Edmund Taczanowski (1822,

Wieczyn Wieczyn is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czermin, within Pleszew County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Pleszew and south-east of the regional capital Poznań Pozna ...

– 1879, Choryń) was a Polish general, insurrectionist, member of the

Taczanowski Taczanowski (Polish feminine: Taczanowska; plural: Taczanowscy) is the surname of a Polish szlachta (nobility) family from Poznań bearing the Jastrzębiec coat of arms and the motto: ''Plus penser que dire''. They took their name from their ...

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

dynasty (he was grandson of the famous privateer Maksymilian Taczanowski), and Lord of the estate of Choryń in the province of

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

Early years and military career

The son of Jozef Grzegorz Mikolaj Piotr Taczanowski and Franciszka Drweska, as a youth Taczanowski was influenced by Polish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and national hero

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukra ...

, who lived at Choryń in 1831 while Prussian authorities prevented him from returning to Russian-Poland to support the insurrection there. Originally a Prussian officer, Taczanowski resigned to participate in the

Greater Poland Uprising 1846 The Greater Poland Uprising () was a planned military insurrection by Poles in the land of Greater Poland against the Prussian forces, designed to be part of a general Polish uprising in all three partitions of Poland, against the Russians, Aust ...

and in the 1848 revolt against Austrian-Polish rule. Following the collapse of this planned military action, he served with

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...

in the Italian

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

. Wounded, he was placed in French captivity, but he was later released and served as a General in the 1863 Polish revolt against Russian rule. With the collapse of this action and Czarist suppression of the revolution, Taczanowski fled to France and then to Turkey, where he unsuccessfully attempted to find support for the creation of a Polish liberation army and the establishment of an independent Polish state. Under an amnesty, the Prussian government allowed his return to Choryń in 1870 where he remained with his family until his death nine years later. Today, his grave is considered a site of Polish national honour. The manor of Choryń is now a historic landmark bearing plaques in remembrance of both Taczanowski and Mickiewicz.

Personal life

He was married in Czermin in 1860 to Aniela Baranowska (daughter of Agnieszka Baranowska). They had six children, including Stanisława Taczanowska and Stefan Taczanowski.

References

Stefan Kieniewicz Stefan Kieniewicz (20 September 1907, in Dereszewicze – 2 May 1992, in Konstancin-Jeziorna, Konstancin) was a Polish historian and university professor, notable for his works on the 19th-century history of Poland. During his work at various uni ...

''Powstanie styczniowe'', Warszawa 1972 * Janusz Staszewski, ''General Edmund Taczanowski'', Poznan, 1936 * Bolesław Szczepański, ''Edmund Taczanowski'', ''Wielkopolski słownik biograficzny'', Warszawa-Poznan 1981. *

Polish Biographical Dictionary ''Polski Słownik Biograficzny'' (''PSB''; Polish Biographical Dictionary) is a Polish-language biographical dictionary, comprising an alphabetically arranged compilation of authoritative biographies of some 25,000 notable Poles and of foreigner ...

, ''Polski Slownik Biograficzny'', 1981
Family tree
maintained by great-great-grandniece {{DEFAULTSORT:Taczanowski, Edmund 1822 births 1879 deaths People from Pleszew County Generals of the January Uprising Polish generals Polish participants of the January Uprising Greater Poland Uprising (1848) participants 19th-century Polish nobility

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

Polish political prisoners in the Prussian partition