprising of December 1830. Hurrying to join the struggle Mickiewicz only managed to reach Dresden before the uprising was put down. Here in Dresden in 1832 he created Part III of "Dziady" ("Forefather's Eve"), a mixture of Greek tragedy and mediaeval morality play that powerfully speaks of the heroism and martyrdom of a people fighting for freedom, and was later banned by the Communists, until 1970, for its anti-Russian attitude:

"Now my soul lives in my countryAnd in my body dwells her soul;My fatherland and I are one great whole.My name is million, for I love as millions:Their pain and suffering I feel;I gaze upon my country fallen on daysOf torment, as a son would gazeUpon his father broken on the wheel.I feel within myself my country's massacreJust as a mother feels the tormentOf her children within her womb."

Moving on to Paris (1832) it was here, in 1834, that Adam Mickiewicz produced his masterpiece: "Pan Tadeusz"; a novel in verse which evokes the almost fairy-tale life of the nobility in Lithuania through to the heroic march of Napoleon's Polish Legions through Lithuania to Russia in 1812. In a time before modern Nationalism imposed limitations on what it means to be a "Pole", Mickiewicz, like many others, saw no contradiction in being a Pole and a Lithuanian at the same time; the Noble Republic and Polishness (in non-nationalistic terms) were the same. Hence, his greatest poem begins;

"O Lithuania, my country, thouArt like good health; I never knew till nowHow precious, till I lost thee. Now I seeThy beauty whole, because I yearn for thee."

In 1834 Mickiewicz married Celina Szymanowska, daughter of the pianist and composer, Maria with whom he was closely attached since his days in St. Petersburg. For the last twenty years of his life Adam Mickiewicz virtually ceased writing. He was offered, and accepted, the chair of Roman Literature at Lausanne, Switzerland, (1839) but left to became professor of Slavic literature at the College de France, Paris (1840). Mickiewicz lost the post in 1845, for political activities. Around this time he came under the strong influence of Andrzej Towianski who had set up a sect. In 1848, in Lombardy, he formed a Polish Legion which fought with Garibaldi in the defence of Rome. Mickiewicz returned to Paris where he founded and edited the political daily, "La Tribune Des Peuples" (March - April 1849) sponsored by Ksawery Branicki. The journal was dedicated to the ideals of brotherhood and the solidarity of nations in the struggle against despotism and attracted a number of radical writers noted for their revolutionary, democratic, and socialist views. It suffered continued harassment by the authorities and did not outlast the year; Mickiewicz had to work secretly for the journal because of threats to deport him from France. In 1852, Louis Napoleon appointed him as a librarian in the Paris Arsenal. On the outbreak of the Crimean War (1855) he went to Turkey to organise Polish forces to be used in the war against Russia. With his friend, Armand Levy, he set about organising a Jewish Legion, the Hussars of Israel, composed of Russian and Palestinian Jews. During a visit to a military camp near Constantinople he caught cholera and died suddenly. His body was taken back to France (1856) and buried at Montmorency but, in 1890, his remains were transferred to Krakow and laid next to Kosciuszko's in the Wawel. A crater on Mercury is named after him (23.5°N, 19°W).

The "Great Emigration"

The failure of the Insurrection forced thousands of Poles to flee to the West; Paris became the spiritual capital. Many of these exiles contributed greatly to Polish and European culture. Joachim Lelewel became Poland's greatest historian, Chopin her greatest composer, and Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski and Norwid among her greatest poets. Adam Czartoryski set up court at the Hotel Lambert, in Paris, which played an important part in keeping the Polish question alive in European politics.

Czartoryski;

The Czartoryskis were a noble Polish-Lithuanian family, which included the brothers, Prince Fryderyk Michal (b.1696; d. 1775) and August (b. 1697; d. 1782), both of whom were statesman under Stanislaw Poniatowski and had a major influence on Polish policy during the reign of Augustus III. August's marriage to Poland's richest heiress, Zofia Sieniawska (b. 1699; d. 1771), brought an enormous fortune to the family and, with it, great influence. They supported the King and aspired to high office. Allied to their brother-in-law, Stanislaw Poniatowski (this influential and powerful alliance of the Czartoryskis and the Poniatowskis became known as "The Family"), they tried to push reforms through the court but were constantly blocked by the "republicans" led by the Potockis. Faced with such strong opposition the Czartoryskis deluded themselves into believing that they could manipulate the Russians for their own ends (Poniatowski had had a love affair with the Grand duchess Catherine in 1755 - 58) and conceived of a coup d'etat (1763). The Russians,now ruled by

Catherine II, the Great, and the Prussians, under Frederick II, were opposed to the idea of any change in the Commonwealth's institutions which they found convenient to their own ends but, in turn, manipulated the Czartoryskis and elected Stanislaw Poniatowski to the throne. Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland; the reign was totally controlled by Russia.

Adam Kazimierz (b. Gdansk, 1734 ; d. 1823), was the unsuccessful candidate for the Polish throne at the death of Augustus III. He married Izabella Elzbieta Flemming (b. 1746; d. 1835) who became an important influence on the family and the cultural life of Poland during the Enlightenment. She commissioned the leading Neoclassical architect of the day, Aigner, to redesign the palace at Pulawy and summoned a team of international experts, including John Savage (who had recently designed Warsaw's Saski Gardens) to landscape the park (1788 - 1810) wherein Aigner built two museum buildings (the first in Poland); the Temple of the Sybil (1801) and the Gothic House (1809) within which were displayed the vast Czartoryski collection of art and antiquities. Izabella was the first to attempt to build an English landscape garden in Poland, at Powazki on the outskirts of Warsaw (now occupied by the Catholic Cemetery). She established a school for the education of the daughters of impoverished nobles and wrote the first Polish History textbook for elementary schools. Under the influence of Izabella Pulawy became a rival to Warsaw as the chief centre of Polish cultural life, especially after the Partitions. Their daughter Maria (b. 1768; d. 1854) became Duchess of Wurtemburg and a novelist.

Probably the greatest Polish statesman of the C19th., Adam Jerzy (b. Warsaw,1770; d.nr. Paris,1861), son of Adam Kazimierz and Izabella, was educated at Edinburgh and London, and strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. Czartoryski fought against the Russians in the Insurrection of 1794 and, sent as a hostage to St. Petersburg, gained the friendship of the Grand-Duke Alexander and the Emperor Paul who made him ambassador to Sardinia. In 1801, on ascending the throne, Alexander,as part of his plan to transform Russia into a modern constitutional monarchy, appointed Czartoryski as assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and placed in charge of education in the former Polish territories. As curator of the University of Wilna (1803) he used his influence to keep a spirit of Polish-Lithuanian nationalism alive and when some of the students (including Adam Mickiewicz) were arrested and some sent in exile to Siberia (1823), he was removed from his office. Czartoryski was a member of the Russian delegation to the Congress of Vienna set up after the defeat of Napoleon (20 July 1815), and was responsible for drawing up the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland established by the Congress; it was the most liberal constitution in Central Europe. When the Polish Sejm began to act as a normal parliament Alexander, whose enthusiasm for liberalism had waned, dissolved it in 1820. Alexander's successor, Nicholas, became even less amenable to Polish wishes after the Decembrist Revolt; this Russian secret society had forged close links with Polish conspirators who were arrested and placed on trial for high treason only to be cleared by the Sejm Tribunal (having acted on the advice of Czartoryski himself) and served with a more lenient sentence for participating in clandestine organisations (1828). Czartoryski became actively involved in the Revolution of 1830 and was elected president of the provisional government. He summoned the Sejm in January 1831, which declared the Polish throne vacant and elected Czartoryski as head of the national government. He immediately donated half of his large estates to public service. He resigned in August 1831 but continued as a common soldier. After the suppression of the Revolution Czartoryski was excluded from the amnesty, condemned to death and his estates confiscated; he escaped to Paris where he purchased the old palace, the Hotel Lambert. In Paris, Lelewel's Permanent National Committee (set up December 1831) tried to fix the blame on the failure of the

Insurrection on the leaders of the conservative group leading to a virtual civil war between the two factions as they tried to direct the Polish cause in their own way. The man who emerged as leader of the conservative faction was Prince Adam Czartoryski, becoming the focus of Polish hopes; Czartoryski himself was referred to as the "de facto king of Poland". He ran a vast network ready to spring into action whenever the opportunity lent itself and in effect put the "Polish Question" firmly on the European agenda. The activity of his agents in the Balkans contributed enormously to the awakening of national consciousness in that region and helped Serbia shake off Russian influence. He rented land from the Sultan in order to provide homes for insurgents who had retreated into the Ottoman Empire after the failure of the 1830 Uprising (1842); this was the colony of Polonezkoy or Adampol which was enlarged after each unsuccessful attempt at liberation. In 1848 he appealed, unsuccessfully, to Pope Pius IX to create a Polish Legion to fight on Italy's side against Austria. He freed his serfs in Galicia (1848) and during the Crimean War worked hard to induce the allies to link the Polish cause with that of Turkey. In 1857 Czartoryski set up a publishing house producing the periodical "Wiadomosci Polskie" ("News From Poland") which became very popular amongst the exiles. He also set up the Bureau des Affaires Polonaises (Bureau of Polish Affairs, 1858). He refused the subsequent amnesty offered him by Alexander II. His son, Wladyslaw (b.1828; d. 1894) opened the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow (1878) after the Czartoryski properties were confiscated by the State. He was a collector of Egyptian art and there are some very important pieces among the antiquities which form only a part of the rich collection in Krakow.

Continued Resistance: "For Your Freedom and Ours"

The insurrection in the semi-independent City of Krakow in 1846 was doomed from the start. The insurrectionists had hoped to gain the support of the local peasantry (recalling the victory at Raclawice) but the peasants, having never benefited from the liberal ideals proposed by the intelligentsia, used the insurrection as an excuse to rid themselves of their landlords; it was the last "jacquerie" (or peasants' uprising) in European history. The insurrectionist forces were defeated by a combination of Austrian and peasant forces at the battle of Gdow and the insurrection was put down with great brutality by the Austrians, resulting in the abolition of the Commonwealth of Krakow.

In 1848 "the Springtime of Nations" (a revolutionary movement towards greater democracy in much of Europe) saw large-scale contributions by the Poles; in Italy, Mickiewicz organised a small legion to fight for Italian independence from Austria, whilst in Hungary, Generals Dembinski and Bem led 3,000 Poles in the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. There were also unsuccessful uprisings in Poznan (Posen), against the Prussians, and in Eastern Galicia, against the Austrians.

Starting in 1863, the "January Uprising" against the Russians lasted for more than a year and a half. A Provisional government was established and more than 1,200 skirmishes were fought, mostly in the deep forests under the command of Romuald Traugutt.

Traugutt, Romuald; b. 1825; d. 1864. During the January Insurrection of 1863 the underground state was forced to organise one of the world's earliest campaigns of urban guerrilla warfare, centred on Warsaw, and to use hit-and-run tactics in the countryside. Due to initial setbacks and the isolation of different groups there was a great deal of political in-fighting between the different factions - the Social Democrat "Reds", and the more moderate "Whites" - which only ended when Traugutt, a Lithuanian landowner from Podlasie, became

its political and military commander (October 1863). Formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army, he had served in both Hungary and the Crimea. In May 1863 he took command of a force of guerrillas in the Dziadkowicki Forest, near Kobryn, and in July went to Warsaw where he was given office under Karol Majewski (b. 1833; d. 1897), the over-all commander at the time. A "White" with "Red" sympathies, he represented the National Government abroad, meeting with Napoleon III, and was quickly convinced that there would be little support from the West. On returning to Warsaw, based at the Saski Hotel, he seized control of the underground state and became Dictator. With the help of General Jozef Hauke, he completely reorganised the existing military structures, establishing a regular army and abolishing all independent formations - as a result the Insurrection revived and expanded its area of operations. With no support from abroad the Insurrection began to peter out and the final stroke came with the emancipation of the peasants, which sanctioned the state of affairs created by the Insurrection (2 March 1864), and Traugutt's arrest in the night of 10/11 August 1864. He was imprisoned in Pawiak, tried, condemned to death and hanged (5 August 1864). The Insurrection had kept Europe's largest military machine tied down for eighteen months and had involved not only the szlachta but, in its final stages, also the peasants (who had fought its very last engagement). The subsequent suppression of the Rising permanently scarred a generation of Poles; thousands were sent into exile to Siberia - the cream of the nation. Most never returned. The name of the Kingdom of Poland was changed to the "Vistula Province". The Insurrection of 1863 was a watershed in Polish history; the social structure changed as the peasants finally gained their freedom in Russia in 1864 (serfdom had been abolished in Prussia in 1823, and in Austria in 1848) and slowly made their way to economic, then political, power. After 1864 the Polish struggle becomes a genuinely national struggle as politicians vie for the attention of all the classes, especially the peasants. But the situation also changed after 1864 as one sees an almost universal rejection of the idea of gaining independence through revolution.

The Uprising was finally put down in 1865, and the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a severe policy of persecution and "Russification" established. The University of Warsaw and all schools were closed down, use of the Polish language was forbidden in most public places and the Catholic Church was persecuted. The Kingdom of Poland became known as the "Vistula Province".

In the Prussian occupied zone the aim was to totally destroy the Polish language and culture; from 1872 German became compulsory in all schools and it was a crime to be caught speaking in Polish. There was a systematic attempt to uproot Polish Peasants from their land.

In Austrian Poland, Galicia, conditions were different. After 1868 the Poles had a degree of self-government, the Polish language was kept as the official language and the Universities of Krakow and Lwow were allowed to function. As a result this area witnessed a splendid revival of Polish culture, including the works of the painter Jan Matejko, and the writers Kraszewski, Prus and Sienkiewicz.

Matejko, Jan Alojzy; (b. Krakow, 1838. d. Krakow, 1893). It would be difficult to find another artist, anywhere, like Matejko - Poland's greatest painter of historical scenes,who was born, worked and died in Krakow. Matejko was trained at Krakow and Munich (1859) and, briefly, in Vienna. He was adored by his public for his nationalistic themes painted in a highly realistic manner. He created powerful, inspired works which have played an important role in preserving national unity and pride in national achievements at times of crisis, notably during the Partitions; Poles view their history through Matejko's images. His prodigious output

includes about ten monumental pieces. His method of working consisted of detailed research and a study of written sources. His early paintings are in a dark Venetian manner but his later pieces became lighter and resembled the Late-Baroque revival style favoured by some Viennese painters. Amongst his greatest works are: "The Battle of Grunwald" (1872 - 75) - for which he received a sceptre as the sign of his being "the king of art", and which achieved notoriety when it was reproduced as a Polish stamp in 1960, being the largest Polish stamp produced; "Batory at Pskov"(1872); "Hold Pruski" ("The Prussian Homage", 1882); "Sobieski at the Gates of Vienna" (1883) which was presented by Matejko to the Vatican; and "Kosciuszko at Raclawice"(1888); all of which act as historical "time-capsules" recording not only the events but also the costumes and, particularly, the unique military costumes of the Commonwealth. Matejko also painted some outstanding family portraits and self-portraits, as well as a series "A Retinue of Polish Kings and Princes" with which most Polish children are acquainted. In 1889 - 91 he worked on the polychromatic decoration in the Mariacki, Krakow, with his pupils, Wyspianski and Mehoffer, as his assistants. He played an important role in saving the 1650 Baroque altar from being removed from Wawel Cathedral and encouraged the renovation of the Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall) in the Rynek. He became Director of the Academy, Krakow and received many medals from abroad, including the French Legion of Honour (1870).

His home at 41 ul. Florianska was turned into the Matejko Museum in 1898 and is now a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

Kraszewski, Jozef Ignacy; (b. Warsaw, 1812; d. Geneva, 1887). One of the most prolific of all Polish authors, he wrote novels, plays, verse (including an epic on the history of Lithuania, "Anafielas", 1843), criticism and historical works; a total of around seven hundred volumes earning himself the title of "the father of the Polish novel". Educated at Wilno University, he spent some time in prison as a student. He became fascinated by Lithuania and collected information about her local customs and history. For a while he was inspector of schools and directed the theatre in Zhitomir before going on to edit a newspaper in Warsaw. After being dismissed and put on a black-list by the authorities he moved to Dresden where he soon drew attention to himself, was arrested as a dangerous element and imprisoned at Magdeburg (1883). His health ruined, he settled in San Remo, Italy, where he lost all his belongings in an earthquake. Amongst his works (some of which have been seen as a literary equivalent of Matejko's historical paintings) are "Stara Basn" ("An Ancient Tale", 1876) about a prehistoric and pre-Christian community, "Jermola Ulana" (1843), "Kordecki" (1852), culture romances "Morituri" (1875) and "Resurrecti" (1876), and several political novels under the pseudonym of Boleslawita.

Prus, Boleslaw (pseudonym of: Aleksander Glowacki); (b. Hrubieszow, 1847; d. 1912). One of the greatest of Polish novelists, a member of the minor szlachta, Prus is regarded by many as second only to Sienkiewicz. He joined a guerrilla unit and was wounded during the January Insurrection of 1863 and spent some time in prison after it. Fascinated by mathematics and the natural sciences, Prus was obliged to write in order to make some money. He was a Positivist in that he believed that progress can cure all ills, but he gradually became more sceptical as he grew older. He claimed a great debt to Herbert Spencer. Initially he wrote articles for various Warsaw periodicals, "Weekly Chronicles" which observed the everyday world around him. He turned to writing fiction, starting with short stories where poverty played an important role and his characters are treated with a gentle humour. His novel "The Outpost" (1885) tells of the obstinate refusal of the illiterate peasant, Slimak ("snail"), to sell his patch of land to the German colonists gradually taking over his Posnanian village; but Slimak is not portrayed as a

hero - it is his faults (rather than any virtues) that carry him through to victory. Amongst his chief works are "Pharaoh" (1897) which is essentially the story of a struggle for power between a young militaristic idealist and the cunning priests in decaying Ancient Egypt, and "Lalka" ("The Doll") - considered by many to be the best Polish novel - set in Warsaw it was the first Polish novel to deal with the lives, social problems and conflicts of the urban middle class. The hero of "Lalka" is the capitalist Wokulski, a former Insurrectionist who had been exiled to Siberia and, on returning to Warsaw, was employed in a shop. Through marriage he comes into money and dreams of using his wealth in the services of science and progress but finds himself lured frivolously away from his high ideals by falling in love with a worthless aristocratic woman, Isabella. Wokulski is contrasted, in a subtle way, with the Romantic, Rzecki - constantly excited, a believer in great causes and shy admirer of women. Prus is buried in the Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw.

Sienkiewicz, Henryk; (b. Wola Okrzejska, Podlasie, 1846. d. Vevey, Switzerland, 1916). Perhaps one of the most popular Polish authors, famous for his historical novels mainly dealing with Poland's past. Sienkiewicz was educated in Warsaw and then became a journalist whose gift for observation, taste for adventure and attention to detail served him well. He went to the US in 1876 charged with finding somewhere suitable for a group of Varsovian writers and artists (including the actress Helena Modrzejewski) who wished to migrate and establish a colony there; he chose Anaheim, California. He was enthused by the redwood forests and the Sierras (and some of this landscape would serve to inspire his descriptions of the primeval forests of his novels). The group soon tired of the "good life" and went their separate ways. Sienkiewicz went back to writing and sent a series of "Letters from America" to the Polish newspapers which made his reputation; he wrote about New York, California, and the campaign against Sitting Bull. His "Charcoal Sketches", a short novel about a Polish village, was actually written in Los Angeles. Sienkiewicz went to Paris in 1878 and then on to Poland. His tremendously popular patriotic "Trilogy"; "Ogniem i Mieczem" ("With Fire and Sword"),"Potop" ("The Deluge"), and "Pan Wolodyjowski", 1884-1888, was serialised in the newspapers and a "must" for every young Pole. The "Trilogy" deals with the adventurous days of the Husaria (the winged cavalry) in the Polish-Cossack, Polish-Swedish and Polish-Turkish wars. His masterful evocation of the historical atmosphere of the times is reminiscent of Dumas and played an important role in forging the Polish image of itself and its destiny. The novels are full of unforgetful characters such as Zagloba, the Falstaff-like nobleman who - though a braggart - could use his cunning and courage to extricate himself from some serious circumstances; the noble officers Skretuski and Wolodyjowski; and the central character of "The Deluge", Kmicic who undergoes his own Calvary which parallels that of the nation during the Swedish invasion and the siege of Czestochowa. His fame in the West was secured by the novel on ancient Rome portraying the early days of Christianity struggling against the decadence of Nero's court, "Quo Vadis?" (1896) which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. His novel, "Krzyzacy" ("The Teutonic Knights", 1900), written during the worst days of Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" against the Poles in Posnania, deals with the days when the existence of Poland and Lithuania were threatened by the Teutonic Order and culminates in the battle of Grunwald. Sienkiewicz's writings are often used in Polish dictionaries as examples of good prose. At the outbreak of WW1, Sienkiewicz worked for the Red Cross Fund at Vevey in Switzerland.

All three powers kept Poland economically weak in this period of technological progress. Despite this the Poles managed to make some progress; the textile industry began to flourish in Lodz (the "Polish Manchester") and coal-mining developed rapidly. In Prussian Poland, despite ruthless oppression, the Poles concentrated on light industry and agriculture (and

before long Poznan became the chief source of food for the whole of Germany). In Silesia, under German rule since 1742, the development of mining and heavy industry made her a chief industrial centre and thus the Prussian attempt to exterminate all traces of Polish language and culture was at its most ruthless, yet they survived.

Despite its abolition by Kosciuszko in 1794 the partitioning powers restored serfdom. It was not abolished in Prussia until 1823, in Austria until 1848 and in Russia until 1861 (but not in her "Polish" territories).

In 1905 the Russo-Japanese War saw a series of humiliating defeats for the Russians and civil unrest in Russia. In Poland there was a wave of strikes and demonstrations demanding civil rights. Polish pupils went on strike, walking out of Russian schools and a private organisation, the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" ("Polish Education Society"), was set up under the patronage of the great novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Then, in 1906, Jozef Pilsudski, a founder-member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), began to set up a number of paramilitary organisations which attacked Tzarist officials and carried out raids on post offices, tax-offices and mail-trains. In Galicia the Austrian authorities turned a blind eye to the setting up of a number of "sporting" clubs, followed by a Riflemen's Union. In 1912, Pilsudski reorganised these on military lines and by 1914 had nearly 12,000 men under arms.

In the Aftermath of the Partitions

Napoleonic Poland; The Duchy of Warsaw

The Poles felt that one way of restoring independence was to fight for Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1791 Dabrowski organised two legions to fight the Austrians in Lombardy and, later, for the French in the Iberian Peninsula.

Dabrowski, Jan Henryk (b. Pierzchowiec, nr. Bochnia, 1755; d. 1818) is the hero immortalised in the words of the Polish National Anthem;

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginiela poki my zyjemy,Co nam obca przemoc wziela, szabla odbierzemy.Marsz marsz, Dabrowski, z ziemi Wloskiej do Polski!Za twoim przewodem zlaczym sie z narodem."

"Poland is not dead whilst we live,What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back.March march, Dabrowski, from Italy's soil to Poland!Through your leadership we will reunite the nation."

Raised and educated in Saxony, Dabrowski served in the Saxon army where he reached the rank of Rottmeister in a guard cavalry regiment. He served against the Russians during the First Partition in 1792 and then again, in the defence of Warsaw in 1794. When Kosciuszko's Insurrection broke out the Prussian army, which had been laying siege to Warsaw, found itself in a potentially dangerous position; an armed rising in its rear and its ammunition supplies captured at Wroclawek. In their attempt to extricate themselves from this position the Prussians set off for Western Poland only to find themselves harassed in a series of minor

operations led by Dabrowski which kept them engaged for weeks. He captured Bydgoszcz (2 October) and ended up driving the Prussians out from the main theatre of war. After the failure of Kosciuszko's Insurrection Dabrowski was invited to serve Russia by Suvorov and Prussia by Frederick William II but he turned them both down, making his way to Paris where he was feted for his military successes. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris. The former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation whilst their opposition was the more liberal, pro-constitutional faction, the Agency led by Kosciuszko's representative, Barss. The aim of the Deputation was to organise an uprising in Poland, organising a Polish military force in Walachia. The Agency put its emphasis on working in league with a foreign power (initially Prussia, then France); Dabrowski allied himself with the Agency. In Paris, thousands of Poles offered to fight in the service of revolutionary France and to reinforce Bonaparte's exhausted armies in Italy. When it emerged that many of the prisoners captured during the Italian campaign were Poles from Galicia, drafted into the Austrian army, it was decided that Dabrowski should organise a Polish Legion (formed in Milan, 9 January 1797) and command it in Italy (1798 - 1801); this met with a furious campaign of denunciations by the Deputation (citing certain unsavoury events in his past including his Prussian connections and favours shown him by the Russian general Suvorov) which were later redoubled when the Legions were used to repress any opposition to Napoleon rather than to live up to the Polish motto of "For our freedom and yours". Dabrowski was given command over the Polish Legions in Italy. With the establishment of the Legion, Poles deserted from the Austrian army in droves and very soon a second Polish Legion was formed (1798) under General Zajaczek (in order to appease the Deputation) and later, in 1800, a third on the Danube under General Kniaziewicz. The Polish Legions suffered terribly during the Italian campaigns; the Second Legion was virtually annihilated in the first battles on the Adige (26 March, 4 April 1799) and after the capitulation of Mantua when they were seized by the Austrians as deserters (as part of a secret agreement between the French commander Foissac-Latour and the Austrians). Dabrowski's Legion also suffered terrible casualties both in the battle on the Trebbia (17 - 19 June 1799) and during the subsequent miserable conditions in the mountains of Liguria. Dabrowski continued to serve as general of Polish troops under Napoleon: on 3 November 1806 he and Wybicki issued a revolutionary appeal to their countrymen in which they quoted Napoleon; "I want to see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation". Dabrowski played an important role during the Polish Campaign when, after the liberation of Poznan, he established a military organisation made up of levies. When Napoleon reorganised the Polish army under the leadership of Poniatowski (taking the middle way between the extremes of Dabrowski and Zajaczek) Dabrowski could not conceal his embitterment and animosity. Dabrowski's Legion was active in West Prussia and at the siege of Gdansk (Danzig), and later in East Prussia where it saw action at Friedland (1807). As part of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, Dabrowski fought against the Austrians in 1809, the Russians in the campaign of 1812, and at the battle of Leipzig (1813). Returning to Poland in 1813 he was designated by the Tsar to reorganise the Polish army, appointed general of the cavalry in 1815, and senator palatine of the Kingdom of Poland. From his estate at Winnogora, Dabrowski acted as patron of the secret "Society of Scythemen" formed by former Napoleonic soldiers in Poznan; subsequently reformed as a branch of Warsaw's "National Freemasonry" they were to play a useful part during the November Insurrection of 1830.

Napoleon used the Polish Legions in all his campaigns; against Russia, Austria and Prussia, in Egypt, in the West Indies (Santo Domingo), and in Spain (where they fought the British and inspired the formation of the English lancers equipped with Polish-style uniforms and

weapons). Some of the Poles became very disillusioned with Bonaparte, realising that they were being manipulated.

Later, in 1806, the French armies defeated the Prussians at Jena and entered Posen (Poznan) led by the Poles under Dabrowski. A year later Napoleon and the Tzar, Alexander, met at Tilsit and agreed to set up a Polish State made up of the lands the Prussians had taken in the second partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon used the Duchy as a pawn in his political game and in 1812 called upon the Lithuanians to rebel as an excuse to attack Russia. One of the great figures of this period was Jozef Poniatowski.

Amongst Stanislaw II's brothers, Michal Poniatowski (b.1736; d.1794) became Primate of Poland (1784) and Andrzej Poniatowski (b. 1735; d. 1773) was a general in the Austrian army. Andrzej's son Prince Jozef Antoni Poniatowski (b. Vienna, 7 May 1763; d. 19 October 1813) was a gifted cavalry officer who served in the Austrian Army (from 1780) and as a representative to the Russian court (1787). He was wounded at the siege of Sabatch, fighting the Turks (1788). In 1789 he became Major General of the Polish Army and fought in the Ukraine (his first lieutenant was Kosciuszko) during the Polish-Russian War (1792). Poniatowski was decorated for his role at Zielence (18 June 1792) where he led one of his early bayonet attacks that were to become his trademark (the victory was commemorated by the establishment of the decoration of the Militari Virtuti Cross). He resigned, in protest, when Stanislaw II joined the Targowica Confederacy, joining the conspiracy to kidnap the King (which came to nought). He fought against the Russians alongside Kosciuszko during the Insurrection (1792 - 94) and joined the French army in 1800. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris where the former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation. When Poniatowski became commander of the Polish forces in Napoleon's army (1806) the Deputation turned against him because of his uncle's Targowica connections. This soured his relationships with his fellow general, Zajaczek who was connected with the Deputation. Unfortunately Poniatowski had also alienated himself with Dabrowski (who was angry at having been overlooked as commander-in-chief). Poniatowski became Minister for War in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) and introduced the concept of universal conscription which helped unite the nation by making its citizens, in carrying out their duty, more aware of their nationality (1808). In 1809 he led the first successful Polish army in the field since the Partitions, against the Austrians who had invaded under the leadership of the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este. Poniatowski barred the way to Warsaw and at the battle of Raszyn (19 April 1809), where 12,000 Poles faced 25,000 Austrians, the Polish Infantry stubbornly held their ground; it is said that Poniatowski himself took a rifle and went into the front rank with the attacking soldiers. He organised a series of cavalry raids into Galicia that outmanoeuvred superior numbers thus, at the Treaty of Schonbrunn, succeeding in reuniting Krakow and West Galicia with the Duchy. Poles swarmed to his colours from all parts. In the 1812 campaign against Russia, Polish Lancers were the first to cross the Niemen into Russia, playing a crucial part in the battles of Borodino and Smolensk (where Poniatowski was wounded), they were the first to enter Moscow and, under Poniatowski, covering the debacle of the French retreat and saving Napoleon from disaster at the Beresina, being the last out of Russia; 72,000 of the original 100,000 Poles never returned. Poniatowski continued to resist the Russians in the Duchy but in the face of overwhelming odds, and determined to preserve some element of an independent Polish army, chose to stand by Napoleon and retreat into Germany. He showed great valour at the "Battle of the Nations", Leipzig (19 October 1813), where Napoleon raised him to the rank of Marshal of France - the only foreigner to ever be so honoured: in the French retreat at Leipzig the Poles carried out a rearguard action during which the French prematurely blew up the

Lindenau Bridge over the River Elster, leaving the Poles stranded on the other side. Having to cross under heavy fire, Poniatowski was mortally wounded and, driving his horse into the river, drowned. His name is inscribed on the roll of honour on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris and he, himself, is buried in the crypt of the Wawel, Krakow. His tomb bears the words "God entrusted to me the Honour of the Poles - and I will render it only to Him."

Poniatowski's ancestors served as ministers in the court of Napoleon III and of President Giscard d'Estang. Jozef's nephew, Prince Jozef Michal (b.1816; d. 1873) was a musical composer who wrote many operas, including "Don Desiderio", and several masses. He was a naturalised Tuscan citizen (1847) but later resided in Paris where he was made a senator by Napoleon III.

Despite the cynical way that Napoleon treated the Poles they remained loyal to him and, when he went into exile on Elba the only guards that Napoleon was allowed were Polish Lancers.

The Fate of Kosciuszko:

Following the death of the Tsarina Catherine II, Kosciuszko was released, going into exile to England, America (where he found himself under surveillance because of his pro-French sympathies and had to be smuggled out by his friend, Thomas Jefferson) and then to France (1798). When, in 1799, the Directory offered him the leadership of the Polish Legions he refused on the grounds that the French had shown no sign of recognising their distinct entity as a Polish national army. Kosciuszko was also uneasy about Napoleon's ambitions and these feelings were confirmed when he proclaimed himself First Consul and then betrayed the hopes of the Legions at the Treaty of Luneville (1801). From then on he distrusted Napoleon and, suspicious of his intentions, refused to support his plan for the restoration of Poland in 1806. With the fall of Napoleon Kosciuszko watched the proceedings at the Congress of Vienna with despair and pleaded with Tsar Alexander for a restoration of Poland, to no avail. He settled at Soleure, Switzerland (1817) where he died. He left all his wealth for the purpose of freeing and educating the Negroes.

"When the Polish nation called me to defend the integrity, the independence, the dignity, the glory and the liberty of the country, she knew full well that I was not the last Pole, and that with my death on the battlefield or elsewhere Poland could not, must not end. All that the Poles have done since then in the glorious Polish legions and all that they will still do in the future to gain their country back, sufficiently proves that albeit we, the devoted soldiers of that country, are mortal, Poland is immortal"

Kosciuszko to Segur, quoted in M.M. Gardner, "Kosciuszko", London 1920.

On hearing the news of his death the government of the Free City of Krakow applied to the Tsar Alexander I (one of the "protectors", alongside the rulers of Austria and of Prussia, of the City, according to the Congress of Vienna) for permission to inter Kosciuszko within the royal tombs of the Wawel. The Tsar, eager to court the Poles, approved. On 11 April 1818 Kosciuszko's coffin was placed in a chapel in St. Florian's Church and on 22 June taken, amidst great pomp, to the Wawel. He was placed next to the sarcophagi of Sobieski and Jozef Poniatowski. Shortly afterwards it was decided to raise a mound (Kopiec Kosciuszko) to his memory; a form of commemoration unique to the city of Krakow - only two others existed at the time; those of Krakus and Wanda. The work was started in 1820 when soil from Raclawice, and then Maciejowice was brought. In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the US

Declaration of Independence, earth from the battlefields of America was brought over and deposited on the mound.

The house at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, US, where Kosciuszko stayed during the winter of 1797-1798, was designated as the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in 1972.

The "Congress Kingdom"

In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Duchy was partitioned and a large part went to Russia. In Austria and Prussia there was repression of all Polish attempts to maintain the national culture, but in Russia, fortunately, the Tzar, Alexander I, was a liberal ruler who agreed to the setting up of a semiautonomous "Congress Kingdom" with its own parliament and constitution. This became a time of peace and economic recovery. In 1817 the University of Warsaw was founded. But the accession of Tzar Nicholas I to the throne in 1825 saw the establishment of a more repressive regime.

In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into action. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection.

Wysocki, Piotr (b. 1794; d. 1857), a Second-Lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards and instructor at the Warsaw Infantry School, conspired with Colonel Jozef Zaliwski (b. 1797; d. 1855) to bring about an armed rebellion in 1830. They met up with a band of civilian conspirators who were planning to assassinate the Grand Duke Constantine. The situation in Warsaw was tense; the authorities knew mutiny was afoot and the conspirators expected to be seized at any moment - action was inevitable. On the night of 29 November 1830 an assassination squad attacked the Belweder Palace with the intention of killing or capturing the Grand Duke whilst Wysocki led a force of cadets to seize the Arsenal. Unfortunately everything went wrong and a night of chaos ensued. The attack on the Belweder failed because the Grand Duke was hidden by his servants and when Wysocki's attack failed he had to retreat. Lacking a leader the insurgents marched into the city and asked Generals Trebicki and Potocki (who they met on the way) to take command. When they refused they were shot. Owing to the ineptitude of the original conspirators the political leadership of the Rising passed into the hands of people who had never sought an armed rising in the first place and, hence, vacillated; the Russian Tsar, on the other hand, didn't.

The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

The 1830 Revolution inspired the work of two great Poles living in exile; Chopin, the composer, and Mickiewicz, the poet.

Chopin, Fryderyk Francois (b. Zelazowa Wola, nr. Warsaw, 22 February 1810; d. Paris,1849), born of a French father and Polish mother, was a composer and pianist whose music has been

seen as the very spirit of Polishness, using Polish folk melodies as the basic inspiration of many of his works, and it can be said that he played an important part in the promotion of Polish culture and nationhood in the salons of the European bourgeoisie. He was trained at the newly-opened Warsaw Conservatoire under Elsner (the director), and first played in public at the age of nine, publishing his first work in 1825. He left Poland to study abroad in 1830 just before the Revolution which was bloodily suppressed by the Russians and inspired his emotional Etude op.10, no.12; "Revolutionary". He was never to return to Poland. Living in France he became closely linked with the Polish poets of the Emigration and followed their use of national folk traditions, building his own compositions (his Polonaises and Mazurkas) on the national dances. Among his musical innovations were his harmonies, the range of his arpeggios and chords, and his use of the pedal. He became famous and gave concerts in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and other European cities, but refused to play in Russia. He suffered from consumption which was aggravated by a trip to England (1837). He had an intimate relationship with George Sand (pseudonym of the writer, Amandine Aurore Lucie) from 1838 - 47, who took him to Majorca (1838) and nursed him back to health but the relationship broke down after he took George's daughter's side in a family argument; she later depicted him as Prince Karol in her novel "Lucrezia Floriani". He died in Paris; he is buried at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery but his heart is in an urn in a pillar of the Kosciol sw. Krzyza (Church of the Holy Cross) on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw. His works for the piano alone include 55 mazurkas, 13 polonaises, 24 preludes, 27 etudes, 19 nocturnes, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos and a number of songs. During the Second World War his music was banned by the Nazis as subversive. A crater on Mercury is named after him (64.5°S, 124°W).

Mickiewicz, Adam (b. near Nowogrodek, 24 December 1798. d. Constantinople, 185), never set foot in Warsaw or Krakow even though he is Poland's national poet and is revered as the moral leader of the nation during the dark years after the Partitions. He became a student at Wilno University (1815), publishing his first volumes of poetry in 1822 and 1823, introducing Romanticism into Polish literature. At Wilno, which was a hotbed of patriotic sympathy and discussion, he was a co-founder of the clandestine group known as the Philomaths ("Lovers of Learning") in which the members discussed a wide range of topics including the liberation of Poland. A small group of Philomaths, Mickiewicz amongst them, formed a more radical organisation, the Philarets ("Lovers of Virtue") which included a number of Russians who were later to be a part of the Decembrist conspiracy. An outbreak of patriotism in the university led to the arrest of the leading Philomats and Philarets for anti-Tsarist activity and, in 1824, Mickiewicz was sentenced to exile in Russia (1824 - 29); to St. Petersburg, Odessa (1825) and to Moscow where he taught and made friends with a number of Russian writers, including Pushkin, Ryleiev and Bestushev (and through these latter two, many of the future Decembrist conspirators). In Odessa he wrote his "Crimean Sonnets" (1826) recording his impressions of his travels to Crimea;

"I love to lean against Ayudah's faceAnd watch the frothing waves as on they pour,Dark ranks close-pressed, then burst like snow and soarA million silver rainbows arched in space.They strike the sands, they break and interlace;Like whales in battle that beset the shore,They seize the land and then retreat once more, Shells, pearls, and corals scattered in their race..."

Sonnet XVIII; "The Rock of Ayudah", trans. D.P.Radin, 1929.

In Moscow, he wrote his first overtly political poem, "Konrad Wallenrod" (1828); about a Lithuanian child captured by the Teutonic Knights, who is brought up by them and raised to the rank of Grand Master only to lead his Order to defeat at the hands of his own people. He left Russia in 1829, barely managing to board his ship, "George V", in Konstadt before the Tsar's orders revoking his departure could reach him. Mickiewicz travelled throughout the West; in Berlin he attended the lectures given by Hegel and was the guest of Goethe at Weimar. He finally made his way to Italy and whilst in Rome heard of the Warsaw Uprising of December 1830. Hurrying to join the struggle Mickiewicz only managed to reach Dresden before the uprising was put down. Here in Dresden in 1832 he created Part III of "Dziady" ("Forefather's Eve"), a mixture of Greek tragedy and mediaeval morality play that powerfully speaks of the heroism and martyrdom of a people fighting for freedom, and was later banned by the Communists, until 1970, for its anti-Russian attitude:

"Now my soul lives in my countryAnd in my body dwells her soul;My fatherland and I are one great whole.My name is million, for I love as millions:Their pain and suffering I feel;I gaze upon my country fallen on daysOf torment, as a son would gazeUpon his father broken on the wheel.I feel within myself my country's massacreJust as a mother feels the tormentOf her children within her womb."

Moving on to Paris (1832) it was here, in 1834, that Adam Mickiewicz produced his masterpiece: "Pan Tadeusz"; a novel in verse which evokes the almost fairy-tale life of the nobility in Lithuania through to the heroic march of Napoleon's Polish Legions through Lithuania to Russia in 1812. In a time before modern Nationalism imposed limitations on what it means to be a "Pole", Mickiewicz, like many others, saw no contradiction in being a Pole and a Lithuanian at the same time; the Noble Republic and Polishness (in non-nationalistic terms) were the same. Hence, his greatest poem begins;

"O Lithuania, my country, thouArt like good health; I never knew till nowHow precious, till I lost thee. Now I seeThy beauty whole, because I yearn for thee."

In 1834 Mickiewicz married Celina Szymanowska, daughter of the pianist and composer, Maria with whom he was closely attached since his days in St. Petersburg. For the last twenty years of his life Adam Mickiewicz virtually ceased writing. He was offered, and accepted, the chair of Roman Literature at Lausanne, Switzerland, (1839) but left to became professor of Slavic literature at the College de France, Paris (1840). Mickiewicz lost the post in 1845, for political activities. Around this time he came under the strong influence of Andrzej Towianski who had set up a sect. In 1848, in Lombardy, he formed a Polish Legion which fought with Garibaldi in the defence of Rome. Mickiewicz returned to Paris where he founded and edited the political daily, "La Tribune Des Peuples" (March - April 1849) sponsored by Ksawery Branicki. The journal was dedicated to the ideals of brotherhood and the solidarity of nations in the struggle against despotism and attracted a number of radical writers noted for their revolutionary, democratic, and socialist views. It suffered continued harassment by the

authorities and did not outlast the year; Mickiewicz had to work secretly for the journal because of threats to deport him from France. In 1852, Louis Napoleon appointed him as a librarian in the Paris Arsenal. On the outbreak of the Crimean War (1855) he went to Turkey to organise Polish forces to be used in the war against Russia. With his friend, Armand Levy, he set about organising a Jewish Legion, the Hussars of Israel, composed of Russian and Palestinian Jews. During a visit to a military camp near Constantinople he caught cholera and died suddenly. His body was taken back to France (1856) and buried at Montmorency but, in 1890, his remains were transferred to Krakow and laid next to Kosciuszko's in the Wawel. A crater on Mercury is named after him (23.5°N, 19°W).

The "Great Emigration"

The failure of the Insurrection forced thousands of Poles to flee to the West; Paris became the spiritual capital. Many of these exiles contributed greatly to Polish and European culture. Joachim Lelewel became Poland's greatest historian, Chopin her greatest composer, and Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski and Norwid among her greatest poets. Adam Czartoryski set up court at the Hotel Lambert, in Paris, which played an important part in keeping the Polish question alive in European politics.

Czartoryski;

The Czartoryskis were a noble Polish-Lithuanian family, which included the brothers, Prince Fryderyk Michal (b.1696; d. 1775) and August (b. 1697; d. 1782), both of whom were statesman under Stanislaw Poniatowski and had a major influence on Polish policy during the reign of Augustus III. August's marriage to Poland's richest heiress, Zofia Sieniawska (b. 1699; d. 1771), brought an enormous fortune to the family and, with it, great influence. They supported the King and aspired to high office. Allied to their brother-in-law, Stanislaw Poniatowski (this influential and powerful alliance of the Czartoryskis and the Poniatowskis became known as "The Family"), they tried to push reforms through the court but were constantly blocked by the "republicans" led by the Potockis. Faced with such strong opposition the Czartoryskis deluded themselves into believing that they could manipulate the Russians for their own ends (Poniatowski had had a love affair with the Grand duchess Catherine in 1755 - 58) and conceived of a coup d'etat (1763). The Russians,now ruled by Catherine II, the Great, and the Prussians, under Frederick II, were opposed to the idea of any change in the Commonwealth's institutions which they found convenient to their own ends but, in turn, manipulated the Czartoryskis and elected Stanislaw Poniatowski to the throne. Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland; the reign was totally controlled by Russia.

Adam Kazimierz (b. Gdansk, 1734 ; d. 1823), was the unsuccessful candidate for the Polish throne at the death of Augustus III. He married Izabella Elzbieta Flemming (b. 1746; d. 1835) who became an important influence on the family and the cultural life of Poland during the Enlightenment. She commissioned the leading Neoclassical architect of the day, Aigner, to redesign the palace at Pulawy and summoned a team of international experts, including John Savage (who had recently designed Warsaw's Saski Gardens) to landscape the park (1788 - 1810) wherein Aigner built two museum buildings (the first in Poland); the Temple of the Sybil (1801) and the Gothic House (1809) within which were displayed the vast Czartoryski collection of art and antiquities. Izabella was the first to attempt to build an English landscape garden in Poland, at Powazki on the outskirts of Warsaw (now occupied by the Catholic Cemetery). She established a school for the education of the daughters of impoverished

nobles and wrote the first Polish History textbook for elementary schools. Under the influence of Izabella Pulawy became a rival to Warsaw as the chief centre of Polish cultural life, especially after the Partitions. Their daughter Maria (b. 1768; d. 1854) became Duchess of Wurtemburg and a novelist.

Probably the greatest Polish statesman of the C19th., Adam Jerzy (b. Warsaw,1770; d.nr. Paris,1861), son of Adam Kazimierz and Izabella, was educated at Edinburgh and London, and strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. Czartoryski fought against the Russians in the Insurrection of 1794 and, sent as a hostage to St. Petersburg, gained the friendship of the Grand-Duke Alexander and the Emperor Paul who made him ambassador to Sardinia. In 1801, on ascending the throne, Alexander,as part of his plan to transform Russia into a modern constitutional monarchy, appointed Czartoryski as assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and placed in charge of education in the former Polish territories. As curator of the University of Wilna (1803) he used his influence to keep a spirit of Polish-Lithuanian nationalism alive and when some of the students (including Adam Mickiewicz) were arrested and some sent in exile to Siberia (1823), he was removed from his office. Czartoryski was a member of the Russian delegation to the Congress of Vienna set up after the defeat of Napoleon (20 July 1815), and was responsible for drawing up the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland established by the Congress; it was the most liberal constitution in Central Europe. When the Polish Sejm began to act as a normal parliament Alexander, whose enthusiasm for liberalism had waned, dissolved it in 1820. Alexander's successor, Nicholas, became even less amenable to Polish wishes after the Decembrist Revolt; this Russian secret society had forged close links with Polish conspirators who were arrested and placed on trial for high treason only to be cleared by the Sejm Tribunal (having acted on the advice of Czartoryski himself) and served with a more lenient sentence for participating in clandestine organisations (1828). Czartoryski became actively involved in the Revolution of 1830 and was elected president of the provisional government. He summoned the Sejm in January 1831, which declared the Polish throne vacant and elected Czartoryski as head of the national government. He immediately donated half of his large estates to public service. He resigned in August 1831 but continued as a common soldier. After the suppression of the Revolution Czartoryski was excluded from the amnesty, condemned to death and his estates confiscated; he escaped to Paris where he purchased the old palace, the Hotel Lambert. In Paris, Lelewel's Permanent National Committee (set up December 1831) tried to fix the blame on the failure of the Insurrection on the leaders of the conservative group leading to a virtual civil war between the two factions as they tried to direct the Polish cause in their own way. The man who emerged as leader of the conservative faction was Prince Adam Czartoryski, becoming the focus of Polish hopes; Czartoryski himself was referred to as the "de facto king of Poland". He ran a vast network ready to spring into action whenever the opportunity lent itself and in effect put the "Polish Question" firmly on the European agenda. The activity of his agents in the Balkans contributed enormously to the awakening of national consciousness in that region and helped Serbia shake off Russian influence. He rented land from the Sultan in order to provide homes for insurgents who had retreated into the Ottoman Empire after the failure of the 1830 Uprising (1842); this was the colony of Polonezkoy or Adampol which was enlarged after each unsuccessful attempt at liberation. In 1848 he appealed, unsuccessfully, to Pope Pius IX to create a Polish Legion to fight on Italy's side against Austria. He freed his serfs in Galicia (1848) and during the Crimean War worked hard to induce the allies to link the Polish cause with that of Turkey. In 1857 Czartoryski set up a publishing house producing the periodical "Wiadomosci Polskie" ("News From Poland") which became very popular amongst the exiles. He also set up the Bureau des Affaires Polonaises (Bureau of Polish Affairs, 1858). He refused the subsequent amnesty offered him by Alexander II. His son, Wladyslaw (b.1828;

d. 1894) opened the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow (1878) after the Czartoryski properties were confiscated by the State. He was a collector of Egyptian art and there are some very important pieces among the antiquities which form only a part of the rich collection in Krakow.

Continued Resistance: "For Your Freedom and Ours"

The insurrection in the semi-independent City of Krakow in 1846 was doomed from the start. The insurrectionists had hoped to gain the support of the local peasantry (recalling the victory at Raclawice) but the peasants, having never benefited from the liberal ideals proposed by the intelligentsia, used the insurrection as an excuse to rid themselves of their landlords; it was the last "jacquerie" (or peasants' uprising) in European history. The insurrectionist forces were defeated by a combination of Austrian and peasant forces at the battle of Gdow and the insurrection was put down with great brutality by the Austrians, resulting in the abolition of the Commonwealth of Krakow.

In 1848 "the Springtime of Nations" (a revolutionary movement towards greater democracy in much of Europe) saw large-scale contributions by the Poles; in Italy, Mickiewicz organised a small legion to fight for Italian independence from Austria, whilst in Hungary, Generals Dembinski and Bem led 3,000 Poles in the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. There were also unsuccessful uprisings in Poznan (Posen), against the Prussians, and in Eastern Galicia, against the Austrians.

Starting in 1863, the "January Uprising" against the Russians lasted for more than a year and a half. A Provisional government was established and more than 1,200 skirmishes were fought, mostly in the deep forests under the command of Romuald Traugutt.

Traugutt, Romuald; b. 1825; d. 1864. During the January Insurrection of 1863 the underground state was forced to organise one of the world's earliest campaigns of urban guerrilla warfare, centred on Warsaw, and to use hit-and-run tactics in the countryside. Due to initial setbacks and the isolation of different groups there was a great deal of political in-fighting between the different factions - the Social Democrat "Reds", and the more moderate "Whites" - which only ended when Traugutt, a Lithuanian landowner from Podlasie, became its political and military commander (October 1863). Formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army, he had served in both Hungary and the Crimea. In May 1863 he took command of a force of guerrillas in the Dziadkowicki Forest, near Kobryn, and in July went to Warsaw where he was given office under Karol Majewski (b. 1833; d. 1897), the over-all commander at the time. A "White" with "Red" sympathies, he represented the National Government abroad, meeting with Napoleon III, and was quickly convinced that there would be little support from the West. On returning to Warsaw, based at the Saski Hotel, he seized control of the underground state and became Dictator. With the help of General Jozef Hauke, he completely reorganised the existing military structures, establishing a regular army and abolishing all independent formations - as a result the Insurrection revived and expanded its area of operations. With no support from abroad the Insurrection began to peter out and the final stroke came with the emancipation of the peasants, which sanctioned the state of affairs created by the Insurrection (2 March 1864), and Traugutt's arrest in the night of 10/11 August 1864. He was imprisoned in Pawiak, tried, condemned to death and hanged (5 August 1864). The Insurrection had kept Europe's largest military machine tied down for eighteen months and had involved not only the szlachta but, in its final stages, also the peasants (who had fought its very last engagement). The subsequent suppression of the Rising permanently

scarred a generation of Poles; thousands were sent into exile to Siberia - the cream of the nation. Most never returned. The name of the Kingdom of Poland was changed to the "Vistula Province". The Insurrection of 1863 was a watershed in Polish history; the social structure changed as the peasants finally gained their freedom in Russia in 1864 (serfdom had been abolished in Prussia in 1823, and in Austria in 1848) and slowly made their way to economic, then political, power. After 1864 the Polish struggle becomes a genuinely national struggle as politicians vie for the attention of all the classes, especially the peasants. But the situation also changed after 1864 as one sees an almost universal rejection of the idea of gaining independence through revolution.

The Uprising was finally put down in 1865, and the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a severe policy of persecution and "Russification" established. The University of Warsaw and all schools were closed down, use of the Polish language was forbidden in most public places and the Catholic Church was persecuted. The Kingdom of Poland became known as the "Vistula Province".

In the Prussian occupied zone the aim was to totally destroy the Polish language and culture; from 1872 German became compulsory in all schools and it was a crime to be caught speaking in Polish. There was a systematic attempt to uproot Polish Peasants from their land.

In Austrian Poland, Galicia, conditions were different. After 1868 the Poles had a degree of self-government, the Polish language was kept as the official language and the Universities of Krakow and Lwow were allowed to function. As a result this area witnessed a splendid revival of Polish culture, including the works of the painter Jan Matejko, and the writers Kraszewski, Prus and Sienkiewicz.

Matejko, Jan Alojzy; (b. Krakow, 1838. d. Krakow, 1893). It would be difficult to find another artist, anywhere, like Matejko - Poland's greatest painter of historical scenes,who was born, worked and died in Krakow. Matejko was trained at Krakow and Munich (1859) and, briefly, in Vienna. He was adored by his public for his nationalistic themes painted in a highly realistic manner. He created powerful, inspired works which have played an important role in preserving national unity and pride in national achievements at times of crisis, notably during the Partitions; Poles view their history through Matejko's images. His prodigious output includes about ten monumental pieces. His method of working consisted of detailed research and a study of written sources. His early paintings are in a dark Venetian manner but his later pieces became lighter and resembled the Late-Baroque revival style favoured by some Viennese painters. Amongst his greatest works are: "The Battle of Grunwald" (1872 - 75) - for which he received a sceptre as the sign of his being "the king of art", and which achieved notoriety when it was reproduced as a Polish stamp in 1960, being the largest Polish stamp produced; "Batory at Pskov"(1872); "Hold Pruski" ("The Prussian Homage", 1882); "Sobieski at the Gates of Vienna" (1883) which was presented by Matejko to the Vatican; and "Kosciuszko at Raclawice"(1888); all of which act as historical "time-capsules" recording not only the events but also the costumes and, particularly, the unique military costumes of the Commonwealth. Matejko also painted some outstanding family portraits and self-portraits, as well as a series "A Retinue of Polish Kings and Princes" with which most Polish children are acquainted. In 1889 - 91 he worked on the polychromatic decoration in the Mariacki, Krakow, with his pupils, Wyspianski and Mehoffer, as his assistants. He played an important role in saving the 1650 Baroque altar from being removed from Wawel Cathedral and encouraged the renovation of the Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall) in the Rynek. He became Director of the

Academy, Krakow and received many medals from abroad, including the French Legion of Honour (1870).

His home at 41 ul. Florianska was turned into the Matejko Museum in 1898 and is now a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

Kraszewski, Jozef Ignacy; (b. Warsaw, 1812; d. Geneva, 1887). One of the most prolific of all Polish authors, he wrote novels, plays, verse (including an epic on the history of Lithuania, "Anafielas", 1843), criticism and historical works; a total of around seven hundred volumes earning himself the title of "the father of the Polish novel". Educated at Wilno University, he spent some time in prison as a student. He became fascinated by Lithuania and collected information about her local customs and history. For a while he was inspector of schools and directed the theatre in Zhitomir before going on to edit a newspaper in Warsaw. After being dismissed and put on a black-list by the authorities he moved to Dresden where he soon drew attention to himself, was arrested as a dangerous element and imprisoned at Magdeburg (1883). His health ruined, he settled in San Remo, Italy, where he lost all his belongings in an earthquake. Amongst his works (some of which have been seen as a literary equivalent of Matejko's historical paintings) are "Stara Basn" ("An Ancient Tale", 1876) about a prehistoric and pre-Christian community, "Jermola Ulana" (1843), "Kordecki" (1852), culture romances "Morituri" (1875) and "Resurrecti" (1876), and several political novels under the pseudonym of Boleslawita.

Prus, Boleslaw (pseudonym of: Aleksander Glowacki); (b. Hrubieszow, 1847; d. 1912). One of the greatest of Polish novelists, a member of the minor szlachta, Prus is regarded by many as second only to Sienkiewicz. He joined a guerrilla unit and was wounded during the January Insurrection of 1863 and spent some time in prison after it. Fascinated by mathematics and the natural sciences, Prus was obliged to write in order to make some money. He was a Positivist in that he believed that progress can cure all ills, but he gradually became more sceptical as he grew older. He claimed a great debt to Herbert Spencer. Initially he wrote articles for various Warsaw periodicals, "Weekly Chronicles" which observed the everyday world around him. He turned to writing fiction, starting with short stories where poverty played an important role and his characters are treated with a gentle humour. His novel "The Outpost" (1885) tells of the obstinate refusal of the illiterate peasant, Slimak ("snail"), to sell his patch of land to the German colonists gradually taking over his Posnanian village; but Slimak is not portrayed as a hero - it is his faults (rather than any virtues) that carry him through to victory. Amongst his chief works are "Pharaoh" (1897) which is essentially the story of a struggle for power between a young militaristic idealist and the cunning priests in decaying Ancient Egypt, and "Lalka" ("The Doll") - considered by many to be the best Polish novel - set in Warsaw it was the first Polish novel to deal with the lives, social problems and conflicts of the urban middle class. The hero of "Lalka" is the capitalist Wokulski, a former Insurrectionist who had been exiled to Siberia and, on returning to Warsaw, was employed in a shop. Through marriage he comes into money and dreams of using his wealth in the services of science and progress but finds himself lured frivolously away from his high ideals by falling in love with a worthless aristocratic woman, Isabella. Wokulski is contrasted, in a subtle way, with the Romantic, Rzecki - constantly excited, a believer in great causes and shy admirer of women. Prus is buried in the Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw.

Sienkiewicz, Henryk; (b. Wola Okrzejska, Podlasie, 1846. d. Vevey, Switzerland, 1916). Perhaps one of the most popular Polish authors, famous for his historical novels mainly dealing with Poland's past. Sienkiewicz was educated in Warsaw and then became a journalist

whose gift for observation, taste for adventure and attention to detail served him well. He went to the US in 1876 charged with finding somewhere suitable for a group of Varsovian writers and artists (including the actress Helena Modrzejewski) who wished to migrate and establish a colony there; he chose Anaheim, California. He was enthused by the redwood forests and the Sierras (and some of this landscape would serve to inspire his descriptions of the primeval forests of his novels). The group soon tired of the "good life" and went their separate ways. Sienkiewicz went back to writing and sent a series of "Letters from America" to the Polish newspapers which made his reputation; he wrote about New York, California, and the campaign against Sitting Bull. His "Charcoal Sketches", a short novel about a Polish village, was actually written in Los Angeles. Sienkiewicz went to Paris in 1878 and then on to Poland. His tremendously popular patriotic "Trilogy"; "Ogniem i Mieczem" ("With Fire and Sword"),"Potop" ("The Deluge"), and "Pan Wolodyjowski", 1884-1888, was serialised in the newspapers and a "must" for every young Pole. The "Trilogy" deals with the adventurous days of the Husaria (the winged cavalry) in the Polish-Cossack, Polish-Swedish and Polish-Turkish wars. His masterful evocation of the historical atmosphere of the times is reminiscent of Dumas and played an important role in forging the Polish image of itself and its destiny. The novels are full of unforgetful characters such as Zagloba, the Falstaff-like nobleman who - though a braggart - could use his cunning and courage to extricate himself from some serious circumstances; the noble officers Skretuski and Wolodyjowski; and the central character of "The Deluge", Kmicic who undergoes his own Calvary which parallels that of the nation during the Swedish invasion and the siege of Czestochowa. His fame in the West was secured by the novel on ancient Rome portraying the early days of Christianity struggling against the decadence of Nero's court, "Quo Vadis?" (1896) which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. His novel, "Krzyzacy" ("The Teutonic Knights", 1900), written during the worst days of Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" against the Poles in Posnania, deals with the days when the existence of Poland and Lithuania were threatened by the Teutonic Order and culminates in the battle of Grunwald. Sienkiewicz's writings are often used in Polish dictionaries as examples of good prose. At the outbreak of WW1, Sienkiewicz worked for the Red Cross Fund at Vevey in Switzerland.

All three powers kept Poland economically weak in this period of technological progress. Despite this the Poles managed to make some progress; the textile industry began to flourish in Lodz (the "Polish Manchester") and coal-mining developed rapidly. In Prussian Poland, despite ruthless oppression, the Poles concentrated on light industry and agriculture (and before long Poznan became the chief source of food for the whole of Germany). In Silesia, under German rule since 1742, the development of mining and heavy industry made her a chief industrial centre and thus the Prussian attempt to exterminate all traces of Polish language and culture was at its most ruthless, yet they survived.

Despite its abolition by Kosciuszko in 1794 the partitioning powers restored serfdom. It was not abolished in Prussia until 1823, in Austria until 1848 and in Russia until 1861 (but not in her "Polish" territories).

In 1905 the Russo-Japanese War saw a series of humiliating defeats for the Russians and civil unrest in Russia. In Poland there was a wave of strikes and demonstrations demanding civil rights. Polish pupils went on strike, walking out of Russian schools and a private organisation, the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" ("Polish Education Society"), was set up under the patronage of the great novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Then, in 1906, Jozef Pilsudski, a founder-member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), began to set up a number of paramilitary organisations which attacked Tzarist officials and carried out raids on post offices, tax-offices and mail-trains. In Galicia the Austrian authorities turned a blind eye to the setting up of a number of "sporting" clubs, followed by a Riflemen's Union. In 1912, Pilsudski reorganised these on military lines and by 1914 had nearly 12,000 men under arms.

In the Aftermath of the Partitions

Napoleonic Poland; The Duchy of Warsaw

The Poles felt that one way of restoring independence was to fight for Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1791 Dabrowski organised two legions to fight the Austrians in Lombardy and, later, for the French in the Iberian Peninsula.

Dabrowski, Jan Henryk (b. Pierzchowiec, nr. Bochnia, 1755; d. 1818) is the hero immortalised in the words of the Polish National Anthem;

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginiela poki my zyjemy,Co nam obca przemoc wziela, szabla odbierzemy.Marsz marsz, Dabrowski, z ziemi Wloskiej do Polski!Za twoim przewodem zlaczym sie z narodem."

"Poland is not dead whilst we live,What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back.March march, Dabrowski, from Italy's soil to Poland!Through your leadership we will reunite the nation."

Raised and educated in Saxony, Dabrowski served in the Saxon army where he reached the rank of Rottmeister in a guard cavalry regiment. He served against the Russians during the First Partition in 1792 and then again, in the defence of Warsaw in 1794. When Kosciuszko's Insurrection broke out the Prussian army, which had been laying siege to Warsaw, found itself in a potentially dangerous position; an armed rising in its rear and its ammunition supplies captured at Wroclawek. In their attempt to extricate themselves from this position the Prussians set off for Western Poland only to find themselves harassed in a series of minor operations led by Dabrowski which kept them engaged for weeks. He captured Bydgoszcz (2 October) and ended up driving the Prussians out from the main theatre of war. After the failure of Kosciuszko's Insurrection Dabrowski was invited to serve Russia by Suvorov and Prussia by Frederick William II but he turned them both down, making his way to Paris where he was feted for his military successes. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris. The former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation whilst their opposition was the more liberal, pro-constitutional faction, the Agency led by Kosciuszko's representative, Barss. The aim of the Deputation was to organise an uprising in Poland, organising a Polish military force in Walachia. The Agency put its emphasis on working in league with a foreign power (initially Prussia, then France); Dabrowski allied himself with the Agency. In Paris, thousands of Poles offered to fight in the service of revolutionary France and to reinforce Bonaparte's exhausted armies in Italy. When it emerged that many of the prisoners captured during the Italian campaign were Poles from

Galicia, drafted into the Austrian army, it was decided that Dabrowski should organise a Polish Legion (formed in Milan, 9 January 1797) and command it in Italy (1798 - 1801); this met with a furious campaign of denunciations by the Deputation (citing certain unsavoury events in his past including his Prussian connections and favours shown him by the Russian general Suvorov) which were later redoubled when the Legions were used to repress any opposition to Napoleon rather than to live up to the Polish motto of "For our freedom and yours". Dabrowski was given command over the Polish Legions in Italy. With the establishment of the Legion, Poles deserted from the Austrian army in droves and very soon a second Polish Legion was formed (1798) under General Zajaczek (in order to appease the Deputation) and later, in 1800, a third on the Danube under General Kniaziewicz. The Polish Legions suffered terribly during the Italian campaigns; the Second Legion was virtually annihilated in the first battles on the Adige (26 March, 4 April 1799) and after the capitulation of Mantua when they were seized by the Austrians as deserters (as part of a secret agreement between the French commander Foissac-Latour and the Austrians). Dabrowski's Legion also suffered terrible casualties both in the battle on the Trebbia (17 - 19 June 1799) and during the subsequent miserable conditions in the mountains of Liguria. Dabrowski continued to serve as general of Polish troops under Napoleon: on 3 November 1806 he and Wybicki issued a revolutionary appeal to their countrymen in which they quoted Napoleon; "I want to see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation". Dabrowski played an important role during the Polish Campaign when, after the liberation of Poznan, he established a military organisation made up of levies. When Napoleon reorganised the Polish army under the leadership of Poniatowski (taking the middle way between the extremes of Dabrowski and Zajaczek) Dabrowski could not conceal his embitterment and animosity. Dabrowski's Legion was active in West Prussia and at the siege of Gdansk (Danzig), and later in East Prussia where it saw action at Friedland (1807). As part of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, Dabrowski fought against the Austrians in 1809, the Russians in the campaign of 1812, and at the battle of Leipzig (1813). Returning to Poland in 1813 he was designated by the Tsar to reorganise the Polish army, appointed general of the cavalry in 1815, and senator palatine of the Kingdom of Poland. From his estate at Winnogora, Dabrowski acted as patron of the secret "Society of Scythemen" formed by former Napoleonic soldiers in Poznan; subsequently reformed as a branch of Warsaw's "National Freemasonry" they were to play a useful part during the November Insurrection of 1830.

Napoleon used the Polish Legions in all his campaigns; against Russia, Austria and Prussia, in Egypt, in the West Indies (Santo Domingo), and in Spain (where they fought the British and inspired the formation of the English lancers equipped with Polish-style uniforms and weapons). Some of the Poles became very disillusioned with Bonaparte, realising that they were being manipulated.

Later, in 1806, the French armies defeated the Prussians at Jena and entered Posen (Poznan) led by the Poles under Dabrowski. A year later Napoleon and the Tzar, Alexander, met at Tilsit and agreed to set up a Polish State made up of the lands the Prussians had taken in the second partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon used the Duchy as a pawn in his political game and in 1812 called upon the Lithuanians to rebel as an excuse to attack Russia. One of the great figures of this period was Jozef Poniatowski.

Amongst Stanislaw II's brothers, Michal Poniatowski (b.1736; d.1794) became Primate of Poland (1784) and Andrzej Poniatowski (b. 1735; d. 1773) was a general in the Austrian army. Andrzej's son Prince Jozef Antoni Poniatowski (b. Vienna, 7 May 1763; d. 19 October 1813) was a gifted cavalry officer who served in the Austrian Army (from 1780) and as a

representative to the Russian court (1787). He was wounded at the siege of Sabatch, fighting the Turks (1788). In 1789 he became Major General of the Polish Army and fought in the Ukraine (his first lieutenant was Kosciuszko) during the Polish-Russian War (1792). Poniatowski was decorated for his role at Zielence (18 June 1792) where he led one of his early bayonet attacks that were to become his trademark (the victory was commemorated by the establishment of the decoration of the Militari Virtuti Cross). He resigned, in protest, when Stanislaw II joined the Targowica Confederacy, joining the conspiracy to kidnap the King (which came to nought). He fought against the Russians alongside Kosciuszko during the Insurrection (1792 - 94) and joined the French army in 1800. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris where the former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation. When Poniatowski became commander of the Polish forces in Napoleon's army (1806) the Deputation turned against him because of his uncle's Targowica connections. This soured his relationships with his fellow general, Zajaczek who was connected with the Deputation. Unfortunately Poniatowski had also alienated himself with Dabrowski (who was angry at having been overlooked as commander-in-chief). Poniatowski became Minister for War in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) and introduced the concept of universal conscription which helped unite the nation by making its citizens, in carrying out their duty, more aware of their nationality (1808). In 1809 he led the first successful Polish army in the field since the Partitions, against the Austrians who had invaded under the leadership of the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este. Poniatowski barred the way to Warsaw and at the battle of Raszyn (19 April 1809), where 12,000 Poles faced 25,000 Austrians, the Polish Infantry stubbornly held their ground; it is said that Poniatowski himself took a rifle and went into the front rank with the attacking soldiers. He organised a series of cavalry raids into Galicia that outmanoeuvred superior numbers thus, at the Treaty of Schonbrunn, succeeding in reuniting Krakow and West Galicia with the Duchy. Poles swarmed to his colours from all parts. In the 1812 campaign against Russia, Polish Lancers were the first to cross the Niemen into Russia, playing a crucial part in the battles of Borodino and Smolensk (where Poniatowski was wounded), they were the first to enter Moscow and, under Poniatowski, covering the debacle of the French retreat and saving Napoleon from disaster at the Beresina, being the last out of Russia; 72,000 of the original 100,000 Poles never returned. Poniatowski continued to resist the Russians in the Duchy but in the face of overwhelming odds, and determined to preserve some element of an independent Polish army, chose to stand by Napoleon and retreat into Germany. He showed great valour at the "Battle of the Nations", Leipzig (19 October 1813), where Napoleon raised him to the rank of Marshal of France - the only foreigner to ever be so honoured: in the French retreat at Leipzig the Poles carried out a rearguard action during which the French prematurely blew up the Lindenau Bridge over the River Elster, leaving the Poles stranded on the other side. Having to cross under heavy fire, Poniatowski was mortally wounded and, driving his horse into the river, drowned. His name is inscribed on the roll of honour on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris and he, himself, is buried in the crypt of the Wawel, Krakow. His tomb bears the words "God entrusted to me the Honour of the Poles - and I will render it only to Him."

Poniatowski's ancestors served as ministers in the court of Napoleon III and of President Giscard d'Estang. Jozef's nephew, Prince Jozef Michal (b.1816; d. 1873) was a musical composer who wrote many operas, including "Don Desiderio", and several masses. He was a naturalised Tuscan citizen (1847) but later resided in Paris where he was made a senator by Napoleon III.

Despite the cynical way that Napoleon treated the Poles they remained loyal to him and, when he went into exile on Elba the only guards that Napoleon was allowed were Polish Lancers.

The Fate of Kosciuszko:

Following the death of the Tsarina Catherine II, Kosciuszko was released, going into exile to England, America (where he found himself under surveillance because of his pro-French sympathies and had to be smuggled out by his friend, Thomas Jefferson) and then to France (1798). When, in 1799, the Directory offered him the leadership of the Polish Legions he refused on the grounds that the French had shown no sign of recognising their distinct entity as a Polish national army. Kosciuszko was also uneasy about Napoleon's ambitions and these feelings were confirmed when he proclaimed himself First Consul and then betrayed the hopes of the Legions at the Treaty of Luneville (1801). From then on he distrusted Napoleon and, suspicious of his intentions, refused to support his plan for the restoration of Poland in 1806. With the fall of Napoleon Kosciuszko watched the proceedings at the Congress of Vienna with despair and pleaded with Tsar Alexander for a restoration of Poland, to no avail. He settled at Soleure, Switzerland (1817) where he died. He left all his wealth for the purpose of freeing and educating the Negroes.

"When the Polish nation called me to defend the integrity, the independence, the dignity, the glory and the liberty of the country, she knew full well that I was not the last Pole, and that with my death on the battlefield or elsewhere Poland could not, must not end. All that the Poles have done since then in the glorious Polish legions and all that they will still do in the future to gain their country back, sufficiently proves that albeit we, the devoted soldiers of that country, are mortal, Poland is immortal"

Kosciuszko to Segur, quoted in M.M. Gardner, "Kosciuszko", London 1920.

On hearing the news of his death the government of the Free City of Krakow applied to the Tsar Alexander I (one of the "protectors", alongside the rulers of Austria and of Prussia, of the City, according to the Congress of Vienna) for permission to inter Kosciuszko within the royal tombs of the Wawel. The Tsar, eager to court the Poles, approved. On 11 April 1818 Kosciuszko's coffin was placed in a chapel in St. Florian's Church and on 22 June taken, amidst great pomp, to the Wawel. He was placed next to the sarcophagi of Sobieski and Jozef Poniatowski. Shortly afterwards it was decided to raise a mound (Kopiec Kosciuszko) to his memory; a form of commemoration unique to the city of Krakow - only two others existed at the time; those of Krakus and Wanda. The work was started in 1820 when soil from Raclawice, and then Maciejowice was brought. In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, earth from the battlefields of America was brought over and deposited on the mound.

The house at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, US, where Kosciuszko stayed during the winter of 1797-1798, was designated as the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in 1972.

The "Congress Kingdom"

In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Duchy was partitioned and a large part went to Russia. In Austria and Prussia there was repression of all Polish attempts to maintain the national culture, but in Russia, fortunately, the Tzar, Alexander I, was a liberal ruler who agreed to the setting up of a semiautonomous "Congress Kingdom" with its own parliament and constitution. This became a time of peace and economic recovery. In 1817 the University of

Warsaw was founded. But the accession of Tzar Nicholas I to the throne in 1825 saw the establishment of a more repressive regime.

In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into action. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection.

Wysocki, Piotr (b. 1794; d. 1857), a Second-Lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards and instructor at the Warsaw Infantry School, conspired with Colonel Jozef Zaliwski (b. 1797; d. 1855) to bring about an armed rebellion in 1830. They met up with a band of civilian conspirators who were planning to assassinate the Grand Duke Constantine. The situation in Warsaw was tense; the authorities knew mutiny was afoot and the conspirators expected to be seized at any moment - action was inevitable. On the night of 29 November 1830 an assassination squad attacked the Belweder Palace with the intention of killing or capturing the Grand Duke whilst Wysocki led a force of cadets to seize the Arsenal. Unfortunately everything went wrong and a night of chaos ensued. The attack on the Belweder failed because the Grand Duke was hidden by his servants and when Wysocki's attack failed he had to retreat. Lacking a leader the insurgents marched into the city and asked Generals Trebicki and Potocki (who they met on the way) to take command. When they refused they were shot. Owing to the ineptitude of the original conspirators the political leadership of the Rising passed into the hands of people who had never sought an armed rising in the first place and, hence, vacillated; the Russian Tsar, on the other hand, didn't.

The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

The 1830 Revolution inspired the work of two great Poles living in exile; Chopin, the composer, and Mickiewicz, the poet.

Chopin, Fryderyk Francois (b. Zelazowa Wola, nr. Warsaw, 22 February 1810; d. Paris,1849), born of a French father and Polish mother, was a composer and pianist whose music has been seen as the very spirit of Polishness, using Polish folk melodies as the basic inspiration of many of his works, and it can be said that he played an important part in the promotion of Polish culture and nationhood in the salons of the European bourgeoisie. He was trained at the newly-opened Warsaw Conservatoire under Elsner (the director), and first played in public at the age of nine, publishing his first work in 1825. He left Poland to study abroad in 1830 just before the Revolution which was bloodily suppressed by the Russians and inspired his emotional Etude op.10, no.12; "Revolutionary". He was never to return to Poland. Living in France he became closely linked with the Polish poets of the Emigration and followed their use of national folk traditions, building his own compositions (his Polonaises and Mazurkas) on the national dances. Among his musical innovations were his harmonies, the range of his arpeggios and chords, and his use of the pedal. He became famous and gave concerts in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and other European cities, but refused to play in Russia. He suffered from consumption which was aggravated by a trip to England (1837). He had an intimate relationship with George Sand (pseudonym of the writer, Amandine Aurore Lucie)

from 1838 - 47, who took him to Majorca (1838) and nursed him back to health but the relationship broke down after he took George's daughter's side in a family argument; she later depicted him as Prince Karol in her novel "Lucrezia Floriani". He died in Paris; he is buried at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery but his heart is in an urn in a pillar of the Kosciol sw. Krzyza (Church of the Holy Cross) on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw. His works for the piano alone include 55 mazurkas, 13 polonaises, 24 preludes, 27 etudes, 19 nocturnes, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos and a number of songs. During the Second World War his music was banned by the Nazis as subversive. A crater on Mercury is named after him (64.5°S, 124°W).

Mickiewicz, Adam (b. near Nowogrodek, 24 December 1798. d. Constantinople, 185), never set foot in Warsaw or Krakow even though he is Poland's national poet and is revered as the moral leader of the nation during the dark years after the Partitions. He became a student at Wilno University (1815), publishing his first volumes of poetry in 1822 and 1823, introducing Romanticism into Polish literature. At Wilno, which was a hotbed of patriotic sympathy and discussion, he was a co-founder of the clandestine group known as the Philomaths ("Lovers of Learning") in which the members discussed a wide range of topics including the liberation of Poland. A small group of Philomaths, Mickiewicz amongst them, formed a more radical organisation, the Philarets ("Lovers of Virtue") which included a number of Russians who were later to be a part of the Decembrist conspiracy. An outbreak of patriotism in the university led to the arrest of the leading Philomats and Philarets for anti-Tsarist activity and, in 1824, Mickiewicz was sentenced to exile in Russia (1824 - 29); to St. Petersburg, Odessa (1825) and to Moscow where he taught and made friends with a number of Russian writers, including Pushkin, Ryleiev and Bestushev (and through these latter two, many of the future Decembrist conspirators). In Odessa he wrote his "Crimean Sonnets" (1826) recording his impressions of his travels to Crimea;

"I love to lean against Ayudah's faceAnd watch the frothing waves as on they pour,Dark ranks close-pressed, then burst like snow and soarA million silver rainbows arched in space.They strike the sands, they break and interlace;Like whales in battle that beset the shore,They seize the land and then retreat once more, Shells, pearls, and corals scattered in their race..."

Sonnet XVIII; "The Rock of Ayudah", trans. D.P.Radin, 1929.

In Moscow, he wrote his first overtly political poem, "Konrad Wallenrod" (1828); about a Lithuanian child captured by the Teutonic Knights, who is brought up by them and raised to the rank of Grand Master only to lead his Order to defeat at the hands of his own people. He left Russia in 1829, barely managing to board his ship, "George V", in Konstadt before the Tsar's orders revoking his departure could reach him. Mickiewicz travelled throughout the West; in Berlin he attended the lectures given by Hegel and was the guest of Goethe at Weimar. He finally made his way to Italy and whilst in Rome heard of the Warsaw Uprising of December 1830. Hurrying to join the struggle Mickiewicz only managed to reach Dresden before the uprising was put down. Here in Dresden in 1832 he created Part III of "Dziady" ("Forefather's Eve"), a mixture of Greek tragedy and mediaeval morality play that powerfully speaks of the heroism and martyrdom of a people fighting for freedom, and was later banned by the Communists, until 1970, for its anti-Russian attitude:

"Now my soul lives in my countryAnd in my body dwells her soul;My fatherland and I are one great whole.My name is million, for I love as millions:Their pain and suffering I feel;I gaze upon my country fallen on daysOf torment, as a son would gazeUpon his father broken on the wheel.I feel within myself my country's massacreJust as a mother feels the tormentOf her children within her womb."

Moving on to Paris (1832) it was here, in 1834, that Adam Mickiewicz produced his masterpiece: "Pan Tadeusz"; a novel in verse which evokes the almost fairy-tale life of the nobility in Lithuania through to the heroic march of Napoleon's Polish Legions through Lithuania to Russia in 1812. In a time before modern Nationalism imposed limitations on what it means to be a "Pole", Mickiewicz, like many others, saw no contradiction in being a Pole and a Lithuanian at the same time; the Noble Republic and Polishness (in non-nationalistic terms) were the same. Hence, his greatest poem begins;

"O Lithuania, my country, thouArt like good health; I never knew till nowHow precious, till I lost thee. Now I seeThy beauty whole, because I yearn for thee."

In 1834 Mickiewicz married Celina Szymanowska, daughter of the pianist and composer, Maria with whom he was closely attached since his days in St. Petersburg. For the last twenty years of his life Adam Mickiewicz virtually ceased writing. He was offered, and accepted, the chair of Roman Literature at Lausanne, Switzerland, (1839) but left to became professor of Slavic literature at the College de France, Paris (1840). Mickiewicz lost the post in 1845, for political activities. Around this time he came under the strong influence of Andrzej Towianski who had set up a sect. In 1848, in Lombardy, he formed a Polish Legion which fought with Garibaldi in the defence of Rome. Mickiewicz returned to Paris where he founded and edited the political daily, "La Tribune Des Peuples" (March - April 1849) sponsored by Ksawery Branicki. The journal was dedicated to the ideals of brotherhood and the solidarity of nations in the struggle against despotism and attracted a number of radical writers noted for their revolutionary, democratic, and socialist views. It suffered continued harassment by the authorities and did not outlast the year; Mickiewicz had to work secretly for the journal because of threats to deport him from France. In 1852, Louis Napoleon appointed him as a librarian in the Paris Arsenal. On the outbreak of the Crimean War (1855) he went to Turkey to organise Polish forces to be used in the war against Russia. With his friend, Armand Levy, he set about organising a Jewish Legion, the Hussars of Israel, composed of Russian and Palestinian Jews. During a visit to a military camp near Constantinople he caught cholera and died suddenly. His body was taken back to France (1856) and buried at Montmorency but, in 1890, his remains were transferred to Krakow and laid next to Kosciuszko's in the Wawel. A crater on Mercury is named after him (23.5°N, 19°W).

The "Great Emigration"

The failure of the Insurrection forced thousands of Poles to flee to the West; Paris became the spiritual capital. Many of these exiles contributed greatly to Polish and European culture. Joachim Lelewel became Poland's greatest historian, Chopin her greatest composer, and Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski and Norwid among her greatest poets. Adam Czartoryski set up court at the Hotel Lambert, in Paris, which played an important part in keeping the Polish question alive in European politics.

Czartoryski;

The Czartoryskis were a noble Polish-Lithuanian family, which included the brothers, Prince Fryderyk Michal (b.1696; d. 1775) and August (b. 1697; d. 1782), both of whom were statesman under Stanislaw Poniatowski and had a major influence on Polish policy during the reign of Augustus III. August's marriage to Poland's richest heiress, Zofia Sieniawska (b. 1699; d. 1771), brought an enormous fortune to the family and, with it, great influence. They supported the King and aspired to high office. Allied to their brother-in-law, Stanislaw Poniatowski (this influential and powerful alliance of the Czartoryskis and the Poniatowskis became known as "The Family"), they tried to push reforms through the court but were constantly blocked by the "republicans" led by the Potockis. Faced with such strong opposition the Czartoryskis deluded themselves into believing that they could manipulate the Russians for their own ends (Poniatowski had had a love affair with the Grand duchess Catherine in 1755 - 58) and conceived of a coup d'etat (1763). The Russians,now ruled by Catherine II, the Great, and the Prussians, under Frederick II, were opposed to the idea of any change in the Commonwealth's institutions which they found convenient to their own ends but, in turn, manipulated the Czartoryskis and elected Stanislaw Poniatowski to the throne. Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland; the reign was totally controlled by Russia.

Adam Kazimierz (b. Gdansk, 1734 ; d. 1823), was the unsuccessful candidate for the Polish throne at the death of Augustus III. He married Izabella Elzbieta Flemming (b. 1746; d. 1835) who became an important influence on the family and the cultural life of Poland during the Enlightenment. She commissioned the leading Neoclassical architect of the day, Aigner, to redesign the palace at Pulawy and summoned a team of international experts, including John Savage (who had recently designed Warsaw's Saski Gardens) to landscape the park (1788 - 1810) wherein Aigner built two museum buildings (the first in Poland); the Temple of the Sybil (1801) and the Gothic House (1809) within which were displayed the vast Czartoryski collection of art and antiquities. Izabella was the first to attempt to build an English landscape garden in Poland, at Powazki on the outskirts of Warsaw (now occupied by the Catholic Cemetery). She established a school for the education of the daughters of impoverished nobles and wrote the first Polish History textbook for elementary schools. Under the influence of Izabella Pulawy became a rival to Warsaw as the chief centre of Polish cultural life, especially after the Partitions. Their daughter Maria (b. 1768; d. 1854) became Duchess of Wurtemburg and a novelist.

Probably the greatest Polish statesman of the C19th., Adam Jerzy (b. Warsaw,1770; d.nr. Paris,1861), son of Adam Kazimierz and Izabella, was educated at Edinburgh and London, and strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. Czartoryski fought against the Russians in the Insurrection of 1794 and, sent as a hostage to St. Petersburg, gained the friendship of the Grand-Duke Alexander and the Emperor Paul who made him ambassador to Sardinia. In 1801, on ascending the throne, Alexander,as part of his plan to transform Russia into a modern constitutional monarchy, appointed Czartoryski as assistant to the Minister of

Foreign Affairs and placed in charge of education in the former Polish territories. As curator of the University of Wilna (1803) he used his influence to keep a spirit of Polish-Lithuanian nationalism alive and when some of the students (including Adam Mickiewicz) were arrested and some sent in exile to Siberia (1823), he was removed from his office. Czartoryski was a member of the Russian delegation to the Congress of Vienna set up after the defeat of Napoleon (20 July 1815), and was responsible for drawing up the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland established by the Congress; it was the most liberal constitution in Central Europe. When the Polish Sejm began to act as a normal parliament Alexander, whose enthusiasm for liberalism had waned, dissolved it in 1820. Alexander's successor, Nicholas, became even less amenable to Polish wishes after the Decembrist Revolt; this Russian secret society had forged close links with Polish conspirators who were arrested and placed on trial for high treason only to be cleared by the Sejm Tribunal (having acted on the advice of Czartoryski himself) and served with a more lenient sentence for participating in clandestine organisations (1828). Czartoryski became actively involved in the Revolution of 1830 and was elected president of the provisional government. He summoned the Sejm in January 1831, which declared the Polish throne vacant and elected Czartoryski as head of the national government. He immediately donated half of his large estates to public service. He resigned in August 1831 but continued as a common soldier. After the suppression of the Revolution Czartoryski was excluded from the amnesty, condemned to death and his estates confiscated; he escaped to Paris where he purchased the old palace, the Hotel Lambert. In Paris, Lelewel's Permanent National Committee (set up December 1831) tried to fix the blame on the failure of the Insurrection on the leaders of the conservative group leading to a virtual civil war between the two factions as they tried to direct the Polish cause in their own way. The man who emerged as leader of the conservative faction was Prince Adam Czartoryski, becoming the focus of Polish hopes; Czartoryski himself was referred to as the "de facto king of Poland". He ran a vast network ready to spring into action whenever the opportunity lent itself and in effect put the "Polish Question" firmly on the European agenda. The activity of his agents in the Balkans contributed enormously to the awakening of national consciousness in that region and helped Serbia shake off Russian influence. He rented land from the Sultan in order to provide homes for insurgents who had retreated into the Ottoman Empire after the failure of the 1830 Uprising (1842); this was the colony of Polonezkoy or Adampol which was enlarged after each unsuccessful attempt at liberation. In 1848 he appealed, unsuccessfully, to Pope Pius IX to create a Polish Legion to fight on Italy's side against Austria. He freed his serfs in Galicia (1848) and during the Crimean War worked hard to induce the allies to link the Polish cause with that of Turkey. In 1857 Czartoryski set up a publishing house producing the periodical "Wiadomosci Polskie" ("News From Poland") which became very popular amongst the exiles. He also set up the Bureau des Affaires Polonaises (Bureau of Polish Affairs, 1858). He refused the subsequent amnesty offered him by Alexander II. His son, Wladyslaw (b.1828; d. 1894) opened the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow (1878) after the Czartoryski properties were confiscated by the State. He was a collector of Egyptian art and there are some very important pieces among the antiquities which form only a part of the rich collection in Krakow.

Continued Resistance: "For Your Freedom and Ours"

The insurrection in the semi-independent City of Krakow in 1846 was doomed from the start. The insurrectionists had hoped to gain the support of the local peasantry (recalling the victory at Raclawice) but the peasants, having never benefited from the liberal ideals proposed by the intelligentsia, used the insurrection as an excuse to rid themselves of their landlords; it was the last "jacquerie" (or peasants' uprising) in European history. The insurrectionist forces were

defeated by a combination of Austrian and peasant forces at the battle of Gdow and the insurrection was put down with great brutality by the Austrians, resulting in the abolition of the Commonwealth of Krakow.

In 1848 "the Springtime of Nations" (a revolutionary movement towards greater democracy in much of Europe) saw large-scale contributions by the Poles; in Italy, Mickiewicz organised a small legion to fight for Italian independence from Austria, whilst in Hungary, Generals Dembinski and Bem led 3,000 Poles in the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. There were also unsuccessful uprisings in Poznan (Posen), against the Prussians, and in Eastern Galicia, against the Austrians.

Starting in 1863, the "January Uprising" against the Russians lasted for more than a year and a half. A Provisional government was established and more than 1,200 skirmishes were fought, mostly in the deep forests under the command of Romuald Traugutt.

Traugutt, Romuald; b. 1825; d. 1864. During the January Insurrection of 1863 the underground state was forced to organise one of the world's earliest campaigns of urban guerrilla warfare, centred on Warsaw, and to use hit-and-run tactics in the countryside. Due to initial setbacks and the isolation of different groups there was a great deal of political in-fighting between the different factions - the Social Democrat "Reds", and the more moderate "Whites" - which only ended when Traugutt, a Lithuanian landowner from Podlasie, became its political and military commander (October 1863). Formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army, he had served in both Hungary and the Crimea. In May 1863 he took command of a force of guerrillas in the Dziadkowicki Forest, near Kobryn, and in July went to Warsaw where he was given office under Karol Majewski (b. 1833; d. 1897), the over-all commander at the time. A "White" with "Red" sympathies, he represented the National Government abroad, meeting with Napoleon III, and was quickly convinced that there would be little support from the West. On returning to Warsaw, based at the Saski Hotel, he seized control of the underground state and became Dictator. With the help of General Jozef Hauke, he completely reorganised the existing military structures, establishing a regular army and abolishing all independent formations - as a result the Insurrection revived and expanded its area of operations. With no support from abroad the Insurrection began to peter out and the final stroke came with the emancipation of the peasants, which sanctioned the state of affairs created by the Insurrection (2 March 1864), and Traugutt's arrest in the night of 10/11 August 1864. He was imprisoned in Pawiak, tried, condemned to death and hanged (5 August 1864). The Insurrection had kept Europe's largest military machine tied down for eighteen months and had involved not only the szlachta but, in its final stages, also the peasants (who had fought its very last engagement). The subsequent suppression of the Rising permanently scarred a generation of Poles; thousands were sent into exile to Siberia - the cream of the nation. Most never returned. The name of the Kingdom of Poland was changed to the "Vistula Province". The Insurrection of 1863 was a watershed in Polish history; the social structure changed as the peasants finally gained their freedom in Russia in 1864 (serfdom had been abolished in Prussia in 1823, and in Austria in 1848) and slowly made their way to economic, then political, power. After 1864 the Polish struggle becomes a genuinely national struggle as politicians vie for the attention of all the classes, especially the peasants. But the situation also changed after 1864 as one sees an almost universal rejection of the idea of gaining independence through revolution.

The Uprising was finally put down in 1865, and the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a severe policy of persecution and "Russification" established. The University of Warsaw and

all schools were closed down, use of the Polish language was forbidden in most public places and the Catholic Church was persecuted. The Kingdom of Poland became known as the "Vistula Province".

In the Prussian occupied zone the aim was to totally destroy the Polish language and culture; from 1872 German became compulsory in all schools and it was a crime to be caught speaking in Polish. There was a systematic attempt to uproot Polish Peasants from their land.

In Austrian Poland, Galicia, conditions were different. After 1868 the Poles had a degree of self-government, the Polish language was kept as the official language and the Universities of Krakow and Lwow were allowed to function. As a result this area witnessed a splendid revival of Polish culture, including the works of the painter Jan Matejko, and the writers Kraszewski, Prus and Sienkiewicz.

Matejko, Jan Alojzy; (b. Krakow, 1838. d. Krakow, 1893). It would be difficult to find another artist, anywhere, like Matejko - Poland's greatest painter of historical scenes,who was born, worked and died in Krakow. Matejko was trained at Krakow and Munich (1859) and, briefly, in Vienna. He was adored by his public for his nationalistic themes painted in a highly realistic manner. He created powerful, inspired works which have played an important role in preserving national unity and pride in national achievements at times of crisis, notably during the Partitions; Poles view their history through Matejko's images. His prodigious output includes about ten monumental pieces. His method of working consisted of detailed research and a study of written sources. His early paintings are in a dark Venetian manner but his later pieces became lighter and resembled the Late-Baroque revival style favoured by some Viennese painters. Amongst his greatest works are: "The Battle of Grunwald" (1872 - 75) - for which he received a sceptre as the sign of his being "the king of art", and which achieved notoriety when it was reproduced as a Polish stamp in 1960, being the largest Polish stamp produced; "Batory at Pskov"(1872); "Hold Pruski" ("The Prussian Homage", 1882); "Sobieski at the Gates of Vienna" (1883) which was presented by Matejko to the Vatican; and "Kosciuszko at Raclawice"(1888); all of which act as historical "time-capsules" recording not only the events but also the costumes and, particularly, the unique military costumes of the Commonwealth. Matejko also painted some outstanding family portraits and self-portraits, as well as a series "A Retinue of Polish Kings and Princes" with which most Polish children are acquainted. In 1889 - 91 he worked on the polychromatic decoration in the Mariacki, Krakow, with his pupils, Wyspianski and Mehoffer, as his assistants. He played an important role in saving the 1650 Baroque altar from being removed from Wawel Cathedral and encouraged the renovation of the Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall) in the Rynek. He became Director of the Academy, Krakow and received many medals from abroad, including the French Legion of Honour (1870).

His home at 41 ul. Florianska was turned into the Matejko Museum in 1898 and is now a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

Kraszewski, Jozef Ignacy; (b. Warsaw, 1812; d. Geneva, 1887). One of the most prolific of all Polish authors, he wrote novels, plays, verse (including an epic on the history of Lithuania, "Anafielas", 1843), criticism and historical works; a total of around seven hundred volumes earning himself the title of "the father of the Polish novel". Educated at Wilno University, he spent some time in prison as a student. He became fascinated by Lithuania and collected information about her local customs and history. For a while he was inspector of schools and directed the theatre in Zhitomir before going on to edit a newspaper in Warsaw. After being

dismissed and put on a black-list by the authorities he moved to Dresden where he soon drew attention to himself, was arrested as a dangerous element and imprisoned at Magdeburg (1883). His health ruined, he settled in San Remo, Italy, where he lost all his belongings in an earthquake. Amongst his works (some of which have been seen as a literary equivalent of Matejko's historical paintings) are "Stara Basn" ("An Ancient Tale", 1876) about a prehistoric and pre-Christian community, "Jermola Ulana" (1843), "Kordecki" (1852), culture romances "Morituri" (1875) and "Resurrecti" (1876), and several political novels under the pseudonym of Boleslawita.

Prus, Boleslaw (pseudonym of: Aleksander Glowacki); (b. Hrubieszow, 1847; d. 1912). One of the greatest of Polish novelists, a member of the minor szlachta, Prus is regarded by many as second only to Sienkiewicz. He joined a guerrilla unit and was wounded during the January Insurrection of 1863 and spent some time in prison after it. Fascinated by mathematics and the natural sciences, Prus was obliged to write in order to make some money. He was a Positivist in that he believed that progress can cure all ills, but he gradually became more sceptical as he grew older. He claimed a great debt to Herbert Spencer. Initially he wrote articles for various Warsaw periodicals, "Weekly Chronicles" which observed the everyday world around him. He turned to writing fiction, starting with short stories where poverty played an important role and his characters are treated with a gentle humour. His novel "The Outpost" (1885) tells of the obstinate refusal of the illiterate peasant, Slimak ("snail"), to sell his patch of land to the German colonists gradually taking over his Posnanian village; but Slimak is not portrayed as a hero - it is his faults (rather than any virtues) that carry him through to victory. Amongst his chief works are "Pharaoh" (1897) which is essentially the story of a struggle for power between a young militaristic idealist and the cunning priests in decaying Ancient Egypt, and "Lalka" ("The Doll") - considered by many to be the best Polish novel - set in Warsaw it was the first Polish novel to deal with the lives, social problems and conflicts of the urban middle class. The hero of "Lalka" is the capitalist Wokulski, a former Insurrectionist who had been exiled to Siberia and, on returning to Warsaw, was employed in a shop. Through marriage he comes into money and dreams of using his wealth in the services of science and progress but finds himself lured frivolously away from his high ideals by falling in love with a worthless aristocratic woman, Isabella. Wokulski is contrasted, in a subtle way, with the Romantic, Rzecki - constantly excited, a believer in great causes and shy admirer of women. Prus is buried in the Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw.

Sienkiewicz, Henryk; (b. Wola Okrzejska, Podlasie, 1846. d. Vevey, Switzerland, 1916). Perhaps one of the most popular Polish authors, famous for his historical novels mainly dealing with Poland's past. Sienkiewicz was educated in Warsaw and then became a journalist whose gift for observation, taste for adventure and attention to detail served him well. He went to the US in 1876 charged with finding somewhere suitable for a group of Varsovian writers and artists (including the actress Helena Modrzejewski) who wished to migrate and establish a colony there; he chose Anaheim, California. He was enthused by the redwood forests and the Sierras (and some of this landscape would serve to inspire his descriptions of the primeval forests of his novels). The group soon tired of the "good life" and went their separate ways. Sienkiewicz went back to writing and sent a series of "Letters from America" to the Polish newspapers which made his reputation; he wrote about New York, California, and the campaign against Sitting Bull. His "Charcoal Sketches", a short novel about a Polish village, was actually written in Los Angeles. Sienkiewicz went to Paris in 1878 and then on to Poland. His tremendously popular patriotic "Trilogy"; "Ogniem i Mieczem" ("With Fire and Sword"),"Potop" ("The Deluge"), and "Pan Wolodyjowski", 1884-1888, was serialised in the newspapers and a "must" for every young Pole. The "Trilogy" deals with the adventurous

days of the Husaria (the winged cavalry) in the Polish-Cossack, Polish-Swedish and Polish-Turkish wars. His masterful evocation of the historical atmosphere of the times is reminiscent of Dumas and played an important role in forging the Polish image of itself and its destiny. The novels are full of unforgetful characters such as Zagloba, the Falstaff-like nobleman who - though a braggart - could use his cunning and courage to extricate himself from some serious circumstances; the noble officers Skretuski and Wolodyjowski; and the central character of "The Deluge", Kmicic who undergoes his own Calvary which parallels that of the nation during the Swedish invasion and the siege of Czestochowa. His fame in the West was secured by the novel on ancient Rome portraying the early days of Christianity struggling against the decadence of Nero's court, "Quo Vadis?" (1896) which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. His novel, "Krzyzacy" ("The Teutonic Knights", 1900), written during the worst days of Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" against the Poles in Posnania, deals with the days when the existence of Poland and Lithuania were threatened by the Teutonic Order and culminates in the battle of Grunwald. Sienkiewicz's writings are often used in Polish dictionaries as examples of good prose. At the outbreak of WW1, Sienkiewicz worked for the Red Cross Fund at Vevey in Switzerland.

All three powers kept Poland economically weak in this period of technological progress. Despite this the Poles managed to make some progress; the textile industry began to flourish in Lodz (the "Polish Manchester") and coal-mining developed rapidly. In Prussian Poland, despite ruthless oppression, the Poles concentrated on light industry and agriculture (and before long Poznan became the chief source of food for the whole of Germany). In Silesia, under German rule since 1742, the development of mining and heavy industry made her a chief industrial centre and thus the Prussian attempt to exterminate all traces of Polish language and culture was at its most ruthless, yet they survived.

Despite its abolition by Kosciuszko in 1794 the partitioning powers restored serfdom. It was not abolished in Prussia until 1823, in Austria until 1848 and in Russia until 1861 (but not in her "Polish" territories).

In 1905 the Russo-Japanese War saw a series of humiliating defeats for the Russians and civil unrest in Russia. In Poland there was a wave of strikes and demonstrations demanding civil rights. Polish pupils went on strike, walking out of Russian schools and a private organisation, the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" ("Polish Education Society"), was set up under the patronage of the great novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Then, in 1906, Jozef Pilsudski, a founder-member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), began to set up a number of paramilitary organisations which attacked Tzarist officials and carried out raids on post offices, tax-offices and mail-trains. In Galicia the Austrian authorities turned a blind eye to the setting up of a number of "sporting" clubs, followed by a Riflemen's Union. In 1912, Pilsudski reorganised these on military lines and by 1914 had nearly 12,000 men under arms.

Main Index Guide to Krakow Polish History

In the Aftermath of the Partitions

Napoleonic Poland; The Duchy of Warsaw

The Poles felt that one way of restoring independence was to fight for Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1791 Dabrowski organised two legions to fight the Austrians in Lombardy and, later, for the French in the Iberian Peninsula.

Dabrowski, Jan Henryk (b. Pierzchowiec, nr. Bochnia, 1755; d. 1818) is the hero immortalised in the words of the Polish National Anthem;

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginiela poki my zyjemy,Co nam obca przemoc wziela, szabla odbierzemy.Marsz marsz, Dabrowski, z ziemi Wloskiej do Polski!Za twoim przewodem zlaczym sie z narodem."

"Poland is not dead whilst we live,What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back.March march, Dabrowski, from Italy's soil to Poland!Through your leadership we will reunite the nation."

Raised and educated in Saxony, Dabrowski served in the Saxon army where he reached the rank of Rottmeister in a guard cavalry regiment. He served against the Russians during the First Partition in 1792 and then again, in the defence of Warsaw in 1794. When Kosciuszko's Insurrection broke out the Prussian army, which had been laying siege to Warsaw, found itself in a potentially dangerous position; an armed rising in its rear and its ammunition supplies captured at Wroclawek. In their attempt to extricate themselves from this position the Prussians set off for Western Poland only to find themselves harassed in a series of minor operations led by Dabrowski which kept them engaged for weeks. He captured Bydgoszcz (2 October) and ended up driving the Prussians out from the main theatre of war. After the failure of Kosciuszko's Insurrection Dabrowski was invited to serve Russia by Suvorov and Prussia by Frederick William II but he turned them both down, making his way to Paris where he was feted for his military successes. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris. The former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation whilst their opposition was the more liberal, pro-constitutional faction, the Agency led by Kosciuszko's representative, Barss. The aim of the Deputation was to organise an uprising in Poland, organising a Polish military force in Walachia. The Agency put its emphasis on working in league with a foreign power (initially Prussia, then France); Dabrowski allied himself with the Agency. In Paris, thousands of Poles offered to fight in the service of revolutionary France and to reinforce Bonaparte's exhausted armies in Italy. When it emerged that many of the prisoners captured during the Italian campaign were Poles from Galicia, drafted into the Austrian army, it was decided that Dabrowski should organise a Polish Legion (formed in Milan, 9 January 1797) and command it in Italy (1798 - 1801); this met with a furious campaign of denunciations by the Deputation (citing certain unsavoury events in his past including his Prussian connections and favours shown him by the Russian general Suvorov) which were later redoubled when the Legions were used to repress any opposition to Napoleon rather than to live up to the Polish motto of "For our freedom and yours". Dabrowski was given command over the Polish Legions in Italy. With the establishment of the Legion, Poles deserted from the Austrian army in droves and very soon a second Polish Legion was formed (1798) under General Zajaczek (in order to appease the Deputation) and later, in 1800, a third on the Danube under General Kniaziewicz. The Polish Legions suffered terribly during the Italian campaigns; the Second Legion was virtually annihilated in the first battles on the Adige (26 March, 4 April 1799) and after the capitulation of Mantua when they were seized by the Austrians as deserters (as part of a secret agreement

between the French commander Foissac-Latour and the Austrians). Dabrowski's Legion also suffered terrible casualties both in the battle on the Trebbia (17 - 19 June 1799) and during the subsequent miserable conditions in the mountains of Liguria. Dabrowski continued to serve as general of Polish troops under Napoleon: on 3 November 1806 he and Wybicki issued a revolutionary appeal to their countrymen in which they quoted Napoleon; "I want to see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation". Dabrowski played an important role during the Polish Campaign when, after the liberation of Poznan, he established a military organisation made up of levies. When Napoleon reorganised the Polish army under the leadership of Poniatowski (taking the middle way between the extremes of Dabrowski and Zajaczek) Dabrowski could not conceal his embitterment and animosity. Dabrowski's Legion was active in West Prussia and at the siege of Gdansk (Danzig), and later in East Prussia where it saw action at Friedland (1807). As part of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, Dabrowski fought against the Austrians in 1809, the Russians in the campaign of 1812, and at the battle of Leipzig (1813). Returning to Poland in 1813 he was designated by the Tsar to reorganise the Polish army, appointed general of the cavalry in 1815, and senator palatine of the Kingdom of Poland. From his estate at Winnogora, Dabrowski acted as patron of the secret "Society of Scythemen" formed by former Napoleonic soldiers in Poznan; subsequently reformed as a branch of Warsaw's "National Freemasonry" they were to play a useful part during the November Insurrection of 1830.

Napoleon used the Polish Legions in all his campaigns; against Russia, Austria and Prussia, in Egypt, in the West Indies (Santo Domingo), and in Spain (where they fought the British and inspired the formation of the English lancers equipped with Polish-style uniforms and weapons). Some of the Poles became very disillusioned with Bonaparte, realising that they were being manipulated.

Later, in 1806, the French armies defeated the Prussians at Jena and entered Posen (Poznan) led by the Poles under Dabrowski. A year later Napoleon and the Tzar, Alexander, met at Tilsit and agreed to set up a Polish State made up of the lands the Prussians had taken in the second partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon used the Duchy as a pawn in his political game and in 1812 called upon the Lithuanians to rebel as an excuse to attack Russia. One of the great figures of this period was Jozef Poniatowski.

Amongst Stanislaw II's brothers, Michal Poniatowski (b.1736; d.1794) became Primate of Poland (1784) and Andrzej Poniatowski (b. 1735; d. 1773) was a general in the Austrian army. Andrzej's son Prince Jozef Antoni Poniatowski (b. Vienna, 7 May 1763; d. 19 October 1813) was a gifted cavalry officer who served in the Austrian Army (from 1780) and as a representative to the Russian court (1787). He was wounded at the siege of Sabatch, fighting the Turks (1788). In 1789 he became Major General of the Polish Army and fought in the Ukraine (his first lieutenant was Kosciuszko) during the Polish-Russian War (1792). Poniatowski was decorated for his role at Zielence (18 June 1792) where he led one of his early bayonet attacks that were to become his trademark (the victory was commemorated by the establishment of the decoration of the Militari Virtuti Cross). He resigned, in protest, when Stanislaw II joined the Targowica Confederacy, joining the conspiracy to kidnap the King (which came to nought). He fought against the Russians alongside Kosciuszko during the Insurrection (1792 - 94) and joined the French army in 1800. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris where the former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation. When Poniatowski became commander of the Polish forces in Napoleon's army (1806) the Deputation turned against him because of his uncle's Targowica connections. This soured his relationships with his fellow general,

Zajaczek who was connected with the Deputation. Unfortunately Poniatowski had also alienated himself with Dabrowski (who was angry at having been overlooked as commander-in-chief). Poniatowski became Minister for War in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) and introduced the concept of universal conscription which helped unite the nation by making its citizens, in carrying out their duty, more aware of their nationality (1808). In 1809 he led the first successful Polish army in the field since the Partitions, against the Austrians who had invaded under the leadership of the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este. Poniatowski barred the way to Warsaw and at the battle of Raszyn (19 April 1809), where 12,000 Poles faced 25,000 Austrians, the Polish Infantry stubbornly held their ground; it is said that Poniatowski himself took a rifle and went into the front rank with the attacking soldiers. He organised a series of cavalry raids into Galicia that outmanoeuvred superior numbers thus, at the Treaty of Schonbrunn, succeeding in reuniting Krakow and West Galicia with the Duchy. Poles swarmed to his colours from all parts. In the 1812 campaign against Russia, Polish Lancers were the first to cross the Niemen into Russia, playing a crucial part in the battles of Borodino and Smolensk (where Poniatowski was wounded), they were the first to enter Moscow and, under Poniatowski, covering the debacle of the French retreat and saving Napoleon from disaster at the Beresina, being the last out of Russia; 72,000 of the original 100,000 Poles never returned. Poniatowski continued to resist the Russians in the Duchy but in the face of overwhelming odds, and determined to preserve some element of an independent Polish army, chose to stand by Napoleon and retreat into Germany. He showed great valour at the "Battle of the Nations", Leipzig (19 October 1813), where Napoleon raised him to the rank of Marshal of France - the only foreigner to ever be so honoured: in the French retreat at Leipzig the Poles carried out a rearguard action during which the French prematurely blew up the Lindenau Bridge over the River Elster, leaving the Poles stranded on the other side. Having to cross under heavy fire, Poniatowski was mortally wounded and, driving his horse into the river, drowned. His name is inscribed on the roll of honour on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris and he, himself, is buried in the crypt of the Wawel, Krakow. His tomb bears the words "God entrusted to me the Honour of the Poles - and I will render it only to Him."

Poniatowski's ancestors served as ministers in the court of Napoleon III and of President Giscard d'Estang. Jozef's nephew, Prince Jozef Michal (b.1816; d. 1873) was a musical composer who wrote many operas, including "Don Desiderio", and several masses. He was a naturalised Tuscan citizen (1847) but later resided in Paris where he was made a senator by Napoleon III.

Despite the cynical way that Napoleon treated the Poles they remained loyal to him and, when he went into exile on Elba the only guards that Napoleon was allowed were Polish Lancers.

The Fate of Kosciuszko:

Following the death of the Tsarina Catherine II, Kosciuszko was released, going into exile to England, America (where he found himself under surveillance because of his pro-French sympathies and had to be smuggled out by his friend, Thomas Jefferson) and then to France (1798). When, in 1799, the Directory offered him the leadership of the Polish Legions he refused on the grounds that the French had shown no sign of recognising their distinct entity as a Polish national army. Kosciuszko was also uneasy about Napoleon's ambitions and these feelings were confirmed when he proclaimed himself First Consul and then betrayed the hopes of the Legions at the Treaty of Luneville (1801). From then on he distrusted Napoleon and, suspicious of his intentions, refused to support his plan for the restoration of Poland in 1806. With the fall of Napoleon Kosciuszko watched the proceedings at the Congress of

Vienna with despair and pleaded with Tsar Alexander for a restoration of Poland, to no avail. He settled at Soleure, Switzerland (1817) where he died. He left all his wealth for the purpose of freeing and educating the Negroes.

"When the Polish nation called me to defend the integrity, the independence, the dignity, the glory and the liberty of the country, she knew full well that I was not the last Pole, and that with my death on the battlefield or elsewhere Poland could not, must not end. All that the Poles have done since then in the glorious Polish legions and all that they will still do in the future to gain their country back, sufficiently proves that albeit we, the devoted soldiers of that country, are mortal, Poland is immortal"

Kosciuszko to Segur, quoted in M.M. Gardner, "Kosciuszko", London 1920.

On hearing the news of his death the government of the Free City of Krakow applied to the Tsar Alexander I (one of the "protectors", alongside the rulers of Austria and of Prussia, of the City, according to the Congress of Vienna) for permission to inter Kosciuszko within the royal tombs of the Wawel. The Tsar, eager to court the Poles, approved. On 11 April 1818 Kosciuszko's coffin was placed in a chapel in St. Florian's Church and on 22 June taken, amidst great pomp, to the Wawel. He was placed next to the sarcophagi of Sobieski and Jozef Poniatowski. Shortly afterwards it was decided to raise a mound (Kopiec Kosciuszko) to his memory; a form of commemoration unique to the city of Krakow - only two others existed at the time; those of Krakus and Wanda. The work was started in 1820 when soil from Raclawice, and then Maciejowice was brought. In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, earth from the battlefields of America was brought over and deposited on the mound.

The house at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, US, where Kosciuszko stayed during the winter of 1797-1798, was designated as the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in 1972.

The "Congress Kingdom"

In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Duchy was partitioned and a large part went to Russia. In Austria and Prussia there was repression of all Polish attempts to maintain the national culture, but in Russia, fortunately, the Tzar, Alexander I, was a liberal ruler who agreed to the setting up of a semiautonomous "Congress Kingdom" with its own parliament and constitution. This became a time of peace and economic recovery. In 1817 the University of Warsaw was founded. But the accession of Tzar Nicholas I to the throne in 1825 saw the establishment of a more repressive regime.

In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into action. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection.

Wysocki, Piotr (b. 1794; d. 1857), a Second-Lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards and instructor at the Warsaw Infantry School, conspired with Colonel Jozef Zaliwski (b. 1797; d. 1855) to bring about an armed rebellion in 1830. They met up with a band of civilian conspirators who were planning to assassinate the Grand Duke Constantine. The situation in Warsaw was tense; the authorities knew mutiny was afoot and the conspirators expected to be

seized at any moment - action was inevitable. On the night of 29 November 1830 an assassination squad attacked the Belweder Palace with the intention of killing or capturing the Grand Duke whilst Wysocki led a force of cadets to seize the Arsenal. Unfortunately everything went wrong and a night of chaos ensued. The attack on the Belweder failed because the Grand Duke was hidden by his servants and when Wysocki's attack failed he had to retreat. Lacking a leader the insurgents marched into the city and asked Generals Trebicki and Potocki (who they met on the way) to take command. When they refused they were shot. Owing to the ineptitude of the original conspirators the political leadership of the Rising passed into the hands of people who had never sought an armed rising in the first place and, hence, vacillated; the Russian Tsar, on the other hand, didn't.

The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

The 1830 Revolution inspired the work of two great Poles living in exile; Chopin, the composer, and Mickiewicz, the poet.

Chopin, Fryderyk Francois (b. Zelazowa Wola, nr. Warsaw, 22 February 1810; d. Paris,1849), born of a French father and Polish mother, was a composer and pianist whose music has been seen as the very spirit of Polishness, using Polish folk melodies as the basic inspiration of many of his works, and it can be said that he played an important part in the promotion of Polish culture and nationhood in the salons of the European bourgeoisie. He was trained at the newly-opened Warsaw Conservatoire under Elsner (the director), and first played in public at the age of nine, publishing his first work in 1825. He left Poland to study abroad in 1830 just before the Revolution which was bloodily suppressed by the Russians and inspired his emotional Etude op.10, no.12; "Revolutionary". He was never to return to Poland. Living in France he became closely linked with the Polish poets of the Emigration and followed their use of national folk traditions, building his own compositions (his Polonaises and Mazurkas) on the national dances. Among his musical innovations were his harmonies, the range of his arpeggios and chords, and his use of the pedal. He became famous and gave concerts in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and other European cities, but refused to play in Russia. He suffered from consumption which was aggravated by a trip to England (1837). He had an intimate relationship with George Sand (pseudonym of the writer, Amandine Aurore Lucie) from 1838 - 47, who took him to Majorca (1838) and nursed him back to health but the relationship broke down after he took George's daughter's side in a family argument; she later depicted him as Prince Karol in her novel "Lucrezia Floriani". He died in Paris; he is buried at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery but his heart is in an urn in a pillar of the Kosciol sw. Krzyza (Church of the Holy Cross) on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw. His works for the piano alone include 55 mazurkas, 13 polonaises, 24 preludes, 27 etudes, 19 nocturnes, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos and a number of songs. During the Second World War his music was banned by the Nazis as subversive. A crater on Mercury is named after him (64.5°S, 124°W).

Mickiewicz, Adam (b. near Nowogrodek, 24 December 1798. d. Constantinople, 185), never set foot in Warsaw or Krakow even though he is Poland's national poet and is revered as the moral leader of the nation during the dark years after the Partitions. He became a student at Wilno University (1815), publishing his first volumes of poetry in 1822 and 1823, introducing

Romanticism into Polish literature. At Wilno, which was a hotbed of patriotic sympathy and discussion, he was a co-founder of the clandestine group known as the Philomaths ("Lovers of Learning") in which the members discussed a wide range of topics including the liberation of Poland. A small group of Philomaths, Mickiewicz amongst them, formed a more radical organisation, the Philarets ("Lovers of Virtue") which included a number of Russians who were later to be a part of the Decembrist conspiracy. An outbreak of patriotism in the university led to the arrest of the leading Philomats and Philarets for anti-Tsarist activity and, in 1824, Mickiewicz was sentenced to exile in Russia (1824 - 29); to St. Petersburg, Odessa (1825) and to Moscow where he taught and made friends with a number of Russian writers, including Pushkin, Ryleiev and Bestushev (and through these latter two, many of the future Decembrist conspirators). In Odessa he wrote his "Crimean Sonnets" (1826) recording his impressions of his travels to Crimea;

"I love to lean against Ayudah's faceAnd watch the frothing waves as on they pour,Dark ranks close-pressed, then burst like snow and soarA million silver rainbows arched in space.They strike the sands, they break and interlace;Like whales in battle that beset the shore,They seize the land and then retreat once more, Shells, pearls, and corals scattered in their race..."

Sonnet XVIII; "The Rock of Ayudah", trans. D.P.Radin, 1929.

In Moscow, he wrote his first overtly political poem, "Konrad Wallenrod" (1828); about a Lithuanian child captured by the Teutonic Knights, who is brought up by them and raised to the rank of Grand Master only to lead his Order to defeat at the hands of his own people. He left Russia in 1829, barely managing to board his ship, "George V", in Konstadt before the Tsar's orders revoking his departure could reach him. Mickiewicz travelled throughout the West; in Berlin he attended the lectures given by Hegel and was the guest of Goethe at Weimar. He finally made his way to Italy and whilst in Rome heard of the Warsaw Uprising of December 1830. Hurrying to join the struggle Mickiewicz only managed to reach Dresden before the uprising was put down. Here in Dresden in 1832 he created Part III of "Dziady" ("Forefather's Eve"), a mixture of Greek tragedy and mediaeval morality play that powerfully speaks of the heroism and martyrdom of a people fighting for freedom, and was later banned by the Communists, until 1970, for its anti-Russian attitude:

"Now my soul lives in my countryAnd in my body dwells her soul;My fatherland and I are one great whole.My name is million, for I love as millions:Their pain and suffering I feel;I gaze upon my country fallen on daysOf torment, as a son would gazeUpon his father broken on the wheel.I feel within myself my country's massacreJust as a mother feels the tormentOf her children within her womb."

Moving on to Paris (1832) it was here, in 1834, that Adam Mickiewicz produced his masterpiece: "Pan Tadeusz"; a novel in verse which evokes the almost fairy-tale life of the nobility in Lithuania through to the heroic march of Napoleon's Polish Legions through Lithuania to Russia in 1812. In a time before modern Nationalism imposed limitations on what it means to be a "Pole", Mickiewicz, like many others, saw no contradiction in being a Pole and a Lithuanian at the same time; the Noble Republic and Polishness (in non-nationalistic terms) were the same. Hence, his greatest poem begins;

"O Lithuania, my country, thouArt like good health; I never knew till nowHow precious, till I lost thee. Now I seeThy beauty whole, because I yearn for thee."

In 1834 Mickiewicz married Celina Szymanowska, daughter of the pianist and composer, Maria with whom he was closely attached since his days in St. Petersburg. For the last twenty years of his life Adam Mickiewicz virtually ceased writing. He was offered, and accepted, the chair of Roman Literature at Lausanne, Switzerland, (1839) but left to became professor of Slavic literature at the College de France, Paris (1840). Mickiewicz lost the post in 1845, for political activities. Around this time he came under the strong influence of Andrzej Towianski who had set up a sect. In 1848, in Lombardy, he formed a Polish Legion which fought with Garibaldi in the defence of Rome. Mickiewicz returned to Paris where he founded and edited the political daily, "La Tribune Des Peuples" (March - April 1849) sponsored by Ksawery Branicki. The journal was dedicated to the ideals of brotherhood and the solidarity of nations in the struggle against despotism and attracted a number of radical writers noted for their revolutionary, democratic, and socialist views. It suffered continued harassment by the authorities and did not outlast the year; Mickiewicz had to work secretly for the journal because of threats to deport him from France. In 1852, Louis Napoleon appointed him as a librarian in the Paris Arsenal. On the outbreak of the Crimean War (1855) he went to Turkey to organise Polish forces to be used in the war against Russia. With his friend, Armand Levy, he set about organising a Jewish Legion, the Hussars of Israel, composed of Russian and Palestinian Jews. During a visit to a military camp near Constantinople he caught cholera and died suddenly. His body was taken back to France (1856) and buried at Montmorency but, in 1890, his remains were transferred to Krakow and laid next to Kosciuszko's in the Wawel. A crater on Mercury is named after him (23.5°N, 19°W).

The "Great Emigration"

The failure of the Insurrection forced thousands of Poles to flee to the West; Paris became the spiritual capital. Many of these exiles contributed greatly to Polish and European culture. Joachim Lelewel became Poland's greatest historian, Chopin her greatest composer, and Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski and Norwid among her greatest poets. Adam Czartoryski set up court at the Hotel Lambert, in Paris, which played an important part in keeping the Polish question alive in European politics.

Czartoryski;

The Czartoryskis were a noble Polish-Lithuanian family, which included the brothers, Prince Fryderyk Michal (b.1696; d. 1775) and August (b. 1697; d. 1782), both of whom were statesman under Stanislaw Poniatowski and had a major influence on Polish policy during the reign of Augustus III. August's marriage to Poland's richest heiress, Zofia Sieniawska (b.

1699; d. 1771), brought an enormous fortune to the family and, with it, great influence. They supported the King and aspired to high office. Allied to their brother-in-law, Stanislaw Poniatowski (this influential and powerful alliance of the Czartoryskis and the Poniatowskis became known as "The Family"), they tried to push reforms through the court but were constantly blocked by the "republicans" led by the Potockis. Faced with such strong opposition the Czartoryskis deluded themselves into believing that they could manipulate the Russians for their own ends (Poniatowski had had a love affair with the Grand duchess Catherine in 1755 - 58) and conceived of a coup d'etat (1763). The Russians,now ruled by Catherine II, the Great, and the Prussians, under Frederick II, were opposed to the idea of any change in the Commonwealth's institutions which they found convenient to their own ends but, in turn, manipulated the Czartoryskis and elected Stanislaw Poniatowski to the throne. Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland; the reign was totally controlled by Russia.

Adam Kazimierz (b. Gdansk, 1734 ; d. 1823), was the unsuccessful candidate for the Polish throne at the death of Augustus III. He married Izabella Elzbieta Flemming (b. 1746; d. 1835) who became an important influence on the family and the cultural life of Poland during the Enlightenment. She commissioned the leading Neoclassical architect of the day, Aigner, to redesign the palace at Pulawy and summoned a team of international experts, including John Savage (who had recently designed Warsaw's Saski Gardens) to landscape the park (1788 - 1810) wherein Aigner built two museum buildings (the first in Poland); the Temple of the Sybil (1801) and the Gothic House (1809) within which were displayed the vast Czartoryski collection of art and antiquities. Izabella was the first to attempt to build an English landscape garden in Poland, at Powazki on the outskirts of Warsaw (now occupied by the Catholic Cemetery). She established a school for the education of the daughters of impoverished nobles and wrote the first Polish History textbook for elementary schools. Under the influence of Izabella Pulawy became a rival to Warsaw as the chief centre of Polish cultural life, especially after the Partitions. Their daughter Maria (b. 1768; d. 1854) became Duchess of Wurtemburg and a novelist.

Probably the greatest Polish statesman of the C19th., Adam Jerzy (b. Warsaw,1770; d.nr. Paris,1861), son of Adam Kazimierz and Izabella, was educated at Edinburgh and London, and strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. Czartoryski fought against the Russians in the Insurrection of 1794 and, sent as a hostage to St. Petersburg, gained the friendship of the Grand-Duke Alexander and the Emperor Paul who made him ambassador to Sardinia. In 1801, on ascending the throne, Alexander,as part of his plan to transform Russia into a modern constitutional monarchy, appointed Czartoryski as assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and placed in charge of education in the former Polish territories. As curator of the University of Wilna (1803) he used his influence to keep a spirit of Polish-Lithuanian nationalism alive and when some of the students (including Adam Mickiewicz) were arrested and some sent in exile to Siberia (1823), he was removed from his office. Czartoryski was a member of the Russian delegation to the Congress of Vienna set up after the defeat of Napoleon (20 July 1815), and was responsible for drawing up the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland established by the Congress; it was the most liberal constitution in Central Europe. When the Polish Sejm began to act as a normal parliament Alexander, whose enthusiasm for liberalism had waned, dissolved it in 1820. Alexander's successor, Nicholas, became even less amenable to Polish wishes after the Decembrist Revolt; this Russian secret society had forged close links with Polish conspirators who were arrested and placed on trial for high treason only to be cleared by the Sejm Tribunal (having acted on the advice of Czartoryski himself) and served with a more lenient sentence for participating in clandestine organisations (1828).

Czartoryski became actively involved in the Revolution of 1830 and was elected president of the provisional government. He summoned the Sejm in January 1831, which declared the Polish throne vacant and elected Czartoryski as head of the national government. He immediately donated half of his large estates to public service. He resigned in August 1831 but continued as a common soldier. After the suppression of the Revolution Czartoryski was excluded from the amnesty, condemned to death and his estates confiscated; he escaped to Paris where he purchased the old palace, the Hotel Lambert. In Paris, Lelewel's Permanent National Committee (set up December 1831) tried to fix the blame on the failure of the Insurrection on the leaders of the conservative group leading to a virtual civil war between the two factions as they tried to direct the Polish cause in their own way. The man who emerged as leader of the conservative faction was Prince Adam Czartoryski, becoming the focus of Polish hopes; Czartoryski himself was referred to as the "de facto king of Poland". He ran a vast network ready to spring into action whenever the opportunity lent itself and in effect put the "Polish Question" firmly on the European agenda. The activity of his agents in the Balkans contributed enormously to the awakening of national consciousness in that region and helped Serbia shake off Russian influence. He rented land from the Sultan in order to provide homes for insurgents who had retreated into the Ottoman Empire after the failure of the 1830 Uprising (1842); this was the colony of Polonezkoy or Adampol which was enlarged after each unsuccessful attempt at liberation. In 1848 he appealed, unsuccessfully, to Pope Pius IX to create a Polish Legion to fight on Italy's side against Austria. He freed his serfs in Galicia (1848) and during the Crimean War worked hard to induce the allies to link the Polish cause with that of Turkey. In 1857 Czartoryski set up a publishing house producing the periodical "Wiadomosci Polskie" ("News From Poland") which became very popular amongst the exiles. He also set up the Bureau des Affaires Polonaises (Bureau of Polish Affairs, 1858). He refused the subsequent amnesty offered him by Alexander II. His son, Wladyslaw (b.1828; d. 1894) opened the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow (1878) after the Czartoryski properties were confiscated by the State. He was a collector of Egyptian art and there are some very important pieces among the antiquities which form only a part of the rich collection in Krakow.

Continued Resistance: "For Your Freedom and Ours"

The insurrection in the semi-independent City of Krakow in 1846 was doomed from the start. The insurrectionists had hoped to gain the support of the local peasantry (recalling the victory at Raclawice) but the peasants, having never benefited from the liberal ideals proposed by the intelligentsia, used the insurrection as an excuse to rid themselves of their landlords; it was the last "jacquerie" (or peasants' uprising) in European history. The insurrectionist forces were defeated by a combination of Austrian and peasant forces at the battle of Gdow and the insurrection was put down with great brutality by the Austrians, resulting in the abolition of the Commonwealth of Krakow.

In 1848 "the Springtime of Nations" (a revolutionary movement towards greater democracy in much of Europe) saw large-scale contributions by the Poles; in Italy, Mickiewicz organised a small legion to fight for Italian independence from Austria, whilst in Hungary, Generals Dembinski and Bem led 3,000 Poles in the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. There were also unsuccessful uprisings in Poznan (Posen), against the Prussians, and in Eastern Galicia, against the Austrians.

Starting in 1863, the "January Uprising" against the Russians lasted for more than a year and a half. A Provisional government was established and more than 1,200 skirmishes were fought, mostly in the deep forests under the command of Romuald Traugutt.

Traugutt, Romuald; b. 1825; d. 1864. During the January Insurrection of 1863 the underground state was forced to organise one of the world's earliest campaigns of urban guerrilla warfare, centred on Warsaw, and to use hit-and-run tactics in the countryside. Due to initial setbacks and the isolation of different groups there was a great deal of political in-fighting between the different factions - the Social Democrat "Reds", and the more moderate "Whites" - which only ended when Traugutt, a Lithuanian landowner from Podlasie, became its political and military commander (October 1863). Formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army, he had served in both Hungary and the Crimea. In May 1863 he took command of a force of guerrillas in the Dziadkowicki Forest, near Kobryn, and in July went to Warsaw where he was given office under Karol Majewski (b. 1833; d. 1897), the over-all commander at the time. A "White" with "Red" sympathies, he represented the National Government abroad, meeting with Napoleon III, and was quickly convinced that there would be little support from the West. On returning to Warsaw, based at the Saski Hotel, he seized control of the underground state and became Dictator. With the help of General Jozef Hauke, he completely reorganised the existing military structures, establishing a regular army and abolishing all independent formations - as a result the Insurrection revived and expanded its area of operations. With no support from abroad the Insurrection began to peter out and the final stroke came with the emancipation of the peasants, which sanctioned the state of affairs created by the Insurrection (2 March 1864), and Traugutt's arrest in the night of 10/11 August 1864. He was imprisoned in Pawiak, tried, condemned to death and hanged (5 August 1864). The Insurrection had kept Europe's largest military machine tied down for eighteen months and had involved not only the szlachta but, in its final stages, also the peasants (who had fought its very last engagement). The subsequent suppression of the Rising permanently scarred a generation of Poles; thousands were sent into exile to Siberia - the cream of the nation. Most never returned. The name of the Kingdom of Poland was changed to the "Vistula Province". The Insurrection of 1863 was a watershed in Polish history; the social structure changed as the peasants finally gained their freedom in Russia in 1864 (serfdom had been abolished in Prussia in 1823, and in Austria in 1848) and slowly made their way to economic, then political, power. After 1864 the Polish struggle becomes a genuinely national struggle as politicians vie for the attention of all the classes, especially the peasants. But the situation also changed after 1864 as one sees an almost universal rejection of the idea of gaining independence through revolution.

The Uprising was finally put down in 1865, and the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a severe policy of persecution and "Russification" established. The University of Warsaw and all schools were closed down, use of the Polish language was forbidden in most public places and the Catholic Church was persecuted. The Kingdom of Poland became known as the "Vistula Province".

In the Prussian occupied zone the aim was to totally destroy the Polish language and culture; from 1872 German became compulsory in all schools and it was a crime to be caught speaking in Polish. There was a systematic attempt to uproot Polish Peasants from their land.

In Austrian Poland, Galicia, conditions were different. After 1868 the Poles had a degree of self-government, the Polish language was kept as the official language and the Universities of Krakow and Lwow were allowed to function. As a result this area witnessed a splendid

revival of Polish culture, including the works of the painter Jan Matejko, and the writers Kraszewski, Prus and Sienkiewicz.

Matejko, Jan Alojzy; (b. Krakow, 1838. d. Krakow, 1893). It would be difficult to find another artist, anywhere, like Matejko - Poland's greatest painter of historical scenes,who was born, worked and died in Krakow. Matejko was trained at Krakow and Munich (1859) and, briefly, in Vienna. He was adored by his public for his nationalistic themes painted in a highly realistic manner. He created powerful, inspired works which have played an important role in preserving national unity and pride in national achievements at times of crisis, notably during the Partitions; Poles view their history through Matejko's images. His prodigious output includes about ten monumental pieces. His method of working consisted of detailed research and a study of written sources. His early paintings are in a dark Venetian manner but his later pieces became lighter and resembled the Late-Baroque revival style favoured by some Viennese painters. Amongst his greatest works are: "The Battle of Grunwald" (1872 - 75) - for which he received a sceptre as the sign of his being "the king of art", and which achieved notoriety when it was reproduced as a Polish stamp in 1960, being the largest Polish stamp produced; "Batory at Pskov"(1872); "Hold Pruski" ("The Prussian Homage", 1882); "Sobieski at the Gates of Vienna" (1883) which was presented by Matejko to the Vatican; and "Kosciuszko at Raclawice"(1888); all of which act as historical "time-capsules" recording not only the events but also the costumes and, particularly, the unique military costumes of the Commonwealth. Matejko also painted some outstanding family portraits and self-portraits, as well as a series "A Retinue of Polish Kings and Princes" with which most Polish children are acquainted. In 1889 - 91 he worked on the polychromatic decoration in the Mariacki, Krakow, with his pupils, Wyspianski and Mehoffer, as his assistants. He played an important role in saving the 1650 Baroque altar from being removed from Wawel Cathedral and encouraged the renovation of the Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall) in the Rynek. He became Director of the Academy, Krakow and received many medals from abroad, including the French Legion of Honour (1870).

His home at 41 ul. Florianska was turned into the Matejko Museum in 1898 and is now a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

Kraszewski, Jozef Ignacy; (b. Warsaw, 1812; d. Geneva, 1887). One of the most prolific of all Polish authors, he wrote novels, plays, verse (including an epic on the history of Lithuania, "Anafielas", 1843), criticism and historical works; a total of around seven hundred volumes earning himself the title of "the father of the Polish novel". Educated at Wilno University, he spent some time in prison as a student. He became fascinated by Lithuania and collected information about her local customs and history. For a while he was inspector of schools and directed the theatre in Zhitomir before going on to edit a newspaper in Warsaw. After being dismissed and put on a black-list by the authorities he moved to Dresden where he soon drew attention to himself, was arrested as a dangerous element and imprisoned at Magdeburg (1883). His health ruined, he settled in San Remo, Italy, where he lost all his belongings in an earthquake. Amongst his works (some of which have been seen as a literary equivalent of Matejko's historical paintings) are "Stara Basn" ("An Ancient Tale", 1876) about a prehistoric and pre-Christian community, "Jermola Ulana" (1843), "Kordecki" (1852), culture romances "Morituri" (1875) and "Resurrecti" (1876), and several political novels under the pseudonym of Boleslawita.

Prus, Boleslaw (pseudonym of: Aleksander Glowacki); (b. Hrubieszow, 1847; d. 1912). One of the greatest of Polish novelists, a member of the minor szlachta, Prus is regarded by many

as second only to Sienkiewicz. He joined a guerrilla unit and was wounded during the January Insurrection of 1863 and spent some time in prison after it. Fascinated by mathematics and the natural sciences, Prus was obliged to write in order to make some money. He was a Positivist in that he believed that progress can cure all ills, but he gradually became more sceptical as he grew older. He claimed a great debt to Herbert Spencer. Initially he wrote articles for various Warsaw periodicals, "Weekly Chronicles" which observed the everyday world around him. He turned to writing fiction, starting with short stories where poverty played an important role and his characters are treated with a gentle humour. His novel "The Outpost" (1885) tells of the obstinate refusal of the illiterate peasant, Slimak ("snail"), to sell his patch of land to the German colonists gradually taking over his Posnanian village; but Slimak is not portrayed as a hero - it is his faults (rather than any virtues) that carry him through to victory. Amongst his chief works are "Pharaoh" (1897) which is essentially the story of a struggle for power between a young militaristic idealist and the cunning priests in decaying Ancient Egypt, and "Lalka" ("The Doll") - considered by many to be the best Polish novel - set in Warsaw it was the first Polish novel to deal with the lives, social problems and conflicts of the urban middle class. The hero of "Lalka" is the capitalist Wokulski, a former Insurrectionist who had been exiled to Siberia and, on returning to Warsaw, was employed in a shop. Through marriage he comes into money and dreams of using his wealth in the services of science and progress but finds himself lured frivolously away from his high ideals by falling in love with a worthless aristocratic woman, Isabella. Wokulski is contrasted, in a subtle way, with the Romantic, Rzecki - constantly excited, a believer in great causes and shy admirer of women. Prus is buried in the Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw.

Sienkiewicz, Henryk; (b. Wola Okrzejska, Podlasie, 1846. d. Vevey, Switzerland, 1916). Perhaps one of the most popular Polish authors, famous for his historical novels mainly dealing with Poland's past. Sienkiewicz was educated in Warsaw and then became a journalist whose gift for observation, taste for adventure and attention to detail served him well. He went to the US in 1876 charged with finding somewhere suitable for a group of Varsovian writers and artists (including the actress Helena Modrzejewski) who wished to migrate and establish a colony there; he chose Anaheim, California. He was enthused by the redwood forests and the Sierras (and some of this landscape would serve to inspire his descriptions of the primeval forests of his novels). The group soon tired of the "good life" and went their separate ways. Sienkiewicz went back to writing and sent a series of "Letters from America" to the Polish newspapers which made his reputation; he wrote about New York, California, and the campaign against Sitting Bull. His "Charcoal Sketches", a short novel about a Polish village, was actually written in Los Angeles. Sienkiewicz went to Paris in 1878 and then on to Poland. His tremendously popular patriotic "Trilogy"; "Ogniem i Mieczem" ("With Fire and Sword"),"Potop" ("The Deluge"), and "Pan Wolodyjowski", 1884-1888, was serialised in the newspapers and a "must" for every young Pole. The "Trilogy" deals with the adventurous days of the Husaria (the winged cavalry) in the Polish-Cossack, Polish-Swedish and Polish-Turkish wars. His masterful evocation of the historical atmosphere of the times is reminiscent of Dumas and played an important role in forging the Polish image of itself and its destiny. The novels are full of unforgetful characters such as Zagloba, the Falstaff-like nobleman who - though a braggart - could use his cunning and courage to extricate himself from some serious circumstances; the noble officers Skretuski and Wolodyjowski; and the central character of "The Deluge", Kmicic who undergoes his own Calvary which parallels that of the nation during the Swedish invasion and the siege of Czestochowa. His fame in the West was secured by the novel on ancient Rome portraying the early days of Christianity struggling against the decadence of Nero's court, "Quo Vadis?" (1896) which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. His novel, "Krzyzacy" ("The Teutonic Knights", 1900), written during

the worst days of Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" against the Poles in Posnania, deals with the days when the existence of Poland and Lithuania were threatened by the Teutonic Order and culminates in the battle of Grunwald. Sienkiewicz's writings are often used in Polish dictionaries as examples of good prose. At the outbreak of WW1, Sienkiewicz worked for the Red Cross Fund at Vevey in Switzerland.

All three powers kept Poland economically weak in this period of technological progress. Despite this the Poles managed to make some progress; the textile industry began to flourish in Lodz (the "Polish Manchester") and coal-mining developed rapidly. In Prussian Poland, despite ruthless oppression, the Poles concentrated on light industry and agriculture (and before long Poznan became the chief source of food for the whole of Germany). In Silesia, under German rule since 1742, the development of mining and heavy industry made her a chief industrial centre and thus the Prussian attempt to exterminate all traces of Polish language and culture was at its most ruthless, yet they survived.

Despite its abolition by Kosciuszko in 1794 the partitioning powers restored serfdom. It was not abolished in Prussia until 1823, in Austria until 1848 and in Russia until 1861 (but not in her "Polish" territories).

In 1905 the Russo-Japanese War saw a series of humiliating defeats for the Russians and civil unrest in Russia. In Poland there was a wave of strikes and demonstrations demanding civil rights. Polish pupils went on strike, walking out of Russian schools and a private organisation, the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" ("Polish Education Society"), was set up under the patronage of the great novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Then, in 1906, Jozef Pilsudski, a founder-member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), began to set up a number of paramilitary organisations which attacked Tzarist officials and carried out raids on post offices, tax-offices and mail-trains. In Galicia the Austrian authorities turned a blind eye to the setting up of a number of "sporting" clubs, followed by a Riflemen's Union. In 1912, Pilsudski reorganised these on military lines and by 1914 had nearly 12,000 men under arms.

In the Aftermath of the Partitions

Napoleonic Poland; The Duchy of Warsaw

The Poles felt that one way of restoring independence was to fight for Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1791 Dabrowski organised two legions to fight the Austrians in Lombardy and, later, for the French in the Iberian Peninsula.

Dabrowski, Jan Henryk (b. Pierzchowiec, nr. Bochnia, 1755; d. 1818) is the hero immortalised in the words of the Polish National Anthem;

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginiela poki my zyjemy,Co nam obca przemoc wziela, szabla odbierzemy.Marsz marsz, Dabrowski, z ziemi Wloskiej do Polski!Za twoim przewodem zlaczym sie z narodem."

"Poland is not dead whilst we live,What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back.March march, Dabrowski, from Italy's soil to Poland!Through your leadership we will reunite the nation."

Raised and educated in Saxony, Dabrowski served in the Saxon army where he reached the rank of Rottmeister in a guard cavalry regiment. He served against the Russians during the First Partition in 1792 and then again, in the defence of Warsaw in 1794. When Kosciuszko's Insurrection broke out the Prussian army, which had been laying siege to Warsaw, found itself in a potentially dangerous position; an armed rising in its rear and its ammunition supplies captured at Wroclawek. In their attempt to extricate themselves from this position the Prussians set off for Western Poland only to find themselves harassed in a series of minor operations led by Dabrowski which kept them engaged for weeks. He captured Bydgoszcz (2 October) and ended up driving the Prussians out from the main theatre of war. After the failure of Kosciuszko's Insurrection Dabrowski was invited to serve Russia by Suvorov and Prussia by Frederick William II but he turned them both down, making his way to Paris where he was feted for his military successes. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris. The former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation whilst their opposition was the more liberal, pro-constitutional faction, the Agency led by Kosciuszko's representative, Barss. The aim of the Deputation was to organise an uprising in Poland, organising a Polish military force in Walachia. The Agency put its emphasis on working in league with a foreign power (initially Prussia, then France); Dabrowski allied himself with the Agency. In Paris, thousands of Poles offered to fight in the service of revolutionary France and to reinforce Bonaparte's exhausted armies in Italy. When it emerged that many of the prisoners captured during the Italian campaign were Poles from Galicia, drafted into the Austrian army, it was decided that Dabrowski should organise a Polish Legion (formed in Milan, 9 January 1797) and command it in Italy (1798 - 1801); this met with a furious campaign of denunciations by the Deputation (citing certain unsavoury events in his past including his Prussian connections and favours shown him by the Russian general Suvorov) which were later redoubled when the Legions were used to repress any opposition to Napoleon rather than to live up to the Polish motto of "For our freedom and yours". Dabrowski was given command over the Polish Legions in Italy. With the establishment of the Legion, Poles deserted from the Austrian army in droves and very soon a second Polish Legion was formed (1798) under General Zajaczek (in order to appease the Deputation) and later, in 1800, a third on the Danube under General Kniaziewicz. The Polish Legions suffered terribly during the Italian campaigns; the Second Legion was virtually annihilated in the first battles on the Adige (26 March, 4 April 1799) and after the capitulation of Mantua when they were seized by the Austrians as deserters (as part of a secret agreement between the French commander Foissac-Latour and the Austrians). Dabrowski's Legion also suffered terrible casualties both in the battle on the Trebbia (17 - 19 June 1799) and during the subsequent miserable conditions in the mountains of Liguria. Dabrowski continued to serve as general of Polish troops under Napoleon: on 3 November 1806 he and Wybicki issued a revolutionary appeal to their countrymen in which they quoted Napoleon; "I want to see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation". Dabrowski played an important role during the Polish Campaign when, after the liberation of Poznan, he established a military organisation made up of levies. When Napoleon reorganised the Polish army under the leadership of Poniatowski (taking the middle way between the extremes of Dabrowski and Zajaczek) Dabrowski could not conceal his embitterment and animosity. Dabrowski's Legion was active in West Prussia and at the siege of Gdansk (Danzig), and later in East Prussia where it saw action at Friedland (1807). As part of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, Dabrowski fought

against the Austrians in 1809, the Russians in the campaign of 1812, and at the battle of Leipzig (1813). Returning to Poland in 1813 he was designated by the Tsar to reorganise the Polish army, appointed general of the cavalry in 1815, and senator palatine of the Kingdom of Poland. From his estate at Winnogora, Dabrowski acted as patron of the secret "Society of Scythemen" formed by former Napoleonic soldiers in Poznan; subsequently reformed as a branch of Warsaw's "National Freemasonry" they were to play a useful part during the November Insurrection of 1830.

Napoleon used the Polish Legions in all his campaigns; against Russia, Austria and Prussia, in Egypt, in the West Indies (Santo Domingo), and in Spain (where they fought the British and inspired the formation of the English lancers equipped with Polish-style uniforms and weapons). Some of the Poles became very disillusioned with Bonaparte, realising that they were being manipulated.

Later, in 1806, the French armies defeated the Prussians at Jena and entered Posen (Poznan) led by the Poles under Dabrowski. A year later Napoleon and the Tzar, Alexander, met at Tilsit and agreed to set up a Polish State made up of the lands the Prussians had taken in the second partition. This was the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon used the Duchy as a pawn in his political game and in 1812 called upon the Lithuanians to rebel as an excuse to attack Russia. One of the great figures of this period was Jozef Poniatowski.

Amongst Stanislaw II's brothers, Michal Poniatowski (b.1736; d.1794) became Primate of Poland (1784) and Andrzej Poniatowski (b. 1735; d. 1773) was a general in the Austrian army. Andrzej's son Prince Jozef Antoni Poniatowski (b. Vienna, 7 May 1763; d. 19 October 1813) was a gifted cavalry officer who served in the Austrian Army (from 1780) and as a representative to the Russian court (1787). He was wounded at the siege of Sabatch, fighting the Turks (1788). In 1789 he became Major General of the Polish Army and fought in the Ukraine (his first lieutenant was Kosciuszko) during the Polish-Russian War (1792). Poniatowski was decorated for his role at Zielence (18 June 1792) where he led one of his early bayonet attacks that were to become his trademark (the victory was commemorated by the establishment of the decoration of the Militari Virtuti Cross). He resigned, in protest, when Stanislaw II joined the Targowica Confederacy, joining the conspiracy to kidnap the King (which came to nought). He fought against the Russians alongside Kosciuszko during the Insurrection (1792 - 94) and joined the French army in 1800. After the collapse of the Insurrection many Polish political activists had fled to Paris where the former members of the Polish Jacobin Club formed the Polish Deputation. When Poniatowski became commander of the Polish forces in Napoleon's army (1806) the Deputation turned against him because of his uncle's Targowica connections. This soured his relationships with his fellow general, Zajaczek who was connected with the Deputation. Unfortunately Poniatowski had also alienated himself with Dabrowski (who was angry at having been overlooked as commander-in-chief). Poniatowski became Minister for War in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) and introduced the concept of universal conscription which helped unite the nation by making its citizens, in carrying out their duty, more aware of their nationality (1808). In 1809 he led the first successful Polish army in the field since the Partitions, against the Austrians who had invaded under the leadership of the Archduke Ferdinand d'Este. Poniatowski barred the way to Warsaw and at the battle of Raszyn (19 April 1809), where 12,000 Poles faced 25,000 Austrians, the Polish Infantry stubbornly held their ground; it is said that Poniatowski himself took a rifle and went into the front rank with the attacking soldiers. He organised a series of cavalry raids into Galicia that outmanoeuvred superior numbers thus, at the Treaty of Schonbrunn, succeeding in reuniting Krakow and West Galicia with the Duchy. Poles

swarmed to his colours from all parts. In the 1812 campaign against Russia, Polish Lancers were the first to cross the Niemen into Russia, playing a crucial part in the battles of Borodino and Smolensk (where Poniatowski was wounded), they were the first to enter Moscow and, under Poniatowski, covering the debacle of the French retreat and saving Napoleon from disaster at the Beresina, being the last out of Russia; 72,000 of the original 100,000 Poles never returned. Poniatowski continued to resist the Russians in the Duchy but in the face of overwhelming odds, and determined to preserve some element of an independent Polish army, chose to stand by Napoleon and retreat into Germany. He showed great valour at the "Battle of the Nations", Leipzig (19 October 1813), where Napoleon raised him to the rank of Marshal of France - the only foreigner to ever be so honoured: in the French retreat at Leipzig the Poles carried out a rearguard action during which the French prematurely blew up the Lindenau Bridge over the River Elster, leaving the Poles stranded on the other side. Having to cross under heavy fire, Poniatowski was mortally wounded and, driving his horse into the river, drowned. His name is inscribed on the roll of honour on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris and he, himself, is buried in the crypt of the Wawel, Krakow. His tomb bears the words "God entrusted to me the Honour of the Poles - and I will render it only to Him."

Poniatowski's ancestors served as ministers in the court of Napoleon III and of President Giscard d'Estang. Jozef's nephew, Prince Jozef Michal (b.1816; d. 1873) was a musical composer who wrote many operas, including "Don Desiderio", and several masses. He was a naturalised Tuscan citizen (1847) but later resided in Paris where he was made a senator by Napoleon III.

Despite the cynical way that Napoleon treated the Poles they remained loyal to him and, when he went into exile on Elba the only guards that Napoleon was allowed were Polish Lancers.

The Fate of Kosciuszko:

Following the death of the Tsarina Catherine II, Kosciuszko was released, going into exile to England, America (where he found himself under surveillance because of his pro-French sympathies and had to be smuggled out by his friend, Thomas Jefferson) and then to France (1798). When, in 1799, the Directory offered him the leadership of the Polish Legions he refused on the grounds that the French had shown no sign of recognising their distinct entity as a Polish national army. Kosciuszko was also uneasy about Napoleon's ambitions and these feelings were confirmed when he proclaimed himself First Consul and then betrayed the hopes of the Legions at the Treaty of Luneville (1801). From then on he distrusted Napoleon and, suspicious of his intentions, refused to support his plan for the restoration of Poland in 1806. With the fall of Napoleon Kosciuszko watched the proceedings at the Congress of Vienna with despair and pleaded with Tsar Alexander for a restoration of Poland, to no avail. He settled at Soleure, Switzerland (1817) where he died. He left all his wealth for the purpose of freeing and educating the Negroes.

"When the Polish nation called me to defend the integrity, the independence, the dignity, the glory and the liberty of the country, she knew full well that I was not the last Pole, and that with my death on the battlefield or elsewhere Poland could not, must not end. All that the Poles have done since then in the glorious Polish legions and all that they will still do in the future to gain their country back, sufficiently proves that albeit we, the devoted soldiers of that country, are mortal, Poland is immortal"

Kosciuszko to Segur, quoted in M.M. Gardner, "Kosciuszko", London 1920.

On hearing the news of his death the government of the Free City of Krakow applied to the Tsar Alexander I (one of the "protectors", alongside the rulers of Austria and of Prussia, of the City, according to the Congress of Vienna) for permission to inter Kosciuszko within the royal tombs of the Wawel. The Tsar, eager to court the Poles, approved. On 11 April 1818 Kosciuszko's coffin was placed in a chapel in St. Florian's Church and on 22 June taken, amidst great pomp, to the Wawel. He was placed next to the sarcophagi of Sobieski and Jozef Poniatowski. Shortly afterwards it was decided to raise a mound (Kopiec Kosciuszko) to his memory; a form of commemoration unique to the city of Krakow - only two others existed at the time; those of Krakus and Wanda. The work was started in 1820 when soil from Raclawice, and then Maciejowice was brought. In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, earth from the battlefields of America was brought over and deposited on the mound.

The house at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, US, where Kosciuszko stayed during the winter of 1797-1798, was designated as the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in 1972.

The "Congress Kingdom"

In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Duchy was partitioned and a large part went to Russia. In Austria and Prussia there was repression of all Polish attempts to maintain the national culture, but in Russia, fortunately, the Tzar, Alexander I, was a liberal ruler who agreed to the setting up of a semiautonomous "Congress Kingdom" with its own parliament and constitution. This became a time of peace and economic recovery. In 1817 the University of Warsaw was founded. But the accession of Tzar Nicholas I to the throne in 1825 saw the establishment of a more repressive regime.

In 1830, after the revolution in France and unrest in Holland, Nicholas decided to intervene and suppress the move towards democracy in the West. He intended to use the Polish Army as an advanced force but instead propelled the Polish patriots into action. On the night of November 29th the cadets of the Warsaw Military College launched an insurrection.

Wysocki, Piotr (b. 1794; d. 1857), a Second-Lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards and instructor at the Warsaw Infantry School, conspired with Colonel Jozef Zaliwski (b. 1797; d. 1855) to bring about an armed rebellion in 1830. They met up with a band of civilian conspirators who were planning to assassinate the Grand Duke Constantine. The situation in Warsaw was tense; the authorities knew mutiny was afoot and the conspirators expected to be seized at any moment - action was inevitable. On the night of 29 November 1830 an assassination squad attacked the Belweder Palace with the intention of killing or capturing the Grand Duke whilst Wysocki led a force of cadets to seize the Arsenal. Unfortunately everything went wrong and a night of chaos ensued. The attack on the Belweder failed because the Grand Duke was hidden by his servants and when Wysocki's attack failed he had to retreat. Lacking a leader the insurgents marched into the city and asked Generals Trebicki and Potocki (who they met on the way) to take command. When they refused they were shot. Owing to the ineptitude of the original conspirators the political leadership of the Rising passed into the hands of people who had never sought an armed rising in the first place and, hence, vacillated; the Russian Tsar, on the other hand, didn't.

The Poles fought bravely against heavy odds in former Polish territories around Wilno, Volhynia and the borders of Austria and Prussia. The insurrection spread to Lithuania where it

was led by a woman, Emilia Plater. For a while victory actually lay in their grasp but indecision on the part of the Polish leaders led to defeat. Warsaw was taken in September 1831, followed by terrible persecution; over 25,000 prisoners were sent to Siberia with their families and the Constitution of the "Congress Kingdom" was suspended.

The 1830 Revolution inspired the work of two great Poles living in exile; Chopin, the composer, and Mickiewicz, the poet.

Chopin, Fryderyk Francois (b. Zelazowa Wola, nr. Warsaw, 22 February 1810; d. Paris,1849), born of a French father and Polish mother, was a composer and pianist whose music has been seen as the very spirit of Polishness, using Polish folk melodies as the basic inspiration of many of his works, and it can be said that he played an important part in the promotion of Polish culture and nationhood in the salons of the European bourgeoisie. He was trained at the newly-opened Warsaw Conservatoire under Elsner (the director), and first played in public at the age of nine, publishing his first work in 1825. He left Poland to study abroad in 1830 just before the Revolution which was bloodily suppressed by the Russians and inspired his emotional Etude op.10, no.12; "Revolutionary". He was never to return to Poland. Living in France he became closely linked with the Polish poets of the Emigration and followed their use of national folk traditions, building his own compositions (his Polonaises and Mazurkas) on the national dances. Among his musical innovations were his harmonies, the range of his arpeggios and chords, and his use of the pedal. He became famous and gave concerts in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and other European cities, but refused to play in Russia. He suffered from consumption which was aggravated by a trip to England (1837). He had an intimate relationship with George Sand (pseudonym of the writer, Amandine Aurore Lucie) from 1838 - 47, who took him to Majorca (1838) and nursed him back to health but the relationship broke down after he took George's daughter's side in a family argument; she later depicted him as Prince Karol in her novel "Lucrezia Floriani". He died in Paris; he is buried at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery but his heart is in an urn in a pillar of the Kosciol sw. Krzyza (Church of the Holy Cross) on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw. His works for the piano alone include 55 mazurkas, 13 polonaises, 24 preludes, 27 etudes, 19 nocturnes, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos and a number of songs. During the Second World War his music was banned by the Nazis as subversive. A crater on Mercury is named after him (64.5°S, 124°W).

Mickiewicz, Adam (b. near Nowogrodek, 24 December 1798. d. Constantinople, 185), never set foot in Warsaw or Krakow even though he is Poland's national poet and is revered as the moral leader of the nation during the dark years after the Partitions. He became a student at Wilno University (1815), publishing his first volumes of poetry in 1822 and 1823, introducing Romanticism into Polish literature. At Wilno, which was a hotbed of patriotic sympathy and discussion, he was a co-founder of the clandestine group known as the Philomaths ("Lovers of Learning") in which the members discussed a wide range of topics including the liberation of Poland. A small group of Philomaths, Mickiewicz amongst them, formed a more radical organisation, the Philarets ("Lovers of Virtue") which included a number of Russians who were later to be a part of the Decembrist conspiracy. An outbreak of patriotism in the university led to the arrest of the leading Philomats and Philarets for anti-Tsarist activity and, in 1824, Mickiewicz was sentenced to exile in Russia (1824 - 29); to St. Petersburg, Odessa (1825) and to Moscow where he taught and made friends with a number of Russian writers, including Pushkin, Ryleiev and Bestushev (and through these latter two, many of the future Decembrist conspirators). In Odessa he wrote his "Crimean Sonnets" (1826) recording his impressions of his travels to Crimea;

"I love to lean against Ayudah's faceAnd watch the frothing waves as on they pour,Dark ranks close-pressed, then burst like snow and soarA million silver rainbows arched in space.They strike the sands, they break and interlace;Like whales in battle that beset the shore,They seize the land and then retreat once more, Shells, pearls, and corals scattered in their race..."

Sonnet XVIII; "The Rock of Ayudah", trans. D.P.Radin, 1929.

In Moscow, he wrote his first overtly political poem, "Konrad Wallenrod" (1828); about a Lithuanian child captured by the Teutonic Knights, who is brought up by them and raised to the rank of Grand Master only to lead his Order to defeat at the hands of his own people. He left Russia in 1829, barely managing to board his ship, "George V", in Konstadt before the Tsar's orders revoking his departure could reach him. Mickiewicz travelled throughout the West; in Berlin he attended the lectures given by Hegel and was the guest of Goethe at Weimar. He finally made his way to Italy and whilst in Rome heard of the Warsaw Uprising of December 1830. Hurrying to join the struggle Mickiewicz only managed to reach Dresden before the uprising was put down. Here in Dresden in 1832 he created Part III of "Dziady" ("Forefather's Eve"), a mixture of Greek tragedy and mediaeval morality play that powerfully speaks of the heroism and martyrdom of a people fighting for freedom, and was later banned by the Communists, until 1970, for its anti-Russian attitude:

"Now my soul lives in my countryAnd in my body dwells her soul;My fatherland and I are one great whole.My name is million, for I love as millions:Their pain and suffering I feel;I gaze upon my country fallen on daysOf torment, as a son would gazeUpon his father broken on the wheel.I feel within myself my country's massacreJust as a mother feels the tormentOf her children within her womb."

Moving on to Paris (1832) it was here, in 1834, that Adam Mickiewicz produced his masterpiece: "Pan Tadeusz"; a novel in verse which evokes the almost fairy-tale life of the nobility in Lithuania through to the heroic march of Napoleon's Polish Legions through Lithuania to Russia in 1812. In a time before modern Nationalism imposed limitations on what it means to be a "Pole", Mickiewicz, like many others, saw no contradiction in being a Pole and a Lithuanian at the same time; the Noble Republic and Polishness (in non-nationalistic terms) were the same. Hence, his greatest poem begins;

"O Lithuania, my country, thouArt like good health; I never knew till nowHow precious, till I lost thee. Now I seeThy beauty whole, because I yearn for thee."

In 1834 Mickiewicz married Celina Szymanowska, daughter of the pianist and composer, Maria with whom he was closely attached since his days in St. Petersburg. For the last twenty years of his life Adam Mickiewicz virtually ceased writing. He was offered, and accepted, the chair of Roman Literature at Lausanne, Switzerland, (1839) but left to became professor of Slavic literature at the College de France, Paris (1840). Mickiewicz lost the post in 1845, for political activities. Around this time he came under the strong influence of Andrzej Towianski who had set up a sect. In 1848, in Lombardy, he formed a Polish Legion which fought with Garibaldi in the defence of Rome. Mickiewicz returned to Paris where he founded and edited the political daily, "La Tribune Des Peuples" (March - April 1849) sponsored by Ksawery Branicki. The journal was dedicated to the ideals of brotherhood and the solidarity of nations in the struggle against despotism and attracted a number of radical writers noted for their revolutionary, democratic, and socialist views. It suffered continued harassment by the authorities and did not outlast the year; Mickiewicz had to work secretly for the journal because of threats to deport him from France. In 1852, Louis Napoleon appointed him as a librarian in the Paris Arsenal. On the outbreak of the Crimean War (1855) he went to Turkey to organise Polish forces to be used in the war against Russia. With his friend, Armand Levy, he set about organising a Jewish Legion, the Hussars of Israel, composed of Russian and Palestinian Jews. During a visit to a military camp near Constantinople he caught cholera and died suddenly. His body was taken back to France (1856) and buried at Montmorency but, in 1890, his remains were transferred to Krakow and laid next to Kosciuszko's in the Wawel. A crater on Mercury is named after him (23.5°N, 19°W).

The "Great Emigration"

The failure of the Insurrection forced thousands of Poles to flee to the West; Paris became the spiritual capital. Many of these exiles contributed greatly to Polish and European culture. Joachim Lelewel became Poland's greatest historian, Chopin her greatest composer, and Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski and Norwid among her greatest poets. Adam Czartoryski set up court at the Hotel Lambert, in Paris, which played an important part in keeping the Polish question alive in European politics.

Czartoryski;

The Czartoryskis were a noble Polish-Lithuanian family, which included the brothers, Prince Fryderyk Michal (b.1696; d. 1775) and August (b. 1697; d. 1782), both of whom were statesman under Stanislaw Poniatowski and had a major influence on Polish policy during the reign of Augustus III. August's marriage to Poland's richest heiress, Zofia Sieniawska (b. 1699; d. 1771), brought an enormous fortune to the family and, with it, great influence. They supported the King and aspired to high office. Allied to their brother-in-law, Stanislaw Poniatowski (this influential and powerful alliance of the Czartoryskis and the Poniatowskis became known as "The Family"), they tried to push reforms through the court but were constantly blocked by the "republicans" led by the Potockis. Faced with such strong opposition the Czartoryskis deluded themselves into believing that they could manipulate the Russians for their own ends (Poniatowski had had a love affair with the Grand duchess Catherine in 1755 - 58) and conceived of a coup d'etat (1763). The Russians,now ruled by Catherine II, the Great, and the Prussians, under Frederick II, were opposed to the idea of any change in the Commonwealth's institutions which they found convenient to their own ends but, in turn, manipulated the Czartoryskis and elected Stanislaw Poniatowski to the throne. Poniatowski was to become the last King of Poland; the reign was totally controlled by Russia.

Adam Kazimierz (b. Gdansk, 1734 ; d. 1823), was the unsuccessful candidate for the Polish throne at the death of Augustus III. He married Izabella Elzbieta Flemming (b. 1746; d. 1835) who became an important influence on the family and the cultural life of Poland during the Enlightenment. She commissioned the leading Neoclassical architect of the day, Aigner, to redesign the palace at Pulawy and summoned a team of international experts, including John Savage (who had recently designed Warsaw's Saski Gardens) to landscape the park (1788 - 1810) wherein Aigner built two museum buildings (the first in Poland); the Temple of the Sybil (1801) and the Gothic House (1809) within which were displayed the vast Czartoryski collection of art and antiquities. Izabella was the first to attempt to build an English landscape garden in Poland, at Powazki on the outskirts of Warsaw (now occupied by the Catholic Cemetery). She established a school for the education of the daughters of impoverished nobles and wrote the first Polish History textbook for elementary schools. Under the influence of Izabella Pulawy became a rival to Warsaw as the chief centre of Polish cultural life, especially after the Partitions. Their daughter Maria (b. 1768; d. 1854) became Duchess of Wurtemburg and a novelist.

Probably the greatest Polish statesman of the C19th., Adam Jerzy (b. Warsaw,1770; d.nr. Paris,1861), son of Adam Kazimierz and Izabella, was educated at Edinburgh and London, and strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. Czartoryski fought against the Russians in the Insurrection of 1794 and, sent as a hostage to St. Petersburg, gained the friendship of the Grand-Duke Alexander and the Emperor Paul who made him ambassador to Sardinia. In 1801, on ascending the throne, Alexander,as part of his plan to transform Russia into a modern constitutional monarchy, appointed Czartoryski as assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and placed in charge of education in the former Polish territories. As curator of the University of Wilna (1803) he used his influence to keep a spirit of Polish-Lithuanian nationalism alive and when some of the students (including Adam Mickiewicz) were arrested and some sent in exile to Siberia (1823), he was removed from his office. Czartoryski was a member of the Russian delegation to the Congress of Vienna set up after the defeat of Napoleon (20 July 1815), and was responsible for drawing up the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland established by the Congress; it was the most liberal constitution in Central Europe. When the Polish Sejm began to act as a normal parliament Alexander, whose enthusiasm for liberalism had waned, dissolved it in 1820. Alexander's successor, Nicholas, became even less amenable to Polish wishes after the Decembrist Revolt; this Russian secret society had forged close links with Polish conspirators who were arrested and placed on trial for high treason only to be cleared by the Sejm Tribunal (having acted on the advice of Czartoryski himself) and served with a more lenient sentence for participating in clandestine organisations (1828). Czartoryski became actively involved in the Revolution of 1830 and was elected president of the provisional government. He summoned the Sejm in January 1831, which declared the Polish throne vacant and elected Czartoryski as head of the national government. He immediately donated half of his large estates to public service. He resigned in August 1831 but continued as a common soldier. After the suppression of the Revolution Czartoryski was excluded from the amnesty, condemned to death and his estates confiscated; he escaped to Paris where he purchased the old palace, the Hotel Lambert. In Paris, Lelewel's Permanent National Committee (set up December 1831) tried to fix the blame on the failure of the Insurrection on the leaders of the conservative group leading to a virtual civil war between the two factions as they tried to direct the Polish cause in their own way. The man who emerged as leader of the conservative faction was Prince Adam Czartoryski, becoming the focus of Polish hopes; Czartoryski himself was referred to as the "de facto king of Poland". He ran a vast network ready to spring into action whenever the opportunity lent itself and in effect put the "Polish Question" firmly on the European agenda. The activity of his agents in the

Balkans contributed enormously to the awakening of national consciousness in that region and helped Serbia shake off Russian influence. He rented land from the Sultan in order to provide homes for insurgents who had retreated into the Ottoman Empire after the failure of the 1830 Uprising (1842); this was the colony of Polonezkoy or Adampol which was enlarged after each unsuccessful attempt at liberation. In 1848 he appealed, unsuccessfully, to Pope Pius IX to create a Polish Legion to fight on Italy's side against Austria. He freed his serfs in Galicia (1848) and during the Crimean War worked hard to induce the allies to link the Polish cause with that of Turkey. In 1857 Czartoryski set up a publishing house producing the periodical "Wiadomosci Polskie" ("News From Poland") which became very popular amongst the exiles. He also set up the Bureau des Affaires Polonaises (Bureau of Polish Affairs, 1858). He refused the subsequent amnesty offered him by Alexander II. His son, Wladyslaw (b.1828; d. 1894) opened the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow (1878) after the Czartoryski properties were confiscated by the State. He was a collector of Egyptian art and there are some very important pieces among the antiquities which form only a part of the rich collection in Krakow.

Continued Resistance: "For Your Freedom and Ours"

The insurrection in the semi-independent City of Krakow in 1846 was doomed from the start. The insurrectionists had hoped to gain the support of the local peasantry (recalling the victory at Raclawice) but the peasants, having never benefited from the liberal ideals proposed by the intelligentsia, used the insurrection as an excuse to rid themselves of their landlords; it was the last "jacquerie" (or peasants' uprising) in European history. The insurrectionist forces were defeated by a combination of Austrian and peasant forces at the battle of Gdow and the insurrection was put down with great brutality by the Austrians, resulting in the abolition of the Commonwealth of Krakow.

In 1848 "the Springtime of Nations" (a revolutionary movement towards greater democracy in much of Europe) saw large-scale contributions by the Poles; in Italy, Mickiewicz organised a small legion to fight for Italian independence from Austria, whilst in Hungary, Generals Dembinski and Bem led 3,000 Poles in the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. There were also unsuccessful uprisings in Poznan (Posen), against the Prussians, and in Eastern Galicia, against the Austrians.

Starting in 1863, the "January Uprising" against the Russians lasted for more than a year and a half. A Provisional government was established and more than 1,200 skirmishes were fought, mostly in the deep forests under the command of Romuald Traugutt.

Traugutt, Romuald; b. 1825; d. 1864. During the January Insurrection of 1863 the underground state was forced to organise one of the world's earliest campaigns of urban guerrilla warfare, centred on Warsaw, and to use hit-and-run tactics in the countryside. Due to initial setbacks and the isolation of different groups there was a great deal of political in-fighting between the different factions - the Social Democrat "Reds", and the more moderate "Whites" - which only ended when Traugutt, a Lithuanian landowner from Podlasie, became its political and military commander (October 1863). Formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army, he had served in both Hungary and the Crimea. In May 1863 he took command of a force of guerrillas in the Dziadkowicki Forest, near Kobryn, and in July went to Warsaw where he was given office under Karol Majewski (b. 1833; d. 1897), the over-all commander at the time. A "White" with "Red" sympathies, he represented the National Government abroad, meeting with Napoleon III, and was quickly convinced that there would

be little support from the West. On returning to Warsaw, based at the Saski Hotel, he seized control of the underground state and became Dictator. With the help of General Jozef Hauke, he completely reorganised the existing military structures, establishing a regular army and abolishing all independent formations - as a result the Insurrection revived and expanded its area of operations. With no support from abroad the Insurrection began to peter out and the final stroke came with the emancipation of the peasants, which sanctioned the state of affairs created by the Insurrection (2 March 1864), and Traugutt's arrest in the night of 10/11 August 1864. He was imprisoned in Pawiak, tried, condemned to death and hanged (5 August 1864). The Insurrection had kept Europe's largest military machine tied down for eighteen months and had involved not only the szlachta but, in its final stages, also the peasants (who had fought its very last engagement). The subsequent suppression of the Rising permanently scarred a generation of Poles; thousands were sent into exile to Siberia - the cream of the nation. Most never returned. The name of the Kingdom of Poland was changed to the "Vistula Province". The Insurrection of 1863 was a watershed in Polish history; the social structure changed as the peasants finally gained their freedom in Russia in 1864 (serfdom had been abolished in Prussia in 1823, and in Austria in 1848) and slowly made their way to economic, then political, power. After 1864 the Polish struggle becomes a genuinely national struggle as politicians vie for the attention of all the classes, especially the peasants. But the situation also changed after 1864 as one sees an almost universal rejection of the idea of gaining independence through revolution.

The Uprising was finally put down in 1865, and the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and a severe policy of persecution and "Russification" established. The University of Warsaw and all schools were closed down, use of the Polish language was forbidden in most public places and the Catholic Church was persecuted. The Kingdom of Poland became known as the "Vistula Province".

In the Prussian occupied zone the aim was to totally destroy the Polish language and culture; from 1872 German became compulsory in all schools and it was a crime to be caught speaking in Polish. There was a systematic attempt to uproot Polish Peasants from their land.

In Austrian Poland, Galicia, conditions were different. After 1868 the Poles had a degree of self-government, the Polish language was kept as the official language and the Universities of Krakow and Lwow were allowed to function. As a result this area witnessed a splendid revival of Polish culture, including the works of the painter Jan Matejko, and the writers Kraszewski, Prus and Sienkiewicz.

Matejko, Jan Alojzy; (b. Krakow, 1838. d. Krakow, 1893). It would be difficult to find another artist, anywhere, like Matejko - Poland's greatest painter of historical scenes,who was born, worked and died in Krakow. Matejko was trained at Krakow and Munich (1859) and, briefly, in Vienna. He was adored by his public for his nationalistic themes painted in a highly realistic manner. He created powerful, inspired works which have played an important role in preserving national unity and pride in national achievements at times of crisis, notably during the Partitions; Poles view their history through Matejko's images. His prodigious output includes about ten monumental pieces. His method of working consisted of detailed research and a study of written sources. His early paintings are in a dark Venetian manner but his later pieces became lighter and resembled the Late-Baroque revival style favoured by some Viennese painters. Amongst his greatest works are: "The Battle of Grunwald" (1872 - 75) - for which he received a sceptre as the sign of his being "the king of art", and which achieved notoriety when it was reproduced as a Polish stamp in 1960, being the largest Polish stamp

produced; "Batory at Pskov"(1872); "Hold Pruski" ("The Prussian Homage", 1882); "Sobieski at the Gates of Vienna" (1883) which was presented by Matejko to the Vatican; and "Kosciuszko at Raclawice"(1888); all of which act as historical "time-capsules" recording not only the events but also the costumes and, particularly, the unique military costumes of the Commonwealth. Matejko also painted some outstanding family portraits and self-portraits, as well as a series "A Retinue of Polish Kings and Princes" with which most Polish children are acquainted. In 1889 - 91 he worked on the polychromatic decoration in the Mariacki, Krakow, with his pupils, Wyspianski and Mehoffer, as his assistants. He played an important role in saving the 1650 Baroque altar from being removed from Wawel Cathedral and encouraged the renovation of the Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall) in the Rynek. He became Director of the Academy, Krakow and received many medals from abroad, including the French Legion of Honour (1870).

His home at 41 ul. Florianska was turned into the Matejko Museum in 1898 and is now a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

Kraszewski, Jozef Ignacy; (b. Warsaw, 1812; d. Geneva, 1887). One of the most prolific of all Polish authors, he wrote novels, plays, verse (including an epic on the history of Lithuania, "Anafielas", 1843), criticism and historical works; a total of around seven hundred volumes earning himself the title of "the father of the Polish novel". Educated at Wilno University, he spent some time in prison as a student. He became fascinated by Lithuania and collected information about her local customs and history. For a while he was inspector of schools and directed the theatre in Zhitomir before going on to edit a newspaper in Warsaw. After being dismissed and put on a black-list by the authorities he moved to Dresden where he soon drew attention to himself, was arrested as a dangerous element and imprisoned at Magdeburg (1883). His health ruined, he settled in San Remo, Italy, where he lost all his belongings in an earthquake. Amongst his works (some of which have been seen as a literary equivalent of Matejko's historical paintings) are "Stara Basn" ("An Ancient Tale", 1876) about a prehistoric and pre-Christian community, "Jermola Ulana" (1843), "Kordecki" (1852), culture romances "Morituri" (1875) and "Resurrecti" (1876), and several political novels under the pseudonym of Boleslawita.

Prus, Boleslaw (pseudonym of: Aleksander Glowacki); (b. Hrubieszow, 1847; d. 1912). One of the greatest of Polish novelists, a member of the minor szlachta, Prus is regarded by many as second only to Sienkiewicz. He joined a guerrilla unit and was wounded during the January Insurrection of 1863 and spent some time in prison after it. Fascinated by mathematics and the natural sciences, Prus was obliged to write in order to make some money. He was a Positivist in that he believed that progress can cure all ills, but he gradually became more sceptical as he grew older. He claimed a great debt to Herbert Spencer. Initially he wrote articles for various Warsaw periodicals, "Weekly Chronicles" which observed the everyday world around him. He turned to writing fiction, starting with short stories where poverty played an important role and his characters are treated with a gentle humour. His novel "The Outpost" (1885) tells of the obstinate refusal of the illiterate peasant, Slimak ("snail"), to sell his patch of land to the German colonists gradually taking over his Posnanian village; but Slimak is not portrayed as a hero - it is his faults (rather than any virtues) that carry him through to victory. Amongst his chief works are "Pharaoh" (1897) which is essentially the story of a struggle for power between a young militaristic idealist and the cunning priests in decaying Ancient Egypt, and "Lalka" ("The Doll") - considered by many to be the best Polish novel - set in Warsaw it was the first Polish novel to deal with the lives, social problems and conflicts of the urban middle class. The hero of "Lalka" is the capitalist Wokulski, a former Insurrectionist who had been

exiled to Siberia and, on returning to Warsaw, was employed in a shop. Through marriage he comes into money and dreams of using his wealth in the services of science and progress but finds himself lured frivolously away from his high ideals by falling in love with a worthless aristocratic woman, Isabella. Wokulski is contrasted, in a subtle way, with the Romantic, Rzecki - constantly excited, a believer in great causes and shy admirer of women. Prus is buried in the Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw.

Sienkiewicz, Henryk; (b. Wola Okrzejska, Podlasie, 1846. d. Vevey, Switzerland, 1916). Perhaps one of the most popular Polish authors, famous for his historical novels mainly dealing with Poland's past. Sienkiewicz was educated in Warsaw and then became a journalist whose gift for observation, taste for adventure and attention to detail served him well. He went to the US in 1876 charged with finding somewhere suitable for a group of Varsovian writers and artists (including the actress Helena Modrzejewski) who wished to migrate and establish a colony there; he chose Anaheim, California. He was enthused by the redwood forests and the Sierras (and some of this landscape would serve to inspire his descriptions of the primeval forests of his novels). The group soon tired of the "good life" and went their separate ways. Sienkiewicz went back to writing and sent a series of "Letters from America" to the Polish newspapers which made his reputation; he wrote about New York, California, and the campaign against Sitting Bull. His "Charcoal Sketches", a short novel about a Polish village, was actually written in Los Angeles. Sienkiewicz went to Paris in 1878 and then on to Poland. His tremendously popular patriotic "Trilogy"; "Ogniem i Mieczem" ("With Fire and Sword"),"Potop" ("The Deluge"), and "Pan Wolodyjowski", 1884-1888, was serialised in the newspapers and a "must" for every young Pole. The "Trilogy" deals with the adventurous days of the Husaria (the winged cavalry) in the Polish-Cossack, Polish-Swedish and Polish-Turkish wars. His masterful evocation of the historical atmosphere of the times is reminiscent of Dumas and played an important role in forging the Polish image of itself and its destiny. The novels are full of unforgetful characters such as Zagloba, the Falstaff-like nobleman who - though a braggart - could use his cunning and courage to extricate himself from some serious circumstances; the noble officers Skretuski and Wolodyjowski; and the central character of "The Deluge", Kmicic who undergoes his own Calvary which parallels that of the nation during the Swedish invasion and the siege of Czestochowa. His fame in the West was secured by the novel on ancient Rome portraying the early days of Christianity struggling against the decadence of Nero's court, "Quo Vadis?" (1896) which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. His novel, "Krzyzacy" ("The Teutonic Knights", 1900), written during the worst days of Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" against the Poles in Posnania, deals with the days when the existence of Poland and Lithuania were threatened by the Teutonic Order and culminates in the battle of Grunwald. Sienkiewicz's writings are often used in Polish dictionaries as examples of good prose. At the outbreak of WW1, Sienkiewicz worked for the Red Cross Fund at Vevey in Switzerland.

All three powers kept Poland economically weak in this period of technological progress. Despite this the Poles managed to make some progress; the textile industry began to flourish in Lodz (the "Polish Manchester") and coal-mining developed rapidly. In Prussian Poland, despite ruthless oppression, the Poles concentrated on light industry and agriculture (and before long Poznan became the chief source of food for the whole of Germany). In Silesia, under German rule since 1742, the development of mining and heavy industry made her a chief industrial centre and thus the Prussian attempt to exterminate all traces of Polish language and culture was at its most ruthless, yet they survived.

Despite its abolition by Kosciuszko in 1794 the partitioning powers restored serfdom. It was not abolished in Prussia until 1823, in Austria until 1848 and in Russia until 1861 (but not in her "Polish" territories).

In 1905 the Russo-Japanese War saw a series of humiliating defeats for the Russians and civil unrest in Russia. In Poland there was a wave of strikes and demonstrations demanding civil rights. Polish pupils went on strike, walking out of Russian schools and a private organisation, the "Polska Macierz Szkolna" ("Polish Education Society"), was set up under the patronage of the great novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Then, in 1906, Jozef Pilsudski, a founder-member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), began to set up a number of paramilitary organisations which attacked Tzarist officials and carried out raids on post offices, tax-offices and mail-trains. In Galicia the Austrian authorities turned a blind eye to the setting up of a number of "sporting" clubs, followed by a Riflemen's Union. In 1912, Pilsudski reorganised these on military lines and by 1914 had nearly 12,000 men under arms.

Architects of the Restored Republic

On the outbreak of war the Poles found themselves conscripted into the armies of Germany, Austria and Russia, and forced to fight each other in a war that was not theirs. Although many Poles sympathised with France and Britain they found it hard to fight with them on the Russian side. They also had little sympathy with the Germans. Pilsudski considered Russia as the greater enemy and formed Polish Legions to fight for Austria but independently. Other Galician Poles went to fight against the Italians when they entered the war in 1915, thus preventing any clash of conscience.

Almost all the fighting on the Eastern Front took place on Polish soil.

Pilsudski, Josef (b. Zulow, Lithuania, 1867. d. Warsaw, 1935), was raised on his Lithuanian family estate and educated at Wilno University where he was exposed to Polish nationalist ideas. He was determined to bring about Polish independence by direct action (specifically against Russia) rather than rely on support from others. He joined the organisation of Young Poles and, after the assassination attempt on Alexander III, was arrested and exiled to Siberia (1887-1892). On returning to Poland he joined the Wilno branch of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) founded in 1892, and became the first editor of the underground newspaper "Robotnik" ("The Worker"). He also continued to work in the underground, was arrested by the Russians (1900), escaped from prison and fled to London. In Japan, during the Russo-Japanese War (1905), Pilsudski advocated the establishment of anti-Russian Polish Legions made up of prisoners-of-war held by the Japanese but faced opposition from his arch-rival, Dmowski. The Japanese did not pursue the idea beyond discussions due to their decisive victories in Manchuria. Moving to Austrian Poland (1905) he founded a paramilitary organisation, "Zwiazek Walki Czynnej" ("Union for Armed Struggle") with the aim of creating the nucleus of a future Polish army and carrying out guerrilla action and raising funds through a series of robberies (the most successful being the mail-train raid at Bezdany, 1908). With the threat of war, Pilsudski's underground "Riflemen's Clubs" were formed into Polish Legions training in the Carpathians (with Austrian support) and soon spawned a whole series of similar groups such as the student organisations "Zarzewie" ("Embers") and the Nationalist "Sokol" ("Falcon"). At the outbreak of WW1 these Polish Legions fought independently under Austrian command, siding with the Central Powers in bitter opposition to Russia. On 6

August 1914 he attempted an independent invasion of Russian Poland with ill-equipped troops and occupied Kielce "in the name of free and independent Poland". During the fighting that followed, in which the Austrian armies were being defeated, the Legions fought in some heavy rearguard actions and with distinction at Limanowa and Lowczowek (22 - 25 December 1914). The Legions played an important role in the offensives of 1915, most notably at Rokitno (13 June 1915). The Central Powers were slow to show any positive moves towards Polish independence after the fall of Warsaw and so Pilsudski resigned his command of the Legions at the height of the action in September 1916. Largely as a result of his actions, the Central Powers recognised an independent Russian Poland (November 1916) and appointed Pilsudski head of the military commission there. When Tsarist Russia collapsed during the Russian Revolution in 1917 the main reason for fighting for Austria and Germany ceased to exist and the Legions refused to swear allegiance to Germany and Pilsudski was imprisoned at Magdeberg Castle; in his own words, addressed to the German Governor of Warsaw, "If I were to go along with you, Germany would gain one man, whilst I would lose a nation." When all three partitioning powers collapsed at the end of WW1, Pilsudski established Poland as an independent state. His principal aim, in the immediate post-war period when Eastern Europe was in a political vacuum and Poland was involved in an unofficial war with the Soviets (1919 - 20), was to create a "Federation" of friendly states in the former Polish Commonwealth where the Poles were an ethnic minority and which would act as a check to Russian ambitions; key to his plan was an independent Ukraine. The Ukrainians had recently been occupied by the Soviets and their leader, Semen Petlura (1877 - 1926) had sought refuge in Poland. Pilsudski entered into a pact with Petlura whereby Eastern Galicia was ceded to Poland and Polish troops marched on Kiev to restore Ukrainian independence (April 1920). As Chief of State, Pilsudski defeated five Soviet armies when they rolled back the Polish advance and, in turn, invaded (May 1920); the battle of Warsaw (13 - 25 August 1920) in which, as a result of a strategic blunder on the part of the Soviets and a successful outflanking manoeuvre on the part of Pilsudski (the "eighteenth decisive battle of the world"), crushed the Soviet forces and saved Europe from a Red Army conquest. With his "Federation" policy in ruins, Pilsudski organised a surprise attack against Lithuania (October 1920) and acquired certain disputed areas including his own city of Wilno (and by so doing earned the enmity of the new Lithuanian Republic). Pilsudski had now left the PPS; "I rode in the tramcar called Socialism but I got off at the stop called Independence." Marshal Pilsudski retired from politics in 1922 but kept an eye on events; he once said, "To be defeated and not to yield is victory. To win and to rest on laurels is defeat." The assassination of the first elected President of the newly reconstituted Poland, Narutowicz, by a nationalist fanatic a few days after taking office (16 December 1922) had a profound effect on Pilsudski and changed his character; he became more withdrawn and disillusioned by politics. Never a politician himself, having learnt his trade in the underground, it is hardly surprising that, in May 1926, when he felt that the rise of fascism and the Right was making the political situation very unstable, he staged a coup d'etat; he marched on Warsaw and demanded the resignation of the government - President Wojciechowski refused to be pressurised by the military and called out the army. There followed three days fighting after which the government was forced to resign. Whilst there were some cases of opposition politicians and journalists being attacked by unidentified assailants the only savage reprisal was the disappearance of General Wlodzimierz Zagorski (b. 1882; d. 1926?), one of Pilsudski's personal opponents from the days of the Legions and later Chief of the Air Force. Although offered the Presidency, Pilsudski declined to serve suggesting Moscicki instead. Pilsudski preferred to stay in the background - the real power in Poland, taking supreme command of the Armed Forces and amending the Constitution. This became known as the "Sanacja" (Purification or Regeneration) regime and became less democratic over the years. In 1927 Walery Slawek

organised the "Non-Partisan Block for Co-operation with the Government" (BBWR) in order to manage the 1928 elections but, failing to get an overall majority (getting only 122 of the 444 seats in the Sejm), Pilsudski lost confidence in proper methods. The Sejm was dissolved and Pilsudski's political opponents were imprisoned in the citadel at Brzesc under brutal conditions; Poland had became a dictatorship. Pilsudski died of cancer (12 May 1935).

"He gave Poland freedom, boundaries, power and respect..."

President Moscicki, funeral oration, 18 May 1935.

Despite his apparent attacks on democracy (in reality he was opposed to the growth of factions in the Seym - a legislative body - that would make the government of the country impossible), Pilsudski is venerated by the Poles for his contributions to the establishment of the state and his victory over the Soviet Union. His tomb is in the crypt of Wawel Cathedral, his heart is buried (in Wilno's Rossa Cemetery) amongst the soldiers killed fighting for Wilno in April 1919, and a mound has been constructed in his honour in Krakow.

Roman Dmowski, founder of the right-wing Nationalist League, had foreseen that Germany was the real enemy and gone to France where the "Bayonne Legion" was already fighting alongside the French Army. He and Paderewski formed a Polish Army which consisted of volunteers from the United States, Canada and Brazil together with Poles who had been conscripted into the German and Austrian armies and had become POWs. This Army became known as "Haller's Army" after its commander who had escaped from Russia to France.

Dmowski, Roman (b. 1864; d. 1939), founded the Polish National Democratic Party (Endecja) in 1893 and, in 1903, headed Polish representatives in the Duma (the Russian Parliament). His militant nationalism preached that the only true Pole was an ethnic Pole and encouraged anti-Ukrainian and anti-Jewish feelings; it can be said that Dmowski's views sounded the death-knell of the old Rzeczpospolita, its multi-ethnic "nationalism" and its tolerance. His right-wing National League ran clandestine educational programmes for the peasants aimed at bringing Polish culture to the masses; these efforts were boosted by the school strikes of 1904 - 7. During the Russo-Japanese War (1905), whilst Pilsudski was advocating the establishment of anti-Russian Polish Legions made up of prisoners-of-war held by the Japanese, Dmowski, fearing that a Japanese foray into Polish affairs would force the abandonment of constitutional reform, suggested that his party would do everything in its power to prevent anti-Russian activity in Poland. The Japanese did not pursue the idea further due to their decisive victories in Manchuria. At the outbreak of WW1, Dmowski who believed that Germany, and not Russia, was the real enemy, went to France where the "Bayonne Legion" was already fighting alongside the French Army. He and Paderewski formed a Polish Army which consisted of volunteers from the United States, Canada and Brazil together with Poles who had been conscripted into the German and Austrian armies and had become PoWs. This Army became known as "Haller's Army" after its commander who had escaped from Russia to France. In 1916 he headed the Polish National Committee and, after WW1, was leader of the Paris committee recognised as the temporary government of Poland, and signed the Treaty of Versailles, (1919). Naturally, Dmowski was greatly disappointed when it was Pilsudski who managed to take control in Poland. He became minister of foreign affairs in 1923, opposed Pilsudski and retired from politics shortly afterwards.

Paderewski, Ignacy Jan (b. Kurylowka, Podolia, 1860. d. New York,1941), the Polish pianist and statesman, began to play the piano at the age of three. He studied at Warsaw (later becoming professor in the Conservatoire there in 1878), Berlin (1883) and Vienna (under Leschetizky, 1885) where he made his professional debut in 1887. He became a virtuoso and appeared successfully in Europe and (after 1891) America, establishing himself as an interpreter of Chopin, Liszt, Rubinstein and Schumann. Paderewski gave over 1500 concerts in the US alone and was the first to perform in the newly built Carnegie Hall, New York. He married Baroness de Rosen (1889). Paderewski became director of the Warsaw Conservatoire in 1909 and composed an opera, "Manru", a symphony in B minor, and several other orchestral and piano pieces. A patriot, Paderewski was so impressed by the "Panorama Raclawicka" (1894) that he commissioned Jan Styka to produce a large-scale work (93 feet by 178 feet wide) based on a crucifixion theme, "Golgotha" , which was obtained by Dr. Hubert Eaton for Forest Lawn Park, Glendale, California, in 1944. In 1910, on the 500th anniversary of the Polish victory over the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald, Paderewski presented a memorial, the "Pomnik Grunwaldski" by Marian Konieczny, which was unveiled in Plac Matejko, Krakow. During WW1 he promoted the Polish cause with vigour and raised funds for Polish relief through his concerts in the US. Particularly significant was his winning the sympathy of Colonel House, the intimate adviser to President Wilson, with the result that, on 22 January 1917, President Wilson historically declared in the Senate:

"No peace can last...which does not recognise and accept that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property. I take it for granted... that statesmen everywhere are agreed that there should be a united, independent and autonomous Poland."

In summer 1917 a Polish National Committee, consisting of representatives from all three parts of the country, was set up (initially at Lausanne but then, for the rest of the war, in Paris) and eventually recognised as the official Polish organisation by the Western Powers; Paderewski was recognised as its agent in the US. Paderewski represented Poland at Versailles at the end of WW1 and became the first Premier and minister of foreign affairs of a reconstituted Poland (17 January 1919 - 27 November 1919). At the Peace Conference he was involved in a long and bitter struggle with, in particular, Lloyd George (who showed great distrust in Poland's strength, capacity and goodwill) and the other major powers over the issues of Galicia, Danzig, Silesia and the status of minorities. When Paderewski addressed the League of Nations in Geneva (1920) he spoke for more than an hour without notes in French and then repeated it in English; he was the only speaker who did not use an interpreter. Paderewski abandoned his political career in 1921, retiring to Morges in Switzerland. In 1936, along with Wincenty Witos, Jozef Haller and Wladyslaw Sikorski he became a founding member of the Morges Front, named after his home where they met, determined to rebuild a respectable centre-right opposition. He died in New York whilst on one of his visits campaigning for the Polish cause during WW2. His funeral mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral was attended by around 40,000 people (of whom 35,000 listened outside). He was buried at Arlington Cemetery, Washington DC, until his body could be transported for reburial in a free Poland. In July 1992 Paderewski's remains were interned in the crypt in St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw; his heart is encased in a bronze sculpture at the church of the Black Madonna in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

On March 17th, 1921, a modern, democratic constitution was voted in. The task that lay ahead was difficult; the country was ruined economically and, after a hundred and twenty years of

foreign rule, there was no tradition of civil service. Despite all her problems Poland was able to rebuild her economy; by 1939 she was the 8th largest steel producer in the world and had developed her mining, textiles and chemical industries. Poland had been awarded limited access to the sea by the Peace of Versailles (the "Polish Corridor") but her chief port, Gdansk (Danzig) was made a free city (put under Polish protection) and so, in 1924, a new port, Gdynia, was built which, by 1938, became the busiest port in the Baltic. There were continual disputes with the Germans because access to the sea had split Germany into two and because they wanted Danzig under their control. There problems increased when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany.

Smigly-Rydz, Edward (b. 1886; d. 1941),a general and Marshal of Poland (the first son of a peasant to rise to such a high rank), served in Pilsudski's Polish Legions (1914 - 17) and later succeeded Pilsudski (1935) in becoming Inspector General of the Polish Army. During WW1, Smigly-Rydz commanded the underground Polska Organizacja Wojskowa (POW; the Polish Military Organisation). During the Polish-Soviet War (1919 - 20) he played a significant role, particularly after the capture of Wilno. The Northern front was complex, being an area of operations for Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian armies as well as 3 Russian White armies, 3 Soviet armies and the German Baltikum Army. The Poles, in conflict with Lithuania over Wilno, suspicious of German intentions and having common cause with the Latvians, launched an offensive against Dunaburg (Dvinsk) led by Smigly-Rydz. His forces dashed across the frozen Dvina (3 January 1920) in temperatures of minus 25°C, stormed the citadel and cut off the Soviet lines of retreat in an operation which effectively ended the campaign of 1919. During the invasion of the Ukraine (April 1920) Smigly-Rydz commanded the 3rd Army in the centre of the line. His attack group included a large armoured force which gained maximum surprise on its drive into Zhitomir and played an important role in the capture of Kiev. During the chaos of the Soviet counteroffensive led by Budyonny (June 1920) he organised a successful rearguard action which saved the 3rd Army and, again, during the Soviet advance in Galicia (July 1920), Smigly-Rydz controlled the situation by setting up an effective system of defence using garrisons in strategic towns supported by large mobile forces in the rear. Smigly-Rydz's forces, centred on the Wieprz, formed the main attack force under Pilsudski's command during the Battle of Warsaw (13 - 25 August 1920). The Polish counterattack from the Wieprz (16 August) was the most significant event in the battle. He became Marshal of Poland and the most powerful man in the country during the "Government of the Colonels" (1936 - 39). On the ninth anniversary of the May Coup (1926), Colonel Adam Koc (b. 1891; d. 1969) formed the Oboz Zjednoczenia Narodowego (the Camp of National Unification, OZoN) in an attempt by the "Sanacja" regime to regain some influence on Polish society which had begun to turn to the political groups around it; the National Democrats, Peasant's Party, and the Socialists. A quasi-military organisation, by which the Polish Army could extend its influence beyond the military sphere, it attracted right-wing elements and it's highly nationalistic attitude led to the brutal putting down of peasant strikes and protests, the pursuit of Ukrainian separatists and (though mild in comparison with other parts of Central and Eastern Europe) anti-Semitic tendencies which, in April 1936, led to the passing of an inconvenient law limiting shehitah (ritual slaughter) to Jewish localities. With its fear of the non-Catholic minorities shared by the Catholic Church there was a genuine move towards some sort of alignment of interests but this was brought to a halt by the outbreak of WW2. In time it became a mere propaganda auxiliary to the army; Smigly-Rydz was one of its leading personalities. After the German invasion and occupation, in 1939, he took refuge in Rumania where he was interned. On 15 December 1941 a "teacher", Adam Zawisza, was buried in Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw. In reality this was Smigly-Rydz who had escaped (from internment in Rumania) to Hungary (December 1940) and thence to Warsaw

where he had tried to establish an underground organisation but his overtures had been rejected by the commander of the underground army (Armia Krajowa). He died of a heart attack in Warsaw. Once, fearing a choice between submission to Russia or to Germany he said:

"Germany will destroy our body, Russia will destroy our Soul."

quoted in A. Bromke, Poland's Politics: Idealism versus Realism, Cambridge, Mass., 1967

In 1939, under constant threat from Germany, Poland entered into a full military alliance with Britain and France. In August, Germany and Russia signed a secret agreement concerning the future of Poland.

The Second World War

On September 1st., 1939, 1.8 million German troops invaded Poland on three fronts; East Prussia in the north, Germany in the west and Slovakia in the south. They had 2600 tanks against the Polish 180, and over 2000 aircraft against the Polish 420. Their "Blitzkrieg" tactics, coupled with their bombing of defenceless towns and refugees, had never been seen before and, at first, caught the Poles off-guard.

Henryk Sucharski (d. Naples, 1946) an experienced Army officer, became garrison commander at Westerplatte in 1938. In 1921 the Council of the League of Nations gave the Poles, who did not as yet have a sea port, the right to transship and store military goods in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig. The Harbour authorities, unhappy about the transshipment of arms and ammunition, and the presence of Polish troops, in the Free City, felt that a more suitable site lay to the north of the city on the peninsula at the mouth of the Wisla; Westerplatte. In 1924 the League decreed Poland's right to establish a Military Transit Depot on Westerplatte, making this technically Polish terrain. In 1925 the Poles were allowed to station a detachment of 88 soldiers (3 officers, 21 NCOs and 64 privates) to safeguard the depot and handling operations. Poland was not given any rights to possess military fortifications at Westerplatte but, nevertheless, secretly built a number of concrete-brick guardhouses and fortified the cellars of the barracks buildings and, when the threat of armed conflict became very likely, strengthened the garrison to 182 (with a possibility of mobilising a further 20 civilians). Standing instructions for the Polish detachment were to defend the base for a period of six hours when it was expected that relief would arrive but the withdrawal of Polish army detachments from the region of the Bory Tucholskie to the Bydgoszcz region (in August) meant that this had to be extended to twelve hours. In reality Sucharski knew that relief would be highly unlikely and that their resistance would be merely symbolic; armament was limited to one 75 mm gun, 18 heavy machine-guns, 33 hand or light machine-guns, 160 "Mauser"-type rifles, 2 anti-tank guns, 4 mortars and about 1000 grenades. Only 38 soldiers had helmets. Despite this, the garrison was fully prepared for hostilities; one-third being on stand-by duties in shifts, manning the well-concealed outposts, whilst another third performed their duties openly to create a sense of normality, and the remainder rested (fully armed and dressed).

Serving under the command of Major Henryk Sucharski, at the end of August 1939, Staff Sergeant Wojciech Najsarek was the station master responsible for supervising the loading

and unloading of equipment from railway wagons. Najsarek has the unenviable distincton of being possibly the first military victim of the Second World War, having been killed when Westerplatte railway station was attacked in the very first moments of the war. At 4.45 am., 1 September 1939, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire (the opening shots of the War) whilst, simultaneously, the Germans - as a prelude to a land assault - blew up the entrance to the depot killing Najsarek.

The Germans had expected resistance to be light and were surprised at the opposition they met; their losses were considerable and the myth grew of powerful bunkers and fortifications on Westerplatte. Under constant heavy shelling, dive bombing by Stukas and continuous land assault, outnumbered by about 100 to one, the garrison heroically held out for seven days. On 7 September, completely exhausted, food and drinking water running out, unable to care for the wounded and having lost a key outpost to the shelling, Major Sucharski ordered his men to surrender (10.15 am). Of the approximately 200 personnel, 15 soldiers were killed and 13 seriously wounded in battle and over a dozen died or disappeared during the occupation. The German forces numbered around 3000, but their exact losses have never been revealed. The stand at Westerplatte was frustrating for Hitler who had wanted the removal of all traces of the Polish presence on the first day and was forced to divert men and materials away from other fronts; he insisted on making a personal tour of this "Little Polish Verdun" (21 September 1939). The Polish Supreme Commander, Marshal Smigly-Rydz, honoured the Westerplatte defenders by awarding them the Virtuti Militari. Major Sucharski died in hospital in Naples (30 August 1946); on 1 September 1971, his ashes were exhumed from the Casamassima cometary and laid to rest amongst the men who fell - the "Lions of Westerplatte".

By September 14th. Warsaw was surrounded. At this stage the Poles reacted, holding off the Germans at Kutno and regrouping behind the Wisla (Vistula) and Bzura rivers. Although Britain and France declared war on September 3rd. the Poles received no help - yet it had been agreed that the Poles should fight a defensive campaign for only 2 weeks during which time the Allies could get their forces together and attack from the west.

On September 17th. Soviet forces invaded from the east. Warsaw surrendered 2 weeks later, the garrison on the Hel peninsula surrendered on October 2nd., and the Polesie Defence group, after fighting on two fronts against both German and Soviet forces, surrendered on October 5th. The Poles had held on for twice as long as had been expected and had done more damage to the Germans than the combined British and French forces were to do in 1940. The Germans lost 50,000 men, 697 planes and 993 tanks and armoured cars.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians managed to escape to France and Britain whilst many more went "underground". A government-in-exile was formed with Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz as President and General Wladyslaw Sikorski as Prime Minister.

Raczkiewicz, Wladyslaw (b. 1885; d. 1947), the lawyer and politician, Raczkiewicz fought in the Russian army in WW1, and later presided over the Supreme Polish Military Committee set up in Petrograd (June 1917). This body organised Polish forces on the Eastern front intended to oppose the Germans and thus maintain an independent Polish presence in the east mirroring the Blue Army on the Western Front. He became Minister of the Interior, President of the Senate (1930 - 35), and appointed by Moscicki, President of the Polish Government in Exile (1939 - 45). He formed the Government in Paris under the premiership of Sikorski who also became commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces. A National Council consisting of

senior representatives from all the major parties was convened under the premiership of Paderewski and chairmanship of Mikolajczyk. The Government was recognised by the Allies and began to reform the Polish armed forces with escapees as they made their way across Europe, and Polish volunteers from France and the US. By June 1940 there were 84,000 men in four infantry divisions, two brigades and an armoured brigade, and air force of 9,000 and a navy of 1,400.

Sikorski, Wladyslaw (b. Lwow, 1881. d.Gibraltar, 1943). The career of General Sikorski, civil engineer, soldier and politician runs parallel to that of Pilsudski. Austrian Poland, economically strong with democratic tendencies more advanced than in the other occupied parts of Poland, had become the political base for the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) since 1908. Foreseeing war between the Partitioning Powers, the right wing of the party made preparations for insurrectionary action by setting up the "Zwiazek Walki Czynnej" ("Union for Armed Struggle"); the founders were Marian Kukiel, Kazimierz Sosnkowski and Sikorski. The aim of the Union was to create a form of secret military school and embraced the more active members of the PPS Fighting Organisation (which had been closed down by Pilsudski after the success at Bezdany, 1908). The Union was responsible for the establishment of the Riflemen's Unions throughout Galicia, exploiting an Austrian law which permitted the formation of paramilitary societies but also receiving assistance from the Austrian authorities who were keen to see Pilsudski involved in anti-Russian activities if war broke out. The Zwiazek Walki Czynnej" was the origins of the Polish Army. During the Balkan crisis of 1912 it was decided to build a political machine to represent the secret societies; the Provisional Commission of Confederated Independence Parties. The Provisional Commission consisted of representatives from the PPS, Polish Social-Democratic Party, the National Workers Union, the National Peasant Union, and several other, smaller, organisations from Galicia and the Kingdom. Sikorski had decided to embark on a political career accompanying a military one and joined the Commission as the representative of one of these smaller groups; the Polish Progressive Party. When the Supreme National Committee was set up in Krakow (August 1914) aiming to unite all Polish independence movements under the Austrian aegis, he became Chief of the War Department and came into conflict with Pilsudski who wanted to be independent of the Supreme National Committee and its pro-Austrian policy; it is from this period that the struggle, both personal and political, between Sikorski and Pilsudski, dates. Sikorski commanded the Fifth Army in the Polish-Soviet War, performing outstandingly in the action on the Wkra where he experimented with the use of tanks and motorised cars (his attack on Kowel has been described as the first ever blitzkrieg), and emerged as Prime Minister in the political crisis that followed the assassination of the first Polish President, Narutowicz (1922). Sikorski's government saw a disastrous rise in inflation and fall in the value of Polish currency resulting in bitter industrial action culminating in a general strike (1923) and bloody confrontation between workers and the army. Created Minister of War (1924), he confronted Pilsudski and was forced into retirement after the May Coup of 1926. During his enforced retirement Sikorski published "Przyszla Wojna" ("Modern Warfare", 1934) in which he advocated the use of "mechanised fighting units operating in close co-operation with a powerful air force" and correctly foresaw that the Wehrmacht would be the first to use such tactics. In 1936, along with Wincenty Witos, Jozef Haller and Ignacy Paderewski he became a founding member of the Morges Front, determined to rebuild a respectable centre-right opposition. His opposition to Pilsudski's dictatorial methods sent him into political "exile" until the Nazi invasion swept away the "Sanacja" regime in 1939. He volunteered his services to Smigly-Rydz at the outbreak of WW2 but was turned down. After 1939 he was commander in chief of the Polish army in France and Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile and played a very delicate balancing act in trying to improve

Polish-Soviet relations, despite the Soviet invasion of 1939 and severe opposition from within his own government. In 1941 he was a co-signatory of the Sikorsky-Maisky pact with the USSR which allowed for the release of Polish citizens who had been deported to the Soviet Union after 1939. On 11 April 1943, the Germans discovered the mass graves of 4,231 Polish officers executed by the Soviet NKVD (Secret Police) at Katyn and the Polish Government demanded an investigation by the Red Cross, whereupon the Soviets broke off diplomatic relations with the Poles. This proved to be very embarrassing for the Allies. On 5 July the plane in which General Sikorski was travelling back to London crashed on take-off from Gibraltar, it has always been suspected as a result of sabotage by the Russians with British connivance.

Under the German-Soviet pact Poland was divided; the Soviets took, and absorbed into the Soviet Union, the eastern half (Byelorussia and the West Ukraine), the Germans incorporated Pomerania, Posnania and Silesia into the Reich whilst the rest was designated as the General-Gouvernement (a colony ruled from Krakow by Hitler's friend, Hans Frank).

In the Soviet zone 1.5 million Poles (including women and children) were transported to labour camps in Siberia and other areas. Many thousands of captured Polish officers were shot at several secret forest sites; the first to be discovered being Katyn, near Smolensk.

The Germans declared their intention of eliminating the Polish race (a task to be completed by 1975) alongside the Jews. This process of elimination, the "Holocaust", was carried out systematically. All members of the "intelligentsia" were hunted down in order to destroy Polish culture and leadership (many were originally exterminated at Oswiencim - better known by its German name, Auschwitz). Secret universities and schools, a "Cultural Underground", were formed (the penalty for belonging to one was death). In the General-Gouvernement there were about 100,000 secondary school pupils and over 10,000 university students involved in secret education.

The Polish Jews were herded into Ghettos where they were slowly starved and cruelly offered hopes of survival but, in fact, ended up being shot or gassed. In the end they were transported, alongside non-Jewish Poles, Gypsies and Soviet POWs, to extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka; at Auschwitz over 1.5 million were exterminated. 2000 concentration camps were built in Poland, which became the major site of the extermination programme, since this was where most of the intended victims lived.

Stanislaw Ryniak (b. Sanok,1916; d. 2004), a non-Jewish Pole, has the dubious distinction of being the first person to be imprisoned in Auschwitz. In May 1940 the Nazis arrested Ryniak in his hometown of Sanok. Accused of being a member of the resistance he was transported, along with hundreds of other Polish political prisoners, to Auschwitz (which was a concentration camp especially set up in 1940, on the site of the pre-war Polish Army barracks at Oswiecim, to accommodate the huge increase in the number of Poles arrested - far surpassing the capacity of local prisons). He arrived at Auschwitz on June 14. Numbers were tattooed on the prisoners' arms in the order of their arrival; the first 30 numbers were given to German criminal prisoners who would serve as camp guards. Ryniak's number was 31, thus making him, essentially, the first genuine inmate. Auschwitz rapidly expanded; in 1941 the Germans began to build Auschwitz II - Birkenau, at the site of the village of Brzezinka, which, in 1942, became the place where the mass extermination of the Jews was begun. Over 1.5 million people were exterminated at Auschwitz in a "death factory" established in order to make murder less emotionally stressful to the perpretators; the mass-gassing of thousands at a

time being more detached than putting a bullet through an individual's head on a regular basis. Between 1942 and 1944 over 40 other sub-camps were set up as extensions of German industrial plants and employing slave labour; the largest of these being Auschwitz III - Monowitz built by IG Farbenindustrie. In 1944, Ryniak was transported to the Leitmeritz work camp, in what is now the Czech Republic. Upon his release, he weighed only 88 pounds. He is buried in the Osobowicki Cemetery, Wroclaw.

Many non-Jewish Poles were either transported to Germany and used as slave labour or simply executed. In the cities the Germans would round-up and kill indiscriminately as a punishment for any underground or anti-German or pro-Jewish activity. In the countryside they kept prominent citizens as hostages who would be executed if necessary. Sometimes they liquidated whole villages; at least 300 villages were destroyed. Hans Frank said, "If I wanted to put up a poster for every seven Poles shot, the forests of Poland would not suffice to produce the paper for such posters."

Despite such horror the Poles refused to give in or cooperate (there were no Polish collaborators as in other occupied countries). The Polish Underground or AK (Armia Krajowa or Home Army) was the largest in Europe with 400,000 men. The Jewish resistance movement was set up separately because of the problem of being imprisoned within the ghettos. Both these organisations caused great damage to the Nazi military machine. Many non-Jewish Poles saved the lives of thousands of Jews despite the fact that the penalty, if caught, was death (in fact, Poland was the only occupied nation where aiding Jews was punishable by death).

When the Soviet Union was attacked by Germany, in June 1941, Polish POWs were released from prison camps and set up an army headed by General Anders. Many civilians were taken under the protection of this army which was allowed to make its way to Persia (modern-day Iran) and then on to Egypt.

Anders, Wladyslaw (b.1892; d.1970), the Polish nationalist and army commander, led Polish troops in the Russian army in WW1 and, in 1939, fought against both German and Soviet troops. Wounded and captured by the Russians after the Fourth Partition in 1939, Anders was arrested whilst hospitalised in Lwow and kept imprisoned in the famous N.K.V.D. prison, the Lubianka. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, in 1941, Anders was released under the Sikorski-Maisky pact and asked to form a Polish army in Russia - it was whilst doing so that he discovered the atrocities that had been carried out by the Soviets against Polish soldiers and civilians; forced labour and mass-murder (especially of 4,500 Polish Officers in the forest of Katyn). After a series of harassments and the withholding of food rations, being unable to trust his Soviet "allies", Anders marched his army, along with a large number of civilians, out of the Soviet Union in an extraordinary odyssey; from prison camps in Siberia and the Gulag Archipelago (around Archangel), through Central Asia, Iran, Palestine and then to Egypt where the Polish Second Corps merged with the Carpathian Brigade and was incorporated into the British Eighth Army. This journey had been made possible due to an agreement between Britain and the Soviet Union that the Poles could act as occupational forces in the place of Commonwealth troops who could now be transferred to the Far East in order to fight the Japanese. In Egypt Anders' soldiers contributed greatly, especially at Tobruck and then as part of the allied campaign in Italy, where the Polish forces distinguished themselves, successfully taking Monte Cassino. His sense of betrayal when the Allies allotted Poland to the Soviet sphere of influence after the war (and hence making Poland a satellite state of the Soviet Union) and of the subsequent decision of the Allies not to allow the Polish

forces to take part in victory celebrations so as not to upset relations with the Soviets (a decision that still stood at the 50th anniversary of the D-Day Landings!) reflected that of most Poles forced to live in the West. His campaign to publicise the Katyn atrocity resulted in his being stripped of Polish citizenship in 1946 along with 65 other senior officers. Exiled, he became a leader of the Polish forces-in-exile in Britain.

All the Polish forces took part in the Allied invasion of Europe and liberation of France, playing a particularly crucial role in the significant Battle of the Falaise Gap. The Polish Parachute Brigade took part in the disastrous Battle of Arnhem in Holland. In 1945, the Poles captured the German port of Wilhelmshaven.

In 1943 a division of Polish soldiers was formed in Russia under Soviet control and fought on the Eastern Front. They fought loyally alongside the Soviet troops, despite the suffering they had experienced in Soviet hands, and they distinguished themselves in breaking through the last German lines of defence, the "Pomeranian Rampart", in the fighting in Saxony and in the capture of Berlin.

The "Home Army", under the command of General Stefan Roweki (code-named "Grot"), and after his capture in 1943 (he was later murdered), by General Tadeusz Komorowski (code-named "Bor"), fought a very varied war; at times in open combat in brigade or division strength, at times involved in sabotage, often acting as execution squads eliminating German officials, and often fighting a psychological campaign against German military and civilians. It was a costly war since the Germans always took reprisals.

The crime of Katyn was discovered in 1943 and created a rift in Polish-Soviet relations. From now on the Home Army was attacked by Soviet propaganda as collaborating with the Germans and being called on to rise against the Germans once the Red Army reached the outskirts of Warsaw.

Secretly, at Teheran, the British and Americans agreed to letting the Russians profit from their invasion of Poland in 1939 and allowing them to keep the lands that had been absorbed. The "accidental" death of General Sikorski at this time helped keep protests at a minimum.

When the Russians crossed into Poland the Home Army cooperated in the fight against the Germans and contributed greatly to the victories at Lwow, Wilno and Lublin only to find themselves surrounded and disarmed by their "comrades-in-arms" and deported to labour camps in Siberia.

On August 1, 1944, with the Russian forces on the right bank of the Vistula, the Home Army rose in Warsaw; the Warsaw Rising.

Bor-Komorowski (real name; Tadeusz Komorowski) b. Lwow, 1895; d.1966, led the AK (Armia Krajowa; Polish Home Army) forces during the 62-day Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Though initially rejecting the idea of an uprising in Warsaw, Bor-Komorowski became convinced that an armed rising was inevitable in order to maintain an independent Polish presence on Polish soil at a time when the Soviets had created the PKWN (Polish Committee of National Liberation) in Lublin and begun to intern AK units, and since, with the attempted assassination of Hitler at Rastenburg, there were signs of an imminent German collapse. The decision to launch the Uprising was a tragic mistake; since, as no uprising had been previously envisaged, the AK forces in Warsaw were ill equipped (as ammunition and arms

had actually been sent out of the city to support action in the countryside) and other crucial preparation (such as medical provision) was very poor. The decision to initiate the Uprising was made in haste and ill-prepared; some leading members of both civil and military authorities were only informed by chance or at the last minute. The timing of the Uprising (at 5 pm; rush hour) was intended to cause inconvenience to the German forces but in fact caused a great amount of disruption to the civilian population, taking them by surprise, separating them from their families for the duration and ultimately resulting in heavy casualties. When the Soviet forces stopped outside the city, the Germans were able to concentrate on the destruction of the insurgents but, despite the heavy shelling, bombing and assaults using armour, came across unexpectedly strong opposition. They gradually eliminated isolated pockets of resistance and gradually closed in on the centre (Srodmiescie). In these areas, after surrendering, many civilians and soldiers were executed or sent to concentration camps to be exterminated and the buildings were razed to the ground. Polish tactics included the use of the sewer system as a means of maintaining communications between areas that were surrounded by the Germans (the evacuation of the suburb, Mokotow, was immortalised in Wajda's 1956 film, "Kanal"), and, when the Germans began to systematically demolish the city, to make full use of the ruins as part of the defensive system. Not only had the Russians ceased to advance but they also refused to allow Allied planes to land on Russian airfields after dropping supplies. It is doubtful that the Uprising would have lasted as long as it did without the general support of the civilian population which suffered terribly. There were horrific atrocities committed by the German forces (who consisted largely of criminals and Ukrainian and Cossack anti-Soviet forces fighting for the Germans). The Germans were so impressed by the underground forces that they accorded them full military honours when they eventually were forced to surrender (2 October). The AK lost around 20,000 soldiers whilst around 225,000 civilians were also killed. In accordance with Hitler's instructions the city was razed to the ground so that when Soviet forces entered, in January 1945, the city (that had housed 1,289,000 inhabitants) did not contain a living soul and 93% of the buildings were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The subsequent reconstruction and regeneration of the city is one of the great events of post-war Polish history. The Warsaw Uprising has much significance in post-War Polish history: the failure of the western Allies to aid Warsaw destroyed the faith of the greater part of the civilians in them, whilst the inability of the government-in-exile to secure any aid discredited it. Ultimately the Uprising brought about a realisation that the only hope for Poland lay in some form of understanding between the Poles and the Soviets but the failure of the Soviets to come to the aid of Warsaw was also the source of much bitterness. Much of what happened later had its roots here.

The defeat in Warsaw destroyed the political and military institutions of the Polish underground and left the way open for a Soviet take-over.

With the liberation of Lublin in July 1944 a Russian-sponsored Polish Committee for National Liberation (a Communist Government in all but name) had been set up and the British had put great pressure, mostly unsuccessful, on the Government-in-exile to accept this status quo. At Yalta, in February 1945, the Allies put Poland within the Russian zone of influence in a post-war Europe. To most Poles the meaning of these two events was perfectly clear; Poland had been betrayed.

The war ended on May 8th, 1945.

Post-War Poland

Mikolajczyk, Stanislaw (b. 1903; d. 1966), leader of the Peasant Movement, founder of the Stronnictwo Ludowe (the Polish Peasant Party) and representative of the Polish Government-in-Exile during WW2, offered the only real opposition to the Sanacja regime established after Pilsudski's coup. He organised a political strike (15 August 1937) which called for a political amnesty and a liquidation of the Sanacja. The strike turned violent, 42 people were killed and about 1000 arrested; the events shook the régime badly. When Sikorski was killed at Gibraltar (1943), Mikolajczyk succeeded him as prime minister. Opposed to the Soviet annexation of East Galicia and the imposition of the "Curzon Line" frontier on a post-war Poland, Mikolajczyk was placed under great diplomatic pressure and warned by Churchill, "You are on the verge of annihilation. Unless you accept the frontier...the Russians will sweep through your country and your people will be liquidated." Mikolajczyk went to Moscow to discuss the situation with Stalin directly and watched helplessly as the Soviets set up the "Polish Liberation Committee", under Osobka-Morawski of the PPS (Polish Socialist Party), in Lublin on 22 July 1944 and the subsequent disaster of the Warsaw Uprising in August. The Uprising placed Mikolajczyk in a position where he had to plead for help instead of strengthening his bargaining position. He was pressurised, by the Allies, into accepting a compromise whereby Poland would gain land in the West as compensation for the territories lost in the East and, despite his misgivings, he agreed that he would come to Poland to head a provisional government made up mostly of the Lublin committee. Mikolajczyk was concerned that the establishment of the Polish border on the Oder-Neisse would cause problems with any post-war German government (as had the Polish Corridor after WW1) and tie Poland to the Soviet Union indefinitely. Any opposition became academic when the Western Powers confirmed Poland's eastern frontier at Yalta in February 1945 and at Potsdam in July. At Yalta and Potsdam Stalin had agreed to set up an interim government consisting of twenty-one members, sixteen of them sponsored by Stalin himself; Mikolajczyk would be deputy premier - the Allies agreed to this and withdrew their recognition of the Polish Government-in-exile. In the January Election of 1947, in a blatant disregard for the provisions agreed at Yalta and Potsdam and in elections declared to be irregular by foreign observers, the communist-led Democratic Bloc gained power; Bierut was elected President and Cyrankiewicz, Premier. In the Sejm, Mikolajczyk was condemned as a foreign agent. As the last remnants of the anti-communist underground were destroyed in the countryside, he was forced to flee for his life from Poland (October 1947).

The Party;

Bierut, Boleslaw (b. Rurach Jezuickich, nr. Lublin, 1892; d. Moscow, 1956), was actively involved in the affairs of the Polish working-class from an early age; by 1918, aged 26, he was already organising workers in Warsaw and Lublin and was an NKVD agent, studying at the Advanced Comintern Party School. He became a Comintern agent in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Austria and was arrested in Poland (1935). He was a leader in the resistance during the Nazi occupation, becoming president of the Home National Council (KRN) formed by Wladyslaw Gomulka without consulting Moscow. The Soviets formed the Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (PKWN; Polish Committee of National Liberation), allegedly in July 1944 in Lublin but in reality created in Moscow to undermine Gomulka's KRN. The role of the Lublin Committee was to assist the Soviets in running the Polish territories liberated from the Germans. At the Potsdam Conference (17 July 1945) Bierut, leading the Polish delegation, agreed to the establishment of the Oder-Neisse line as Poland's post-War Western border. The Lublin Committee became the core around which was formed

the Provisional Government of National Unity (1945 - 47), ostensibly a union of Polish democratic parties with representatives from the Polska Partia Robotnicza (PPR; Polish Workers' Party), Polska Partia Socjilistyczna (PPS; the Polish Socialist Party), the PSL; Polish Peasants' Party, and other minor parties intended to rule the country until free democratic elections could take place. Stanislaw Mikolajczyk was the only member of the London government to return to Poland. In reality the Provisional Government had been set up in order to create a breathing space during which the democratic opposition could be eliminated and a Communist State established. In the Summer of 1947 the PSL and Mikolajczyk became increasingly isolated and attacked as agents of reactionary forces; during the arrests that followed Mikolajczyk managed to escape. Bierut became Stalin's hand-picked man to become President of the Republic (1947 - 52) and was leader of the radical pro-Moscow group (consisting of Jakub Berman, and Hilary Minc) opposed to Gomulka. In June 1948 Gomulka was replaced as General-Secretary of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and on 26 July 1948 the first purges began as the PPR and PPS were cleansed of pro-Western elements. An era of full Stalinist dictatorship and headlong industrialisation began and in December the Polish Worker's Party and the Polish Socialist Party fused forming the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and a single party state. In November 1949 Bierut and the Polish government were given the services of Marshall Rokossovsky by the USSR; he was appointed Minister of Defence and given a permanent place in the Politburo. A purge of the army was then carried out and compulsory National Service was introduced (February 1950). The March Labour Laws (1950) made absenteeism a crime and tied workers to their jobs, making them responsible to their managers, and the management directly responsible for fulfilling any quotas set by the government. On the 22 July 1952 a new constitution was introduced and Poland became officially known as Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (the Polish People's Republic). In 1949 the Vatican had issued a decree against Communism which had put all Communist publications on the Index and forbade Catholics to cooperate with Communists, now, in 1952, the first arrests of bishops and priests began, culminating in the arrest of Cardinal Wyszynski (1954). In 1954, Colonel Jozef Swiatlo (b. 1905), deputy chief of the Tenth Department (set up to monitor the activities of Party members and the government on behalf of Moscow), defected and began to broadcast on Radio Free Europe, revealing the activities of the Urzad Bezpieczenstwa (UB; Polish security services). The scandal that followed these revelations, of the extent to which Moscow had control over everyday life, led to the dismissal of the head of the UB and the release of Gomulka from prison. In February 1956, with the situation changing in a post-Stalinist world, Bierut left Poland to attend the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in Moscow during which Khrushchev denounced Stalin. He died there, apparently by suicide. His replacement was Edward Ochab

Gomulka, Wladyslaw (b. Krosno, 1905; d. Warsaw, 1982). Trained in the USSR in the 1930s, where he saw collectivisation at first hand (and decided that it would not work in Poland), Gomulka was fortunate enough to be arrested by the Polish police (1938 - 39) and thus avoided the purge of his comrades (some 5,000 were killed) by the Soviets. He found himself in Soviet-occupied Lwow in 1940 and decided to take his chances at home, Krosno, in the General-Gouvernement. In Warsaw, Gomulka emerged as the First Secretary of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) (1943). He formed the People's Army as an equivalent to the Armia Krajowa, and the Krajowa Rada Narodowa (KRN; National People's Council) - without Moscow's prior permission - in 1944. As a result, the Soviets formed the Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (PKWN; Polish Committee of National Liberation), allegedly in July 1944 in Lublin but in reality created in Moscow to undermine Gomulka's KRN. Gomulka was "invited" to Moscow to endorse the formation of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, which he did in August (although all documentation was back-dated to July). The

role of the Lublin Committee was to assist the Soviets in running the Polish territories liberated from the Germans. The Lublin Committee then became the core around which was formed the Provisional Government of National Unity (1945 - 47), ostensibly a union of Polish democratic parties intended to rule the country until free democratic elections could take place but in reality set up in order to create a breathing space during which the democratic opposition could be eliminated and a Communist State established. Civil War broke out as non-Communist elements (the right-wing, anti-communist partisans of the Holy Cross Mountains, NZA; the National Armed Forces: former members of the AK opposed to a Communist take-over, WiN; the Association of Freedom and Independence, working mainly around Lublin and Bialystok: and UPA; the Ukrainian Insurrectionary Army) opposed the hard-handed tactics of the Soviet security forces, but all armed opposition was put down by 1947. The Polish Communists had to work in close partnership with the Soviets; neither could succeed in Poland without the support of the other and Gomulka played a very clever game in the middle ground between blind allegiance to Moscow and open rebellion. He found himself surrounded by NKVD appointments (Bierut, Berman and Minc) and slowly being eased out of office as Stalinism was imposed on Poland (1948 - 56). He was placed under house arrest for "nationalist deviation" and was replaced as Party General-Secretary by Bierut. He managed to stay on as Vice-President until 1949, and as a member of the Central Committee until 1951 when he was imprisoned (but there were never any show trials and executions as there had been in Hungary and Czechoslovakia). When Stalinism collapsed many prominent Stalinists were dismissed and there was a call for greater civil and political freedom; the Thaw. In June 1956 workers from the largest factory in Poland, the Cegielski locomotive factory (or ZISPO) in Poznan, angry at unfavourable changes in taxation, made demands for talks with the Prime Minister, Cyrankiewicz. When this was denied there was a series of escalating strikes and a protest march (28 June 1956) which was fired on when the authorities panicked. During the two days of violent protest that ensued, the Poznan riots (28 - 29 June), 53 were killed and 300 injured. Whilst the Soviets saw the riots as part of an imperialist plot to destroy Communism at a time of internal reconstruction (Khrushchev's de-Stalinization program in the USSR), the Polish government took a more realistic stance and declared that the rioting workers had been at least partly justified in their actions. The Soviets became further alarmed when, in September, the Politburo had begun to request the pull-out of all Soviet state security (KGB) advisers from Poland and because Gomulka, who had been released along with his colleagues, was on the verge of reclaiming his position as the PZPR (Polish United Workers' Party) leader. The Soviets feared that if Gomulka took control he would remove the most orthodox (and pro-Soviet) members of the Polish leadership and steer Poland along an independent course in foreign policy. On 19 October, as the 8th Plenum of the PZPR Central Committee was about to convene to elect Gomulka as party leader, Soviet forces stationed in Western Russia began to move towards Poland and others stationed near the German border began to move towards Warsaw. Marshal Rokossowski, the Deputy Prime Minister and the embodiment of the Soviet presence in Poland, ordered the Polish army to co-ordinate movements with these Soviet forces. Khrushchev now attempted to force the Polish government to reimpose strict ideological controls but was finally forced to agree to a compromise when loyal Polish troops took up strategic positions around Warsaw and it was suspected that weapons were being distributed to workers militia units. Khrushchev was reluctant to instigate a military solution that would be difficult to end. Gomulka was permitted to return to power and take Poland along its own road to Socialism whilst, in return, Gomulka called for stronger political and military ties with the Soviet Union and condemned those who were trying to steer Poland away from the Warsaw Pact. Rokossowski's behaviour during the crisis was now brought into question and when a new Politburo was set up he was not re-elected onto it. Shortly afterwards he was expelled by Gomulka (28 October 1956) on charges

of attempting to stage a pro-Soviet coup. The deteriorating situation in Hungary was a strong incentive for Khrushchev to avoid further conflict with Poland. Unlike the unhappy outcome of the Hungarian Revolution a few weeks later, this Polish "revolution" was a relative success: Cardinal Wyszynski, imprisoned by Bierut, was released; Russian officers in the Polish army were dismissed and sent home; a quarter of a million Poles stranded in the Soviet Union were allowed to emigrate to Poland; commercial treaties were renegotiated on more favourable terms; and the Soviet Union had to pay for the upkeep of its own troops in Poland. Whilst Soviet puppets had been withdrawn from Poland there was still a powerful Stalinist group, known as the "Natolinists" (named after the Branicki palace where they met), within Poland who now attempted to divert any attention away from them by encouraging anti-Semitism; to blame the number of Jews who had prospered under Stalinism. There was also a concerted attempt to purge Piasecki and his ex-Fascist group. Gomulka's drive for self-sufficiency throughout the 60s, especially in agriculture, failed to produce a promised rise in living standards. Party bureaucracy increased and, after the fall of Khrushchev in 1964, censorship was strengthened. The Israeli victory over the Soviet-backed Arabs in 1967 was greeted with glee; "Our Jews have given the Soviet Arabs a drumming!" Anti-Russian feelings grew, especially in the universities, until, when the authorities banned a production of Mickiewicz's anti-Russian "Forefathers' Eve" in January, student riots broke out in Warsaw and Krakow. These were forcibly put down and a period of repression against Intellectuals and Jews ensued. Gomulka found his own position as leader was under threat from the repressive Nationalist "Partisan" faction, led by Mieczyslaw Moczar, but he was able to get Soviet backing by letting Polish armed forces take part in the Warsaw Pact repression of Dubcek's attempt to create a more liberal situation in Czechoslovakia. Terrified of incurring debts, Gomulka resisted imports, especially of grain and animal feed, thus two bad harvests (1969 and 1970) inevitably led to severe meat shortages. A sudden increase in the price of food in December 1970 led to riots in the Baltic cities; Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin, which were repressed with great bloodshed. The fighting spread to other cities on the coast and the whole area had to be sealed off by the army. On 19 December an emergency meeting of the Politburo replaced Gomulka (who had suffered a stroke) with Edward Gierek, who managed to calm down the situation by preventing the price rises and promising reforms. Gomulka died of cancer (1982).

Gierek, Edward (b. 1913; d. Cieszyn, 2001), First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party during the rise of Solidarity, went to France with his family in his youth and lived there for eleven years. At the age of 13 he began work as a miner and spent a great deal of his time in the ultra-Stalinist communist parties of France and Belgium. He was expelled from France for his political activities and went to Poland (1934), returning to Belgium in 1937. He was in the resistance during the war. Gierek returned to Poland in 1948 where he quickly role to positions of power. He became the first Party leader in the Soviet bloc who had never been trained in the Soviet Union. Gierek built up his reputation as a very able administrator and Party boss in Silesia, whilst maintaining some distance from other factions and intrigues in the Party. He was able to maintain in touch with the common people and understood that a gulf existed between the standard of living of working people in Poland and their counterparts in the West. He was appointed Director of the Heavy Industry Department (1954) and elevated to the Politburo (1956). After the crisis of December 1970, when food prices rose steeply during Christmas week and there were strikes and demonstrations against the Government - most notably in the shipyards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin, Gomulka was forced to resign and Gierek was elevated in his place. His policy was one of freezing prices, rapid industrialisation, and of creating an artificial rise in living standards thus attempting to create a sense of material prosperity based on Western imports and credits (a policy which was to

bankrupt Poland). For a brief period, 1971 - 73, there was a sense of confidence and optimism; free discussion was encouraged, wages increased, the prices paid by the Government to peasants for food was raised, intellectuals were wooed and censorship eased. The Royal Castle in Warsaw was rebuilt. Gierek staked all on economic success and failed after a series of world and domestic crises (the oil crisis of 1974, deepening world recession). To ease the foreign debt Gierek was forced to increase the price of "luxury" consumer goods, and, in June 1976, food prices by an average of 60%. There were major demonstrations and violent strikes; the workers of the Ursus plant tore up railway tracks and seized the Paris - Moscow express, whilst the army had to man the deserted steelworks of Nowa Huta. Within days the action forced the cancellation of the price rises, but also - since coercion was the only way left - led to repression by the Citizens' Militia (ZOMO) and severe sentences. Opposition groups developed and grew in strength; KOR (the Worker's Defence Committee), led by Jacek Kuron and Adam Michnik. The economy "overheated" and led to a period of acute consumer shortages, especially meat, and a soaring foreign debt. In October 1978, Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal of Krakow, was elected Pope. The Polish sense of "destiny" began to surface. In June, 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Poland at a time when the economic crisis was deepening. Fresh price rises in July 1980 touched off nation-wide strikes. In August they reached the Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, where Lech Walesa became leader. At the end of August the Gdansk Agreement created Solidarity as an independent, self-managing trade union. Gierek was replaced by Stanislaw Kania in September and expelled from the party for having failed to improve the living standards of the workers. In the period that followed the Party began to fall apart and on 13 December 1981 General Jaruzelski, prime minister, minister of defence and first secretary of PZPR, declared a state of martial law and suspended Solidarity - but nothing would ever be the same again.

Jaruzelski, Wojciech; (b. Kurow, 1923). Born into a wealthy land-owning family, Jaruzelski was deported to the Soviet Union in 1939 and worked as a forced labourer. In 1943 he joined Berling's Kosciuszko Infantry Division and was involved in the Eastern Campaign. He became the youngest general in the Polish Army when he was 33. In 1962 he was appointed Deputy Defence Minister and promoted to Defence Minister in 1968. In the circumstances that led to the the Gdansk Agreement and the creation of Solidarity in what was the first, authentic workers' revolution in Europe, ironically directed against the party of the proletariat, not many had foreseen the economic and political collapse that followed. The Party began to fall apart as its leadership became embroiled in in-fighting and there were struggles within Solidarity itself between those who wished to consolidate their position and those who wanted to go further. When at Solidarity's First National Congress (September 1981) more radical elements were able to get a motion passed offering sympathy and support to the downtrodden peoples of the Soviet Bloc, it was inevitable that something would be done. The Soviet Union was isolated because of its involvement in the war in Afghanistan, and economically dependent on the West, but it could not stand by and watch the very core of the Warsaw Pact tear itself away. On 9th February 1981, General Jaruzelski (commander-in-chief of the army) had been appointed prime minister and minister of defence in what may have been a first step towards a military coup or a pre-emptive strike to forestall Soviet invasion - or simply a response to Soviet demands - and on 18 October he replaced Stanislaw Kania as first secretary of PZPR, acquiring powers that were unprecedented in the Soviet Bloc. On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski declared a "State of War", and martial law was imposed. In a complex and efficient operation, communications were cut and thousands were imprisoned as tanks patrolled the streets. Whilst there were some minor protests there was no general movement of revolt; by January 1982 the whole situation was under control. Some members of Solidarity were in hiding and carried on in opposition underground. Solidarity was dissolved by the

courts (October 1982) and a year after its imposition, the "State of War" was suspended (December 1982). Gradually, as the country's political and economic life returned to normal, martial law was lifted (July 1983). On 19 October 1984 Jerzy Popieluszko, a Warsaw priest, was murdered by officers from the security services; Jaruzelski sanctioned their arrest and trial. By the summer of 1985, Jaruzelski began to appear in civilian clothes and shortly afterwards was elected president. From 1986 onwards, there was great discussion as to the way the country could develop (in the climate of Gorbachev's "glasnost" and "perestroika") which led, in 1988, to a referendum. As a result, Poland became the first Eastern-Bloc country to hold free elections which opened the way to the massive changes of 1989 and the return of democracy. Whilst Jaruzelski was narrowly appointed President by the Sejm in June 1989, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Walesa's Solidarity colleague, became the first non-Communist Prime Minister since WW2. Jaruzelski relinquished his post in July 1990 and, in December 1990, Lech Walesa was sworn in as the first non-Communist Polish President since WW2. The role of General Jaruzelski in bringing about a free Poland will be debated for a long time until we know the historical facts; was he simply obeying his Moscow taskmasters or was he playing a subtle political game in order to preserve Poland's independence?

"...for the Soviets, to rule Poland was the key to the control of Eastern Europe. Poland's geostrategical importance... exceeds the fact that it lies on the way to Germany. Moscow needed to exert her rule over Poland because that also made it easier to control Czechoslovakia and Hungary and isolated non-Russian minorities in the Soviet Union from western influence... I was fully aware of the situation. I was subject to a continuous wave of... threats in which not only the Soviet voice was audible... Warsaw Pact army concentrations and movements around our borders had been going on for a considerable time... A no less threatening situation was caused by what was, in effect, an ultimatum announcing a drastic cut in the supplies of gas, crude oil and many other vitally important materials as of the 1st January 1982... No grand issues and dilemmas may be studied without their historical backgrounds in separation from the realities of a given moment. A historian seated in the tranquillity of archives and libraries can allow his thoughts to wander in various directions... he knows today what took place in the past. But a politician active at that time knew only what was happening at a given moment. And he also had to take into account that which could take place... A politician has to bear the weight of decisions whose effects are often enormous. And those decisions have to be taken. A controversial decision is better than no decision or waiving it, since it permits a situation to be brought under control while allowing it to be reined in with the possibility of correction."

Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, 105th Landon Lecture, Kansas State University, 11 March 1996

A New Hope;

Wojtyla, Karol (Pope John Paul II) (b. Wadowice,1920), the 264th Pontiff, is the first non-Italian Pontiff for 455 years, the first from a Communist country and the first Polish Pope. His mother died when he was small and he was brought up by his rather stern father. In 1938 Wojtyla entered the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, studying languages and modern Polish literature. He began to write poetry and joined a theatre group intending to follow a career in acting. With the Nazi occupation Wojtyla became an underground cultural resistance worker combating the German attempts to destroy Polish culture. He also began to attend underground classes in theology and began studying for the priesthood, under Cardinal Sapieha, in 1944 whilst in hiding in the Archbishop's residence in Krakow. Wojtyla was ordained on 1 November 1946, and carried on his studies in Rome and France. On returning

in 1948 he was appointed parish priest in Niegowic, near Gdow. Wojtyla was transferred to the Kosciol Floriana (the Collegiate Church of St.Florian) in the Kleparz district of Krakow, which has been the University Collegiate since the 16th.century. He was vicar here between 1949-51. In 1954 he became a professor of social ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin and in 1958 was made a Bishop by Cardinal Wyszynski. In 1964 Wojtyla became Archbishop of Krakow and in 1967, a Cardinal. During the 60s he had to continually fight the Communist authorities for the right to build new churches and to maintain religious education. Cardinal Wojtyla played a prominent role in the work of the Second Vatican Council and made many strong contacts abroad. He was elected Pope on 16 October 1978 and the political revolution that shook Poland, and then the rest of Eastern Europe, dates from that time. The election of a Polish Pope was a source of great pride not only for the Poles but for all Slavs; when the Soviet leader and architect of Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his wife Raisa visited the Pope in December 1989 he introduced John Paul II to her with the words "I should like to introduce His Holiness, who is the highest moral authority on earth, but he's also a Slav." He is the most widely-travelled Pope in history and he has taken his duties as Bishop of Rome much more conscientiously than many of his predecessors, visiting most of his parishes and playing an active role in his diocese. John Paul II's health suffered badly after an assassination attempt (13 May 1981) and in his later years he had Parkinson's disease. There have been many criticisms of his Papacy; that he was hypocritical in his condemnation of the Latin American Churches in their struggle against Capitalism (given his story of struggle in Poland) and of being a conservative hampering the Church in a time of great liberalisation and change - especially in the US. History will judge him but there can be no denial of the fact that he played an important role in creating moral stability, especially in his constant fight for the right of life, in times of flux and spiritual uncertainty.

Walesa, Lech (b. Popowo, 29 September 1943). When Lech Walesa climbed over the Lenin Shipyard fence in 1980 little did he know that he would set into motion a wave of political action that would finally free Eastern Europe from the grip of the Soviets. Walesa trained as an electrician and worked at the Lenin Shipyards,Gdansk. During the crisis of December 1970, when food prices rose steeply during Christmas week leading to strikes and demonstrations against the Government - most notably in the shipyards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin, and Gomulka was forced to resign to be replaced by Gierek; Walesa was a member of the 27-strong action committee at the shipyards. His activities as shop steward led to his dismissal in 1976. After Gierek's attempts to ease the foreign debt in 1976 failed, a 60% increase in food prices had to be cancelled because of a series of violent strikes. This, in turn, led to a backlash; there was greater repression by the Citizens' Militia (ZOMO) and severe sentences were imposed on "troublemakers". As a result, opposition groups, like KOR (Committee for the Defence of the Workers), were set up. The economy continued to "overheat" and there was a period of acute consumer shortages, especially meat, and a soaring foreign debt. Once again, price rises in July 1980 touched off nation-wide strikes. On 14 August 1980 Walesa climbed into the Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, to became leader of a sit-in strike over the illegal dismissal of a fellow worker, Anna Walentynowicz. His experiences in the 1970 strikes and years of discussion with KOR and underground workers' cells, had led him to develop a strategy with defined goals. He demanded that representatives of the government come to the shipyards to listen to the demands of the workers and negotiate whilst skilful management of the International Press ensured that the whole process would be reported and recorded. The idea spread and an Inter-factory Strike Committee, advised by KOR, was set up in order to co-ordinate the activity. At the end of August the Gdansk Agreement (31 August 1980) created Solidarity as an independent, self-managing trade union with access to the media and civil rights. It was the first authentic workers' revolution in

Europe, ironically directed against the party of the proletariat. The economic situation worsened and there were acute shortages, especially in medical supplies. Poland was saved from mass-starvation by the action of Poles all over the world, sending food and other supplies. The Party began to fall apart as its leadership became embroiled in in-fighting and its members left to join Solidarity. There were struggles within Solidarity itself between those who wished to consolidate their position and those who wanted to go further; it began to resemble the situation in 1863. Things came to a head at Solidarity's First National Congress (September 1981) - the first democratically elected Polish national assembly since WW2 - when Walesa and his moderates tried to limit discussions to matters concerning Solidarity and the Gdansk Agreement whilst more radical elements wanted to widen the debate to issues of principle. There was even a motion passed offering sympathy and support to the downtrodden peoples of the Soviet Bloc. Although the Soviet Union was isolated because of its involvement in the war in Afghanistan, and economically dependent on the West, it was inevitable that something would be done. On 13 December 1981, General Jaruzelski declared a state of martial law and suspended Solidarity. Walesa was detained but released and reinstated at the Gdansk shipyards in November 1982. Gradually, as the country's political and economic life returned to normal, martial law was lifted (July 1983). Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (October 1983); the award was attacked by the government press and Walesa did not go to accept it until 1990 for fear of being refused permission to return to Poland. From 1986 onwards, there was great discussion as to the way the country could develop which led, in 1988, to a referendum and fresh elections which opened the way to the massive changes of June 1989 when Solidarity won 99 per cent of the seats in the newly created Senate. Whilst Jaruzelski was narrowly appointed President by the Sejm in June 1989, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Walesa's Solidarity colleague, became the first non-Communist Prime Minister since WW2. In December 1990, Lech Walesa was sworn in as the first non-Communist Polish President since WW2 (he was defeated in 1995). By now the map of Europe had been redrawn as Soviet supremacy ended. Walesa has been granted a number of honorary awards on top of the Nobel Prize including the Medal of Freedom (Philadelphia, US), the Award of the Free World (Norway), and the European Award of Human Rights. In November 1989 he became only the third person in history, after Lafayette and Churchill, to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In February 2002 he was chosen to represent Europe and carry the Olympic flag into the stadium during the opening ceremony at Salt lake City.