Old Lovers. Catherine of Russia and Poniatowski of Poland, Meet Again

At Kaniev, Catherine made contact with Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland, whom she had not seen for 23 years. This was an emotionally loaded encounter because he had been one of Catherine's lovers, the father of her daughter Anna who had died at age 3, and he owed his throne to her. Now he was her inferior and his country was subject to her army's attacks. It is interesting to read the various biographers' accounts of their meeting.

Poniatowski gave a dinner in Catherine's honor at a palace he had built for the occasion and she gave him the Order of St. Andrew blue ribbon, coyly taking the insignia from her breast and putting it on his. But she rebuffed his requests for change in Russian policy with regard to Poland and she humiliated him by saying she was too busy to attend the dinner and ball he put on to honor her. Some biographers think it was Catherine who felt herself rebuffed, that Stanislaus saw her aging body and rejected her. The aphorism "all's fair in love and war" seems to have applied perfectly here.