1-345-501 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1732-1798) was the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He came to the throne in 1764 in a coup by the powerful Czartoryski family backed by Russian troops. His reign ended after the Polish-Russian War of 1792 saw his kingdom partitioned between Russia and Prussia and he abdicated in 1795 living out the rest of his days a virtual prisoner in exile in St Petersburg.