Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjuzɛf anˈtɔɲi pɔɲaˈtɔfskʲi]; 7 May 1763 – 19 October 1813) was a Polish military officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
A nephew of King Stanislaus Augustus, Poniatowski began his military career in 1780 in the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor, where he attained the rank of colonel. In 1789, after leaving the Imperial Army, he joined the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army at the request of his uncle. Poniatowski, now at the rank of major general and commander of the Royal Guards, took part in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, leading the Polish army to victory at the 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 against Russia and oversaw the unsuccessful defence of Warsaw, for which Russian authorities exiled him from Poland until 1798.
In 1807, after the First French Empire established the client Duchy of Warsaw, Poniatowski was appointed the duchy's minister of war. He commanded a 16,000-strong army during the Austro-Polish War in 1809 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 of Warsaw to recover some of the lands lost in the Partitions of Poland.
A staunch ally and supporter of Napoleon, Poniatowski voluntarily took part in the French invasion of Russia in 1812. Injuries received during the invasion eventually forced his return to Warsaw, where he worked on the reconstruction of the army of the Duchy of Warsaw, which was intended to fight in the German campaign of 1813. During the Battle of Leipzig, Poniatowski was badly wounded while trying to escape and drowned in the White Elster.
Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski was born in Vienna, Austria, at 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 (born Stanisław Poniatowski), and a field marshal in the service of Austria. His mother was Countess Maria Theresia Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1740-1806), 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.
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. Because of Stanislaus' influence, Poniatowski chose to consider himself a Polish citizen and 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.