Józef Zajączek

of the Zajączek family Józef Zajączek was born on 1 November 1752 in Kamieniec Podolski to Antoni Zajączek and Marianna Cieszkowska, members of the Polish noble family of the Świnka. Young Zajączek probably attended a school in Zamość, and later a Jesuit school in Warsaw. At the age of sixteen he joined the Bar Confederates, and served as a secretary to Michał Wielhorski, accompanying him on his diplomatic mission to Paris, France, in 1770. Zajączek stayed in Paris for several years, and in 1773 he met one of the major leaders of the Confederacy, Casimir Pulaski. Falling under Pulaski's influence, he left Wielhorski's service, and accompanied Pulaski on his diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Empire in 1774, where he witnessed the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Kozludzha on 20 June. Returning to France later that year he wrote a hagiographic biography of Pulaski in French. In 1775 he got an officer (junior lieutenant) position in the hussar regiment of the French Army, although after several weeks he abandoned this position to return to Poland. Thanks to the support from the magnate Sapieha family he received a post of an aide-de-camp to hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki. Zajączek participated as a deputy from the Podole Voivodeship in the Sejm (parliament of the Commonwealth) session of 1784, and was a vocal member of the hetman Branicki's faction (known as the Hetmans' Party). In a similar vein he participated in the Sejm of 1786, this time as a deputy from the Kiev Voivodeship. During that time he emerged as a vocal critic of king Stanisław August Poniatowski. In late 1786 he married Aleksandra Iaura, née de Pernet. Meanwhile, he kept being promoted in ranks, reaching that of colonel in 1787. He was also not a deputy to the first half of the Four-year Sejm (1788–1792), and spent the first two years of its deliberations with his unit (2nd Front Guard Regiment, Polish: 2 regiment straży przedniej) on the Ukrainian border; in 1790, however, he was elected as a deputy once again and joined his patron Branicki in Warsaw. Soon, however, he left Branicki's camp, joining the faction of Hugo Kołłątaj, the Patriotic Party. Zajączek became involved in the works of a commission tasked with reforming the Polish military, and contributed to a new project on military exercises and officer training. He became one of the supporters of the new Constitution of 3 May 1791, and members of the Friends of the Constitution society. ==Military career==

In the Commonwealth's army Displeased with reforms in Poland that were threatening its influence there, Russia invaded Poland in May 1792, starting the Polish–Russian War of 1792. Two weeks before the war started, on 4 May Zajączek became the commander of the 3rd Front Guard Regiment (3 regiment straży przedniej). On 26 May he was given command over a reserve corps, and on 29 May he was promoted to the rank of major general. Zajączek was, however, still unpopular among the Polish troops, many of whom blamed him for the fall of Praga; due to frequent personal conflicts, Zajączek chose to remain with the French army, rather than joining the Legions themselves. ==Prince and namestnik==

Zajączek was imprisoned in the Poltava fortress until January 1814, and then remanded to Białystok. After that, in July 1814, he was returned to Warsaw. There he was assigned to the post of a deputy president of a Military Commission, reorganizing the former Napoleonic Army of the Duchy of Warsaw into a new, Russian-controlled Army of the Congress Poland. Russian tsar Alexander I, also newly crowned King of Poland, gave Zajączek on 3 December 1815 the position of the first Namestnik of Kingdom of Poland (tsar's deputized ruler of the territory, a position similar to that of a viceroy). This nomination surprised many, including Zajączek himself, who is said to have at first refused this position, but in the end accepted it after Alexander phrased his request as a direct order. Zajączek's years as a namestnik have garnered mixed reviews, both among his contemporaries, as well as among later historians. He was actively interested in economic development of Polish lands, and contributed to the industrialization and urbanization of the Kingdom's lands; he was also one of the founders of the University of Warsaw. He has been criticized, however, for being inexperienced for such a major civil leader position, too servile to the wishes of his patron, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich and he often disregarded the Constitution of the Congress Poland, which contributed to a slow but steady erosion of the country's freedoms and autonomy. Deferential towards the Russian authorities, he readily let Duke Constantine and Alexander's commissar, Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev, neither of whose positions were envisioned in the Constitution, become the de facto rulers of the Kingdom. In recognition of Zajączek's services, Aleksander I bestowed upon him the title of 'Prince of Poland' on 27 April 1818. In the spring of 1826 Zajączek fell ill, steadily becoming weaker. On 25 July that year he lost consciousness, and died in the morning of 28 July at Pałac Namiestnikowski (Viceroy's Palace), nowadays a seat of the President of Poland. His funeral lasted from 2 to 5 August. He was buried at the Church of the Holy Heart of Jesus in Opatówek, where he had a manor on the lands received from Napoleon. His heart was placed in the Bernardine Church in Warsaw, and his insides were buried at the Powązki Cemetery, also in Warsaw. Zajączek and his wife had no children; Aleksandra outlived her husband by nineteen years. ==Honours and awards==

• Commander's Cross of the Virtuti Militari (1807) • Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia, 1819) • Knight's (1803) and Commander's Cross of the Legion of Honour (France, 1804) ==Footnotes==