Episode 91 - The last King of Poland

Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Russia. As usual it's Damon with you and this is episode 91 The Last King of Poland. Thank you so much for listening in and I hope you're well. So where were we?

Well last time out we put the NACAS and the National Assembly stroke legislative commission to bed and then in the final part of the episode we saw how reluctant Stanislaw Sponiatowski was being pushed and prodded by Catherine to become a candidate for the Polish Lithuanian crown. Oh, and the empress had allied herself with the Prussian king Frederick the Great.

However, and for Catherine this was a niggly however, right at the end, just when she thought all the pieces were in place, the Ottomans, guided or cajoled by the French, were about to come up with an objection. This time around we're looking to what the Turks objected to, see who the next and last King of Poland would be and investigate how this whole palava resulted in a full scale war

between Russia and Turkey. But before we start and you know what's coming, I just need to tell you that this podcast is supported by the kind and generous members of the Boyarduma. If you want to join them to get early access to ad-free versions of the main episodes, special members only episodes, written transcripts for both, all for a small monthly fee, then you can

by subscribing to The Boyard Duma via Patreon, Apple Podcasts or Spotify and as always, see the episode notes for the details and links. There are no other announcements or messages and so without any further preamble or waffle, let's do some more History of Russia.

So in June 1764 the Ottoman Grand Vizier Kozibahir Mustafa Pasha sent an official note to St Petersburg stating that whilst his country was willing to recognise the Russian-Prussian alliance and approve the election of a native king to the Polish throne, they couldn't agree to that person being Stanislaus for two main reasons.

One, he was too young and therefore inexperienced, and two, he was unmarried. And it's that second reason Stanislaw's marital status that really worried the Turks. Their concerns which had been skillfully planted and nurtured by the French were that after the election, Catherine would marry Stanislaw's, become the de facto ruler of Poland, and

threatened the Ottomans' hold on the Black Sea and the Balkans. Now as we know, Catherine had no intention of marrying Ponyatovsky, but whether she did or she didn't, if Stannislaus was elected, everyone knew that she would then be in a position to exert her influence over Polish affairs and become a potential thorn in

the Ottomans' side. On receipt of the Vizier's letter, Panin was instructed to send a note to Prince Adam Czartoryski, Stanislaw's influential uncle, asking him to come up with a suitable response

and propose a solution. So Adam was in a bit of a bind. On the one hand, he knew full well that the Ottomans and the French had every right to be concerned

with the situation as they saw it. However, on the other hand, he'd been taking Catherine's money and there were thousands of Russian troops encamped

just outside of Warsaw. In the end, he came up with the following. The king to be, i.e. Stanisław, would agree to marry a Catholic,

preferably a Polish Catholic bride chosen by the same, with the wedding taking place as soon as possible after he'd become the monarch. However, whilst his statement gained widespread acceptance

and had the effect of calming everything down, There was one person who wanted nothing to do with it, and that was Stanislaus himself. Still hoping against hope for some kind of reunion with Catherine, he refused the condition, stating that no one could force him to become king on these terms,

and that he would rather forfeit the crown than accept them. But Stanislaus was in too deep, and when an official message from the Russian foreign ministry in St Petersburg telling him, or in effect, ordering him to comply with his uncle's statement, that Penny finally dropped.

Stanislaus knew, or guessed, that the official message had the Empress's backing, and he was right. It did. And he now, sadly and finally realised, A, that romantically, Catherine just wasn't interested anymore, and B, he was simply a pawn in a Russian game. And so at some point in July 1764, without seeing any alternative, he signed a declaration

which stated that he would only marry a Catholic bride that had been chosen by the Sieng. The French, the Russians, the Prussians and the Ottomans all agreed to Prince Adam's compromise, and the Polish nobles were happy that they would be getting one of their own as king.

seem content with the situation, particularly Catherine who sent a note to Panin which read congratulations on the new king that we have made. The election day was set for the 7th of September and Stanislaus was essentially the only candidate. But the Empress wasn't taking any chances, and just to make sure that the right outcome

was reached further detachment of troops was sent west and come the day itself in in a town called Wola just outside of Warsaw, the place was literally surrounded by thousands of Russian soldiers. The representatives of the Sjem dutifully did their bit, not realising that Stanislaw Augustus, which would be the regnal name that he took,

would be the last king of Poland, and that in the decades to come the Polish, Lithuanian commonwealth would be subject to a slow, lingering, and some would say humiliating dismemberment. About commonwealth patrons and listeners, I'm getting ahead of myself because after his coronation, which took place in Warsaw in November 1764, Stanislaus Augustus had

a kingdom to run, and in his first few months on the throne, he appeared to be doing a fairly reasonable job. He took steps to introduce the Commonwealth's first diplomatic service, establishing consuls in Russia, the Ottoman Empire and most European capitals.

He established the order of the Knights of St Stanislaus of Krakow, his own and Poland's patron saint, to reward Polish nobles and other services to the king.