Czartoryski

Czartoryski (chärtôrĭs`kē), Polish princely family. Although of ancient lineage, it rose to prominence only in the 17th cent., and in the 18th cent. during the reign of the Saxon kings of Poland it virtually ruled the country.

Prince Michael Czartoryski, 1697–1773, was grand chancellor of Lithuania. His brother,

Prince Augustus Czartoryski, d. 1782, was palatine of Polish Russia. Failing in their efforts to reform the Polish constitution, the brothers fell out with King Augustus III and, securing the support of Catherine II of Russia, succeeded in elevating their nephew, Stanislaus Poniatowski, to the Polish throne as Stanislaus II after Augustus's death.

Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, 1770–1861, grandson of Michael, was a hostage at the Russian court after the failure of the Polish insurrection in 1794. There he befriended the future czar, Alexander I, who after his accession appointed Czartoryski (1803) foreign minister. He resigned in 1806 but remained a close adviser of Alexander, whom he accompanied to the Congress of Vienna and from whom he obtained the Polish constitution of 1815 after Alexander was recognized as king of Poland by the congress. Opposing the later Polish policy of Alexander and Nicholas I, Czartoryski took part in the insurrection of 1830 and headed (1830–31) the provisional government. When it fell, he emigrated to Paris, where until his death he was the leader of the Polish aristocratic party. He was (1803–23) curator of the university at Vilnius and greatly improved the Polish school system.

---

Czartoryski 

a Lithuanian-Byelorussian, later polonized, princely family, that claimed to trace its origins back to Gedymin. Its most prominent members were Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and Władyslaw Czartoryski.

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Born Jan. 14, 1770, in Warsaw; died July 15, 1861, in Montfermeil, France. Polish and Russian state and political figure.

A. J. Czartoryski was one of Alexander I’s closest friends and a member of the Unofficial Committee. He became deputy foreign minister in 1802 and served as foreign minister from 1804 to 1806. He put forth a program by which all the Polish lands would be united under the rule of Alexander I. In 1816 he became a senator of the Kingdom of Poland. During the Polish Uprising of 1830–31, as head of the National Government, he obstructed the implementation of social and political reforms. After the defeat of the uprising he emigrated to Paris, where his residence, the Hotel Lambert, became a center for conservative monarchist emigres. In 1834 his adherents proclaimed him de facto king. Czartoryski developed a program for the restoration of Polish independence that relied on the support of the Western powers.

Władyslaw Czartoryski. Born July 3, 1828, in Warsaw; died June 23, 1894, in Boulognesur-Seine, France. Polish political figure. Son of A. J. Czartoryski.

W. Czartoryski succeeded his father as head of the Hotel Lambert group. On May 15, 1863, during the Polish Uprising of 1863–64, the “white” Rząd Narodowy appointed Czartoryski its chief diplomatic agent. Czartoryski opposed the alliance of the Polish people with the revolutionary forces of other peoples and recommended that the insurgents limit themselves to armed demonstrations that would bring about the military intervention of the Western powers.

REFERENCES

Memuary kniazia Adama Chartorizhskogo i ego perepiska s imperatorom Aleksandrom I, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1912–13.
Czartoryski, W. Pamietnik, 1860–1864. Warsaw, 1960.
Handelsman, M. Adam Czartoryski, vols. 1–3. Warsaw, 1948–50.
Zdrada, J. Zmierzch Czartoryskich. Warsaw, 1969.

I. S. MILLER