European Kingdoms

Grand Duchy of Warsaw (Poland)
AD 1806 - 1814

Polish States All Modern States Central Europe Hessian States Saxon States The Rus / Old Russia

The Union of Lublin was a formal joining together of Poland, Lithuania, and Ruthenia, plus Livonia, Polotsk, and Samogitia. The union was ratified on 4 July 1569 by Sigismund II Augustus, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania. It brought to an end a period of personal union under a shared monarch and grand duke, and began the era of 'The Commonwealth', in which Poland and Lithuania fully integrated to share their resources.

A golden age between 1569 and 1700 was brought to an end by the Great Northern War and then the Polish War of Succession, both of which greatly weakened the commonwealth and left it vulnerable to the vultures circling it. Having only just reclaimed Podolia, the later part of the century found Austria pouncing, in 1770, to annexe a Polish county.

Seeing how little Poland-Lithuania was able to resist, in 1772 the 'First Partition of Poland-Lithuania' took place on 5 August. Austria, Prussia, and Russia all benefited, as they did from the second partition in 1793. The third and final partition in 1795 removed Poland and Lithuania entirely from the map of Central Europe for the next eleven years.

The success of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France in several battles against Austria, Russia, and Prussia greatly encouraged the Poles to hope that he would be their saviour in throwing off occupation and recreating an independent Polish state in Europe, or at least an autonomous state which was a vassal of France.

What they actually got was a lot less than this, as Napoleon was reluctant to create a fully-fledged state. Instead, he opted for the compromise duchy of Warsaw which was formed from territory which had formerly been occupied by a now-humbled Prussia.

The duchy was created in personal union with Saxony, reviving the eighteenth century relationship between the two countries, meaning that the king of Saxony was also grand duke of Warsaw. The captured territory of Galicia & Lodomeria continued to exist as an imperial Austrian possession (following the termination of the German empire in 1806).

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from A History of Poland from its Foundation, M Ross, from The History of the Baltic Countries, Zigmantas Kiaupa, Ain Mäesalu, Ago Pajur, & Gvido Straube (Eds, Estonia 2008), from The Campaigns of Napoleon, David Chandler (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, London, 1996), from Napoleon 1812, Nigel Nicolson (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985), from Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies, Brent Nosworthy (Constable, London, 1995), from The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier, Jakob Walter (Marc Raeff, Ed, Doubleday, 1991), from Warfare in the Age of Bonaparte, Michael Glover (Cassell History of Warfare series, Guild Publishing, 1980), and from External Link: The Napoleon Series.)

1806 - 1813

King of Saxony (1763-1827), and grand duke of Warsaw.

1806

France under Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte creates the grand duchy of Warsaw out of Prussian Polish territories, so Austria appoints military governors to oversee its own Polish satellite kingdom of Galicia & Lodomeria.

As depicted in 'The Coronation of Napoleon', by Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon was crowned king of Italy in Milan, in May 1805, virtually completing his domination of Southern Europe as far east as the Adriatic Sea

1807

Following the indecisive Battle of Eylau, Napoleon's France utterly defeats the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Friedland. The Russian army is forced to retreat in chaos from the battlefield, ending the 'Fourth Coalition' and forcing Czar Alexander to negotiate for peace.

1809

Napoleon Bonaparte continues to dominate the battlefields of Europe, and a further disastrous Austrian defeat occurs in this year, at the Battle of Wagram. One result is that western Galicia is ceded from Galicia & Lodomeria to the grand duchy of Warsaw, but previous annexations of Polish territory remain within the Austrian empire.

1813 - 1814

The grand duchy is occupied in March 1813 by Russia while the allies continue to push the French army ever further westwards. The Battle of Leipzig in Saxony in October of the same year frees Germany from French influence, setting up a climax to the war in 1814.

French grenadiers of the line defend against an attack by Prussian infantry in the three-day Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, dubbed the 'Battle of the Nations' due to the number of states involved, in this 1914 painting by Richard Knötel

The 'Congress of Poland' is formed by the victorious Russians at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and Polish territory is effectively re-partitioned between them and their allies.