Czartoryski

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Czartoryski (Polish plural Czartoryscy) is the surname of a Lithuanian and Polish magnate family also known as the Familia. They used the Czartoryski Coat of arms and were the leading noble family of the Lithuanian - Polish Commonwealth in the 18th century.

1 History
2 Coat of Arms and Motto
3 Notable members
4 Current members
5 See also

[edit] History

Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski.

The members of the Czartoryski family, originally Ruthenian by language and Orthodox by faith, trace their lineage back to Gediminas, who was the Grand Duke of Lithuania in the 14th century. They take their name from the Volynian town of Czartorysk, which used to be their seat.

It was at the end of the 17th century that Prince Kazimierz Czartoryski (1674-1741) Duke of Klewan and Zukow, Castellan of Vilnius an intelligent and ambitious man who married Isabella Morstyn, the daughter of the Grand Treasurer of Poland, in 1693. Together they 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 of monarchs Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński. The family attained the height of its influence from the mid-18th century in the court of August III Wettin. The Czartoryski brothers gained a very powerful ally in their brother-in-law, Stanisław Poniatowski, whose son became the last king of independent Commonwealth, Stanisław August Poniatowski, near the end of the century.

The Czartoryski's Familia have seen the decline of the Commonwealth and the rise of anarchy and joined to camp which was determined to press ahead with the reforms, thus they sought the enactment of such constitutional reforms as the abolition of the liberum veto.

Although the family estate at Puławy was confiscated by Russian Empire in 1794, during the third partition of Poland, the Familia continued to wield significant cultural power for decades after, notably through the princes Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.

[edit] Coat of Arms and Motto

The Czartoryski family used the "Czartoryski" arms and their motto was: Bądź co bądź (Let it be what has to be). The coat of arms is a modification of Vytis coat - the traditional Gediminids (Gediminaiciai) coat that is now the official coat of arms of the Republic of Lithuania.