Editing Ignacy Potocki (section)

==Life==

===Youth===
Potocki was born in [[Radzyń Podlaski|Radzyń]] on 28 February 1750 into the influential [[magnate]] [[Potocki family]].<ref name="psb1"/> He was the son of [[Eustachy Potocki]] and [[Marianna Kątska]], brother of [[Jerzy Michał Potocki]], [[Jan Nepomucen Eryk Potocki]] and [[Stanisław Kostka Potocki]].<ref name="psb1"/>

Potocki was an alumnus of the [[Collegium Nobilium (Warsaw)|Collegium Nobilium]] in [[Warsaw]], where he was a student in the years 1761–1765.<ref name="psb1"/> From 1765 he studied theology and law in Rome, where he attended the [[Collegium Nazarenum]], up to about 1769.<ref name="psb1"/><ref name="Bauer63"/> His parents intended for him to join the ranks of clergy, but he refused to follow this path.<ref name="psb1"/><ref name=Bauer63/> After traveling through Italy and Germany, he returned to Poland around 1771.<ref name="psb1"/> On 27 December 1772 he married [[Elżbieta Lubomirska]].<ref name="psb1"/> This marriage brought him close to the political faction of [[Familia (Polish political party)|Familia]].<ref name="psb1"/> Early on, Potocki made a major impression on many of his contemporaries, being groomed as the next leader of Familia.<ref name="psb1"/> From 1772 he was invited to the King [[Stanisław II Augustus]]' [[Thursday Dinners]].<ref name="psb1"/>

===Political career===
As a member (1772–1791) of Poland's [[Commission of National Education]] (''{{Lang|pl|Komisja Edukacji Narodowej}}'') – the world's first ministry of education – he was the initiator of and presided over the [[Society for Elementary Textbooks]] (''{{Lang|pl|Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych}}'', founded in 1775).<ref name="psb1"/><ref name="Bauer64"/> He presided over the renovation of the [[Załuski's Library]] (in 1774).<ref name="psb1"/> He was involved in the development of numerous projects, such as the history curriculum.<ref name="psb2"/> In 1781 he reviewed and endorsed [[Hugo Kołłątaj]]'s work at the [[Cracow Academy]].<ref name="psb2"/> His involvement with the educational projects earned him a nickname ''bakałarz'' (holder of [[baccalarius]] degree, teacher).<ref name="psb2"/> His involvement with the educational reforms lessened only during the era of the [[Great Sejm]] (1788–1792), when he became increasingly involved with the wider reform program.<ref name="psb2"/>

[[File:Ignacy Potocki.PNG|thumb|left|Ignacy Potocki by [[Anna Rajecka]]]]
On 29 May 1773 he received [[offices in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|the office of Great Clerk (Writer) of Lithuania]], a relatively low-ranked position that was seen by some as below the magnates of the [[Potocki family]].<ref name="psb2"/> He participated in the [[Partition Sejm]] of 1773, where he sat on several commissions.<ref name="psb2"/> Seeing himself in opposition to the king, he refused a seat on the [[Permanent Council]] that he was offered in March 1774.<ref name="psb2"/> The king tried to appease him with the [[Order of Saint Stanislaus]] on 14 July that year, but that failed to bring Potocki to his side.<ref name="psb2"/> Instead, Potocki became, for the next decade and half, one of his chief political critics and opponents; in 1776 he went to Moscow to argue, unsuccessfully, for limiting the power of king and the Russian ambassador, [[Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (ambassador)|Otto Magnus von Stackelberg]].<ref name="psb3"/> Later that year, his election to the [[Sejm]] was disputed, and the king and Stackelberg managed to block his election.<ref name="psb3"/> In 1778 however, the growing rift between the king and Stackelberg allowed him to take, through political maneuvering, the chairmanship of the Permanent Council [[Marshal of the Sejm]].<ref name="psb3"/> That year he also became a Knight of the [[Order of the White Eagle (Poland)|Order of the White Eagle]].<ref name="psb3"/>

In 1779 Potocki joined the [[freemasonry]], and by 1780 he advanced to the head of a freemasonry lodge.<ref name="psb3"/> He became ''de facto'' head of the "[[Familia (Polish political party)|Familia]]", and of anti-royal opposition (succeeding its previous leader, [[Stanisław Lubomirski (1722–1782)|Stanisław Lubomirski]], upon his death in 1783).<ref name=Bauer64/> That year also saw the sudden death of his wife.<ref name="psb3"/> During a trip to Italy and France, in absentia, the influence of the Familia resulted in his appointment to the office of the [[Court Marshal of Lithuania]].<ref name="psb4"/> He continued to oppose various royal projects at the Sejms of 1784 and 1786.<ref name="psb4"/> In 1785 he lost some face for his involvement in the [[Dogrumowa affair]], in which the king was falsely accused of an instigation of a poisoning attempt.<ref name="psb4"/>

Disappointed with Russia's lack of support for any serious reforms in Poland, he shifted to favoring an alliance with the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] instead.<ref name="psb4"/> Although this resulted in the split of the anti-royalist opposition, he was seen as the leader of opposition (the [[Patriotic Party]]) when the Great Sejm begun in 1788.<ref name="psb5"/> After some initial political manevrouving, the issues of a closer relation with Prussia (that would eventually grow into the [[Polish-Prussian alliance]]) and a major reform of the government, both with which he was closely involved, begun accelerating in 1789.<ref name="psb6"/> At first supportive more of a [[republicanism|republican]] form of a government, political reality (such as royal faction victory at the elections of 1790) resulted in his acceptance of a more [[constitutional monarchy]] approach.<ref name="psb8"/><ref name="psb7"/> In 1790, through the mediation of [[Scipione Piattoli]], the king and Potocki begun drifting closer together, working on a draft document that would eventually become the 3 May 1791 constitution.<ref name="psb8"/><ref name="psb7"/> Alongside Poniatowski, Kołłątaj and Piattoli, he is seen as one of the major authors of that document.<ref name="psb9"/> He supported the quasi-coup d'état in which the constitution was passed on 3 May 1791.<ref name="psb9"/>

On 17 May 1791, he resigned his position in the Commission of National Education to take an appointment (Minister of Police) in the newly created government, the [[Guard of Laws]].<ref name="psb9"/> From March 1792 he also held the position of Minister of War.<ref name="psb9"/> During the [[War in the Defence of the Constitution]] in 1792, he went on an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to Berlin to request assistance from the Prussian government.<ref name="psb10"/> On 4 July 1792, a sudden depression made him resign his ministerial positions.<ref name="psb10"/> A vocal opponent of the [[Targowica Confederation]] and likely an author of an anonymous anti-Targowica brochure, he was specifically requested by the Russian government to not be involved in the negotiations; he also refused to join the Targowica Confederation, even after Poniatowski's accession to it.<ref name="psb11"/>

===Final years===
Following the victory of the [[Targowica Confederation]] and the [[Wiktionary:abrogation|abrogation]] of the [[May 3rd Constitution]], Potocki emigrated from the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], settling in [[Leipzig]].<ref name="psb11"/> Together with [[Tadeusz Kościuszko]], he proposed a plan for a French-Polish alliance of republics, that was however not met with much support in France.<ref name="psb11"/> He co-authored a work with [[Hugo Kołłątaj]], ''On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish Constitution of 3 May'' (''O ustanowieniu i upadku Konstytucji Polskiej 3-go Maja'', 1793).<ref name="psb11"/>

Potocki participated in preparations for the [[Kościuszko Uprising]] of 1794.<ref name="psb12"/> In early April he left Leipzig and arrived in [[Kraków]].<ref name="psb12"/> He was involved in unsuccessful diplomatic negotiations with various foreign powers, in a vain attempt to gain support for the insurgents.<ref name="psb12"/> During the Uprising he served as a member of the [[Supreme National Council]] (''{{Lang|pl|Rada Najwyższa Narodowa}}''), as a chief of its diplomatic department.<ref name="psb12"/> Upon suppression of the Uprising, instead of emigrating again, he took part in the surrender negotiations, which gained him respect in many quarters.<ref name="psb13"/> Eventually on 21 December 1794 he was imprisoned by the [[Tsarist]] Russian authorities.<ref name="psb12"/> He has lost most of his wealth following the Uprising, as most of his estates were confiscated.<ref name="psb13"/><ref name="Bauer66"/> Near the end of his life he would be troubled by his inability to pay off debts from the 1780s.<ref name="psb13"/>

Released in 1796, following the death of Catherine the Great, Potocki retired to [[Kurów]], Puławy county (central Poland).<ref name="psb13"/> There he devoted himself to historical studies, publishing several books, translations and commentaries.<ref name="psb13"/><ref name="psb14"/> He also wrote poems, but those were never published during his lifetime.<ref name="psb13"/> Historians still debate over his potential authorship of several anonymous works (primarily political brochures).<ref name="psb13"/><ref name="psb14"/> He distanced himself from activists discussing a new insurrection, but was nonetheless arrested and imprisoned by the Austrian authorities again in the years 1798–1800.<ref name="psb13"/> In 1801 he joined the [[Warsaw Scientific Society]].<ref name="psb13"/> He returned to politics shortly after much of Galicia was liberated by [[Napoleon]] and attached to the [[Duchy of Warsaw]].<ref name="psb14"/> During the negotiations with Napoleon in Dresden he contracted severe [[diarrhea]] and died on 30 August 1809.<ref name="psb14"/> He was buried in [[Wilanów]].<ref name="psb14"/>

He had no direct descendants, his only surviving daughter, Krystyna, (born 1778) died in 1800.<ref name="psb14"/> His reduced estates were inherited by a nephew, [[Aleksander Potocki]].<ref name="psb14"/>