Łazienki Królewskie 1791–1795. Kronika wydarzeń politycznych i dworskich.
The Royal Łazienki 1791–1795. Chronicle of Poliical and Court Events.

Summary/Abstract: The author, following the history of the Royal Łazienki from the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May 1791 to the king’s departure from Warsaw in 1795, indicates the possibility of using a new type of sources in research into the history of this royal residence – political and diplomatic correspondence, among other things. The information contained in letters by Polish politicians and dispatches by foreign diplomats makes it possible to show Łazienki as a centre important for the court activities and space where political events took place. The year of functioning of the constitutional monarchy (under the Government Act of 1791) was a period of holding conferences at Łazienki and consolidation of political forces before the reopening of the Great Sejm session in autumn, and preparations for the sumptuously celebrated first anniversary of the constitution, which had its culmination in the laying of the cornerstone for the Temple of Divine Providence. After the Polish-Russian War of 1792, there is a noticeable absence in Łazienki of the monarch, who was forced to attend the 1793 Grodno Sejm. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) the absence of the patron and the court, the intensity of construction works carried out here is evident. In 1794, it was in Łazienki that the king, guarded by insurgents and deprived of any influence on political events, waited for meetings with the insurrection’s leader, Tadeusz Kościuszko, hoping that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth would avoid tragic consequences of the uprising.

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