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King Stanislaw August Poniatowski dressed in his coronation clothes, November 25, 1764.
Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732-1798) had the distinction of being the last king of Poland. Well-educated and well-travelled in his youth, he had spent a long time in England where he had observed parliamentary government. Therefore, during the first years of his reign, he managed to reform the army, replacing cavalry with infantry units and equipping them with new types of weapons. He established a mint commission, which re-organised monetary affairs, as well as municipal committees for the cities and towns to look after finances and urban development. In 1764 he initiated widespread reform of the Sejm; during the Convocational Assembly a new set of parliamentary regulations was devised which ended in-session anarchy, abolished the liberum veto principle of unanimous voting, and created treasury committees responsible for tax collection, reducing financial mismanagement and misappropriation of state revenues.
He presided over the well known May 3rd Constitution. The Constitution introduced a new division into the legislative and executive authorities, abolished the three-century-long division between Poland and Lithuania, and granted new rights to townspeople, Jews and peasants. In this manner, without violent change to its political system, Poland became a modern constitutional monarchy.
Unfortunately the king was forced to abdicate and the country was partitioned by its neighbors, Russia, Prussia and Austria before the reforms could take hold. The last King of Poland died in 1798 in St. Petersburg, where he had been interned under the Tsarina's (Catherine the Great) surveillance.
Source: http://en.poland.gov.pl/Stanislaw,August,Poniatowski,(1732-1798),1965.html
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Features
- Hand Made In Krakow
- Size 10" - 26cm tall
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