Czartoryski

Czartoryski (feminine form: Czartoryska, plural: Czartoryscy; Lithuanian: Čartoriskiai) is a Polish princely family of Lithuanian[1]-Ruthenian[2] origin, also known as the Familia. The family, which derived their kin from the Gediminids dynasty,[3][4] by the mid-17th century had split into two branches, based in the Klevan Castle and the Korets Castle, respectively. They used the Czartoryski coat of arms and were a noble family of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.

Czartoryski
Princely House of Poland
Current regionPoland
Place of originCzartorysk
MembersMichał Czartoryski
August Czartoryski
Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
Izabela Flemming
Connected familiesSieniawski, Poniatowski, Radziwiłł
TraditionsFamilia
Motto
Bądź co bądź

(Come what may)
Estate(s)Czartoryski Palace

The Czartoryski and the Potocki were the two most influential aristocratic families of the last decades of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795).[5]


Czartoryski family vault in Sieniawa
Kazimierz Czartoryski, founder of the "Familia"
Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski; portrait by Józef Peszka

History

The Czartoryski family is of Lithuanian descent from Ruthenia.[6] Their ancestor, a grandson of Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, became known with his baptismal name Constantine (c. 1330−1390) - he became a Prince of Chortoryisk in Volhynia.[7] One of his sons, Vasyli Chortoryiski (Ukrainian: Чарторийський; c. 1375–1416), was granted an estate in Volhynia in 1393, and his three sons John, Alexander and Michael (c. 1400–1489) are considered the progenitors of the family.[8] The founding members were culturally Ruthenian and Eastern Orthodox; they converted to Roman Catholicism and were Polonized during the 16th century.[8]

Michael's descendant Prince Kazimierz Czartoryski (1674–1741), Duke of Klewan and Zukow (Klevan and Zhukiv), Castellan of Vilnius, reawakened Czartoryski royal ambitions at the end of the 17th century. He married Isabella Morsztyn, daughter of the Grand Treasurer of Poland, and built "The Familia" with their four children, Michał, August, Teodor and Konstancja. The family became known and powerful under the lead of brothers Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski and August Aleksander Czartoryski in the late Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 18th century, during the reigns Augustus II the Strong (King of Poland, 1697-1706 and 1709-1733) and Stanisław I Leszczyński (King of Poland 1704-1709 and 1733-1736). The Czartoryski had risen to power under August Aleksander Czartoryski (1697–1782) of the Klewa line, who married Zofia Denhoffowa, the only heir to the Sieniawski family.[9]

The family attained the height of its influence from the mid-18th century in the court of King Augustus III (r. 1734–1763. The Czartoryski brothers gained a very powerful ally in their brother-in-law, Stanisław Poniatowski, whose son became the last king of the independent Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanisław August Poniatowski (r. 1764–1795).

The Czartoryski's Familia saw the decline of the Commonwealth and the rise of anarchy and joined the camp which was determined to press ahead with reforms; thus they sought the enactment of such constitutional reforms as the abolition of the liberum veto.

Although the Russian Empire confiscated the family estate at Puławy in 1794, during the third partition of Poland, the Familia continued to wield significant cultural and political influence for decades after, notably through the princes Adam Kazimierz (1734-1823), Adam Jerzy (1770-1861) and Konstanty Adam (1777-1866).

The Czartoryski family is renowned for the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków and the Hôtel Lambert in Paris.

Today, the only descendants of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski are Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski (1940- ) and his daughter Tamara Czartoryska (1978- ), who live in the United Kingdom. The descendants of Prince Konstanty Adam Czartoryski live to this day in Poland and have their representatives in the Confederation of the Polish Nobility.

Coat of arms and motto

The Czartoryski family used the Czartoryski coat of arms and the motto Bądź co bądź ("Come what may", literally 'let be, that which will be'). The family's arms were a modification of the Pogoń Litewska arms.

  • Czartoryski coat of arms used in 1785

Notable members
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski; portrait by Józef Oleszkiewicz

Notable members include:

In Poland

In Hungary

Palaces
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See also

References
  1. Bain, R. Nisbet (2013). Slavonic Europe : a political history of Poland and Russia from 1447 to 1796. Cambridge University Press. p. 382. ISBN 9781107636910.
  2. Lerski, Jerzy Jan (1996). Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 94. ISBN 0313260079.
  3. Galkus, Juozas (2009). The Vytis of Lithuania. Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Arts press. p. 42. ISBN 9789955854449.
  4. Łowmiański, Henryk (1998). Zaludnienie państwa litewskiego w wieku XVI : zaludnienie w roku 1528. Poznań: Wydawn. Poznańskie. p. 42. ISBN 9788386138371.
  5. Kowalski 2013, p. 296.
  6. Karolak M., Genealogia rodu Czartoryskich, www.mariuszkarolak.pl, Puławy 2020
  7. Tęgowski J. Który Konstanty — Olgierdowic czy Koriatowic — był przodkiem kniaziów Czartoryskich? // Europa Orientalis. — Toruń, 1996. — S. 53-59.
  8. Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki (1996). Historical dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood Publishing. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Kowalski 2013, p. 297.
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