Stanisław August Poniatowski had the distinction of being the last king of Poland. It was an ungrateful task; Poland was in a constant state of unrest due to a power struggle between the Potocki and Czartoryski houses, the influence of the Russian Tsarina Catherine II, and disagreements among the nobility. Significant reform was badly needed at home, yet this was practically impossible because of objections on the part of the majority of the interested parties, especially the Tsarina, who feared losing her power to interfere in Poland's affairs. In these circumstances, the 1764 election to the throne of the young Poniatowski from Lithuania, a relative of the House of Czartoryski, who had served as a representative of the Polish government in St. Petersburg, seemed to guarantee the maintenance of the status quo.
However, Poniatowski would not agree to play the role of a marionette in the hands of the Tsarina as well as of Michał and August Czartoryski. Well-educated and well-travelled in his youth, he had spent a long time in England where he had observed parliamentary government. Therefore, during the first years of his reign, he managed to reform the army, replacing cavalry with infantry units and equipping them with new types of weapons. He established a mint commission, which re-organised monetary affairs, as well as municipal committees for the cities and towns to look after finances and urban development. In 1764 he initiated widespread reform of the Sejm; during the Convocational Assembly a new set of parliamentary regulations was devised which ended in-session anarchy, abolished the liberum veto principle of unanimous voting, and created treasury committees responsible for tax collection, reducing financial mismanagement and misappropriation of state revenues.
Stanisław August did not manage to carry out the other reforms. With the changes he introduced he had angered both the noble estate and Catherine II, who, alamrmed at the Polish reforms, decided to send Repnin as her new ambassador to Poland. From that moment on, Poniatowski's every step was scrutinised, and the Tsarina was duly informed about every action the king made. In addition, on the initiative of Repnin, who observed the animosity of the Polish nobility towards their ruler, a confederacy against the monarch and his reforms was established during the Sejm of 1767-1768. A set of 'cardinal laws' was passed to guarantee the nobles their privileges, and the Confederacy of Bar, an military association of opposition nobles and gentry created in 1768-1772 to protect these liberties; it was directed against the King as well as against Russia.
The internal situation, constant squabbles and quarrels among the nobility, coupled with their conservative attitude to prospects of change, led to the First Partition in 1772. A large part of Poland's trerritory was annexed by its neighbours, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, on the grounds of a treaty signed on 5 August in St. Petersburg. The pretext the partitioning powers gave for their move was the complete disintegration of the Polish state and general anarchy. To legitimise this act, the powers demanded that the Polish Sejm assemble to officially ratify their resolutions. The Sejm, led by Adam Poniński, a supporter of Catherine II, passed the resolution, thus giving up Polish territories to foreign rule.
Stanisław August Poniatowski became a puppet dependent on the Permanent Council introduced by the partitioning powers. Nonetheless, he did not stay his efforts to regain independence, using every opportunity available. Such was the case in 1791 when the partitioning powers were preoccupied with their internal matters (Russia was at war with Turkey, and Austria and Prussia were fighting each other) and the Four-Year Sejm managed to pass reforms of the army, treasury and the executive power, all significant for the country. A very important statute was passed as well: the 3rd of May Constitution. The Constitution introduced a new division into the legislative and executive authorities, abolished the three-century-long division between Poland and Lithuania, and granted new rights to townspeople, Jews and peasants. In this manner, without violent change to its political system, Poland became a modern constitutional monarchy.
But even such an attempt to restore Poland's sovereignty did not succeed. The treason of some magnates and the creation, in 1792, of the Confederacy of Targowica, allied with Russia, brought about an intervention by the Russian army and, in January 1793, the Second Partition of Poland. Stanisław August was removed from power in 1794 and in 1795 he was moved to Grodno, where he abdicated a year later.
The last King of Poland died in 1798 in St. Petersburg, where he had been interned under the Tsarina's surveillance.
