Waclaw Rzewuski

Romantic, horse breeder, Crown Field Hetman. A descendant of the oldest and most powerful families of the Commonwealth. "Goldbeard Emir".

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Born on December 15, 1784 in Lviv.

(…) One of Wacław's biographers, Antoni Józef Rolle, noted:

"[...] the life of the Emir, although told so many times, has not yet been properly researched, and it is a grateful and instructive topic, even for a researcher."

Today, despite the fact that twenty literary works devoted to Rzewuski and almost twice as many studies on him have been written since the Battle of Daszewo, the above statement remains valid. The issue of the count's figure has not been thoroughly and comprehensively researched. The aforementioned studies mostly refer to selected fragments of his life, many of them were based on single or unreliable sources.

While the "hipological" and "Arab" thread of the Emir's biography was of interest to Orientalists and purebred horse breeders, researchers dealing with the issue of Polish underground and patriotic activities in the XNUMXth century did not pay much attention to Rzewuski. And it's an incredibly interesting topic. Lucjan Siemieński already wrote about Wacław:

“Nor do I know a man who, in our prosaic times, provided as much poetic thread as he, not only with his whole life, but even with his death. Flying in battle would be an ordinary thing - so many others have died and are dying like this - but to die mysteriously - without a trace ... not everyone can do it"

Piotr Jaxa Bykowski, one of Rzewuski's 1879th-century biographers, was aware of the imperfections of the studies published so far. He emphasized the need to fill the existing gap by conducting thorough source research. In XNUMX he wrote:

"By combining our monographs [concerning Wacław Rzewuski - FK], maybe someone, even more aware of things, will create one whole" (...)

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the dissertation, which attempts to present the whole issue, i.e. the biography of Wacław "Emir" Rzewuski, an assessment of his achievements, a description of the fate of his descendants and the history of the Rzewuski family from their legendary, fairy-tale beginnings.

Read more... (click to go to the Polish Digital Equestrian Library)

Author: Filip Kucera

Below you will find links to related materials in the Polish Digital Equestrian Library