page_title: Stanisław Leszczyński
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Stanisław Leszczyński / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Accident of King Stanisław I
context_page_description: Stanisław I Leszczyński, also Anglicized and Latinized as Stanislaus I, was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Lorraine and a count of the Holy Roman Empire.
  Stanisław was born into a powerful magnate family of Greater Poland, and he had the opportunity to travel to western Europe in his youth. In 1702, King Charles XII of Sweden marched into the country during the Great Northern War. Charles forced the Polish nobility to depose Poland’s king, Augustus II the Strong, and then placed Stanisław on the throne. The early 18th century was a period of great problems and turmoil for Poland. In 1709 Charles suffered a defeat from the Russians at the Battle of Poltava and was subsequently driven into exile in the Ottoman Empire. As a result, Stanisław lost all stable support. Augustus II became King of Poland again, and Stanisław fled the country and settled in the province of Alsace, France. In 1725 his daughter Marie Leszczyńska married Louis XV of France.
  When Augustus died in 1733, Stanisław sought to regain the Polish throne with the help of French support for his candidacy.
context_section_description: Stanisław was still alive when his great-great-granddaughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, was born in 1762. In his last years, his close friend, the Hungarian-born Marshal of France Ladislas Ignace de Bercheny lived on his estate to provide company.
  Leszczyński died in 1766, aged 88 as a result of serious burns – his silk attire caught fire from a spark while the King was snoozing near the fireplace in his palace in Lunéville. He was medically treated for several days but died of wounds on 23 February. He was the longest living Polish king.
  Originally buried in the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours, Nancy, following the French Revolution his remains were brought back to Poland and buried in the royal tomb of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.
caption: The fireplace incident, drawing by Ksawery Pilati from the 19th century
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