Kariera polityczna Leonarda Marcina Świeykowskiego: od podsędka do wojewody – przypadek czy nowe zasady kształtowania się elit w czasach Stanisława Augusta?

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the manner in which the political elites were created and the paths which led to those elites. The focus is on the career of Leonard Marcin Świeykowski, which is compared to a number of other cases of senatorial careers, inter alia those of Gedeon Jeleński and Adam Chmara. All of these people produced similar family archives. These sources have allowed a reconstruction of the mechanisms of their careers, which are substantially similar. This is clearly discernible in King Stanisław Augustus’s creation of the circle of royal supporters. Submissiveness toward the decision-making centre was not the sole factor which determined a career. Such features as entrepreneurship and intelligence were of greater relevance to a career, whereas noble birth and the inherited estate were of secondary relevance. Another crucial feature had to do with an attitude which expressed interest in the welfare of the state and fellow citizens, which may be associated with the establishment of a specific political agenda whose purpose was to reform the Polish Commonwealth.