Józef Poniatowski
Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski was a Polish general, minister of war and army chief, who became a Marshal of the French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.
A nephew of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanisław II August, Poniatowski began his military career in 1780 in the Austrian army, where he attained the rank of colonel. In 1789, after leaving Austrian service, he joined the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army at the request of his uncle. Poniatowski, now in the rank of major general and commander of the Royal Guards, took part in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, leading the crown forces at the victorious Battle of Zieleńce. After the king's support for the Targowica Confederation of 1792, Poniatowski felt compelled to resign. In 1794 he participated in the Kościuszko Uprising and took charge of defending Warsaw - for which the Russian authorities subsequently exiled him until 1798.
In 1807, after Napoleon Bonaparte established the Duchy of Warsaw, Józef Poniatowski was appointed the minister of war. He commanded a 16,000-strong army during the Austro-Polish War and fought a larger Austrian force in the Battle of Raszyn. There followed a Polish advance into the territory of Galicia. The conflict ended with a Polish victory, which allowed the Duchy to recover some of the lands lost in the Partitions of Poland.
A staunch ally and supporter of Emperor Napoleon I of France, Poniatowski voluntarily took part in the French invasion of Russia of 1812. Injuries received during the fighting for Moscow eventually forced his return to Warsaw, where he worked on the reconstruction of the Polish forces intended to fight in Germany. Covering the retreat of the French army after Napoleon lost the "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig, Poniatowski was badly wounded and while trying to escape, he drowned in the Elster river.
Early Austrian years and war with the Ottomans
Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski was born in Vienna, Austria in the Palais Kinsky He was baptized in Vienna's Schottenkirche.He was the son of Andrzej Poniatowski, the brother of the last king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania Stanislaus II Augustus, and a field marshal in the service of Austria. His mother was Countess Maria Theresia Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau, a court lady and a friend of Maria Theresa belonging to an old and influential Austro-Bohemian aristocratic family. His father died when Józef was ten, Stanislaus Augustus then became his guardian and the two enjoyed a close personal relationship that lasted for the rest of their lives.
Maria Theresa was the godmother of Józef's older sister, who was also named Maria Teresa, after the Empress. Józef was born and raised in Vienna, but also spent time with his mother in Prague and later with his uncle the king in Warsaw. Brought up in the "ancient regime" society, he was tutored in French, and spoke to his mother in that language. He also learned Polish, German and later, Russian. As a child he acquired the nickname "Prince Pepi", the Czech diminutive form of Joseph.
File:Bellotto Colonel Piotr Koenigsfels.jpg|thumb|right|Colonel Königsfels Teaching Prince Poniatowski to Ride by Bernardo Bellotto, 1773
He was trained for a military career, but also learned how to play keyboard instruments and had a portable one which he carried with him later even during military campaigns. It was because of Stanislaus' influence that Poniatowski chose to consider himself a Polish citizen and he transferred to the Polish army at the age of 26. In Vienna, he represented the king at the funeral of Maria Theresa. In 1787 he travelled with Stanislaus Augustus to Kaniov and Kiev, to meet with Catherine the Great. Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantès, wife of Jean-Andoche Junot, described Poniatowski in his mid-twenties as having been:
handsome, brave, enterprising, and determined, as he himself once assured me, to undertake everything for the liberation of unhappy Poland
Having chosen a military career, Poniatowski joined the Austrian imperial army, where he was commissioned lieutenant in 1780, in 1786/1788 promoted to colonel, and, when Austria declared war against the Ottoman Empire in 1788, he became an aide-de-camp to Emperor Joseph II. Poniatowski fought in that war and distinguished himself at the storming of Šabac on 25 April 1788, where he was seriously wounded. At Šabac he also reportedly saved the life of a younger colleague, Prince Karl Philipp Schwarzenberg. Later their military paths crossed repeatedly, as friends and foes, and at the end of Poniatowski's career Schwarzenberg delivered the crushing blow at the Battle of Leipzig in which Poniatowski was killed.
Polish military service and defence of the 3 May Constitution
Summoned by his uncle, Stanislaus II Augustus, and the Sejm when the Polish Army was reorganized, Poniatowski returned to Poland. The King had made previous arrangements with the Austrian authorities for this transfer, which in the end depended on his nephew's willingness to make the move. In October 1789, together with Tadeusz Kościuszko and three others, Poniatowski received the rank of major-general, and was appointed commander of a division in Ukraine and devoted himself to rebuilding the small, and long-time neglected, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's army.This took place during the period of deliberations by the Four-Year Sejm, which ended with the proclamation of the 3 May Constitution in 1791. Poniatowski was an enthusiastic supporter of the reforms and a member of the Friends of the Constitution Association. The passage of the document was assured partially by the military forces under the Prince's command, which surrounded the Royal Castle during the final proceedings. He himself stood in the room with a group of soldiers.
On 6 May 1792 Poniatowski was appointed Lieutenant-General and commander of the Polish army in Ukraine, with the task of defending the country against the imminent Russian attack. There Prince Józef was aided by Kościuszko and Michał Wielhorski, a friend from the Austrian service. In the fighting, badly outnumbered and outgunned by the enemy, obliged constantly to retreat, but disputing every point of vantage, he turned on the pursuer whenever the Russian pressed too closely, and won several notable victories.
The Battle of Zieleńce on 18 June was the first major victorious engagement of the Polish forces since John III Sobieski. Poniatowski personally got involved in the fighting when one of the Polish columns was faltering. To celebrate the victory and commemorate the occasion, the Polish king established the Virtuti Militari order, with which he decorated Poniatowski and Kościuszko first. At the Battle of Dubienka fought by Kościuszko and his soldiers on 18 July, the line of the Southern Bug River was defended for five days against fourfold odds.
The Polish armies converged on Warsaw and prepared for a general engagement. There a courier from the capital informed the Commander in Chief that King Stanislaus had acceded to the pro-Russian Targowica Confederation and had pledged the adherence of the Polish Army to it as well. All hostilities were to be suspended.
The army remained loyal to Prince Józef and he considered staging a coup d'état option that involved kidnapping the King, but after issuing contradictory orders, he finally decided not to do so. Supposedly distressed by the political situation, at the last skirmish of the war at Markuszów on 26 July he supposedly sought his own death, but was saved. After an indignant but fruitless protest, Poniatowski and most of the other Polish generals resigned their commissions and left the army.
In a farewell gesture, Prince Józef's soldiers expressed their gratitude by having a memorial medal minted, and wrote to the Prince's mother in Prague, thanking her for having such a great son. Poniatowski left Warsaw for Vienna, from where he repeatedly challenged the Targowica leader Szczęsny Potocki to a duel. However, the Russian authorities wanted him removed away from Poland even further, and the fearful king pressured him to comply. Poniatowski left Vienna to travel in western Europe, which at the time was traumatized by the violent events of the French Revolution.
In 1792 in a letter to the King, Prince Józef expressed his opinion that in order to save the country and preserve the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth he should have already at the outset of this campaign raised the whole country, led the nobility on a horse, armed the towns and given freedom to the peasants. The Polish–Russian War was followed by the Second Partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1794 Kościuszko Uprising
Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski wrote to his nephew in the spring of 1794, urging him to return to Commonwealth and volunteer for service under his former subordinate Kościuszko, in what came to be known as the Kościuszko Uprising. Poniatowski came with Wielhorski again and reported for duty at Kościuszko's camp near Jędrzejów on 27 May. Kościuszko proposed that Prince Józef lead the insurrection in Lithuania, where he was demoting the radical and successful leader Jakub Jasiński. However, Poniatowski not wanting to be so far from his uncle who needed him, declined. He suggested instead Wielhorski, which Kościuszko approved.Poniatowski himself participated in combat in and around Warsaw; as a division commander he fought at Błonie between 7 and 10 July, and led cavalry in an anti-Prussian diversion at Marymont on 26–27 July. During the Prussian siege of the city Mokronowski was sent to Lithuania to replace the ailing Wielhorski and Poniatowski was given his post in Warsaw's defense.
Between 5 and 10 August, in a victorious and promising series of confrontations, he took the Góry Szwedzkie region from the Prussians and then lost it after a couple of weeks in a counterattack, for which, despite Kościuszko's warnings, he did not properly prepare. He was injured while trying to recover the lost ground when his horse was shot from under him. In October he led his outnumbered troops in an attack on Prussian entrenchments at the Bzura River, which, at the cost of heavy losses, tied up the Prussians and saved Dąbrowski's corps by allowing it to return to Warsaw.
During the course of the war and revolution the Prince felt alienated by the actions and influence of the radical wing led by Hugo Kołłątaj, while the military cooperation between him, Dąbrowski, and Józef Zajączek was not what it should have been, and worsened after Kościuszko's capture at Maciejowice.