The Familia had been preparing to overthrow Augustus III, but they had to contend with the probability that a Saxon party led by the Mniszech family and a group of politically incoherent but stubborn defenders of the state of anarchy, including Hetman Branicki, Franciszek Potocki and Karol Radziwiłł, would oppose this. In 1762 a coup placed the Grand Duchess Catherine on the imperial throne, and the Familia began to count on Russian support for their plans. The following year Augustus III died, and there was nothing to stop them from putting their man on the throne. But he, Prince Adam Kazimierz, preferred books to politics. Meanwhile, the Empress Catherine let it be known that she would favour her ex-lover Poniatowski as King of Poland.
Poniatowski was duly elected on 7 September 1764, taking the name of Stanisław II Augustus. With this election a new era dawned in Poland. Winds of change were already whistling through the Convocation Sejm, sitting under the marshalcy of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski. The Sejm was confederated, which meant that it could pass legislation by majority vote, and implemented a number of measures on the Familia’s programme. Majority voting was made statutory for sejmiks, a small but important step towards abolish—ing the veto. Fiscal and military commissions were established. All proposals put forward by the fiscal commission were subject to approval by the Sejm, but with no right of veto. A national customs tariff was established, and a project for municipal reform was commissioned. In addition, the King put into action several ideas of his own. In 1765 he founded the Szkoła Rycerska, literally ‘College of Chivalry’, an academy for the training of military and administrative cadres.
In the following year, Chancellor Zamoyski laid before the Sejm his project for constitutional reform which included the abolition of the veto. This elicited an immediate response from St Petersburg and Berlin, both of which threatened war if it were not withdrawn and the Confederated Sejm not immediately dissolved. There was nothing for it but to comply. Alarmed at the renewal taking place in Poland, Catherine and Frederick decided to stir up the conservative anarchist elements and muddy the political waters. They seized on the fact that in Poland (as in every other country in Europe, including Russia and Prussia) members of religious minorities did not enjoy full civic rights. Russia demanded that all the Orthodox be granted the same rights to hold office as Catholics, and Prussia demanded the same for Lutherans.
The granting of such rights lay within the spirit of the King’s and the Familia’s programme. It was their conservative opponents who were against them. Yet the way in which the matter was raised turned the whole issue on its head. Russian troops moved in to support two confederations, one of Lutherans at Toruń, and one of Orthodox at Łuck. With Russia and Prussia firmly on one side, many patriots, whether conservative or progressive, ranged themselves on the other.
This left the King and his supporters with no room for manoeuvre. In October 1767 the Sejm assembled in a capital full of Russian troops and deliberated under the eye of the Russian ambassador, who sat in the visitors’ gallery. A couple of bishops and the hetman objected strongly to the emancipation of the dissenters. They were dragged from their beds that night and packed off to Russia under military escort. The Sejm bowed to Russian demands, which included the acceptance of five ‘eternal and invariable’ principles which Catherine then solemnly vowed to protect in the name of Poland’s liberties. These principles (the free election of kings; the rule of the veto; the right to renounce allegiance to the king; the szlachta’s right exclusively to hold office and land; the landowner’s power of life and death over his peasants) were an effective barricade against further reform.
On 29 February 1768 a confederation was formed in the little town of Bar in Ukraine by the brothers Józef and Kazimierz Pułaski and Adam Krasiński, Bishop of Kamieniec. It lacked leadership of serious calibre and its programme consisted of windy phrases about the faith and national freedom. The Russians put pressure on the King to declare himself against the confederation, but he prevari—cated, not wishing to fan the flames. At this point, France intervened by sending money to the confederates and encouraging Turkey to declare war on Russia, which broke out in October 1768. The confederation was now joined by several magnates opposed to the King, including members of the Pac, Sapieha and Potocki families, and Karol Radziwiłł. In July 1770 France sent Colonel Dumouriez as military adviser to the confederates. A provisional government was set up and Dumouriez advised it to take a more decided position. People like Karol Radziwiłł needed little prompting, and in October 1770 the Confederation of Bar declared the dethronement of Stanisław Augustus.