Czartoryski, Adam Jerzy (1770-1861)

Polish statesman and general. The most famous member of the Czartoryski family, he campaigned for the restoration of an independent Polish state. In 1830 he headed the Polish November Insurrection, but on its suppression by Russia the following year, he went into exile in Paris.

Having lost his family estate in the 1795 partition of Poland, he became a friend and advisor of the future Tsar Alexander I, went to Russia and was appointed Russian minister of foreign affairs 1804-1806. As Polish spokesperson at the Congress of Vienna 1815, he negotiated the creation of a kingdom of Poland with Alexander as king. He retired from public life in 1816. He was chosen to lead the provisional Polish government in the 1830 revolution, and was subsequently elected president of the national government in 1831. While in Paris, he was acknowledged as the Polish king in exile.