Czartoryski family
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| Ethnicity | Polish–Lithuanian-Ruthenian |
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| Current region | Poland |
| Place of origin | Czartorysk, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (since 1945 Ukraine) |
| Members |
Michał Czartoryski August Czartoryski Adam Czartoryski Adam Czartoryski Isabella Flemming |
| Connected families | Sieniawski, Poniatowski, House of Radziwiłł |
| Estate | Czartoryski Palace |
| motto: Bądź co bądź ("Come what may") | |
Czartoryski (feminine form: Czartoryska, plural: Czartoryscy; Ukrainian: Чарторийські, Chartoryisky; Чорторийські, Chortoryisky; Lithuanian: Čartoriskiai) is a Polish princely family of Lithuanian-Ruthenian origin, also known as the Familia. The family, which derived their kin from the Gediminids dynasty, by the mid-17th century had split into two branches, based in the Klevan Castle and the Korets Castle, respectively. They used the Czartoryski coat of arms and were a noble family of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.
The Czartoryski family is of Grand Ducal Lithuanian descent from Ruthenia. Their ancestor was the Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas's son, known after his baptismal name Constantine (c. 1330 − 1390), who became a Prince of Chortoryisk in Volhynia. One of his sons Vasyli Chortoryiski (Wasyl Czartoryski) (c. 1375 – 1416) was granted an estate in Volhynia in 1393, and his three sons John, Alexander and Michael (c. 1400 – 1489) are considered the progenitors of the family. The founding members were Ruthenian and Eastern Orthodox, and then converted to Roman Catholicism during the 16th century.
It was Michael's descendant Prince Kazimierz Czartoryski (1674–1741) Duke of Klewan and Zukow (Klevan and Zhukiv), Castellan of Vilnius who reawakened their royal ambitions at the end of the 17th century. An intelligent, well educated man, he married Isabella Morsztyn daughter of the Grand Treasurer of Poland and built "The Familia" with their four children, Michał, August, Teodor and Konstancja. The family became known and powerful under the lead of brothers Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski and August Aleksander Czartoryski in the late Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 18th century, during the reigns of monarchs Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław I Leszczyński. The family attained the height of its influence from the mid-18th century in the court of Augustus III of Poland. The Czartoryski brothers gained a very powerful ally in their brother-in-law, Stanisław Poniatowski, whose son became the last king of independent Commonwealth, Stanisław August Poniatowski, near the end of the century.
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Wikipedia