Stanisław August Poniatowski

Stanisław II August ( 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Stanisław II August
Stanisław August in coronation robes, 1764
King of Poland Grand Duke of Lithuania
7 September 1764 – 25 November 1795
Coronation	25 November 1764 St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw
Predecessor	Augustus III
Successor	monarchy suppressed (Partitions of Poland)
Born	(1732-01-17)17 January 1732 Wołczyn, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died	12 February 1798(1798-02-12) (aged 66) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Burial	St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw
Issue Details...	illegitimate
Full name Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski
House	Poniatowski
Father	Stanisław Poniatowski
Mother	Konstancja Czartoryska
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

The defining crisis of his early reign was the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772) that led to the First Partition of Poland (1772). The later part of his reign saw reforms wrought by the Diet (1788–1792) and the Constitution of 3 May 1791. These reforms were overthrown by the 1792 Targowica Confederation and by the Polish–Russian War of 1792, leading directly to the Second Partition of Poland (1793), the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) and the final and Third Partition of Poland (1795), marking the end of the Commonwealth. Stripped of all meaningful power, Poniatowski abdicated in November 1795 and spent the last years of his life as a captive in Saint Petersburg's Marble Palace.

Poniatowski never married. In his youth, he had loved his cousin Elżbieta Czartoryska, but her father August Aleksander Czartoryski disapproved because he did not think him influential or rich enough. When this was no longer an issue, she was already married. His pacta conventa specified that he should marry a Polish noblewoman, although he himself always hoped to marry into some royal family.

Stanisław August Poniatowski Media

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  StanisławPoniatowski

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  Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Poniatowski's mentor, by John Giles Eccardt

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  Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeyevna, 1745, by Louis Caravaque

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  Stanisław August's 1764 election as king, depicted by Bernardo Bellotto.

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  Portrait by Marcello Bacciarelli, 1786

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  Tadeusz Rejtan's famous gesture of protest at the Partition Sejm, as depicted by Matejko

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  Constitution of 3 May 1791, by Matejko, 1891

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  The three Partitions of Poland-Lithuania: Russian (purple and red), Austrian (green), Prussian (blue)

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  Portrait by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, 1797