12. VARSOVIE: The Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815)
Like many ephemeral states of the Revolutionary Era, from the Republic of
Lombardy to the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Duchy of Warsaw was a child of
war. It was conceived from the uneasy liaison between Napoleonic France and
the stateless Polish nation, and born amidst the defeats of the three partitioning
powers. Its character was marked by an inimitable mixture of revolutionary ide-
alism, nationalist enthusiasm, and naked militarism. It shared in the brief glory
of the French imperial system, and was crushed by the victorious resurgence of
the Third Coalition.^1
The Polish liaison with France could be traced back beyond Kosciuszko's
Rising to the Confederates of Bar and Le bon roi Stanislas. But after the
Revolution, there was a direct bond of common interest between the govern-
ments in Paris challenging the Ancien Regime in the West, and the principal vic-
tim of the dynastic empires in the East. From 1793, when Prussia and Austria
mounted the War of the First Coalition against France, to 1815, when the forces
of the Third Coalition were finally triumphant, the French and the Poles were
facing the same enemies. France became the main source of assistance for the
Poles, and the scene of much Polish political activity. In 1794—7, Paris was the
seat both of Jozef Wybicki's Polish Agencja (Agency) and of Franciszek
Dmochowski's rival republican Deputacja (Deputation). In December 1796, the
Agency was responsible for persuading the leaders of the Directory to form the
first auxiliary Polish Legion, which was to fight under General Jan Henryk
Dabrowski (1755-1818) in the ranks of the army of Italy. The Deputation
directed its efforts towards an underground resistance movement within
Poland, and organized the abortive expedition of Joachim Denisko, whose band
of hopefuls crossed the Dniester into Bukovina in June 1797. In the following
year, it merged into another group with similar objectives, the Society of Polish
Republicans.
Napoleon took a personal interest in the Polish Question, especially when it
promised to supply him with new recruits. His entourage included a number of
Poles, among them his Jacobin adjutant, Jozef Sutkowski (1770-98), who was
killed in the Egyptian campaign. For several years, he enjoyed the favours of a
Polish mistress, Maria Walewska (1789—1817). At Napoleon's instigation,
Dabrowski's Legion was soon joined by two more: in Italy in 1798 by a second
Polish Legion under General Jozef Zajlczek (1752—1826), and in Germany in