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Stanislas II Biography

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STANISLAS II AUGUSTUS (1732-98). The last King of independent Poland (1764-95). He was the son of Count Stanislas Poniatowski (q.v.) and was born at Wolczyn. In 1752 he was elected to the Diet and afterward was sent as a representative to the Russian court. There he gained the favor of the future Catharine II, who, after the death of Augustus III of Poland (1763), successfully exerted her influence to bring about the election of Stanislas to the throne in September, 1764. Although he was very well educated and was a fine specimen physically he lacked force of character, and the anarchic condition of the country in his reign brought spoliation by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. On the third and final partition of the Kingdom, in 1795, he laid down his crown.

The New International Encyclopaedia Vol. XXI. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 440.