Polish Eastern Borderlands in prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski’s political program in exile : an iconographic contribution

The article is a contribution to the reflection on the place of the Eastern Borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the political program of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and his followers after 1831. This program was expressed and implemented in various ways, and its addressees were both the Poles and the public opinion of Western Europe. Without trying to present the whole issue, three iconographic representations that contained elements of this program were analyzed here. What they had in common was that all of them were to honor the closest British ally of Prince Adam – Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart (1803–1854). In 1846 he received a decorative tapestry from Polish emigrants, in 1847 a golden watch, and after his death a medal made by J.F.A. Bovy was minted in his honor. The heraldic and cartographic motifs adorning theses items indicate that Prince Adam and his associates saw the future of the Eastern Borderlands in connection with the rebirth of Poland. These representations were a persuasive message addressed to Polish and foreign audiences, the purpose of which was to convince them of the importance of this issue in Czartoryski’s plan for the restitution of the Polish state.