Polish Succession, War of the 1733–35

a war between Russia, Austria, and Saxony on one side and France on the other.

The election of a king to the Polish throne after the death of Augustus II in 1733 served as the casus belli. France proposed the candidacy of Stanisław Leszczyński, whose confirmation could have led to the creation of a bloc of states under the leadership of France against Russia. Russia and Austria supported the Saxon elector Frederick Augustus II. At the request of a group of Polish magnates, the tsarist government sent troops into Poland in September 1733. At the Sejm in Warsaw on Sept. 12, 1733, Stanisław was elected king. On October 5, on the territory occupied by Russian troops, some of the gentry (szlachta) and some of the magnates elected Frederick Augustus (Augustus III) to the throne. During subsequent military operations, the Russian Army took Toruń in January 1734 and Danzig on July 7. Stanisław fled, and most of the Polish magnates went over to the side of Augustus III.

The war ended with the signing of a preliminary peace treaty in October 1735. The final agreement, the Treaty of Vienna of 1738, was signed in November by Austria and France. In 1739, Russia, Poland, and other countries joined. France recognized Augustus III as the Polish king.