War
of Polish Succession 1733 to 1734
Background
Stanislaus I. (Leszczynsk) (1677-1766), King of Poland, born at Lemberg in 1677, was the son of Rafael Leszczynski,
palatine of Posen, and Anne Catherine Jablonowska. He
married Catherine Opalinska by whom he had one
daughter. In 1697, he signed the confirmation of the articles of election of
Augustus the King of Saxony to be Augustus II King of Poland. In 1703 he joined
the Lithuanian Confederacy, which with the aid of Swedish gold had formed
against Augustus II, and in the following year was selected by Charles XII of
Sweden to supersede Augustus II.
Stanislaus was a
young man of blameless antecedents, respectable talents, and ancient family,
but certainly without sufficient force of character or political influence to
sustain himself on so unstable a throne. Nevertheless, with the assistance of a
bribing fund and an army corps, the Swedes succeeded in procuring Stanislaus
election by a scratch assembly of half a dozen castellans and a few score of
gentlemen (July 2, 1704).
A few months later
Stanislaus was forced by Augustus II to seek refuge in the Swedish camp, but
finally on the 24th of September 1705, Stanislaus was crowned King of Poland.
Charles XII of Sweden supplied his nominee Stanislaus with a new crown and
scepter in lieu of the ancient regalia that had been carried off to Saxony by
Augustus II.
The first act of
the Stanislaus was to conclude an alliance with Charles XII whereby Poland
would assist Sweden against Russia. Stanislaus did what he could to assist his
patron. Thus he induced Mazeppa the Cossack hetman to
desert Peter the Great of Russia at the most critical period of the war.
Stanislaus also placed a small army corps at the disposal of the Swedes. But he
depended so entirely upon the success of Charles' arms that after Poltava
(1709) his authority vanished as a dream at the first touch of reality.
The vast majority
of the Poles hastened to repudiate Stanislaus and make their peace with
Augustus II, and Stanislaus, henceforth a mere pensioner of Charles XII.,
accompanied Krassaus army corps in its retreat to
Swedish Pomerania. On the restoration of Augustus II, Stanislaus resigned the
Polish Crown (though he retained the royal title) in exchange for the little
principality of Zweibrucken. In
1716 Stanislaus Poniatowski, the father of the future
king, saved Stanislaus from assassination at the hands of a Saxon officer, Lacroix.
Stanislaus now
resided at Weissenburg in Lorraine, and in 1725 had
the satisfaction of seeing his daughter Mary become the consort of Louis XV and
queen of France. His son-in-law, Louis XV, supported his claims to the Polish
throne after the death of Augustus II on 1 February 1733, which led to the war
of the Polish Succession.
The War of Polish
Succession
On 9 September
1733 Stanislaus arrived at Warsaw, having traveled night and day through
central Europe disguised as a coachman. The Polish nobles, led by Primate Teodor Potocki, gathered for the
election and, despite much protest, duly elected Stanislaus King of Poland for
the second time.
But Russia,
opposed to any nominee of France and Sweden, at once protested against his
election. Russia declared in favor of Frederick Augustus of Saxony, the son of
Augustus II, that being the candidate of her Austrian
ally. A Russian army of 20,000 under field marshal Peter Lascy
entered Polish territory to support the claims of Frederick Augustus. On the
30th of June 1734 Frederick Augustus of Saxony was proclaimed Augustus III,
King of Poland, at Warsaw. A Russian-Saxon army proceeded to besiege Stanislaus
in Danzig where he had fled himself with his partisans (including the Primate Teodor Potocki and the French and
Swedish ministers) to await the promised military support from France.
The siege began in
October 1734. On the 17th of March 1735 Marshal Munnich
superseded Peter Lacey, and on the 20th of May the long expected French fleet
appeared and disembarked 2400 men. A week after its arrival this little French
army was beaten off and finally compelled to surrender.
On the 30th of
June 1735 Danzig capitulated unconditionally, after sustaining a siege of 135
days; the siege cost the Russians 8000 men. Stanislaus, disguised as a peasant,
had escaped two days before. The War in Poland was largely over, and was an
unambiguous victory for the Russians and their candidate Friedrich August of
Saxony who was thus became the undisputed King Augustus III of Poland.
The Last Years of
Stanislaus
Stanislaus was
first heard of again at Konigsberg, whence he issued a manifesto to his partisans
which resulted in the formation of a confederation on his behalf, and the
dispatch of a Polish envoy to Paris to urge France to invade Saxony with at
least 40,000 men.
In the Ukraine,
Count Nicholas Potocki kept on foot a motley host of
50,000 men to support Stanislaus, which was ultimately scattered by the
Russians. In 1736 Stanislaus again abdicated the throne, but received by way of
compensation the dukedom of Lorraine and Bar from Louis XV of France; the
dukedom reverted to France on his death. He settled at Lunville,
founded there the Academia Stanislaus and devoted the rest of his life to
science and philanthropy. He died in 1766 at the age of 89.
From the 1911 Encyclopedia LoveToKnow
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November 22, 2005