Adam Jerzy Chaltoreski

Born in Warsaw, Czartoryski was carefully educated at home by some famous experts, most of whom were French, and went abroad in 1786. In Gotha, Czartoryski heard of him while reading Goethe's Iphigenia at Tauris. Czartoryski also knew the noble Johann Gottfried Helder and "Little Fat Christopher Martin Wieland".

In 1789, Chartorski and his mother visited England to attend the trial of Warren Hastings. During his second overseas visit in 1793, he made many acquaintances among the British aristocrats and learned about the British Constitution.

He fought for his country in the 1794 Russo-Polish War between these visits. If he had not been arrested by the Austrian government in Brussels on his way home, he would have served under Tadeusz Kosciuszko. After the third partition of Poland, the family estate of Czartoryski was confiscated, and in May 1795 Adam and his brother Konstantin were summoned to St. Petersburg.

Later, in 1795, the brothers were ordered to serve in Russia, Adam became a cavalry officer, and Constantine became a guard infantryman. Catherine II made the young officers feel good about her by giving them back their manor and making them alternate gentlemen in early 1796.

Adam had already met Grand Duke Alexander at the ball game at Princess Gnizina's house, and the two young men developed a strong "intellectual friendship" with each other as soon as they met. At the accession of Tsar Paul I, Czartoryski was appointed Alexander's assistant, when Alexander was still a prince. In addition, Czartoryski was allowed to revisit his Polish estate for three months.

At this time, the atmosphere in the Russian court was very free. Fraternists such as Piotl Volkonsky and Nikolay Novoltsev have huge influence.

During the reign of Paul I, Czartoryski was extremely favored and had a very close relationship with the Tsar, who appointed him as envoy to the court of King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia in 1798. Upon arrival in Italy, Czartoryski discovered that Charles Emmanuel IV was a stateless monarch, so his first diplomatic mission became a pleasant trip through Italy to Naples, learning the Italian language, and carefully examining Roman monuments.

In the spring of 1801, the new Tsar Alexander I recalled his friends to St. Petersburg. Czartoryski found that the Tsar was still in the throes of remorse for his father's murder, and could do nothing but discuss religion and politics with his inner circle. Facing all the protests, Czartoryski had to respond, "There is still a lot of time." Most of the business at this time was handled by the Senate; the Jesuit Piotr Vasilievich Zavadovsky was the Minister of Education.

Tsar Alexander I appointed Czartorysky as administrator of the Vilnius Academy (April 3, 1803), allowing him to take full advantage of his progressive ideas. However, Czartorysky could not fully concentrate on education, because from 1804, as a diplomatic advisor, he had effectively controlled the whole of Russian diplomacy. His first act was to actively oppose the assassination of Louis Antoine, Duke of Angian (March 20, 1804), and to announce the immediate severance of diplomatic relations with the French revolutionary government, which was then under the leadership of the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte. On June 7, 1804, the French minister, Gabriel Marie Joseph, Count of Eduville, left St. Petersburg; on August 11, a letter dictated by Czartoryski to Alexander I was sent to the Russian minister in London to persuade Britain to form an anti-French alliance. The framework of this anti-French alliance was also established by Czartoryski. At the congress on November 6, 1804, Russia agreed to send 115,000 troops and Austria agreed to send 235,000 troops to counter Napoleon.

Finally, in April 1805, he and George III signed a military alliance agreement, and Russia and Britain formed a military alliance.

But Czartoryski's most outstanding masterpiece during his time as minister was the memorandum drawn up in 1805, which was not further dated except to indicate the year, and which was to change the political map of the whole of Europe: Austria and Prussia divided the entire German territory equally. Russia got the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus and Constantinople, and the island of Corfu. Austria got Bosnia, Wallachia, and Ragusa. Montenegro gained Mostar and the Ionian Islands and became an independent state. Austria and Prussia would agree to the independence of Poland, which was under Russian protection in the north as far as Danzig (Gdansk) and south as far as the source of the Vistula River. At the time, this plan ensured the restoration of Poland under maximum conditions. But at the same time, Austria and England reached an understanding on subsidies and the war began.

Anyone would agree that Czartoryski was the greatest contributor to the establishment of the Polish Parliamentary Kingdom, who designed the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland and would become the country's first governor-general, but he was content to become a kingship's senator and enjoy a seat in the government.

In 1817, he married Anna Shapierhanka. The marriage sparked a duel between him and his enemy Ludvik Patz.

After his father's death in 1823, Chaltorski resigned and returned to his family's family castle in Poivi; but in 1830, the November uprising brought him back into politics. As president of the Provisional Government, he convened the Sejm in 1831 on December 18, 1830, and after the end of Hlopitsky's dictatorship, he was elected chairman of the Supreme Council (Polish National Government) with a vote of 138 and 121 in support.

He resigned on September 6, 1831, after giving half of his fortune to the state in protest at the atrocities in Warsaw. Throughout the uprising, his performance was not commensurate with his prominence.

The sixty-something-year-old politician still shows his great energy. On August 23, 1831, he joined the regiment of Italian Marshal Girolamo Ramonino as a volunteer, and later formed the alliance of the three southern provinces of Kalish, Sandomerz and Krakow. After the war, he was sentenced to death when the uprising was suppressed by Russian troops, but was soon commuted to exile.

On February 25, 1832, he founded the Friends of Poland Literary Society in England.

Czartoryski emigrated to France, where he stayed at the Lambert Hotel, a political symbol of a famous Polish exile and the head of a political faction later known as the "Lambert Hotel."

He died on July 15, 1861, at his rural home in Montvermet, near the city of Meaux. He survived two sons and one daughter-Witold (1824 - 1865), Władysław (1828 - 1894) and Isabella, who married Jan Zialinsky in 1857.