The Duchy of Warsaw
The Treaty of Tilsit in July 1807 created the Duchy of Warsaw from Polish territories stripped from Prussia — a client state ruled by the King of Saxony, governed by the Napoleonic Code, and administered by Polish officers and officials. For Poles, who had been stateless since the final partition of 1795, it was the nearest thing to national existence they had seen in twelve years. Prince Jozef Poniatowski, nephew of the last Polish king, became the Duchy's minister of war and later a Marshal of France — the only foreigner to hold that rank — and Polish troops served with particular distinction across Napoleon's campaigns, most famously the Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard. The Duchy's population of 2.6 million grew with the addition of Galician territories after the 1809 campaign against Austria. Its existence was inseparable from Napoleon's fortunes: the Moscow campaign of 1812 consumed a disproportionate share of its manpower. After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna (1815) reorganised the territory as the 'Kingdom of Poland' under the Russian Tsar — a constitutional arrangement dissolved after the November Uprising of 1830, which returned the lands to direct Russian rule for the rest of the century.
- Year: 1807 CE
- Category: Political
