Hôtel Lambert, name (for the 17th century palace on St. Louis
Island in Paris bought by the Czartoryskis in 1843) of a liberal-aristocratic faction
of the Polish Great Emigration [Wielka Emigracja], which came into being
after the collapse of the November Uprising 1830-31 in Poland and was headed by Prince
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, and then by his son, Wladyslaw; the policy of H.L. was shaped
by a small group of Czartoryski's relatives and advisers; reorganized several times
(Society of National Unity [Zwiazek Jednosci Narodowej],1833;
Revolutionary-Monarchical Society [Zwiazek Insurekcyjno - Monarchistyczny],
1837, 1839-48), H.L. gathered the main representatives of the Polish aristocracy, rich
nobility and higher officers. At first, H.L. supported re-establishing the political
autonomy of the Polish kingdom according to the provisions of the Congress of Vienna,
and counted on England's and France's support of the Polish cause and on an all-European
war; the future Poland was seen as a constitutional monarchy; in fact, however, H.L.
supported the dictatorial authority of Adam J. Czartoryski. H.L. maintained
loose contacts with a number of rich landowners in partitioned Poland, and delayed
formulation of a program of social reforms; on emigration, it attempted to organize
Polish military detachments in Algeria, Belgium, Portugal and other places. In the
1840s, H.L. resolved to concentrate on Poland's military struggle to regain independence;
and on the introduction of a strong government unifying the society on the basis of the
constitution of May 3, 1791. Under the influence of the peasants' revolt in Gali
cia and the Cracow revolution in 1846, H.L. acknowledged the necessity for social reforms,
particularly the abolition of the corvée and the enfranchisement of the peasants,
and saw these as preconditions for a successful, all-Polish uprising against the partitioning
powers; an outbreak of such an uprising was contingent upon a favorable international
situation, particularly upon a conflict of the western European powers with Russia.
H.L. attempted to influence the foreign policies of these powers to
wards evoking a conflict with Russia; and to gain support of public opinion in western
Europe for the Polish cause through pamphlets, meetings and debates. H.L. developed
(particularly after 1840) a network of its own agents in the Balkans, Belgrade,
Bucharest and other places in order to weaken the domination of Russia in south-eastern
Europe; in Rome its agents attempted to gain Papal support for the idea of an independent Poland.
In 1848 H.L. unsuccessfully tried to influence the course of events in Po
znania and Galicia; in 1849 attempted several times to mediate between the Hungarian
revolutionary government and representatives of national minorities in Hungary in an
attempt to create a unified front of these nations against Austria.
During the Crimean war (1853-56) H.L. organized a Polish Legion in Turkey; in 1857-60, it influenced Polish landowners through the journal Wiadomosci Polskie [Polish News], encouraging them to carry out moderate social reforms; in 1860 the Bureau de s Affairs Polonaises was founded within the H.L. in order to coordinate the activity of Polish conservatives both in Poland and abroad. H.L. supported independence movements in Poland, but opposed the January Uprising 1863-64, considering it suicide for Poland. During the uprising H.L. undertook diplomatic efforts to gain support for the Polish cause in Western Europe: in 1863-64 Wladyslaw Czartoryski was the main diplomatic agent of the revolutionary National Government [Rzad Narodowy ] with the English, Italian, Swedish and Turkish governments. H.L. terminated its political activity after 1870.
In addition to its political activity, H.L. patronized cultural, learned and tutelary institutions, e.g. the Polish Literary Society [Towarzystwo Literackie Polskie], founded in 1832 and after 1854 as the Historical-Literary Society in Paris; Polish Library in Paris; and the Polish School in Batignolles, founded in 1842. The archives of H.L. are now stored in the Collection of the Czartoryskis' at the National Museum in Cracow.
The activists connected with the H.L. included: Stanislaw Barzykowski, Jozef Bem, Ludwik Bystrzonowski, Wojciech Chrzanowski, Michal Czajkowski (Sadyk Pasha), Henryk Dembinski, Walerian Kalinka, Julian Klaczko, Karol Kniaziewicz, Teodor Morawski, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Ludwik Plater, Karol Sienkiewicz, J. Woronicz and Ludwik Zwierkowski.
Jolanta T. Pekacz
-------- "Die Diplomatie des Hotel Lambert 1831-1847," Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas XXI (1973), 345-740.
M. Handelsman, Adam Czartoryski, 3 vols. Warsaw, 1948-50.
B. Konarska, W kregu Hotelu Lambert. Wladyslaw Zamoyski w latach 1832-1847. Wroclaw, 1971.
M. Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity, 1770-1861. Princeton, 1955.
J . Skowronek, Polityka balkanska Hotelu Lambert (1833-1856). Warsaw, 1976.
J. Wszolek, Prawica Wielkiej Emigracji wobec narodowego ruchu wloskiego (przed rewolucja 1848 roku). Wroclaw, 1970.
jgc revised this file (http:// www.cats.ohiou.edu/~chastain/dh/hotel.htm) on October 20, 2004.
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© 1997, 2004 James Chastain.