Stanisław Leszczyński
King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1677–1766)
Stanisław I Leszczyński (Stanisław Bogusław; 20 October 1677 – 23 February 1766), also Anglicised and Latinised as Stanislaus, was twice King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and at various times Prince of Deux-Ponts, Duke of Bar and Duke of Lorraine.
During the Great Northern War, multiple candidates had emerged after the death of John III Sobieski for the elective kingship of Poland (which also included the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as part of the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Backed by powerful neighbors in Russia and Austria, the Sejm elected Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony to succeed John III in 1697 as August II. Russia's primary antagonist in the Great Northern War, Sweden had supported Stanisław Leszczyński for the throne, and after defeating a combined army of Saxon and Polish-Lithuanian forces, deposed Augustus II the Strong and installed Leszczyński as Stanisław in 1704.
In 1709, Charles XII of Sweden, Stanisław's main supporter, suffered a defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Poltava, and was subsequently driven into exile in the Ottoman Empire. As a result, Augustus II returned to the throne, and while Charles served his exile in the Ottoman Empire, Stanisław accepted the rule of the tiny state of Palatine Zweibrücken, a small state of the Holy Roman Empire which was in personal union with Sweden and located near the region of Alsace. After Charles's death in 1719, he moved to nearby Wissembourg in Alsace. In 1725, his daughter Marie Leszczyńska married Louis XV of France.
The death of Augustus II sparked the War of the Polish Succession in 1733. As had happened on the death of John III Sobieski, foreign intrigue and influence plagued the Sejm election. Despite the presence of Russian troops in the country, the Sejm, with support of the French, elected Stanisław to succeed Augustus II the Strong, while the Russians encouraged a group of break-away nobles to hold their own election, selecting instead Augustus III of Poland, son of Augustus II, to the kingship.
The public source identifies “Stanisław Leszczyński” as king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1677–1766). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stanisław, Leszczyński and King.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q54022. VIAF identifies the subject as 22586. The Library of Congress control number is n80159803. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1677, 1766, 1697 and 1704.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stanisław Leszczyński” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.