Działalność polityczna Jerzego Michała Potockiego w latach 1776–1789. Kariera przedstawiciela opozycji w dobie współrządów królewsko-ambasadorskich

Abstract

Jerzy Michał Potocki (1753 – about 1801) is known mainly as an diplomat, envoy and minister of the Polish Republic in Stockholm (1789–1795). But it is to emphasize that even before he was a well known person on the Polish political scene. The descendent of an old senatorial family which members in majority were enemies of the new king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, from the early youth was connected to the anti-royalist opposition. Excellent colligations and owed fortune were the factors which facilitated the beginnings of his political career. He went the way typical for magnates connected to opposition who were born in the fifties of the 18th century. He participated in many Seymiks where he competed with king’s protagonists. From the end of the seventies he attended in the subsequent Diets where he adopted oppositional attitude towards policy of the king and the royalist party. Thanks to help of his wealthy and well connected cousin, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, he obtained a parliament seat on the Great Diet (1788–1792) where he was bounded up with the oppositional, anti-royalist party. Thanks to the winning of the opposition in the beginnings of the Great Diet and the support of his own family he obtained a post of Polish envoy in Stockholm. It was a reason which forced Jerzy Michał Potocki to leave the Great Diet long before the end of its term.