CHRONOLOGY
1764
Election of King Stanislaus-August,
The Last King of Poland
1768
Confederacy of Bar
1772
First Partition of Poland
1789
French Revolution,
Storming of the Bastille
(14 July)
1791
Polish Constitution of 3 May
1792
Targowica Confederacy (May)
War of the Constitution.
Battles of Zielence and Dubienka
1793
Second Partition of Poland
1794
National Uprising begins in Krakow.
Battles of Raclawice and Maciejowice
1795
Third and Final Partition of Poland
1796
Napoleon Bonaparte marries
Josephine Beauharnais
and appointed commander of
the French Army of Italy
in the war against Austria
(March)
1797
General Dabrowski’s Proclamation
(30 January)
Polish Legions created in French Army
Treaty and Peace of Campo Formio
(17 October)
1798
Polish Legions under General Dabrowski
enter Rome (3 May)
Bonaparte sails for Egypt (19 May)
GLOSSARY
Babcia - Grandmother or old woman
Basia - Polish for ‘Barbara’,
can also be used for ‘old woman’
Boyar - Russian nobleman
Caisson - Two-wheeled
ammunition carriage
Caracole - Single half turn to
left or right on horseback
Drumhead - Carried out at speed
according to military regulations.
A Drumhead Court Martial
is a summary execution!
Glacis - Sloping defensive fortification
Hetman - Chief
Jacobin - Extremist French Revolutionary
political party.
‘Jacobin’ was also used
as a term of abuse
as ‘communist’ is today
Jockey - Hired thug on a horse.
The modern meaning is
obviously different
Knout - A vicious Russian whip
also used in Poland
Kolpak - Brimmed or brimless
high-crowned hats of the period
Kontusz - Horseman’s long coat
Krolik - Petty king or warlord,
also means ‘small rabbit’
Mamusia- Mummy (Mother)
Pan/Pani - Mr/Mrs
Pierogi - Polish dumplings
Pisanki - Easter Eggs
Pistolet - Pistol or gun,
also means ‘hothead’
Sto lat! - ‘May you live a
hundred years!’ (Cheers!)
Sukmana - Man’s overcoat,
part of the national costume
Szlachta - Polish nobility
Tynf - Polish coins of the time
were the tynf, grosz, and zloty
Uhlans - Hussars (cavalry)
Zoldu - Soldier’s pay
Zupan - Long, colourful garment
worn under the kontusz
NOTE ON PRONOUNCING POLISH WORDS
A full guide to the Polish names and words found in this book, their alternative spellings, and to Polish pronunciation, can be found on the author’s website www.songofthelegions.com.
Polish pronunciation is tricky. In brief, where Polish words and names are used in this book –
‘c’ is pronounced ‘ts’, so the villainous Felix Potocki’s name is pronounced ‘Pot-ots-ski’. (Fortunately most people called him Felix.)
‘sz’ is pronounced ‘sh’, so kontusz (a horseman’s coat) is ‘kont-ush’.
‘w’ is pronounced ‘v’, so Dabrowski is ‘Dabrovski’, Krakow is ‘Krak-ov’ and Lwow is ‘Lvov’, Poniatowski is ‘Poniatovski’, Sierawski is ‘Sieravski’, Twardowski is ‘Tvardovski’, and Wigilia (Christmas Eve) is ‘Vigilia’, and so on.
‘i’ is usually pronounced ‘ee’.
So Targowica and Targowican are therefore ‘Targoveetsa’ and ‘Targoveetsan’.
Lastly, ‘Kosciuszko’ deserves a note all of its own. It is pronounced ‘Kosh-choo-shko’. There are numerous towns, villages and even hills and mountains in Austrialia and the USA named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and one wonders how these are rendered in the local dialect!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
IN ENGLISH
God’s Playground, Norman Davies, Oxford University Press 2005
A Concise History of Poland (Second Edition) Lukowski and Zawadzki) Cambridge 2006
Tactics and Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon, Rory Muir, Yale University Press 2000
Memoirs of the Polish Baroque, Jan Chrysostom Pasek, translated by C.S. Leach, University of California Press 1976
Poles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars, George Nafziger, Emperor’s Press 1991
Holy Madness, Adam Zamoyski, Phoenix Press 1999
The Manuscript Found In Saragossa, translated by Ian MacLean, Penguin 1995
In the Legions of Napoleon, Heinrich von Brandt, translated by Julian North, Greenhill Books 1999
Memoirs of a Polish Lancer, Dezydery Chlapowski, translated by Tim Simmons, Emperor’s Press 1992
Old Polish Traditions, Lemnis & Vitry, Hippocrene Books 2001
Napoleon’s Mercenaries, Guy C. Dempsey, Greenhill Books 2002
Reveries on the Art of War, (De Saxe) translated by General Thomas R. Phillips, Dover Publications 2007
Poland’s Caribbean Tragedy, Jan Pachonski and Reuel K. Wilson, Columbia University Press 1986
IN ENGLISH and POLISH
Pan Tadeusz (1832) Adam Mickiewicz (translated by Kenneth R. Mackenzie) Hippocrene Books 1986
IN POLISH
Jan Pachonski, Legiony Polskie, Prawda I Legenda (Polish Legions, Truth and Legend), Volumes I – IV, (Ministry of Defence, Poland) 1969
Jan Pachonski, General Jan Henryk Dabrowski, (Ministry of Defence, Poland) 1981, Jan Pachonski, Slownik Biograficzny Oficerow Polskich (Biographical Dictionary of Polish Officers) and Korpus Oficerski Legionow Polskich (Officer Corps of the Polish Legion) 1796-1807, both published by Biblioteku Centrum Dokumentacji Czynu Niepodleglosciowego 1998
Wiersz do Legiow Polskich (Poem of the Polish Legions), Cyprian Godebski, 1805, Ossolineum
Grenadier-Filozof (Grenadier Philosopher), Cyprian Godebski (1799) Universitas Krakow 2002
BETRAYED BY OUR KING,
OUR NATION DESTROYED
WE FOUGHT ON
1798. The Republic of Poland has been conquered by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Poland’s last desperate hope is The Foreign Legion of soldiers fighting in Italy for Napoleon Bonaparte.
From the ashes of defeat, they will create a legend…
www.songofthelegions.co.uk
[1] Polish saying, roughly equivalent to ‘you might as well talk to a brick wall’ or ‘you’re wasting your breath’
[2] An unsuccessful suitor would be fed black soup by the lady’s family to signify that his proposal had been refused – see Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, the Polish national poem
[3] 17 April 1794
[4] Easter Monday in Poland is still marked by this custom of throwing water over one another.
[5] King of Poland (1576-1587) who conquered large parts of Russia
[6]sadly Pope Pius VI did do this, see for example Norman Davies God’s Playground Vol II page 156
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Song of the Legions Page 36