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Napoleon decisively defeated the Russians at Friedland (1807) and

soon after concluded the Peace of Tilsit (p. 161). By this treaty

there was created, out of a portion of the Polish lands received

by Prussia at the different partitions, a new state, known as the

Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and ruled by the King of Saxony as a

constitutional monarch under the protection of Napoleon. The

Niemen divided this new state from the portion of Poland under

the rule of Russia (pp. 31, 255).

The new Grand Duchy had to furnish troops in aid of Napoleon. In

1808 the Polish light cavalry, led by Kozietulski, won glory by

the capture of Somosierra, a defile leading to Madrid (p. 286).