Franciszek Ksawery Branicki
Franciszek Ksawery Branicki (1730, Barwałd Górny, Poland – 1819 Biała Cerkiew, Russian Empire) was a Polish nobleman, magnate, French count, diplomat, politician, military commander, one of the leaders of the Targowica Confederation and a grand traitor who participated with the Russians in the dismemberment of his nation.
Hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki | |
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| Great Crown Hetman Field Crown Hetman | |
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| Coat of arms | Korczak |
| Born | 1730 Barwałd Górny, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Poland) |
| Died | April 1819 (aged 88–89) Biała Cerkiew, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) |
| Noble family | Branicki |
| Spouse(s) | Aleksandra von Engelhardt |
| Issue | |
| Father | Piotr Branicki |
| Mother | Melania Teresa Szembek |
He was appointed Great Crown Podstoli in 1764, Ambassador to Berlin in 1765, Master of the Hunt of the Crown in 1766–1773, Artillery General of Lithuania in 1768–1773, Ambassador to Moscow in 1771, Crown Hetman in 1773 and was Great Crown Hetman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1774 and 1794.[1] In 1774 Stanisław August Poniatowski ceded to him, as mark of his confidence and esteem, the immense estate of Bila Tserkva in the Kiev Oblast.[2] He opposed the reforms of the Great Sejm (1788–1792), and supported the Hetman Party instead.
During the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) he was sentenced by the Supreme Criminal Court, in absentia, to hang for treason, witness his decades long pro-Russian stance and anti-patriotic politics and plotting against the state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, he escaped the death penalty.
Branicki was awarded the Order of the White Eagle in December 1764. He married Aleksandra von Engelhardt, a supposed niece of Prince Potemkin, in 1781 making him the putative son-in-law of Empress Catherine of Russia.[1][3]
Biography
Franciszek Ksawery was the son of Piotr Branicki, Chorąży of Halicz, and Melania Teresa Szembek, the chatelaine of Oświęcim. He started his career as a soldier in the Seven Years' War, firstly in the Russian Imperial army and later with the French. He distinguished himself at the battle of Sarbinowo (Zorndorf) in 1758 while commanding a squadron of Russian cavalry. For his services in the French army Louis XV awarded him the title of count, however, in Poland, prior to the partitions, the title was not officially recognized by parliament. In 1765 he became a Knight of the Order of Saint Stanislaus.
He became a member of the Polish Sajm in 1762 representing the Halicz county. He inherited his father's noble titles. In 1764, Branicki was one of the Electors of Stanisław August Poniatowski who reigned as Stanisław II August. Branicki later became a member of the Military Commission of the Crown. In 1766, he gave a speech in the Sejm on behalf of Halicz county.
Branicki was a strong supporter and member of the Radom Confederation and mostly focused on how to weaken the influence of Karol Stanisław "Panie Kochanku" Radziwiłł and possibly, on how to deprive Radziwiłł of his fortune. In 1767, as a member of the Repnin Sejm of Sochaczew, he became a member of the pro-Russian delegation, which was created under the Russian envoy Nikolai Repnin in order to review the function of the government of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
As a commander, Branicki decided to side with the king and faithfully led the Royal Polish Army in the years 1768–1772 and helped to suppress the supporters of the Bar Confederation who were Polish patriots. On June 19, 1768, together with Russian troops, he captured the city of Bar in Ruthenia, which served as the Bar's headquarters.
In 1770, during the crisis in Russian-Polish relations, king Stanisław II Augustus, appointed him as his envoy to the Russian Empire, without consulting with the powerful Czartoryski family, who were normally responsible for nominating envoys, Sejm Marshals and Hetmans. On January 18, 1771 Branicki arrived in St. Petersburg, from where he warned king Stanisław that if the Russian delegation in Warsaw headed by general Kasper von Saldern could not reach agreement with the Polish Sejm, the Russian Empress would partition the country. So it came to pass.
In 1772 he went on a diplomatic mission to Paris. Between 1773 and 1775 he was a member of a newly established secret party, responsible for confiscating the assets of the Society of Jesus in the entire country. For his "services", Stanisław Augustus rewarded him in 1774 by ceding to him the immense estate that was the county of Biała Cerkiew and appointed him Crown Hetman.[4] [5] In 1776 Branicki became a member of Andrzej Mokronowski's controversial political party.
At the 1778 Sejm Branicki was appointed the adviser to the "Permanent Council's" Chief Marshal.
Later he became a member of the Great Sejm and chairman of the Military Commission of the Commonwealth. He was an implacable opponent of the reforms proposed by the Sejm in its Constitution of May 3. In league with the Russian envoys in Warsaw, he co-founded the traitorous Confederation of Targowica.[6] Branicki was included on Yakov Bulhakov's list, which included the names of people, mostly senators and deputies, on whom the Russians could rely and were keen to overthrow the latest Constitution, and possibly even the monarch himself. Throughout his career, Branicki had been one of the leaders of the pro-Russian political tendency.
As a conservative, along with Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk, Branicki tried everything to keep his former Hetman privileges. Even as a determined counter-revolutionary, he supposedly refused to sign any treaty that sanctioned the partitioning of his homeland. However, because of his sympathies and cooperation with the Russians, Branicki was considered throughout the nineteenth century as a national traitor, along with all the leaders and members of the Targowica Confederation, which was essentially a conspiracy against the state.
Branicki held several important posts in the Commonwealth, as Crown Hetman, then Great Hetman. Additionally, he was commander of the Lithuanian artillery. On August 13, 1793, he resigned from that position in order to become a general in the Russian army. The ownership of vast estates, towns and villages in Ruthenia (Polish Ukraine) made him one of the most powerful and wealthy Polish magnates. His enduring rival was Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, a zealous patriot and one of the richest men in Europe. After 1775 Branicki took up residence in Biała Cerkiew near Kiev, where he spent the last years of his life, having retired from politics and military service.[6]
Family
In 1781 already aged 51, Branicki contracted a strategic marriage with one of the leading members of the imperial court, Alexandra von Engelhardt, almost 25 years younger and, according to court gossip, the illegitimate daughter of Catherine the Great.[7] The marriage sealed the Tsarina's foothold in the Commonwealth of Two Nations, already in the process of disintegration. The new Countess Branicka, who was inordinately close to Prince Potemkin until his death, became the Chatelaine of Biała Cerkiew amidst many other possessions across Poland and in what has now become the Ukraine. Despite her extra-marital interest, the marriage was said to be harmonious. Due to her business acumen and contacts, she was able to cover her husband's colossal debts. In return, he spent even more money in creating Alexandria, an impossibly lavish summer palace and park in her honour, making it the epitome of Polish classicism. They had five surviving children:
Katarzyna Branicka
Aleksander Branicki
Władysław Grzegorz Branicki
Zofia Branicka
Elżbieta Branicka.[8]
As a memorial to their children who did not survive, the couple had a waterfall and Folly constructed in the grounds of Alexandria.
Treason and death sentence
During the Kościuszko Insurrection, the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Poland sentenced him to death by hanging, to eternal infamy and to the confiscation of all his property and titles. Because of the absence of the accused, the sentence was carried out symbolically in absentia on September 29, 1794. His portrait, painted by an anonymous artist was hung from the gallows. The portraits of Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki and Hetman Seweryn Rzewuski, who were not captured either, but were convicted for treason, were also hung the same day.
Infamy
Branicki's reputation was subsequently immortalized as a symbol of national treason by Poland's leading writers and artists, most notably by Stanisław Wyspiański. Branicki had been a brawler, but a close friend of King Stanisław II Augustus. He liked to give the impression of a great military strategist and leader – but according to historians, he hardly equalled the ability of Russian cavalry colonels, despite his supposed bravery during the Seven Years' War.[9] After that conflict he was praised by some but hated by others, especially among the Polish royal court, who considered him an enemy to be quickly eliminated. He was seen as a stubborn and obstinate man, always claiming to know best. He was also generally disliked by the Polish nobility. Branicki was described as selfish and prone to overweening pride. He was in constant rivalry with other powerful magnates such as, Karol Stanisław "Panie Kochanku" Radziwiłł.
Trivia
In 1766, as a result of a pistol duel over an Italian actress in Warsaw with the adventurer and notorious predator, Giacomo Casanova, who happened to be in Poland at that time, Branicki sustained a serious wound to his stomach. Casanova was injured in the hand and was recommended an amputation which he declined. They both survived.[10]
Representations in art
He is one of the figures immortalized in Jan Matejko's 1891 painting, Constitution of May 3, 1791.[1]
Branicki's greed, treason and baronial excesses appear in Stanisław Wyspiański's drama, The Wedding (Wesele).
References
- http://www.wilanow-palac.pl/franciszek_ksawery_branicki_ok_1730_1819_awanturnik_i_zdrajca.html
- The estate remained in the Branicki family until the Russian Revolution
- Marek Ruszczyc (1991). "Hetman się żeni" (PDF). Kamena-Kwartalnik Kresowy, no.1 (930) (in Polish): 25–28. Account of Branicki's deal with Prince Potemkin, followed by a quick trip to a spa for his "STD", then swift courtship of Alexandra Vasilyevna, the monstrous dowry and Catherine and prince Nikolai Vasilyeich Repnin's presence at the private wedding in the court chapel at St Petersburg.
- Białacerkiew in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, volume I (Aa — Dereneczna) published 1880, S. 174. (in Polish)
- Białacerkiew in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, volume XV, p. 1 (Abablewo — Januszowo) 1900, S. 122. (in Polish)
- http://www.bryk.pl/s%C5%82owniki/s%C5%82ownik_historyczny/87875-branicki_franciszek_ksawery_1730_1819_herbu_korczak.html
- Henryk Stanisław Mościcki (1936). "Branicka Aleksandra". Polish Biographical Dictionary (in Polish). 2. Kraków: Polish Academy of Learning – Skład Główny w Księgarniach Gebethner i Wolff. pp. 393–396. Reprint: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Kraków 1989, ISBN 8304032910
- Władysław Konopczyński, "Franciszek Ksawery Branicki”, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. II, Kraków: Polish Academy of Learning – Skład Główny w Księgarniach Gebethner i Wolff. 1936, p. 398.
- http://www.historycy.org/index.php?showtopic=56486
- Masters, John (1969). Casanova. London: Joseph. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-7181-0570-9.
Bibliography
In Polish:
- Historia Dyplomacji Polskiej – tom II 1572-1795, PWN, Warsaw 1981, p. 541.
- Marek Ruszczyc, Dzieje rodu i fortuny Branickich, Warsaw 1991.
- Roman Kaleta, Oświeceni i sentymentalni, Wrocław 1971.
External links
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