Duchy of Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state created by Napoleon from Prussian Polish lands in the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, and it embodied Polish hopes of restored nationhood. Ruled in personal union by Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, with Prince Józef Poniatowski as war minister, it adopted the Napoleonic Code, abolished serfdom in law, and supplied tens of thousands of devoted soldiers to Napoleon's armies, including the Vistula Legion. Poles called the 1812 invasion of Russia the Second Polish War, expecting Napoleon to restore the old Commonwealth, but he refused to commit for fear of alienating Austria and Prussia. After the Russian campaign the Duchy was overrun, and the Congress of Vienna divided it in 1815, most of it becoming Russian Congress Poland. Its brief life kept the Polish cause alive through the nineteenth century. Poniatowski died covering the retreat at Leipzig in 1813, and his sacrifice made him Poland's supreme national hero.