Stanisław Poniatowski (15 September 1676 29 August 1762) was a Polish military commander,ławPoniatowski– diplomat, and noble. Throughout his career, Poniatowski served in various military offices, and was a general in both the Swedish and Polish–Lithuanian militaries. He also held numerous civil positions, including those of podstoli of Lithuania and Grand Treasurer of the Lithuanian army in 1722, voivode of the Masovian Voivodeship in 1731, regimentarz of the Crown Army in 1728, and castellan of Kraków in 1752. Throughout his lifetime, he served in many starost positions.
Poniatowski was involved in Commonwealth politics, and was a prominent member of the Familia, a faction led by the Czartoryski family. On a number of occasions he was in service of Stanisław I Leszczyński, the principal rival of Augustus II for the throne of Poland. Having served under Leszczyński as a military officer and envoy during the Great Northern War, Poniatowski later embraced the Russian-supported Augustus. Subsequently, during the War of the Polish Succession, he returned, with the majority of the Familia, to his earlier allegiance. He later effected a reconciliation with Augustus III, and eventually became one of the new king's chief advisors.
Poniatowski's fifth son, Stanisław August Poniatowski, reigned as the last king of Poland from 1764 until 1795, when he abdicated as a result of the Third Partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. His grandson, Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski, was a Polish general and later a Marshal of the First French Empire, serving under Napoleon I.
Biography
Early life
Poniatowski was born on 15 September 1676 in the village of Chojnik, now part of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. He was the son of Franciszek Poniatowski (1651-1691), "Master of the Hunt" in 1680 and cup-bearer at Wyszogród in 1690, and his wife Helena Niewiarowska, (died 1673/74). He was also the paternal grandson of one Jan Poniatowski, who died before 1676, although rumors regarding his parentage claimed that he was the son of Hetman Jan Kazimierz Sapieha by an unknown Polish Jewish woman, later adopted by Franciszek.
He received elementary education in Kraków, at either the Kraków Academy or at the Nowodworski School. At 13, he was sent to Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire where he spent two years, and afterward traveled to Serbia, then a province of that empire. There, he volunteered to join Imperial forces campaigning against the Ottomans in the Great Turkish War. He served as an adjutant to Michał Franciszek Sapieha, and later commanded a company of cuirassiers. He participated in the Battle of Zenta in 1697.
After the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, which ended the war, he returned to Lithuania. Upon his return, he wed Teresa Woynianka-Jasieniecka, but their marriage ended abruptly with her death not long afterward. The union, however, raised his social status. In 1700, he participated in the Lithuanian Civil War as a supporter of the Sapieha family, fighting in the Battle of Valkininkai. Here, he was captured, but managed to escape, and he later served as Sapieha's emissary to Charles XII, king of Sweden.
The Great Northern War and subsequent Swedish service
In 1702, Swedish forces invaded the Commonwealth as part of the Great Northern War, which had begun in 1700 between the Swedish Empire and the Tsardom of Russia. Augustus II, king of Poland and Elector of Saxony, was an ally of the Russian tsar Peter I. Augustus's forces were defeated, and the king himself was forced back to Saxony. He was replaced by Charles with Stanisław Leszczyński, a Polish nobleman and count of the Holy Roman Empire. Poniatowski, serving as a negotiator between the Wielkopolska Confederation and Charles XII, took the side of Leszczyński and distanced himself from the Sapiehas, formerly his patrons. In 1705, he became the colonel over Leszczyński's newly raised Trabant guard, modeled after the reputable Swedish Drabant Corps.