Edmund Taczanowski was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 general, insurrectionist, member of the Taczanowski

Taczanowski

Taczanowski is the surname of a Polish szlachta family from Poznań bearing the Jastrzębiec Coat of Arms and the motto: Plus penser que dire. They took their name from their estate Taczanów in the 15th century and by the 19th century were among the leading magnates in partitioned-Poland...

 magnate

Magnate

Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...

 dynasty (he was grandson of the famous privateer Maksymilian Taczanowski), and Lord of the estate of Choryń in the province of Poznań

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

.

Early years and military career

The son of Jozef Grzegorz Mikolaj Piotr Taczanowski and Franciszka Drweska, as a youth Taczanowski was influenced by Polish poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and national hero Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

, who lived at Choryń in 1831 while Prussian authorities prevented him from returning to Russian-Poland to support the insurrection there. Originally a Prussian officer, Taczanowski resigned to participate in the Greater Poland Uprising 1846 and in the 1848 revolt against Austrian-Polish rule. Following the collapse of this planned military action, he served with Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

 in the Italian Risorgimento. Wounded, he was placed in French captivity, but he was later released and served as a General in the 1863 Polish revolt against Russian rule. With the collapse of this action and Czarist suppression of the revolution, Taczanowski fled to France and then to Turkey, where he unsuccessfully attempted to find support for the creation of a Polish liberation army and the establishment of an independent Polish state. Under an amnesty, the Prussian government allowed his return to Choryń in 1870 where he remained with his family until his death nine years later. Today, his grave is considered a site of Polish national honour. The manor of Choryń is now a historic landmark bearing plaques in remembrance of both Taczanowski and Mickiewicz.

Personal life

He was married in Czermin

Czermin

Czermin may refer to the following places:*Czermin, Kępno County in Greater Poland Voivodeship *Czermin, Subcarpathian Voivodeship *Czermin, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship...

 in 1860 to Aniela Baranowska (daughter of Agnieszka Baranowska

Agnieszka Baranowska

Agnieszka Lipska Baranowska was a Polish playwright and poet.Born on April 16, 1819 in Gostków near Łęczyca in a Polish szlachta family of Lipscy to Jacob Lipski and Marjania Zaluska, she spent her life in the Prussian partition, including the Grand Duchy of Poznań...

). They had six children, including Stanisława Taczanowska and Stefan Taczanowski.