Youth Potocki was born in
Radzyń on 28 February 1750 into the influential
magnate Potocki family. He was the son of Eustachy Potocki and Marianna Kątska, brother of Jerzy Michał Potocki, Jan Nepomucen Eryk Potocki and
Stanisław Kostka Potocki. Potocki was an alumnus of the
Collegium Nobilium in
Warsaw, where he was a student in the years 1761–1765. From 1765, he studied theology and law in Rome, where he attended the
Collegium Nazarenum, up to about 1769. His parents intended for him to join the ranks of clergy, but he refused to follow this path. After traveling through Italy and Germany, he returned to Poland around 1771. On 27 December 1772 he married
Elżbieta Lubomirska. This marriage brought him close to the political faction of
Familia. Early on, Potocki made a major impression on many of his contemporaries, being groomed as the next leader of Familia. From 1772 he was invited to the King
Stanisław II Augustus'
Thursday Dinners.
Political career As a member (1772–1791) of Poland's
Commission of National Education ('''') – the world's first ministry of education – he was the initiator of and presided over the
Society for Elementary Textbooks ('''', founded in 1775). He presided over the renovation of the
Załuski's Library (in 1774). He was involved in the development of numerous projects, such as the history curriculum. In 1781 he reviewed and endorsed
Hugo Kołłątaj's work at the
Cracow Academy. His involvement with the educational projects earned him a nickname
bakałarz (holder of baccalarius degree, teacher). His involvement with the educational reforms lessened only during the era of the
Great Sejm (1788–1792), when he became increasingly involved with the wider reform program. On 29 May 1773, he received
the office of Great Clerk (Writer) of Lithuania, a relatively low-ranked position that was seen by some as below the magnates of the
Potocki family. He participated in the
Partition Sejm of 1773, where he sat on several commissions. Seeing himself in opposition to the king, he refused a seat on the
Permanent Council that he was offered in March 1774. The king tried to appease him with the
Order of Saint Stanislaus on 14 July that year, but that failed to bring Potocki to his side. Instead, Potocki became, for the next decade and half, one of his chief political critics and opponents; in 1776 he went to Moscow to argue, unsuccessfully, for limiting the power of king and the Russian ambassador,
Otto Magnus von Stackelberg. Later that year, his election to the
Sejm was disputed, and the king and Stackelberg managed to block his election. In 1778 however, the growing rift between the king and Stackelberg allowed him to take, through political maneuvering, the chairmanship of the Permanent Council
Marshal of the Sejm. That year he also became a Knight of the
Order of the White Eagle. In 1779, Potocki joined the
freemasonry, and by 1780, he advanced to the head of a freemasonry lodge. He became
de facto head of the "
Familia", and of anti-royal opposition (succeeding its previous leader,
Stanisław Lubomirski, upon his death in 1783). That year also saw the sudden death of his wife. During a trip to Italy and France, in absentia, the influence of the Familia resulted in his appointment to the office of the
Court Marshal of Lithuania. He continued to oppose various royal projects at the Sejms of 1784 and 1786. In 1785, he lost some face for his involvement in the Dogrumowa affair, in which the king was falsely accused of an instigation of a poisoning attempt. Disappointed with Russia's lack of support for any serious reforms in Poland, he shifted to favoring an alliance with the
Kingdom of Prussia instead. Although this resulted in the split of the anti-royalist opposition, he was seen as the leader of opposition (the
Patriotic Party) when the Great Sejm begun in 1788. After some initial political maneuvering, the issues of a closer relation with Prussia (that would eventually grow into the
Polish-Prussian alliance) and a major reform of the government, both of which he was closely involved in, began accelerating in 1789. At first supportive, more of a
republican form of government, political reality (such as royal faction victory at the elections of 1790) resulted in his acceptance of a more
constitutional monarchy approach. In 1790, through the mediation of
Scipione Piattoli, the king and Potocki begun drifting closer together, working on a draft document that would eventually become the 3 May 1791 constitution. Alongside Poniatowski, Kołłątaj and Piattoli, he is seen as one of the major authors of that document. He supported the quasi-coup d'état in which the constitution was passed on 3 May 1791. On 17 May 1791, he resigned his position in the Commission of National Education to take an appointment (Minister of Police) in the newly created government, the
Guard of Laws. From March 1792 he also held the position of Minister of War. During the
War in the Defence of the Constitution in 1792, he went on an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to Berlin to request assistance from the Prussian government. On 4 July 1792, a sudden depression made him resign his ministerial positions. A vocal opponent of the
Targowica Confederation and likely an author of an anonymous anti-Targowica brochure, he was specifically requested by the Russian government not to be involved in the negotiations; he also refused to join the Targowica Confederation, even after Poniatowski's accession to it.
Final years Following the victory of the
Targowica Confederation and the
abrogation of the
May 3rd Constitution, Potocki emigrated from the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, settling in
Leipzig. Together with
Tadeusz Kościuszko, he proposed a plan for a French-Polish alliance of republics, that was however not met with much support in France. He co-authored a work with
Hugo Kołłątaj,
On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish Constitution of 3 May (
O ustanowieniu i upadku Konstytucji Polskiej 3-go Maja, 1793). Potocki participated in preparations for the
Kościuszko Uprising of 1794. In early April, he left Leipzig and arrived in
Kraków. He was involved in unsuccessful diplomatic negotiations with various foreign powers in a vain attempt to gain support for the insurgents. During the Uprising he served as a member of the
Supreme National Council (''''), as a chief of its diplomatic department. Upon suppression of the Uprising, instead of emigrating again, he took part in the surrender negotiations, which gained him respect in many quarters. Eventually, on 21 December 1794, he was imprisoned by the
Tsarist Russian authorities. He has lost most of his wealth following the Uprising, as most of his estates were confiscated. Near the end of his life, he would be troubled by his inability to pay off debts from the 1780s. Released in 1796, following the death of Catherine the Great, Potocki retired to
Kurów, Puławy county (central Poland). There he devoted himself to historical studies, publishing several books, translations and commentaries. He also wrote poems, but those were never published during his lifetime. Historians still debate over his potential authorship of several anonymous works (primarily political brochures). He distanced himself from activists discussing a new insurrection, but was nonetheless arrested and imprisoned by the Austrian authorities again in the years 1798–1800. In 1801 he joined the
Warsaw Scientific Society. He returned to politics shortly after much of Galicia was liberated by
Napoleon and attached to the
Duchy of Warsaw. During the negotiations with Napoleon in Dresden he contracted severe
diarrhea and died on 30 August 1809. He was buried in
Wilanów. He had no direct descendants; his only surviving daughter, Krystyna (born 1778), died in 1800. His reduced estates were inherited by a nephew, Aleksander Potocki. == Remembrance ==