Ignacy Skorupka
A day later his body was transported to a garrison church in Warsaw, and shortly, he was given a state funeral at the prestigious Powązki Cemetery, attended by many government and military authorities; general Józef Haller presented him with a posthumous Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari. His death became a political ploy, used by the opponents of Polish military commander and leader Józef Piłsudski, architect of the Polish strategy that led to the victory at Warsaw. His opponents labelled the battle "miracle of Vistula", and attributed the Polish victory to a number of causes, up to and including divine intervention, and Skorupka's martyr-like death became part of their attempt to minimize Piłsudski's fame. Several monuments, streets and other landmarks were dedicated to him in the Second Polish Republic; he became a central figure in several books, poems and dramas; and Pope Pius XI commissioned a wall painting of him by Jan Henryk de Rosen at the battle at the Castel Gandolfo. Another popular painting of him was created by Jerzy Kossak.
Battle of Warsaw (1705)
In 1705 Stanisław Leszczyński was due to be crowned in Warsaw, after which peace negotiations between Sweden and Poland could take place. The Swedes were eager to increase support for Leszczyński to strengthen their position in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The coalition forces, under Peter I of Russia and Augustus II, would not sit idle, and planned a grand strategy of their own, mainly based upon the ideas of Johann Patkul and Otto Arnold von Paykull; they would gather all available forces and crush the Swedish Army in Poland–Lithuania by a joint offensive.