Badass Woman of History #5: Emilia Plater

Lately I have had a surge of pride and curiosity about the Polish part of my heritage. While this is mostly due to recent political events in Europe, it also has a lot to do with having a deepening love and respect for my grandmother, who always prided her Polish heritage. So I have been doing research on Polish history and culture, I have even started to listen to you tube videos on the basics of the Polish Language. And then I thought, my grandmother is one of the most tough-as-nails, devote, confident, and capable people I know, what better way to honor her then to make a Badass Woman entry in her honor. Granted, I had my doubts about finding a specific subject for the post, but to my delighted surprise a name came up without hardly any effort, the Polish Warlord Emilia Plater.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

From 1569-1795 the largest and most powerful nation in eastern Europe, besides the Russian Empire, was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by the Kings of Poland who concurrently inherited the title of Grand-Duke of Lithuania ever since in 1569 when Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania married Queen Hedwig of Poland. For 200 years the citizens of the Commonwealth felt great pride for not only being a staunch guardian of Europe, protecting against the predations of the ambitious Russian Empire and the Islamic fanaticism of the Turkish Ottoman Empire; but also of being revolutionary in the relations between the aristocracy and the peasantry, where most of Europe were in a constant state of unease between the two, in the Commonwealth there was a mutual respect and understanding. But as with many empires, its glory days behind it, its influence started to dwindle, its lands started being encroached upon and subsumed by surrounding nations, it was imperative that the people felt safe, that the aristocracy would not use the crises' to assume more power or abuse what they already had. So on May 3, 1791, a Constitution was authored and signed by King Stanislaw II. The 1791 Constitution was the first of its kind in Europe (as the Magna Carta was technically an agreement between the aristocracy and the King, not the people and the government) and second in the world after the US Constitution. Again it was a great source of pride for the people as it truly codified the rights and liberties of the common people, something unheard of in all the world except America. But this remarkable event would be for nothing for in 1792, in the aftermath of the Polish-Russian War, the rest of the Commonwealth was divided and partitioned up, and the Russian army rescinded, denounced and banned any talk of the Constitution.

Plater Coat of Arms

Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, and the majority of the eastern Ukraine where made parts of the Russian and Prussian Empires. Much of Poland was still technically autonomous but with great oversight by the Russian army and the aristocrats of Poland fearing for their positions and lives acquiesced to most demands from Moscow. The government in Krakow and its ill and dying King became the puppets of the Russian Tsar. It is in this atmosphere Countess Emilia Plater is born. Her family ancestors had immigrated as arms and armor merchants from Germany back in the late 1400s and quickly assimilated and adopted Polish language and culture within the first natural born generation, leaving their German roots behind. The families wealth and influence also grew quickly in the Polish court and they became long standing staples of the aristocracy of the Commonwealth; their lands and influence were traditionally on the what had become the Polish side of the border with Lithuania. But after the defeat at the hands of the Russians the family became ideological split, the main branch, Emilia's parents were part of that group of nobles that capitulated and collaborated with their Russian overseers, while most other branches refused to be as cooperative. Either way, family was family and when her parents found their marital problems deeply effecting their 9 year old daughter, they sent her away to live with relatives in the the lands of Latvia, which had become part of Prussia since the Polish-Russian War.

Prince Józef Poniatowski and General Tadeusz Kościuszko

The family took the opportunity to mold the heiress of the main branch to their anti-foreign control, pro Polish nationalism way of thinking. Emilia was steeped in Polish culture and history in her education and taught about others who gave their all for national pride and defense of their homeland, figures like Joan of Arc for the French or Bouboulina for the Greeks. But most importantly she was taught to revere, almost religiously the exploits of two contemporaries of the time, Prince Jozef Poniatowski and General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The Prince, nephew of the late King Stanislaw II, and last of the royal line, was the ruler of the Duchy of Warsaw and a constant political thorn in the Russian Empires side, forcing the great nation into many compromising situations during his rule. The General was a brilliant military engineer who had won many battles for Poland and even went over to the Americas to help the Continental army in designing many of their fortifications, his most famous being West Point. Both men had lead an insurrection in the waning days of the King to regain Poland's independence, but unfortunately failed to garner enough support from the nobility before the king's death. The General fled to become an advisor and Marshal in Napoleon's court, vowing to return to free Poland with a French army at his back; while Prince Jozef confined himself to Warsaw were he continued to wage a semi-underground diplomatic/propaganda war against Russia and Prussia. These were the men that Emilia admired more than any in the world and wanted to emulate.

As a teen she made it her passion to learn about the many diverse Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, and their united animosity towards Russians, Prussians, Turks, and Austrians; the traditional enemies of their autonomy. She even went so far as to have written correspondence with several resistance groups, flirting with the idea joining one, throwing her families name and reputation to one of their causes. One such group was a student organization known as the Filaret Association, a Pro-Polish monarchy group in Lithuania who had to rename and go underground after the predecessor group's leadership, the Radiant Association, were exiled to Siberia. But her decision of whether or not to finally make a stand was thrust upon her. In late 1823 her cousins were arrested and sentenced to conscription in the Russian Imperial Army for publicly promoting the 1791 Constitution. So outraged, the rest of family, against the wishes of Emilia's parents, poured their money into a open and public tour by Emilia, traveling across all the former lands of Commonwealth to promote pro Polish national pride. Where ever see went crowds would gather to hear here remind them of their heritage, their folk heroes, their people's past achievements.  In both Warsaw and Krakow crowds a 1000s strong came to listen to her speeches and she even showed up on the memorial battlefield of Raszyn to remind the people that the aftermath of that battle finally drove the Austrians out of their homeland, and if the military might of Hapsburg Empire can be driven off why not the Russian Tsar. Her mother would die that year and her father blamed the death on Emilia's blatant disregard for desecration and had her cut off from the main families funds, though that did not stop her.

In March of 1831 she wrote her father telling him of her intent to join an uprising against Tsarist control; that she wanted him to know that she understands if he never wanted to speak to her again but that this was something she has wanted to be a part of most of her life. She cut her hair and had a uniform designed for her and her soon to come army. Using what little money she had left she recruited, clothed, and armed 280 professional infantrymen, 60 cavalry, and hundreds of peasant soldiers later called scythmen for the standard issue war scythes Emilia procured for them (being mostly farmers, she believed this would be a weapon they would have an easier time learning how to wield). They were by all accounts a formidable war-band. On April 4 she signed an open declaration committing her new force to helping any and all local uprisings to Prussian and Tsarists rule, and had copies of the declaration sent to all the known separatist and insurrection groups. She entered the territory of Lithuania and seized the town of Zarasai catching the local militia and small Prussian garrison completely by surprise. She had hoped to use the town as a staging area to take the small city of Daugavpils, giving her control of a good chunk of the tri-border area separating Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. But she learned that the cities defenses would be too overwhelming for her small band alone and that other groups like hers were too far away to get their in time before the cities Prussian garrison would strike out to retake the town.

Karol Zaluski

Instead she decided to drive further into Lithuanian and combine forces with another minor Polish noble turned independence warlord, Karol Zaluski, who was basing his efforts out of the city of Paneveszys. The two together wrecked havoc for both Prussian and Russian frontier towns and outposts. While most conflicts were with local militias, her forces did engage and defeat real troops twice. At the Battle of Prastavoniai she routed a larger Russian Imperial army force sent to arrest her and Karol, the Russians were over confident that they could easily take the two warlords and so opted for a quick all in frontal assault with no formation on their flanks. Emilia's Scythemen held the line while her and Karol's cavalries swooped around and pincered the rest of the force. Then, at the Battle of Maišiagala, Emilia hid her forces in the old abandoned 16th castle of the Polish King Sigismund I the Old, known as Bona's Hill, while Karol's forces fained retreat from Prussian forces. He lead them across a field the castle overlooked and when they had just past the castle turned to face the larger Prussian force; at that time Emilia sprung the trap and her forces charged out of the castle coming up on the Prussians rear. Again they prevailed over a larger professional force.

Baron Dezydery Chłapowski

Emilia and Karol's exploits garnered the attention of Baron Dezydery Chlapowski. The Baron was in command of a large force in hiding in the wilderness of Poland. These were regular Polish military that had joined up with Napoleon's forces during the Napoleonic war. But after Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign the Polish elements of his forces stayed behind in Poland instead of following the full retreat back to France. Since that time the Baron had been gauging the various insurgent forces across the former Commonwealth and calling them to his banner in the hopes of accumulating a large enough force to strike a true war for independence. He quickly assimilated Emilia's forces into his own and dismissed her, telling her to go home. She flat out refused stating she would not take off her uniform until her homeland was free. Karol and several other notable leaders convinced Chlapowski to not only let her stay, but to give her the rank of captain and command of the 1st company of the Polish–Lithuanian 25th Infantry Regiment.

Emilia fighting at the Battle of Siauliai

 Despite the objections of his Captains, including Emilia, The Baron decided their first objective should be the city of Siauliai in the heart of Lithuania. Siauliai was quickly becoming a commercial hub of Lithuania and Chlapowski envisioned taking it as a grand statement that would assure forces from all over the region would flock to their cause. But the captains had doubts about their force taking on the substantial amount of military, logistical, and financial assets the Russians had invested in Silauliai. Instead, Emilia and the others argued that they should head south into Poland to the outskirts of Warsaw; Russian forces were lighter there and the thought was a couple of quick victories would rouse the populace and gain them the support of not only the popular Prince Jozef Poniatowski, but also the reluctant Polish nobility. But the baron's mind would not be changed and so the army marched on Siauliai. The opening skirmishes were so mishandled by Chlapowski it became quickly apparent that he may have had an overall war strategy, but had not battlefield tactical skill. Karol and a few others tried to advise him on how to turn the battle around but the baron panicked and called for a full retreat into Prussian territory. Emilia and a few other's forces were so disgusted they refused to leave the area and instead reverted back to guerilla tactics around the area for the next few months, turning what the Russians were hoping was a one day battle into a slow war of attrition. But her campaign would be struck short as illness took her, and without her leadership the remaining Polish forces either retreated back to Chlapowski's encampment or deserted completely back to their homes. Emilia would die a few days later from her unknown aliment on December 23, 1831.  

Though her exploits were only an 8 month period since she set off to free her homeland she made one hell of an impact, her warband was enough of a problem to garner the attention of both the official armies of Russia and Prussia. She was considered one of the most wanted outlaws by both those governments; but instead of being caught and labeled as just another seditionist, she became an enduring symbol of Polish and Lithuanian pride. Poems and paintings were secretly created in her honor all over the two nations of the former Commonwealth and her image roused resistance groups during both Nazi and Soviet occupation. During WWII the Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion was formed, who saw fighting and logistical support throughout the war, even after Poland's defeat. Veterans of the war even established a town in her honor, Platerowka. There is even a Polish Navel vessel named for her, the MS Emilia Plater. She is recognized has the beginning of many Eastern European countries tradition of having female combat units, now how badass it that.