Prince Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski (1696–1775) was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman, the Duke of Klewań and , magnate, and Knight of the Order of the White Eagle (from 1726). He headed Poland's Czartoryski "Familia".
He served as Steward of Lithuania from 1720, Castellan of Vilnius from 1722, Grand Chancellor of Lithuania from 1752, and Starost of Grod, Luck, Uświat, Jurbol, Homel, Kupsk and Pienian.
Biography
Czartoryski was born in 1696 in Klewań, Poland. After an education on the French model, which he completed at Paris, Florence and Rome, he attached himself to the court of Dresden, and through the influence of Count Fleming, the leading minister there, obtained the vice-chancellorship of Lithuania and many other dignities. Czartoryski was one of the many Polish nobles who, when Augustus II was seriously ill at Białystok in 1727, signed the secret declaration guaranteeing the Polish succession to his son; but this did not prevent him from repudiating his obligations when Stanisław Leszczyński was placed upon the throne by the influence of France in 1733. When Stanislaus abdicated in 1735, Czartoryski voted for Augustus III of Saxony, who gladly employed him and his family to counteract the influence of competing factions.
For the next forty years Czartoryski was the leading Polish statesman. In foreign affairs he was the first to favour an alliance with Russia, Austria and England, as opposed to France and Prussia—a system difficult to sustain and not always beneficial to Poland or Saxony. In Poland Czartoryski was at the head of the party of reform. His palace was the place where the most promising young gentlemen of the day were educated and sent abroad that they might return as his coadjutors in his work. His plan aimed at the restoration of the royal prerogative and the abolition of the liberum veto, which made any durable improvement impossible. These patriotic endeavours made the Czartoryskis very unpopular with the szlachta (nobility), but for many years they had the firm and constant support of the Saxon court, especially after Brühl succeeded Fleming.