CIRCA 1800

Field Marshal Prince Jozef Antoni Poniatowski (1763-1813) was the nephew of Stanislaw II August Poniatowski (1732 –1798), the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–95). Prince Jozef was one of Napoleon's principal commanders on the Eastern front. He started as an officer in the Austrian army and was later transferred to the Polish army in 1789 at the request of his uncle. He distinguished himself against the Russians in 1792 and retired in 1795, after the Third Partition of Poland. Later named commander in chief of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 by Napoleon, Prince Jozef led a Polish corps in Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812 and during the Battle of Leipzig, where he was made a Marshal of France.