200
Adam Stanisław Krasiński (1714-1800) was a
Polish noble of
Ślepowron coat of arms,
bishop of Kamieniec (1757-1798),
Great Crown Secretary (from
1752), president of the
Crown
Tribunal in 1759 and one of the leaders of
Bar Confederation (1768-1772).
Biography
He was born on 4 April 1714, as son of
Jan Krasiński and Elżbieta Teresa Sołtyk,
brother of
Michał
Hieronim Krasiński. In his early years he was a supporter of
king
Stanisław
Leszczyński during the
War of the Polish Succession
which begun in 1733.
A year later he joined the Dzików Confederation and acted as
its diplomatic emissary to Paris
.
He
attended universities in Paris, and later, in 1737, in Rome
. In
1747 he
matriculated from the
Jagiellonian University.
With
support of Andrzej
Stanisław Załuski he became canon
of Płock
and joined
the chancellery of king Augustus III of Poland. In
1751 he was Płock's delegate to the
Crown
Tribunal. Next year, in 1752, with support of
Jerzy August Mniszech he became the
Great Crown Secretary.
In 1753 he
became the canon of Gniezno
. In
1757 he became the
prelate scholasticus of Gniezno and received the
Order of the White Eagle.
In 1758 he
was the president of the Crown Tribunal and became the bishop of Kamieniec (now Kamianets-Podilskyi
).
Opponent of
Familia's reforms in 1763;
supporter of the
hetman's faction and
House of Wettin.
In 1764 his actions
interrupted the sejmik in Grudziądz
. Political opponent of Familia's King
Stanisław August
Poniatowski. Joined the
Radom
Confederation in 1767 and for a short time supported
Gabriel Podoski and
Nicholas Repnin's plans against
Poniatowski.
From 1768 to 1772 one of the leaders of the
Bar Confederation, considered by some to
be the first
Polish uprising[460116]. It was formed by
Polish nobility who opposed Russian
intervention into Polish internal politics;
Krasiński also criticized the
Holy See for
its silence on the matter of arrest of several Polish nobles during
that time, including two bishops (
Kajetan Ignaty Sołtyk and
Józef Andrzej
Załuski, by the Russians. In the Bar Confederation he became
their most important diplomat, responsible for many negotiations
and their relations with foreign powers. In October 1768 he went to
Paris where he was received by
Louis
XV of France who promised support for the confederates.
In 1769 he
advocated the assassination of King
Poniatowski, later that year he became the head of the
confederate's government in Biała
. In 1770 he went to Dresden
to gain
support from the Holy Roman
Empire; later that year he met Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
and received an offer of help from him. Also he did not
support the declaration that King Poniatowski is not the legitimate
king of Poland, he nonetheless supported
Frederick Augustus I of
Saxony as a counter-candidate. He was likely one of the
supporters or even the ring-leader of the plan to kidnap
Poniatowski, eventually carried by
Kazimierz Pułaski in 1771. That plan
nonetheless backfired, as Poniatowski not only escaped but this
action caused much controversy in Europe and resulted in loss of
much international support for the confederates.
Eventually in 1772 he
begun negotiations with the King about surrender of the
confederates; later that year he himself was kidnapped by the
Cossacks and temporarily imprisoned in
Warsaw
. He was nonetheless set free after he
pledged loyalty to the king and regained his posts in the
Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth.
After 1772, he distanced himself from political life until the
reforms of the late 1780s. In 1780, 1782, 1784 and 1786 he was the
president of the
Sejm court.
In 1787 ordered the
reconstruction of fortress in Kamieniec. During the
Great
Sejm, he was one of the most active supporter of the
Constitution of May 3, 1791,
publishing projects and papers supporting it, and eventually taking
part in the semi-coup that resulted in its declaration. Notably, he
commented on behaviour of one of the constitution opponents, Jan
Sucharzewski (who threatened to kill himself and his young son to
'spare them the fate of living under this restrictive law') saying
'shave his head and send him to the asylum'. Vocal opponent of
Targowica Confederation,
which after its victory punished him by abolishing his
diocese. Supporter of
Kościuszko Uprising; he collected
funds for the uprising. After its defeat, he left political life
again, eventually moving to the
Prussian
partition. He died in October
1800 in
Krasne.
He was also known for his support of
religious tolerance.
He has been a controversial figure for historians: unwielding
supporter of
Golden Liberty in the
age where it was impossible to uphold this principle; supporter of
the conservative and treacherous hetman's faction in the early
1760s, two decades later, leader of the Bar Confederation - seen
the first of Poland's national uprisings - and finally one of the
supporters of the May's Constitution.
References
Wikis
Facts
Map
Search
