Józef Poniatowski

• 1. Introduction

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  Józef Poniatowski spent more than three decades in uniform, fighting under three different flags before his life ended in a chaotic retreat in Germany. He was born a prince in Vienna, nephew to Poland's last king, at a time when Poland itself was being carved apart by its neighbors. He fought for Austria, then for Poland, and finally for France, commanding armies far larger than his small nation could otherwise field. What convinced a prince raised at the Austrian imperial court to gamble his life for a country that no longer controlled its own borders? What kind of loyalty made him refuse a tsar's pardon and stay bound to a losing French cause? And what finally caught up with him on the road out of Leipzig?

• 2. The Prince from Vienna

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  Vienna's Palais Kinsky was where Poniatowski was born, on the 7th of May 1763, and the city's Schottenkirche was where he was baptized. His father, Andrzej Poniatowski, was an Austrian field marshal and brother to Stanislaus Augustus, the last king of Poland. His mother, Countess Maria Theresia Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1740-1806), was a court lady and a friend of Empress Maria Theresa. His father died when Józef was ten, and Stanislaus Augustus became his guardian, a bond that lasted the rest of their lives.

  Empress Maria Theresa served as godmother to Poniatowski's older sister, who was also named Maria Teresa in her honor. Raised partly in Vienna and partly with his mother in Prague, he later spent time with his uncle the king in Warsaw. Tutored in the manners of the old aristocratic order, he learned French, Polish, German, and later Russian. As a child he picked up the nickname Prince Pepi, a Czech diminutive of Joseph.

  He was trained for a military career, but also learned to play keyboard instruments, carrying a portable one with him on campaigns. Stanislaus' influence led him to consider himself a Polish citizen, and at 26 he transferred into the Polish army. In Vienna he represented the king at Empress Maria Theresa's funeral, and in 1787 he traveled with Stanislaus Augustus to Kaniv and Kiev to meet Catherine the Great.

  Around this time, Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantès, described him as "handsome, brave, enterprising, and determined, as he himself once assured me, to undertake everything for the liberation of unhappy Poland."

  Poniatowski was commissioned a lieutenant in the Austrian army in 1780, and promoted to colonel in 1786-88. When Austria declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1788, he became an aide-de-camp to Emperor Joseph II.

  At the storming of Šabac on the 25th of April 1788, Poniatowski distinguished himself and was seriously wounded. He reportedly saved the life of a younger colleague there, Prince Karl Philipp Schwarzenberg.

  Their military paths would cross again many times, as friends and as foes, until Schwarzenberg delivered the blow that ended Poniatowski's life at Leipzig.

• 3. Defending a New Constitution

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  In October 1789, Poniatowski returned to Poland at his uncle's summons. He and four others, including Tadeusz Kościuszko, were promoted to major-general that month. He was appointed commander of a division in Ukraine and set about rebuilding the Commonwealth's small, long-neglected army.

  The Four-Year Sejm was in session throughout this period, and its deliberations produced the 3rd of May Constitution of 1791. Poniatowski supported the reforms enthusiastically and joined the Friends of the Constitution Association. Troops under his command surrounded the Royal Castle during the final proceedings, and he himself stood in the room with a group of soldiers.

  On the 6th of May 1792, Poniatowski was appointed Lieutenant-General and given command of the Polish army in Ukraine. His task was to defend the country against an expected Russian attack. Kościuszko and Michał Wielhorski, a friend from his Austrian service days, aided him in the field. Badly outnumbered and repeatedly forced to retreat, Poniatowski still turned on the pursuing Russians whenever they pressed too closely, winning several notable victories.

  The Battle of Zieleńce on the 18th of June was the first major Polish victory since the reign of John III Sobieski. Poniatowski personally joined the fighting when one Polish column began to falter. King Stanislaus created the Virtuti Militari order to mark the win, decorating Poniatowski and Kościuszko first. At the Battle of Dubienka on the 18th of July, Kościuszko's men held the line of the Southern Bug River for five days against fourfold odds.

  A courier reached the converging Polish army near Warsaw with news that King Stanislaus had joined the pro-Russian Targowica Confederation. All hostilities were ordered suspended, and the Polish army was pledged to the confederation as well. Poniatowski's soldiers stayed loyal to him, and he weighed a coup that would have meant kidnapping the king. After issuing contradictory orders, he backed away from the plan. At the last skirmish of the war, at Markuszów on the 26th of July, he reportedly sought his own death but was saved. After a fruitless protest, Poniatowski and most of the other Polish generals resigned their commissions.

  His soldiers had a memorial medal minted as a farewell gesture and wrote to his mother in Prague, thanking her for raising such a son. Poniatowski left Warsaw for Vienna and repeatedly challenged the Targowica leader Szczęsny Potocki to a duel. Russian authorities wanted him pushed further from Poland, and the fearful king pressured him to comply. He traveled on through a western Europe shaken by the French Revolution.

  In a letter to the king that year, Poniatowski argued the campaign should have raised the whole country from the start. He believed the towns should have been armed and the peasants freed.

• 4. Insurrection and Exile

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  Stanislaus Augustus wrote to his nephew in the spring of 1794, urging him to volunteer under his former subordinate, Tadeusz Kościuszko. Poniatowski reported for duty at Kościuszko's camp near Jędrzejów on the 27th of May, alongside Wielhorski.

  Kościuszko wanted Poniatowski to lead the insurrection in Lithuania, replacing the successful but radical commander Jakub Jasiński. Poniatowski declined, unwilling to be so far from the uncle who needed him, and suggested Wielhorski instead, a choice Kościuszko approved.

  Poniatowski fought as a division commander at Błonie between the 7th and the 10th of July. He then led cavalry in an anti-Prussian raid at Marymont on the 26th and the 27th of July. During the Prussian siege of Warsaw, Mokronowski replaced the ailing Wielhorski in Lithuania, and Poniatowski took over the city's defense.

  Between the 5th and the 10th of August, Poniatowski's forces took the Góry Szwedzkie region from the Prussians in a promising run of victories. He lost the ground weeks later in a counterattack he had not properly prepared for, despite Kościuszko's warnings. He was injured when his horse was shot from under him.

  In October, Poniatowski led his outnumbered troops in an attack on Prussian entrenchments at the Bzura River. The assault cost heavy losses but tied up the Prussians and allowed Dąbrowski's corps to return safely to Warsaw. Poniatowski felt increasingly alienated by the radical wing led by Hugo Kołłątaj. Cooperation with Dąbrowski and Józef Zajączek worsened further after Kościuszko was captured at Maciejowice.

  The uprising failed, and Poniatowski's estates were confiscated. He refused a position in the Russian army and would not accept the loyalty terms Russian authorities demanded, so he was ordered to leave Warsaw. In April 1795 he moved again to Vienna, while the uprising's collapse led to the Third and final Partition of Poland.

  Catherine II of Russia died in 1796, and her son, Tsar Paul I, both restored Poniatowski's estates and tried to recruit him into the Russian army. Poniatowski excused himself by claiming poor health from his old wounds.

  Until 1806, Poniatowski lived privately, given over to parties and gambling, and his conduct often shocked public opinion. His household was run strictly by an older woman he had brought from Vienna, who held a great deal of influence over him.

  The future King Louis XVIII, brother of the executed Louis XVI, stayed as Poniatowski's guest at the Łazienki Palace for several years after 1801. In 1802, legal troubles over Stanislaus' succession took him to Berlin for months, where he formed cordial ties with the Prussian royal family.

  Poniatowski never married, but he had two sons. Józef Szczęsny was born in 1791 to the singer Zelia Sitańska, and Karol Józef Maurycy was born in 1809 to Countess Zofia Czosnowska.

• 5. Commander of the Duchy

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  After Napoleon's victory at Jena and Prussia's retreat from its Polish provinces, Frederick William III asked Poniatowski in November 1806 to govern Warsaw. Poniatowski agreed, also taking command of the city's militia and guard forces raised by local residents.

  Joachim Murat and his troops entered Warsaw at the end of that year, forcing Poniatowski to define his place in a shifting political landscape. After talks with Murat and persuasion from Józef Wybicki, Murat declared Poniatowski chief of the military force before the year was out. Veteran commanders Dąbrowski and Zajączek, who had already served under Napoleon, were passed over for the role.

  On the 14th of January 1807, the Warsaw Governing Commission was created under Stanisław Małachowski, and Poniatowski became its Director of the Department of War. The Duchy of Warsaw was established that July, and on the 7th of October Poniatowski became its Minister of War and Head of Army. Napoleon, not yet fully trusting him, kept supreme military command in Davout's hands until 1808. Poniatowski became Commander in Chief on the 21st of March 1809.

  The Duchy's army was severely underfunded, and Napoleon kept much of it abroad for other campaigns, leaving Poniatowski a comparatively small force for the war of 1809. That spring, an Austrian invasion under Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph tested the new Polish army directly.

  At the Battle of Raszyn on the 19th of April, Poniatowski led his 16,000-strong army in a personal infantry bayonet charge against an Austrian force twice its size. His men fought the Austrians to a standstill, and he then withdrew to the fortified Praga suburb across the Vistula. The Austrians attacked Praga but were beaten at Grochowo on the 26th of April. A crossing force was then routed on the 2nd of May at Góra Kalwaria by General Michał Sokolnicki.

  Poniatowski then advanced south into Galicia, taking Lublin on the 14th of May, Sandomierz on the 18th, and the Zamość fortress on the 20th. At Zamość, 2,000 prisoners and 40 cannons were captured, and Lwów fell on the 27th of May, forcing the Austrians to withdraw from Warsaw. A counteroffensive briefly retook Sandomierz for the Austrians on the 18th of June.

  On the 5th of July, the day of the Battle of Wagram, Poniatowski launched a new offensive from Radom toward Kraków. He entered the city on the 15th of July. The demoralized Austrians there tried to hand it to the Russians instead of surrendering to him. Poniatowski rode his horse directly into a blocking line of Russian hussars, flipping several riders as they fell.

  A peace treaty on the 14th of October 1809 folded most of the liberated territory, apart from the Lviv region, into the Duchy of Warsaw. Poniatowski stayed in Kraków until the end of December, celebrated by residents of the old royal capital. He oversaw the provisional Galician government, which ran from the 2nd of June to the 28th of December, believing his presence there kept the city in Polish hands.

  In April 1811 he traveled to Paris to represent the King of Saxony at the baptism of Napoleon's son. The trip opened talks about the coming war with Russia.

• 6. The Russian Campaign

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  Poniatowski argued for an invasion route through the region that is now Ukraine. He believed its warmer terrain and sympathetic Polish gentry made it the most promising option. He also believed possible Turkish action against Russia could support this southern approach. Napoleon rejected the plan. He also rejected a fallback option that would have sent Poniatowski's Polish corps alone along that route, hoping to spark a Polish uprising there.

  Poniatowski commanded the V Corps of the Grande Armée in 1812. It was part of nearly 100,000 Polish troops, the largest Polish military effort before the 20th century. Placed initially under Jérôme Bonaparte, the corps' early advance was largely wasted. Poniatowski took charge of the Grande Armée's right wing once Napoleon's brother departed.

  On the 17th of August at Smolensk, Poniatowski personally led his corps' assault on the city. At Borodino on the 7th of September, the V Corps fought all day over the Utitza Mound, finally taking it toward evening under his lead.

  On the 14th of September, Polish troops were the first to enter Moscow. Poniatowski, unlike Napoleon, was already convinced the campaign was doomed. His corps fought at Chirikovo on the 29th of September and at Vinkovo on the 18th of October, where he saved Murat from a complete defeat by Kutuzov's forces.

  During the retreat, Poniatowski was badly injured at the Battle of Vyazma. He stayed in active service for a few more days before handing his command to Józef Zajączek. He then traveled west by carriage with two wounded aides, the Legion of the Vistula, and Michel Claparède. At the Berezina crossing they narrowly avoided capture by the Russians, finally reaching Warsaw on the 12th of December.

  While recovering from his wounds, Poniatowski immediately set about rebuilding the Polish army to replace losses from the Moscow campaign. When Tsar Alexander I offered amnesty and future cooperation, Poniatowski refused and stayed faithful to Napoleon.

  On the 5th of February 1813, with the new army only partly formed, Polish units left Warsaw as Russian forces closed in, uncertain of their purpose. They reached Kraków and spent several weeks there preparing.

  On the 7th of May, with the Russians approaching again, Poniatowski led his army out of Kraków and through Bohemia. As the VIII Corps, they guarded the Bohemian mountain passes and defended the left bank of the Elbe River into Saxony. His combined force, joining Napoleon during the armistice, numbered 22,000 troops, including Dąbrowski's separately operating division.

  On the 9th of September at Löbau, Poniatowski's corps won a major battle as it moved to join Napoleon's main army.

• 7. The Bridge at Leipzig

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  On the 10th of October at Zedtlitz, Poniatowski's cavalry charge defeated General Pahlen's attempt to block the Polish corps' advance toward Leipzig.

  Two days later, on the 12th of October, Poniatowski was about to sit down to breakfast with Murat when enemy units suddenly appeared. He mounted his horse and broke through the attackers, suffering only a superficial wound to the arm. He then returned with another timely cavalry charge that saved the situation.

  On the 16th of October, during the Battle of Leipzig, Poniatowski was made a Marshal of the Empire. He was entrusted with covering the French army's retreat. He defended the city itself, losing half his corps, and fell back slowly toward a bridge over the White Elster river.

  French troops blew up that bridge before Poniatowski could reach it. He tried to escape across the Elstermühlgraben, near what is now Gottschedstrasse 42, but was badly wounded, probably shot by his own allies by mistake. He drowned in the river on the 19th of October 1813.

  His remains stayed in Leipzig until 1817, when they were carried back to Poland for burial on Kraków's Wawel Hill.

• 8. A Cult After Death

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  Poniatowski was buried on Kraków's Wawel Hill beside Tadeusz Kościuszko and John III Sobieski. A cult around him grew after his death, a Polish version of the Napoleonic legend.

  In 1829 a monument to him by sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen was erected in Warsaw. It was destroyed during World War II, but a modern copy, the Monument to Prince Józef Poniatowski, now stands before the presidential palace in Warsaw.

  Painter Jan Matejko included Poniatowski among the figures in his 1891 work, Constitution of the 3rd of May 1791.

  Many leaders of the November Uprising of 1830 had served under Poniatowski during the Napoleonic Wars. His example inspired Polish fighters through later armed conflicts. The Duchy of Warsaw, which Napoleon created and Poniatowski defended, remained as a residual Polish state until the end of the Partitions period.

  In 1991, Japanese writer Riyoko Ikeda published the manga Ten no Hate made - Porando hishi, commemorating Poniatowski's life.

  A Polish bomber squadron named after Poniatowski, the 304 Squadron RAF Land of Silesia Polish Bomber Squadron, flew in the Second World War. Based mainly at RAF Chivenor in Devon, it flew Fairey Battle, Vickers Wellington, Vickers Warwick, and Handley Page Halifax aircraft.

  Among his living relatives is Elena Poniatowska, a Mexican journalist.

  Welsh-Polish historian Norman Davies later summarized his career this way: "Like the rest of his generation he hoped; he fought; he served; and only found rest in honorable defeat."