At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Europe became a chessboard for two emperors—Napoleon Bonaparte and Alexander I. Poland, rent by the partitions, found itself at the center of this confrontation. A unique witness of the era was Countess Anna Potocka (née Tyshkevich). Her memoirs are not a dry chronicle but a lively, ironic, and penetrating view by a woman who waltzed with the conquerors of the world, played cards with them, and saw them without their ceremonial masks.
“An Enchanting Officer”: Alexander I at Wilanów.
The first emperor to appear on the pages of the memoirs is the Russian sovereign. In 1805, before the fateful Battle of Austerlitz, Alexander I visited the Potocki estate—Wilanów. The countess describes him as young, handsome, but restrained. His bearing seemed more elegant than majestic; he resembled a “charming young officer” rather than a monarch commanding millions.
Alexander was hard of hearing and spoke softly, which created an atmosphere of intimacy but impeded conversation. In discourse he was reserved, avoided political particulars, but could charm with “sublime thoughts.” Potocka notes the contrast between his liberal promises and reality. In 1815, already as the victor over Napoleon, he would return to Warsaw in uniform bearing the Polish Order of the White Eagle, dancing at balls and promising a constitution. Yet behind the mask of the “angel of peace” there lay guile, which Napoleon at Tilsit aptly characterized, calling Alexander “the most beautiful and craftiest of the Greeks.”
“The Magic Word”: Napoleon in Warsaw
Napoleon appears in a very different light. The entry of the French into Warsaw in 1806 evoked unprecedented enthusiasm. The Poles saw in him a god of war, a liberator. The countess herself, reared in circles skeptical of the “Corsican upstart,” could not resist his charisma.
The first meeting with the emperor at a ball left an indelible impression. When Talleyrand loudly proclaimed “The Emperor!,” the hall was seized by stupor. To Potocka it seemed that an aura shone about him, and “such a being, full of might, cannot die.” In conversation Napoleon was brusque, swift, and paradoxical. He could be gallant, but his gaze always remained penetrating. Potocka records the famous dialogue at the card table. When Napoleon asked what they were playing for, the audacious countess replied, “Certainly, sire, for some city, province, or kingdom!” The emperor laughed and asked what would happen if she lost. “Your Majesty would gain so much that even if I lost, it would cost you nothing to pay for me,” she retorted.
However, Potocka also perceived the other side of greatness. She describes his cold calculation in relation to Maria Walewska, whom, in the opinion of society, had been chosen for the emperor as “charming and foolish,” in order to bind him to Polish interests.
The Collapse of Hopes: 1812
The culmination of the memoirs is 1812. Enthusiastic hopes for the restoration of Poland were replaced by the horror of the retreat of the Grande Armée. Potocka describes Napoleon’s return to Warsaw after the catastrophe in Russia. He stopped incognito at the Hôtel d’Angleterre, dined in a simple green velvet cloak, but was not broken.
In a conversation with the countess’s father-in-law, Count Stanisław Potocki, Napoleon admitted his mistakes and his “excessive faith in his star,” yet his genius was already devising new plans for revanche. It was a moment of truth: the colossus wavered, and with it the dreams of an entire people collapsed.
Epilogue of Two Reigns
In comparing the two emperors, Potocka does justice to both, but her sympathies are complex. For her Napoleon is genius, elemental force, a man who made the Poles believe the impossible. She regards his fall as a tragedy of antique scale. Alexander I is hope for peace and legality, which, alas, was shattered by the despotism of his brother Konstantin Pavlovich (velikii knyaz) and by the realities of Russian politics.
The memoirs of Anna Potocka are not merely a social chronicle. They are testimony to how great history breaks and reshapes lives. As the countess herself wrote at the close of her days: “How many dimmed ambitions, ruined hopes… How many names that seemed to deserve immortality have vanished into the all-consuming abyss.” But thanks to her pen, the images of Napoleon and Alexander remain vivid, human, and contradictory.
Time: Turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 1805, 1806, 1812, 1815
Personae: Anna Potocka (Countess), Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor), Alexander I (Emperor), Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, Maria Walewska, Stanisław Potocki (Count), Konstantin Pavlovich (velikii knyaz)
Geographical names: Europe, Poland, Wilanów, Warsaw, Tilsit, Russia, Hôtel d’Angleterre
Events, processes: Partitions of Poland, Battle of Austerlitz, Restoration of Poland, the Patriotic War of 1812, the retreat of the Grande Armée, Constitution
Organizations, institutions: the Grande Armée, the Order of the White Eagle
