Poland's Last King and English Culture Stanislaw August Poniatowski, 1732-1798

by Butterwick, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780198207016
• ISBN10: 0198207018
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-05-14
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

The attempt by Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764-95) 'to create anew the Polish world' was one of the most audacious enterprises of reform undertaken by any enlightened monarch in the eighteenth century. None started in less promising circumstances. Politically the King was trapped between aRussian protectorate and a nobility wedded to its anarchic liberty. The beginnings of the Polish Enlightenment had yet to make more than ripples on the stagnant waters of Polish culture. Yet by 1791, Poland-Lithuania had made a huge cultural advance, and had given herself a constitution admiredacross Europe. Tragically for Poland, her neighbours then destroyed much of these achievements and partitioned the country out of existence. Stanislaw August died in exile, cursed by most of his compatriots to this day. In Poland's Last King', Richard Butterwick reassesses the achievement of Poland's last and most controversial king. He shows how Stanislaw's radical plans for reform of Poland's constitution and culture were profoundly influenced by his love of England, and examines the successes and limitations ofthe Polish Enlightenment.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xiii	(1)
A Note on Pronunciation	xiv	(1)
Glossary	xv	(3)
Abbreviations	xviii	(2)
Genealogical Table	xx	(1)
Map	xxi
Introduction	1	(14)
1 Sarmatia and England	15	(20)
2 The Enlightenment and England	35	(30)
3 The Education of an Enlightened Anglophile	65	(21)
4 The Influence of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams	86	(16)
5 Stanislaw's Visit to England in 1754	102	(22)
6 The Contacts of Stanislaw and his Circle with the English World after 1754	124	(22)
7 The English Constitution and the First Efforts to Reform the Commonwealth (1763-1768)	146	(26)
8 Stanislaw August and English Literature	172	(19)
9 Stanislaw August and English Art	191	(32)
10 Sapere Aude	223	(22)
11 `Less Showy Means': From the Confederacy of Bar to the Four Year Seym	245	(30)
12 The Influence of the English Constitution on the Constitution of 3 May 1791	275	(35)
Conclusion	310	(11)
Bibliography	321	(32)
Index	353