v09_1435 - POLOGNE - ROYAUME DE POLOGNE - STANISLAS II AUGUSTE Demi-thaler 1788 Varsovie

POLAND - KINGDOM OF POLAND - STANISLAW II AUGUSTUS

(1764-1795)

Stanislas II was born in Wolczyn on January 17, 1732. He was the lover of the future Catherine II of Russia and in 1757 he was appointed Polish Ambassador to Saint Petersburg. He became king of Poland in 1764. In 1768 he had to fight against the confederation of Bar, a patriotic league which opposed the royal power and foreign powers. The confederates were defeated in 1772 which caused a division of Poland between Austria, Prussia and Russia. In what remained of Poland, Stanislaus tried to impose a hereditary monarchy. He favored the bourgeois classes which provoked opposition from the nobility which formed the Confederation of Targowica in 1792. The following year, Poland was again divided and on November 27, 1795 Stanislas II Augustus Poniatowski abdicated. He died in Saint Petersburg on February 12, 1798.