Поляк ақсүйек Франчишек Ксаверий Браницкий: Сатқындық пен тағдыр трагедиясы

Polish nobleman

Franciszek Ksawery Branicki (1730–1819) was a Polish nobleman, magnate, French count, diplomat, politician, military commander, and one of the leaders of the Targowica Confederation. Many consider him to have been a traitor who participated with the Russians in the dismemberment of his nation.

Born into the mighty House of Branicki, he was the son Piotr Branicki, Chorąży of Halicz, Castellan of Bratslav (1708 1762) and his wife, Melania Teresa Szembek (b. 1712). He was the brother of Princess Elżbieta Sapieha.

He was appointed Great Crown Podstoli in 1764, Ambassador to Berlin in 1765, Master of the Hunt of the Crown in 1766–1773, Artillery General of Lithuania in 1768–1773, Ambassador to Moscow in 1771, Crown Hetman in 1773 and was Great Crown Hetman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1774 and 1794. In 1774, Stanisław August Poniatowski ceded to him, as mark of his confidence and esteem, the immense estate of Bila Tserkva in the Kiev Voivodeship. He opposed the reforms of the Great Sejm (1788–1792), and supported the Hetman Party instead. During the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) he was sentenced by the Supreme Criminal Court, in absentia, to hang for treason, witness his decades long pro Russian stance and anti patriotic politics and plotting against the state, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, he escaped the death penalty. Branicki was awarded the Order of the White Eagle in December 1764. He married Aleksandra von Engelhardt, member of the powerful Engelhardt family. She was supposed niece of Prince Potemkin, which made him the putative son in law of Empress Catherine of Russia.

During the Kościuszko Insurrection, the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Poland sentenced him to death by hanging, to eternal infamy and to the confiscation of all his property and titles. Because of the absence of the accused, the sentence was carried out symbolically in absentia on 29 September 1794. His portrait, painted by an anonymous artist was hung from the gallows. The portraits of Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki and Hetman Seweryn Rzewuski, who were not captured either, but were convicted for treason, were also hung the same day.

Branicki's reputation was subsequently immortalized as a symbol of national treason by Poland's leading writers and artists, most notably by Stanisław Wyspiański. Branicki had been a brawler, but a close friend of King Stanisław II Augustus. He liked to give the impression of a great military strategist and leader – but according to historians, he hardly equalled the ability of Russian cavalry colonels, despite his supposed bravery during the Seven Years' War. After that conflict he was praised by some but hated by others, especially among the Polish royal court, who considered him an enemy to be quickly eliminated. He was seen as a stubborn and obstinate man, always claiming to know best. He was also generally disliked by the Polish nobility. Branicki was described as selfish and prone to overweening pride. He was in constant rivalry with other powerful magnates such as, Karol Stanisław "Panie Kochanku" Radziwiłł.

In 1766, as a result of a pistol duel over an Italian actress in Warsaw with the adventurer and notorious predator, Giacomo Casanova, who happened to be in Poland at that time, Branicki sustained a serious wound to his stomach. Casanova was injured in the hand and was recommended an amputation which he declined. They both survived.

He is one of the figures immortalized in Jan Matejko's 1891 painting, Constitution of 3 May 1791. Branicki's greed, treason and baronial excesses appear in Stanisław Wyspiański's drama, The Wedding (Wesele).