The Kingdom of Poland, also informally called Regency Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Regencyjne), was the state proposed by the Act of November 5, 1916 issued by Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary. It was to be created within the former Russian territory of Privislinsky Krai (however with no defined borders) in 1916 and would exist as a puppet state of the German Empire. The proposal never gained much support in Germany and in reality was aimed only at gaining a Polish Army for the Central Powers.

It was succeeded by the Second Polish Republic. The declaration of both emperors allowed the creation of the Regency Council (Polish: Rada Regencyjna) which was given limited administration on territories taken by Germany and was to elect a new monarch. One early candidate was the Austrian Archduke Charles Stephen (Polish: Karol Stefan), whose two daughters were married to Polish aristocrats: prince Olgierd Czartoryski and Hieronim Radziwiłł, who spoke fluent Polish who resided in Żywiec in Galicia.

The Archduke was more than willing to accept the crown, but as a member of Imperial House of Austria he needed a permission from the head of the family, Emperor and King Charles I, who hesitated, having himself planned to assume the Polish Crown. As the war progressed and Austro-Hungary became more and more dominated by German Empire, the chances of Austrian candidates fell, and Germany demanded that one of its princes rules over the future puppet state. German language was instituted in all of the territory of the former Congress Poland in admininstration and judicial system, only in educational and political institutions banned by Russia after the Polish uprisings of 1830 and 1863 was Polish language tolerated..A Central Powers supported army (German: Polnische Wehrmacht) was created in order to help the German war effort, but the recruitement action (led by Colonel Władysław Sikorski) didn't receive the support of Polish people and gave rather insignificant results: in the final stage of the Regency the army counted only about 5,000 men.

The Kingdom would have its own currency, called Marka polska (Polish mark). A Constitution was drafted on 12th September 1917 (monarchy, a two-chambers-parliament, no political responsibility of the ministers).

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