The genesis of the first election of Stanisław Leszczyński in 1704 in Voltaire’s view

Abstract

Voltaire devoted several passages from his Histoire de Charles XII (1731) to the history of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania in the early 18th century. A comparative analysis of different editions of this biography of the king of Sweden – with a great influence not only on public opinion, but especially on historiography – as well as passages taken from marginal notes left by the philosopher at pages of books in his library(famous collection preserved since 1779 in Saint Petersburg) and finally insight in research conducted by Polish historians allowed us to investigate reasons and circumstances of theelection of Stanislas Leszczyński in 1704 to the throne of Poland. Our analysis allowed us to confirm a connection between a meeting of Charles XII and Leszczyński in Heilsbergin Ermland (Pol. Lidzbark Warmiński in Warmia). The paper highlights also research problems that historians must urrently overcome to use, interpret, and understand properly sources written by historiographers, who explored bservations of eyewitnesses of the great events of their times. The paper was originally published as Geneza elekcji Stanisława Leszczyńskiego w 1704 roku w ujęciu Woltera, ”Klio” 2013, vol. 25 (2), pp. 5–20, DOI: 10.12775/KLIO.2013.014.