Czartoryski


Czartoryski is a Polish princely family of Lithuanian-Ruthenian origin, also known as the Familia. The family, which derived their kin from the Gediminids dynasty, by the mid-17th century had split into two branches, based in the Klevan Castle and the Korets Castle, respectively. They used the Czartoryski coat of arms and were a noble family of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.
The Czartoryski and the Potocki were the two most influential aristocratic families of the last decades of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
; portrait by Józef Peszka

History

The Czartoryski family is of Lithuanian descent from Ruthenia. Their ancestor, a grandson of Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, became known with his baptismal name Constantine - he became a Prince of Chortoryisk in Volhynia. One of his sons, Vasyli Chortoryiski, was granted an estate in Volhynia in 1393, and his three sons John, Alexander and Michael are considered the progenitors of the family. The founding members were culturally Ruthenian and Eastern Orthodox; they converted to Roman Catholicism and were Polonized during the 16th century.
Michael's descendant Prince Kazimierz Czartoryski, Duke of Klewan and Zukow, Castellan of Vilnius, reawakened Czartoryski royal ambitions at the end of the 17th century. He married Isabella Morsztyn, daughter of the Grand Treasurer of Poland, and built "The Familia" with their four children, Michał, August, Teodor and Konstancja. The family became known and powerful under the lead of brothers Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski and August Aleksander Czartoryski in the late Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 18th century, during the reigns Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław I Leszczyński. The Czartoryski had risen to power under August Aleksander Czartoryski of the Klewa line, who married Zofia Denhoffowa, the only heir to the Sieniawski family.
The family attained the height of its influence from the mid-18th century in the court of King Augustus III.
The Czartoryski's Familia saw the decline of the Commonwealth and the rise of anarchy and joined the camp which was determined to press ahead with reforms; thus they sought the enactment of such constitutional reforms as the abolition of the liberum veto.
Although the Russian Empire confiscated the family estate at Puławy in 1794, during the third partition of Poland, the Familia continued to wield significant cultural and political influence for decades after, notably through the princes Adam Kazimierz, Adam Jerzy and Konstanty Adam.
The Czartoryski family is renowned for the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków and the Hôtel Lambert in Paris.
Today, the only descendants of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski are Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski and his daughter Tamara Czartoryska, who live in the United Kingdom. The descendants of Prince Konstanty Adam Czartoryski live to this day in Poland and have their representatives in the Confederation of the Polish Nobility.

Coat of arms and motto

The Czartoryski family used the Czartoryski coat of arms and the motto Bądź co bądź. The family's arms were a modification of the Pogoń Litewska arms.

Notable members

Notable members include:

In Poland