king of Poland, was born at Leopold the 20th of October 1677. His father was a Polish nobleman, distinguished by his rank and the important offices which he held, but still more by his firmness and courage. Stanislaus was sent ambassador in 1704 by the assembly of Warsaw to Charles XII of Sweden, who had conquered Poland. He was at that time 27 years old, was general of Great Poland, and had been ambassador extraordinary to the Grand Signior in 1699. Charles was so delighted with the frankness and sincerity of his deportment, and with the firmness and sweetness which appeared in his countenance, that he offered him the crown of Poland, and ordered him to be crowned at Warsaw in 1705. He accompanied Charles XII, into Saxony, where a treaty was concluded with King Augustus in 1705, by which that prince resigned the crown, and acknowledged Stanislaus king of Poland. The new monarch remained in Saxony with Charles till 1707, when they returned into Poland and attacked the Russians, who were obliged to evacuate that kingdom in 1708. But Charles being defeated by Peter the Great in 1709, Augustus returned into Poland, and being assisted by a Russian army, obliged Stanislaus to retire first into Sweden, and afterwards into Turkey. Soon after he took up his residence at Weissenburg, a town in Afflaxe. Augustus dispatched Sum his envoy to France to complain of this; but the duke of Orleans, who was then regent, returned this answer: "Tell your king, that France has always been the asylum of unhappy princes." Stanislaus lived in obscurity till 1725, when Louis XV. eloped the princess Mary his daughter. Upon the death of King Augustus in 1733, he returned to Poland in hopes of remounting the throne of that kingdom. A large party declared for him; but his competitor the young elector of Saxony, being supported by the emperor Charles VI, and the empress of Russia, was chosen king, though the majority was against him. Dantzig, to which Stanislaus had retired, was quickly taken, and the unfortunate prince made his escape in disguise with great difficulty, after hearing that a price was set upon his head by the Russians. When peace was concluded in 1736 between the emperor and France, it was agreed that Stanislaus should abdicate the throne, but that he should be acknowledged king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, and continue to bear these titles during life; that all his effects and those of the queen his spouse should be restored; that an amnesty should be declared in Poland for all that was past, and that every person should be restored to his possessions, rights, and privileges; that the elector of Saxony should be acknowledged king of Poland by all the powers who acceded to the treaty; that Stanislaus should be put in peaceable possession of the duchies of Lorraine and Bar; but that immediately after his death these duchies should be united for ever to the crown of France. Stanislaus succeeded a race of Stanislaus princes in Lorraine, who were beloved and regretted; and his subjects found their ancient sovereigns revived in him. He tasted then the pleasure which he had so long desired, the pleasure of making men happy. He assisted his new subjects; he embellished Nancy and Lunéville; he made useful establishments; he founded colleges and built hospitals. He was engaged in these noble employments, when an accident occasioned his death. His night-gown caught fire, and burnt him so severely before it could be extinguished, that he was seized with a fever, and died the 23d of February 1766. His death occasioned a public mourning: the tears of his subjects indeed are the best eulogium upon this prince. In his youth he had accustomed himself to fatigue, and had thereby strengthened his mind as well as his constitution. He lay always upon a kind of mattress, and seldom required any service from his domestics. He was temperate, liberal, adored by his vassals, and perhaps the only nobleman in Poland who had any friends. He was in Lorraine what he had been in his own country, gentle, affable, compassionate, treating his subjects like equals, participating their sorrows and alleviating their misfortunes. He resembled completely the picture of a philosopher which he himself has drawn. "The true philosopher (said he) ought to be free from prejudices, and to know the value of reason. He ought neither to think the higher ranks of life of more value than they are, nor to treat the lower orders of mankind with greater contempt than they deserve: he ought to enjoy pleasures without being a slave to them, riches without being attached to them, honours without pride or vanity: he ought to support disgraces without either fearing or courting them: he ought to reckon what he possesses sufficient for him, and to regard what he has not as useless: he ought to be equal in every fortune, always tranquil, always gay: he ought to love order, and to observe it in all his actions: he ought to be severe to himself, but indulgent to others: he ought to be frank and ingenuous without rudeness, polite without falsehood, compliant without baseness: he ought to have the courage to disfear every kind of glory, and to reckon as nothing even philosophy itself." Such was Stanislaus in every situation. His temper was affectionate. He told his treasurer one day to put a certain officer on his list, to whom he was very much attached: "In what quality (said the treasurer) shall I mark him down?" "As my friend" (replied the monarch). A young painter conceiving hopes of making his fortune if his talents were made known to Stanislaus, presented him with a picture, which the courtiers criticized severely. The prince praised the performance, and paid the painter very generously: then turning to his courtiers, he said, "Do ye not see, gentlemen, that this poor man must provide for his family by his abilities? if you discourage him by your censures, he is undone. We ought always to assist men; we never gain anything by hurting them." His revenues were small; but were we to judge of him by what he did, we should probably reckon him the richest potentate in Europe. A single instance will be sufficient to show the well-judged economy with which his benevolent plans were conducted. He gave 18,000 crowns to the magistrates of Bar to be employed in purchasing grain, when at a low price, to be sold out again to the poor at a moderate rate when Staniflau the price should rise above a certain sum. By this arrangement (say the authors of Dictionaire Historique), the money increases continually, and its good effects may in a short time be extended over the whole province.

He was a protector of the arts and sciences: he wrote several works of philosophy, politics, and morality, which were collected and published in France in 1765, in 4 vols, 8vo, under the title of Oeuvres de Philosophe Bienfaisant, "the works of the Benevolent Philosopher."