Prince Adam Czartoryski

Polish statesman and diplomat

He has a brief cameo appearance in Book 1 Part 3. According to Andrei, “one of the most remarkable, but to me most unpleasant of men.” The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Adam Czartoryski is a man who may “decide the fate of nations.”

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770 – 1861), in English known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author.

The son of a wealthy prince, he began his political career as a foreign minister to the Russian Tsar Alexander I after Poland was partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria. He later became a leader of the Polish government in exile and a bitter opponent of Alexander's successor, Tsar Nicholas I. In exile, he advocated for the reestablishment of a sovereign Polish state, which also stimulated early Balkan and Belgian nationalism, and intensified their desire for independence.

Czartoryski was a dedicated patron of arts and greatly contributed to the Czartoryski Collection. In 1798, he purchased one of Poland's most important national treasures – Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, which he brought as a gift for his mother from Italy.