Originally Posted by Little.Egret
Endeavour Press
The Last King of Poland by Adam Zamoyski
Biography.
One night in December 1755, Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski, the twenty-three-year-old secretary to the British Ambassador in St Petersburg, was introduced into the bedroom of the Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna. This marked the beginning of a torrid and clandestine affair which led to Stanisław being crowned King of Poland in 1764. This marked the beginning of a torrid and clandestine affair which led to Stanisław being crowned King of Poland in 1764.
The young king was a dashing figure in the finest eighteenth-century tradition. He was a perfect illustration of the contradictions of Europe's ideological and religious viewpoints: he worshipped reason but was led by the heart; professed Catholicism but believed in Providence; toyed with the occult and practised freemasonry.
Count Adam Stefan Zamoyski is a historian and a member of the ancient Zamoyski family of Polish nobility. His books include `The Forgotten Few', `Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries', and `Paderewski'.
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