Though they were born into a special family and in special times, they loved and hated like everyone else. They were great and mean, loyal and treacherous, benevolent and small, prudent and romantic. Zofia Wojtkowska tells about one of the most important families in the history of Poland.
Anna Baron:Where did the fascination with the Czartoryski family come from? Why was this family that caught your attention?
Zofia Wojtkowska, author of the book "The Saga of the Czartoryski Family": In the history of Poland, there were several magnate families who significantly influenced our history. The Tarnowski family, the Radziwiłł family, the Lubomirski family, and the Potocki family - the first ones that come to mind. However, I have the impression that no family has left behind such a great legacy. Not only in politics, but also in culture, art and consciousness.
Besides, I was just fascinated by a few characters. For example, Izabella Lubomirska née Czartoryski, the author of the size of Łańcut, or Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, a man who did not want to be the king of Poland, but did more for her than many monarchs.
The more I read, the more I was drawn to the story of this family. So terribly strange that at times you wonder if it could have really happened. In real life, and not in a Brazilian soap opera, can a woman fall in love with her own brother, convinced that he is a stranger? Can he go mad after learning the truth? Well maybe. And such stories also appear in the pages of this book.
Which character from the Czartoryski family is the most interesting for you and why?
Izabela Czartoryska from Morsztyn. The actual founder of the Familia party and the power of the Czartoryski family. A virgin who is thoroughly European, and at the same time a great Polish patriot. A loving mother who does not hesitate to play with her children and grandchildren as pawns on the marriage chessboard.
Izabela Czartoryska from Morsztyn with her father
An educated woman, brave, forward-thinking, clever, absolutely outstanding. Sentenced to banishment together with her father (a politician and poet Jan Andrzej Morsztyn), choosing Kazimierz Czartoryski as a hunchbacked husband, she put everything on one card. She was not mistaken. Her husband never interfered with her political ambitions that led the Czartoryski family to the top of power.
Contemporary European diplomats described Izabela of Morsztyn as the genius woman she certainly was. Polish historiography not only underestimated her, but also completely forgot about her.
Read also:Family of the Czartoryski princes. The only private family in Europe with its own political history
What did you base your choice of profiles for the book on?
The first assumption, quite obvious - the heroine or hero had to be born into or marry into the Czartoryski family. The second criterion is personal performance. I wasn't interested in people who just were. This is not a monograph intended to show everyone. This is a book about interesting people. Not necessarily great. They just had to be doing something that might be of interest to the reader today. Eventually I set a time frame for myself.
I begin this story in the 15th century, when the first members of the family find their way to the chronicles. I end with the Second World War. This is the time when the Polish aristocracy loses its political importance. When the fact of being born in a specific family ceases to be of key importance. That is why I am not entering the life of the contemporary Czartoryski family. Which will probably disappoint a certain group of readers.
What moment can be considered the most breakthrough for the fate and importance of the Czartoryski family?
Definitely the time of the Saxon dynasty. It is then that the Czartoryski family grow into the most important family and party of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is then that they begin to plan and slowly implement the country's reform plan. Not only in the political dimension, but above all in the cultural and civilization dimension. If the political reforms of the family ended in failure, we owe the change in the consciousness of Poles to a large extent to them.
Today, the Czartoryski family is primarily associated with supporting art and culture, but what do you think should still be associated with their surname? What else did they contribute to the history of our nation?
The Czartoryski family were, above all, patrons of the arts. And it's good that we remember it. The xx Czartoryski Museum with works by Leonard, Rembrandt, Raphael, the castle in Łańcut, the collection of antiquities in Gołuchów, the library of Adam Kazimierz, his and his son Adam Jerzy's writings - this is a unique legacy. And there is much more to this cultural heritage . Few people know that even the Gospel book, sworn by the presidents of modern Ukraine, was commissioned by one Mrs. Czartoryska.
"Chopin's Polonaise - Ball at Hôtel Lambert"
The Czartoryski family is also a great politics. Polish and European. It is impossible not to see the activities of the Familia party, which even had its own, unfortunately not very successful king. Adam Jerzy Czartoryski is a person from the very top of the tsarist policy, then the Polish struggle for independence and the first Great Emigration.
There are also other areas in which the Czartoryski family left their mark. The art of setting up parks and gardens owes much to the legacy of Izabela Czartoryska née Fleming. Polish architecture of the partitions - to Zygmunt Czartoryski. Forestry and Arabian horse breeding, excellent to this day, to Witold Czartoryski. Could go on for a long time.
What was the biggest surprise for you during the research on the fate of this family?
The level of personal misfortune of subsequent members of this family. I realize that until the middle of the 20th century, personal happiness was not the main goal of European societies. It was not dogma as it is now. However, the level of personal tragedies affecting the next Czartoryski family is enormous . The coincidences that determine not only the fate of this family, but also the fate of the entire Republic of Poland are also amazing.
From the more mundane things, I am surprised by the complete lack of biographies or even significant articles devoted to people very important to our history. It is not the first time that I have the impression that historians and popularizers of Polish history like to go in groups. Either many authors write about a person or phenomenon, or no one is interested in it.
You can learn more about the extraordinary Familia in Zofia Wojtkowska's book "The Saga of the Czartoryski Family" which has just been published by Iskry Publishing House.
When reading "The Czartoryski Family Saga", it is impossible not to notice the significant role of women who not only dealt with the home fire, but also influenced the development of culture, art and politics. Were the Czartoryski family exceptional in this respect?
The Czartoryski family were certainly exceptional in this matter - at least in Polish conditions. I think it happened thanks to the memory of Izabela Morsztyn, mother of the family, who paved the way for other exceptional women. Her daughter - Konstancja Poniatowska (mother of King Stanisław August), her granddaughter Izabella Lubomirsk née Czartoryska and great-granddaughter Izabella Czartoryska née Fleming - are very unusual people. Just like with Iza Działyńska née Czartoryska or Maria Czartoryska née Grocholska.
Mr. Czartoryskie knew what they wanted and realized their passions in a way ahead of the times in which they lived. Of course - paying a great price for it. It is also worth noting that often the strength of the Czartoryski ladies went hand in hand with the weakness of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons, who abdicated from leadership in favor of the surrounding women. Knowing their weaknesses, they could trust women. This is a great rarity not only in times gone by.
The Czartoryski family appear in your book as a family torn between Western living standards and loyalty to Poland. Their popularity also seems to stem from being different from other noble families. Is it the result of a mismatch, or rather of going beyond its times - or at least the Polish mentality of the time?
For many years of their glory, the Czartoryski family were ahead of their time. This was the case with Iza née Morsztyn, her children:August, Fryderyk and Konstancja - the founders of the Family. Somewhere ahead, intellectually more in London and Paris than in Warsaw and Vilnius, was Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, the founder of the cadet school. His son, the great Adam Jerzy - the leader of the émigré Hotel Lambert, and his daughter Iza Działyńska were ahead of his time.
Izabela Dorota Czartoryska née Flemming was one of the most outstanding representatives of the family
This running ahead of a series of events does not exclude the validity of the second thesis - about the mismatch with the time and place in which they lived. There were Czartoryski family who did not match the expectations placed in them and those who decided to adapt at all costs and meet these expectations. One thing is for sure. Any attempt to include the Czartoryski family in some scheme will surely fail.
The book presents an interesting figure of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski - a great collector of books and a modern educator. On the one hand, he was a man of the Enlightenment, but on the other, his decision to support the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski by introducing the Tsarina's troops to Poland lingers. Unfortunately, this decision caused him a hiccup. Which member of the Czartoryski family - in your opinion - was treated most unfairly by history?
Adam Kazimierz is a man-paradox. In his life, everything happened differently and as if against expectations. Nevertheless, both his contemporaries and history treated him very gently. The same cannot be said about his wife and sister - great rivals and exceptional women.
However, I think that history treated Iza Działyńska, née Czartoryski, the worst. She simply forgot her. Iza did not fit the stereotype of a 19th-century woman so much, she stood against expectations so much that Polish historiography completely rubberized her. Her father-in-law and husband, great patriots and creators of the archives of Kórnik, remain in the memory of Wielkopolska. Her father Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and her brother Władysław, who founded the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, reign in the memory. Iza is almost nowhere to be found.
And it was Iza who was the wisest and most skillful child of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. She should carry his legacy, she should be the leader of the family. It was she who created one of the most interesting art collections and appointed the ordinance in Gołuchów to care for it. She was an outstanding mind, an exceptional humanist. Since she did not want to bear children and make a good impression, she only left a handful of malicious anecdotes. And the opinion of an "ice maid", a weirdo and the worst woman in the world.
You can learn more about the extraordinary Familia in Zofia Wojtkowska's book "The Saga of the Czartoryski Family" which has just been published by Iskry Publishing House.
Zofia Wojtkowska - historian, graduate of the University of Warsaw. For many years she worked as a political journalist (including "Wprost" and "Newsweek"). The author of the Age of the Ambassador. Stories about the life of Edward Raczyński (Iskry 2017), a book that won in 2018 in the History Competition of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the best publication on the history of Polish diplomacy. Co-author of the book Ona. Behind the scenes of the Third Polish Republic .