195th anniversary is over. It was a major re-eencatment this year and perhaps the most important. While we are still working on a summary, we are only too glad to present the event in photos. Please feel free to visit our Digital gallery. You may watch selected videos at our forum. Further photos and videos will follow. Enjoy and visit us frequently.

The funeral ceremony for Janusz Krupski will take place on 26th April 2010 (Monday):

• the funeral service will begin at 2.30 p.m. in the Church of Saint Martin at Piwna Street in the Warsaw Old City;
• the funeral will begin at approx. 4.30 p.m. at the Warsaw Military Cemetery (section K2, m. no. 9).

Mr Lech Kaczyński, together with his wife Maria Kaczyńska together with Mr Ryszard Kaczorowski, last President of the Polish Republic on exile and over ninety persons, including generals, members of the parliament, senators, ombdusman, president of the National Bank of Poland, Head of the Office for the Rights of Combatants and Repressed Persons, several politicians, officers and civil servants, clergymen of various confessions, ex-servicemen and members of different associations died in an aircrash at Smolensk, Russia, Saturday, 10th April 2010. They were on their way for a memorial service at the Katyn forest, site of a massacre of Polish Army officers - and intelligentsia (POW) by the Soviet NKVD in 1940.
Their death is a terrible blow for Poland and perhaps the worst one since World War II.

We do pray for their souls and for families of those who died:

My dear friends, colleagues and brothers-in-arms,

At this time of sadness when your whole nation grieves for such a tragic loss of those who sought only the best for the Polish Nation

We would like to express our deepest condolences.

Our thoughts and prayers are as always with you all

1er Comp. Lanciers Polonais de la Garde Imperiale.

There was historical seminar, annual re-enactment and a muzzle loading competition at Jonkowo (Jonkendorf) Friday-Sunday 19-21st March. Re-enactment groups from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus attended the event which commemorated a struggle between the Napoleonic and Russian forces in 1807. Members of the Arsenal (Polish Guard lancers together with the Vistula lancers ) formed the cavalry of the period: Gwardia Honorowa Warszawska - Garde d'honneur du Varsovie, which was transformed into the I Régiment de cheveau-légers (Polonais) de la Garde Impériale.

Siege of Malaga 1810, Spain opened the re-enactment seazon for 2010. The anniversary, which combined exhibitions, cultural events and conferences was completed with the re-enactment. Enjoy the video footage of the event.

February 13th, 2010, the last Saturday of the carnival, the Wilanów Palace witnessed the IV Annual Bal of Arsenal - association of the Polish regiments 1717-1831. Mr Piotr M. Zalewski opened the event, Mr Marcin Piontek introduced plans of the association for 2010. Traditional Polonaise opened the dances, which lasted till dawn.

There is a selection of pictures at our Digital gallery and a short video to watch. Enjoy and all the best for 2010!

The Constitution of May 3, 1791 is generally regarded as Europe's first and the world's second modern codified national constitution, following the 1788 ratification of the United States Constitution. The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (szlachta) and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The adoption of the May 3rd Constitution provoked the active hostility of the Commonwealth's neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, the Commonwealth was betrayed by its Prussian ally, Frederick William II, and defeated by Catherine the Great's Imperial Russia allied with the Targowica Confederation, a cabal of Polish magnates and landless nobility who opposed reforms that might weaken their influence. Despite the Commonwealth's defeat and the consequent Second Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the May 3rd Constitution influenced later democratic movements. It remained, after the demise of the Polish Republic in 1795, over the next 123 years of Polish partitions, a beacon in the struggle to restore Polish sovereignty. In the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, it was "the last will and testament of the expiring Fatherland."

By Jerry Lavender Fins

On the 7 July, the French frigate la belle-poule and the corvette the Favorite weighed anchor from the French naval base at Toulon bound for the island of Sainte-Hélène on board was the official French mission to recover the body of the Emperor Napoleon, they arrived on October 8.and visited the British governor of the island, Lord Middlemore who formally agrees to hand over the mortal remains of Napoleon to their care on Thursday October 15.
Following this short interview, the Mission visited the valley of geraniums where the Emperor was laid to rest and were surprised to find an old English sergeant who had been keeping the grave since his death. And who had fought at the great Battle of Waterloo,
Through the steamy eyes of the Baron Gourgaud, all the memories of the battles, victories, glory, and distinctions, he remember the moment, twenty-six years earlier, during the campaign of 1814, at the time of the battle of Brienne, how he saved the life of the Emperor by killing a Cossack who tried to kill him with his lance.