Józef Wybicki | |
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Coat of arms | |
Known for | Author of the Polish national anthem "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" |
Born | Będomin, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Poland) | 29 September 1747
Died | 10 March 1822 74) Manieczki, Prussia (now Poland) | (aged
Buried | Church of St. Adalbert, Poznań |
Noble family | Wybicki herbu (coat of arms) Rogala |
Spouse(s) | 1. Kunegunda Wybicka, née Drwęska (1773–1775) 2. Estera Wybicka, née Wierusz-Kowalska (1780) |
Father | Piotr Wybicki |
Mother | Konstancja Wybicka, née z Lniskich |
Józef Rufin Wybicki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjuzɛvvɨˈbit͡skʲi] ; 29 September 1747 – 10 March 1822) was a Polish nobleman, jurist, poet, political and military activist of Kashubian descent. [1] He is best remembered as the author of " Mazurek Dąbrowskiego " (English: "Dąbrowski's Mazurka"), which was adopted as the Polish national anthem in 1927.
Wybicki was born in Będomin, in the region of Pomerania in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. [2] His family was Pomeranian nobility. [3]
He finished a Jesuit school, and in his youth was a junior court official. [3] In 1767, he worked at the Crown Tribunal in Bydgoszcz. [4] Wybicki was elected a deputy to the Repnin Sejm, the session of Polish parliament in 1767, on the eve of the First Partition of Poland. [2] Subsequently, he joined the insurgency known as the Confederation of Bar (1768–1772), aimed at opposing the Russian influence and king Stanisław August Poniatowski. [2] [3] He was one of the advisors (konsyliarz) of the Confederacy, acting as a diplomat. [5] After the failure of the uprising, he spent some time in the Netherlands, studying law at Leiden University. [3]
Returning to Poland, in the 1770s and 1780s he was associated with the Commission of National Education. [2] He supported King Stanisław August Poniatowski and his proposed reforms. [2] [3] He helped draft the liberal Zamoyski Codex of laws of the late 1770s. [6] He was a Patriotic Party activist during the Great Sejm (1788–92) – though he was not one of its first deputies, during much of that time staying at his estate, writing and staging operas. [2] [3] He did, however, participate in the Great Sejm's deliberations, beginning in 1791. [6] In 1792, in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War of 1792, like many of Poniatowski's supporters, he joined the Targowica Confederation. [7]
He participated in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) [2] and was a member of the Military Section of the Provisional Council of the Duchy of Masovia. [8] During the uprising, he co-organized the Polish administration in the liberated city of Bydgoszcz. [4] After the failure of this insurrection he moved to France. [3]
He was a close friend of both Tadeusz Kościuszko and Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. [9] With Dąbrowski he organized the Polish Legions in Italy, serving under Napoleon Bonaparte. [2] In 1797, while in Reggio Emilia, Italy, he wrote Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Dąbrowski's Mazurek). [2] In 1806 he helped Dąbrowski organize the Greater Poland Uprising. [3]
After the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, he held a number of positions in its Department of Justice, and continued working for it after the Duchy's transformation into Congress Poland. [3] In 1817 he became president of the Supreme Court of Congress Poland. [10]
He died on 10 March 1822 in Manieczki, then part of the Grand Duchy of Posen in the Prussian Partition of Poland. [2]
Wybicki was a writer, journalist and a poet. [2] He wrote political-themed poems, plays and political treaties advocating reforms in Poland in the 1770s and 1780s. [2] [3] His works of that time analyzed the Polish political system, the concepts of liberty, and advocated for more rights for the peasantry. [11] He would also publish more political brochures in the 1800s, advocating for liberal reforms in the Duchy of Warsaw. [3]
Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Dąbrowski's Mazurka) remains Wybicki's most famous creation. [3] It has been regarded as an unofficial national anthem since the November Uprising of 1831. [2] In 1927 the Mazurka was officially adopted as the Polish national anthem by the Polish parliament (Sejm). [3] [12]