ABSTRACT
Poland had ceased to exist as an independent state following the three partitions of her territory by Austria, Prussia and Russia. The Legion's hopes of a restored Poland were shattered by the Peace of Luneville. In October 1806, Napoleon requests the original organiser of the Legion, General Dabrowski, to call upon Poles to take up arms against Prussia. French troops entering Polish territory during the war against Prussia are welcomed by townspeople and peasants, though less so by the nobility. Napoleon establishes a seven man Committee of Government led by Stanislaw Malachowski and made up of Poles to run the Polish territories seized from Prussia in 1807, January 14. In Lombardy in 1797 veterans of an insurrection against the last partition were organised as a Polish Legion to fight Austria on the side of the French. In June 1812, a large Polish contingent joins the Grande Armee in the invasion of Russia.
