Józef Pułaski

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Józef Pułaski,
portrait from the 18th century
Herb Ślepowron,
The coat of arms that Józef Pułaski used

Józef Pułaski , Herb Ślepowron (born February 17, 1704 in Zaręby-Skórki ( Mazovia ); † in February or April 20, 1769 Kopance on the Dniester ) was an important magnate , Starost von Warka , member of the Polish Parliament ( Sejm ), royal Court secretary and the father of Kazimierz Pułaski . He was best known as the co-founder and marshal of the Confederation of Bar .

Life

From 1724 Józef Pułaski was burgrave of Nur , but also one of the most sought-after lawyers at the Crown Tribunal in Piotrków Trybunalski . He connected with the Czartoryski family . In 1732 he bought the Starostei Warka . He also owned the Starostei Świdnica , Mszczonów and a crown estate in Podolia and the Ruthenian Voivodeship , as well as many villages such as the village of Piaseczno near Warsaw. He also owned a chain of inns.

Election of Leszczyński and the War of the Polish Succession

After the death of King August "the Strong" , Józef Pułaski, together with a large confederation of Polish petty nobility under the leadership of Cardinal Primate Teodor Potocki, ignored the alliance treaty of the three black eagles (treaty of the three neighboring states of Prussia, Austria and Russia on their own common candidate for king to prevent them Leszczyńskis as heir to the throne) and on September 10, 1733 elected Stanisław Leszczyński , father-in-law of the French King Louis XV. as the new Polish-Lithuanian head of state. When at the end of September 1733 troops of the Imperial Russian Army promptly appeared on the electoral field of Wola, under whose protection the much smaller Saxon party the counter-election of the Wettin August III. (Son of the late king) succeeded, he fought in the War of the Polish Succession from 1733–1738 for Leszczyński and after his escape in 1734 he joined the anti-Wettin Confederation of Dzików . This confederation had no chance from the start, but did not end the fighting until March 1736 (two months after Leszczyński's abdication). On the “Pacific Reichstag” in 1736, Pułaski disapproved of August's purchase of the royal title because it ended the interregnum of Russia, but at the price of renouncing its own design options.

On June 26, 1736 he married Marianna Zielińska and became the father of Kazimierz , Antoni and Franciszek Pułaski .

Member of several Sejms

1744 Pułaski was a member of the Sejm of Grodno, 1748 of the Sejm Boni Ordinis . Here he represented the interests of the Czartoryski family, who strove to modernize the aristocratic republic of Poland-Lithuania in the spirit of English parliamentarianism. Pułaski was also a member of the two following Sejms in 1750 and 1754 (from 1752 also as royal court secretary and financial secretary). In the free royal election in 1764 , Józef Pułaski voted as a supporter of the Czartoryski family for the former British embassy secretary Stanisław August Poniatowski . His choice fell on a person without power and with little political weight. However, the Russian tsarina had already reached an understanding with the noble family of the Czartoryski in August 1762 about their support and assured the former British embassy secretary of the succession to the throne.

Consultant of the Radom Confederation

Poniatowski, however, turned out to be not as loyal and docile as the Tsarina had hoped. After a short time he began to tackle far-reaching reforms. In order to guarantee the ability to act after the election of the new king, the Reichstag decided on December 20, 1764 to transform itself into a general confederation, which should only exist for the duration of the interregnum. This meant that future diets would be exempted from the Liberum veto (right of objection) and majority decisions (pluralis votorum) were sufficient to pass resolutions. In this way the Polish state was strengthened. Catherine II did not want to give up the advantages of the permanent blockade of political life in the aristocratic republic, the so-called "Polish anarchy", and looked for ways to prevent a functioning and reformable system. To this end, she had some pro-Russian nobles mobilized and allied them with Orthodox and Protestant dissidents who had suffered from discrimination since the Counter-Reformation . These united in March 1767 to form the Confederation of Sluzk (Orthodox) and Toruń (Protestants). As a reaction to this, Józef Pułaski organized himself with his Catholic co-religionists in June 1767 in the Confederation of Radom and became a consultant of this confederation. In all three confederations, Repnin acted in the background as the mastermind. When 50,000 Russian soldiers marched in, Pułaski stood up fearlessly against Repnin with the sentence “Niech stanie sto tysięcy, naród wolny krew przeleje” . He then angrily kicked him publicly. According to another tradition, the following arguing had broken out between Pułaski and a representative of Repnin: “Mości książę raczy się mylić. Niech stanie i 100 tysięcy, naród wolny krew przeleje! Nasze stare, for trzynastego ... wieku ... zawołanie głosi, że należy raczej dom spalić iz Bronia w REKU po lasach they poniewierać, niźli samowładnej mocy they poddać " Repnine: " Jednym kopnięciem usunę takich przeciwników " Józef Pułaski: " Strzeż się książę, aby ostatnia na what never wybiła godzina! ” Because of the threat of arrest by the Russians, Pułaski fled to Podolia and joined the opposition to Russia as a supporter of the pro-Wettin Czartoryski family.

Marshal of the Confederation of Bar

On February 29, 1768, Father Marek Jandołowicz, together with his bishop Krasiński , Józef Pułaski, Sołtyk and Greater Poland's General Starost Mniszech, founded the Bar Confederation on the fortress of Bar against the imperial Russian guardianship and the end of the golden freedom in the country. The motto of the Confederation was wiara i wolność ("Faith and Freedom"). Under the spiritual leadership of Father Marek and the military leadership of Mniszech as Curia Marshal of the Confederation, Józef Pułaski, appointed Marshal of the Confederation, together with W. Potocki , Krasiński , J.-K. Potocki , Pac and Sapieha form the troops. Four days later, on the feast day of the patron saint of knights , he had raised the troops to fight his own king. Against the will of the majority of the Royal Council , King Stanisław II August Poniatowski enforced the request of the Russian armed forces to demonstrate his devotion and unwavering loyalty to the Russian Empress Catherine II. The Imperial Russian Army marched into the Union Poland-Lithuania and received armed forces of the Royal Polish Army under the leadership of Grand Hetman Branicki in the fight against the Confederation of Bar.

Józef Pułaski died during the war of the Bar Confederation in February or April 20, 1769. The cause of death is suspected to be an epidemic or poisoning. Buried by his son Franciszek "... in the steppe, (on the Dnister near the Ottoman border, now the Moldavian border) on a burial mound near the border route to Mohyliw-Podilskyj " .

Impact and Legacy

As Marshal of the Confederation of Bar, Józef Pułaski was part of the historically most important confederation of Polish petty nobles in defense of their golden freedom in the country. Today, the Bar Confederation is considered to be the last mass movement of the Polish aristocracy and the first Polish national uprising with far-reaching consequences well into the 1980s.

literature

  • Wacław Szczygielski: Pułaski Józef (1704–1769) , [in:] Polski Słownik Biograficzny. - Wrocław - Warszawa - Kraków - Gdańsk - Łódź: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1986. - Vol. ХХIX /…, No. 12…. - pp. 380-386.
  • Antoni Lenkiewicz: Kazimierz Pułaski (1745-1779). Wydawnictwo Biuro Tłumaczeń Wrocław, 2004, p. 147. ISBN 83-88826-26-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Jaworski / Müller / Lübke: Eine kleine Geschichte Polens , p. 178 f., And Müller: Die Teilungen Poland , pp. 18-20.
  2. ↑ Cf. Hans Roos: Poland from 1668 to 1795 , in: Theodor Schieder, Fritz Wagner (Ed.): Handbuch der Europäische Geschichte . Vol. 4: Europe in the Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment , Stuttgart 1968, p. 740
  3. ^ Wacław Szczygielski: Józef Pułaski , keyword in the Polish Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 19, Issue 3, p. 386; also in: Władysław Konopczyński: Konfederacja barska , vol. 1, p. 35, Warszawa 1991
  4. ↑ St. 32, [in:] Antoni Lenkiewicz: Kazimierz Pułaski (1745-1779) . Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Biuro Tłumaczeń, 2004, p. 147, ISBN 83-88826-26-3
  5. ↑ Sołtyks words
  6. ↑ Władysław Konopczyński: Konfederacja Barska , t. I, Warszawa 1991, p. 46
  7. ↑ On the other bank of the Dniester, where further away the field of the battle of Cecora is, the tumulus of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewskis - Mohyliw-Podilskyj in the Geographical Dictionary of the Polish Kingdom, Vol. VI (Malczyce - Netreba) from 1885
  8. ↑ St. 59, [in:] Antoni Lenkiewicz: Kazimierz Pułaski (1745-1779) . Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Biuro Tłumaczeń, 2004, p. 147. ISBN 83-88826-26-3
  9. ↑ Linking the Confederation of Bar (interview) with Dorota Dukwicz, Muzeum Historii Polski (pol.) Last accessed on June 20, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Pułaski, Józef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Starost von Warka, co-founder of the Confederation of Bar
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1704
PLACE OF BIRTH Kopance am Dniestr
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1769
Place of death Kopance am Dniestr