Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942),  HOW THE KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS PREACHED THE GOSPEL - 1220 to 1466

Kossak shows the German crusader knights engaged in characteristic activities: burning the village settlements of pagan Balts; and, after their fighting men have all been killed, dragging the women and children off into slavery.  This painting is one of a series illustrating German oppression of Balts and Slavs throughout the ages, satirically entitled "The Prussian Spirit."

JAGIELLONIAN DYNASTY

Jan Matejko (1838-1893),  BATTLE OF VARNA (detail) - 10 November 1444

Jan Matejko (1838-1893),  STANCZYK - July 1514

Stanczyk, the famous jester of Sigismund the Old, was renowned for his cynical humor, but Matejko shows the jester in a private moment of despair in a palace anteroom outside the royal ball being given by Queen Bona Sforza.  On the table next to the jester, we see dispatches announcing the fall of Smolensk to the Muscovites.  Alone among the denizens of Poland's royal court, only Stanczyk the jester forsees with dread the rise of Moscow and the destruction of the Commonwealth.

BATTLE OF ORSZA -  8 September 1514

Following the Muscovite capture of Smolensk in July, 1514, a Polish-Lithuanian army under the command of the Lithuanian Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski numbering around 35,000 men marched east to retake the city.  They were met by a Muscovite force of 70,000 under the command of Ivan Andreevitch Czeladin at a bend if the River Dneiper near Orsza on September 8, 1514.  The Muscovite army attacked first on the right, then on the left.  A feigned flight of Lithuanian cavalry led their pursuers into the fire of cannons hidden in the woods, precipitating panic, retreat, and the collapse of the Muscovite Army.  It was a major victory: Czeladin and several thousand of his troops were made prisoner.  Several important castles were taken in the aftermath of the battle, but the Polish-Lithuanian Army proved insufficiently large in the face of Muscovite manpower to recapture Smolensk. 

"He left no heir but Liberty."

THE ELECTORAL COMMONWEALTH

Artur Grottger (1837-1867), THE ESCAPE OF HENRY OF VALOIS FROM POLAND - 18 June 1574

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942),  KIRCHOLM -  27 September 1605

The Swedish King Charles IX laid siege to Riga 23 September 1605 with an army of 14,000 men.  The Lithuanian Hetman [Field Marshall] Karol Chodkiewicz raised 3500 men, and moved 80 kilometers in 36 hours to meet the Swedish Army.  Battle was joined at Kircholm on the 27th of September.   The Lithuanians killed 6000 Swedes, captured all eleven Swedish guns, killed two of four Swedish division commanders, and wounded King Charles IX who commanded a third.  This overwhelming victory was particularly impressive in the light of the disparity of forces.  In the Kossak painting, we see the winged hussars who played a decisive role in several stages of the battle.

THE PARTITIONS

Josef Chelmonski (1849-1914), CASIMIR PULASKI AT CZESTOCHOWA - 1769

Jan Matejko (1838-1893), REJTAN - Parliament of 1773

Kazimierz Wojniakowski (1771-1812), THE VOTE UPON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 3RD OF MAY 1791

Jan Matejko (1838-1893), THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 3RD OF MAY 1791

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), KOSCIUSZKO TAKES THE OATH AS NATIONAL LEADER,  - 24 March 1794

Kosciuzko taking office as Commander-in-Chief of the Insurrection, swore before "God and the Innocent Passion of his son... not to use the powers entrusted to him for any personal oppression, but only... for the defense of the integrity of the country's boundaries, the restoration of the independence of the nation, and the establishment of universal freedom."

Jan Matejko (1838-1893), THE BATTLE OF RACLAWICE -4 April 1794

Jean Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine (1745-1830), BATTLE OF RACLAWICE - 4 April 1794

Aleksander Orlowski (1777-1832), KOSCIUSZKO'S ARMY FORCING A RIVER CROSSING

Jean Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine (1745-1830), BATTLE OF MACIEJOWICE -10 October 1794

Jean Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine (1745-1830) KOSCIUSZKO AT MACIEJOWICE -10 October 1794

THE NAPOLEONIC WARS

THE WAR IN SPAIN

Piotr Michalowski (1800-1855), THE CHARGE AT THE PASS OF SOMOSIERRA - 30 November 1808

January Sucholdowski (1797-1875), THE BATTLE OF SOMOSIERRA - 30 November 1808

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), THE CHARGE OF THE POLISH SQUADRON OF THE LIGHT HORSE OF THE GUARD AT SOMOSIERRA - 30 November 1808

Advancing on Madrid via the pass of Somosierra through the Guadarrama Mountains, Napoleon and the French Army encountered a Spanish force of 12,000 regulars and militia (division strength) and sixteen artillery pieces blocking the summit of the pass.   Napoleon first attempted to clear the pass using French infantry, but by late morning all efforts to take the crucial position had been in vain.  Napoleon lost his temper, when one of Berthier's aides-de-camp reported that a quick result was impossible.  The Emperor turned to single squadron of Polish Light Horse, serving as his personal escort, the Third Squadron (consisting of the 3rd and 7th companies) of the Polish Light Horse of the Imperial Guard, and ordered them to take the pass.  The squadron under the command of Squadron Chief Jan Kozieltulski, numbering somewhere between 125 and 150 men, cried "Vive L'Empereur!" and charged four abreast up the narrow 1500 meter high pass directly into the face of an entire division and the mouths of sixteen cannons.   The Polish Squadron lost 81 men, and three of its seven officers were killed outright, and the other four seriously wounded (one of those died later), but the charge was delivered home, scattering the Spanish infantry and driving their artillerymen from all four batteries.  The  Polish charge at the Pass of Somosierra was undoubtedly one of most extraordinary feats of cavalry in the history of war. 

January Sucholdowski (1797-1875), THE STORMING OF THE WALLS OF SARAGOSSA - 16 January 1809

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN  - 1812

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), PRINCE JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI IN 1812

January Sucholdowski (1797-1875), THE CROSSING OF THE BERESINA -25-28 November 1812

THE CAMPAIGN IN GERMANY - 1813

January Sucholdowski (1797-1875), DEATH OF PRINCE JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI -October 16, 1813

Prince Joseph Poniatowski (1763-1813) was the nephew of the last King of Poland, Stanislaw-Augustus Poniatowski. 

General Roman Soltyk wrote of him: "Poniatowski was one of the most handsome men of his time.  His skill in military exercises was  astonishing.  He distinguished himself equally by his courage and by his presence of mind in danger.  Full of enthusiasm and animated by a noble ambition, no obstacle was capable of stopping him.  His heart was excellent and in perfect harmony with his straightforwardness and the purity of his principles.  One can say he had his faults and they found their sources in excess as did his qualities.  He was always courageous to the point of being reckless, enthusiastic to the point of rapture, generous to the point of profligacy.  He was like a knight of ancient times.  If he had been born two centuries earlier, perhaps he would have been better understood and better appreciated than in the present, where a calculated cold and guilty egotism tears the soul and crushes the spirit of heroism.  Happily, Poniatowski appeared in a country where the influence of the time was less felt.  In Poland, he was looked upon as a hero."

Following the defeat of Prussia by France in 1806, Poniatowski was appointed to command the 1st Polish Legion in French service.  He became Minister of War for the Duchy of Warsaw in 1808.  He defeated Archduke Ferdinand in 1809, and captured Cracow in July.  In 1812, he commanded the Poles and Saxons comprising the Vth Corps of the Grande Armee in the invasion of Russia.  He fought at Smolensk and commanded the right wing at Borodino.  He was wounded at the crossing of the Beresina in the retreat from Moscow.  In 1813, he commanded the VIIIth Corps, and was wounded by a lance thrust shortly before Leipzig.  On October 16, he received the baton of a Marshall of France, and fought bravely in the "Battle of the Nations," being wounded four times.  Surrounded and cut off, while covering the retreat of the French forces, rather than surrender, he attempted to swim the River Elster with his horse, and was drowned in the attempt. 

THE NOVEMBER INSURRECTION

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), THE FIGHT AT THE BELVEDERE PALACE - November 29, 1830

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), A NOVEMBER NIGHT - November 29, 1830

The succession in 1825 to the throne of the Congress Kingdom of Poland of the autocratic Nicholas I, who made clear his contempt for constitutional government, led inevitably to revolt.   The reactionary order imposed the Congress of Vienna was tested all over Europe in 1830.  Greek independence was recognized by Britain.  In July, the Bourbon monarchy fell in France.  In August, the House of Orange was expelled, and Belgium declared its independence.  Fears that the Tsar might use the Polish Army to suppress the revolutions in France and Belgium led to revolution in Poland.  In two different portraits of the outbreak of the revolt, Kossak illustrates Polish cadets and Warsaw civilians in combat with Russian cuirrasseurs in the attack on the Belvedere Palace, the Polish equivalent of the White House, then the residence of Grand Duke Constantine, the Russian Governor General.   The statue of King Jan Sobieski appears to be leading the Polish assault.  This was the opening battle of the November Insurrection of 1830-1831. 

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), COUNTESS EMILIJA PLATER IN COMBAT - 1831
 

And our commander, though in soldier s uniform,
Was she not the maid the fairest of face?
The fairest of form?  Ah, she was the fairest:
Hero maiden, Lithuania s daughter,
Leader of the Insurrection - Emilia Plater!

--Adam Mickiewicz

Emilija Plater (1806-1831), countess and descendant of an ancient German family long settled in Lithuania, in 1831 organized an insurrectionary unit from the local inhabitants of her neighborhood of Dusiaty  [Dusetos].  With 60 mounted noblemen, 280 mounted riflemen, and several hundred peasants armed with scythes, Plater defeated Russian forces in several skimishes and captured the town of Jeziorossy [Zarasai].  She was repulsed by Russian forces as she advanced attempting to seize Dyneburg [Daugavpils, Dunaburg].  She proceeded to join another unit in the successful capture of Wilkomierz [Ukmerge].  She then participated in an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the Russian garrison from Vilnius.  Soon thereafter, Her unit was incorporated into the regular Polish forces under Generals Gielgud and Chlapowski.  She fought in the battle of Kaunas, in which she was nearly captured.  On the retreat from Kaunas, her regiment was surprised and defeated near Szawlany [Siaulenai].  When the regular Polish forces crossed the border into Prussia, and laid down their arms, Emilja Plater refused to surrender, and tried to reach the fighting continuing in Poland.  She fell ill, and died at Justinawa manor near Kopciowo [Kapciamiestis] December 23, 1831.     

 

Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942), SOWINSKI AT THE REDOUBT OF WOLA - September 8, 1831

On September 6, 1832, Russian forces launched the final assault on the outnumbered Polish defenders of Warsaw.  Fighting went on for two days.  General Jan Sowinski (1777-1831), a veteran of the Prussian and Napoleonic Armies who had lost a leg in Russia in 1812, commanded the key position of Redoubt 54 and the churchyard of Wola.  When the Russians finally succeeded in capturing the stronghold, no one was left alive and General Sowinski's dead body was found still standing erect, propped upon its wooden leg, leaning on a cannon.  

Charles Michel Guilbert d'Anelle (1820-1889), VARSOVIE. PISODE DE 1831

As Warsaw falls to Russian troops, a dying Polish soldier writes "Jeszcze Polska nie zginela ("Poland is Not Yet Dead!" -- the title of Dabrowski's Mazurka, the Insurrectionary Anthem) on a nearby wall in his own blood.