Free election, 1733
|
|||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
.jpg)
On February 1, 1733, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Augustus II the Strong died in Warsaw, leaving the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth without a monarch. Another royal election was necessary. This time, the Polish - Lithuanian nobility firmly opposed a foreign candidate, such as Portuguese Duke Infante Manuel, Count of Ourem, who was supported by the Russian Empire and the Habsburg Empire (see Treaty of the Three Black Eagles).
During the Convocation Sejm (June 1733), the Primate of Poland, interrex suggested that no foreign candidacy should even be considered in the election. This motion was accepted by two most powerful magnate families: the and the Czartoryski family. Furthermore, the conservative Roman Catholic nobility banned Protestants from all public offices. In the light of these events, former King Stanisław I Leszczyński emerged as the most obvious candidate. Leszczyński himself was not well-remembered in the Commonwealth, as during his reign (1704–1709) he was a puppet of the Swedish Empire, and left the Commonwealth after the Battle of Poltava. In 1725, his daughter Marie married Louis XV of France, and became Queen consort of France and Navarre. As a result of this marriage, Leszczyński’s popularity among the Polish nobility was widespread, as there were hopes that his election would elevate the international position of Poland, and end internal arguments within the Commonwealth. At the same time, courts in Vienna, St. Petersburg and Berlin opposed the pro-French Leszczyński, fearing that it would strengthen the Kingdom of France.
...
Wikipedia