page_title: Polish Legions (Napoleonic period)
section_title: Wars of the Third and Fourth Coalition
hierarchical_section_title: Polish Legions (Napoleonic period) / Operational history / Wars of the Third and Fourth Coalition
caption_attribution_description: English: Red Lancers of the Imperial Guard charging on Scottish infantry at the battle of Waterloo (18th June 1815).
context_page_description: The Polish Legions in the Napoleonic period, were several Polish military units that served with the French Army, mainly from 1797 to 1803, although some units continued to serve until 1815.
  After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, many Poles believed that Revolutionary France and her allies would come to Poland's aid. France's enemies included Poland's partitioners, Prussia, Austria and Imperial Russia. Many Polish soldiers, officers, and volunteers therefore emigrated, especially to the parts of Italy under French rule or serving as client states or sister republics to France and to France itself, where they joined forces with the local military. The number of Polish recruits soon reached many thousands. With support from Napoleon Bonaparte, Polish military units were formed, bearing Polish military ranks and commanded by Polish officers. They became known as the "Polish Legions", a Polish army in exile, under French command. Their best known Polish commanders included Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Karol Kniaziewicz and Józef Wybicki.
context_section_description: By 1805, during the War of the Third Coalition, the Polish troops in Italy had been renamed the 1st Polish Legion (1e Legion Polonaise) and attached to the Kingdom of Italy. In 1806, all that was left of the old Dąbrowski and Kniaziewicz's Legions was one demi-brigade, consisting of one infantry regiment and one cavalry regiment, now in the service of the Kingdom of Naples. It fought at Castel Franco, turning the Austrian attack on 24 November 1805, but on 3 July 1806 it suffered a severe defeat at Sant'Eufemia a Maiella. Many Polish officers served in French army or allied formations.
  During the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon decided to encourage Polish defections from the Prussian army, and on 20 September 1806 decreed the creation of a "Northern Legion" under General Zajączek. As the Napoleon did not want to commit himself to the Polish cause, the Legion was however not explicitly Polish, and was, in Napoleon's words, a gathering of "children of the North". French armies, including the Legion units, defeated the Prussians in Saxony at the battle of Jena and Poles under Dąbrowski entered former Polish territories (near the city of Poznań), which resulted in the influx of recruits for the legion. A year later, Napoleon, having defeated the Russian armies, met with the Russian Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit and in the ensuing negotiations they agreed that a new, small Polish state under French control (the Duchy of Warsaw) would be created.
caption: Polish lanciers charging on Scottish infantry
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