Czartoryski

Czartoryski, a famous Polish princely family name, the most noted of the family being CZ. Adam George (1770-1861). He was born in Warsaw, and after an education in England he went home, and in 1792 took part in a campaign against the Russians. After the partition of Poland (1795) he was sent with his brother Constantine to St. Petersburg as a hostage to Catherine II. Here the Grand Duke Alexander became his friend, and in 1797 Paul I. entrusted him with an embassy to Constantinople. When Alexander became Czar in 1802 he made his friend Foreign minister, and in this capacity in 1805 Czartoryski signed the treaty between England and Russia. For some motive he took no part in Napoleon's movement in favour of Poland, and in 1814 he was with Alexander in Paris. He was not, however, without patriotic inclinations, and in 1815 he, as head of the University, upheld the students of Wilna against Russian oppression. He lived in retirement from 1821 to 1830, but in 1831 he was made supreme governor of Warsaw. He boldly told Czar Nicholas that his policy would lose him Poland, but there was no love lost between the two, and the Czar later confiscated his lands. In consequence of his dissatisfaction with the state of Russia Czartoryski came to Paris, but he was distrusted by his compatriots, and though part of his lands were confiscated in 1846, and he emancipated his serfs in 1848, the Polish colony had no real confidence in him, and he had no great influence among them. He died in Paris.