Regency Council

The Regency Council was created by the two occupying powers' patent of 12 September 1917, to exercise authority in the name of a king or regent who did not yet exist. The regents were Archbishop Aleksander Kakowski of Warsaw, the Mayor of Warsaw Prince Zdzisław Lubomirski and the landowner Józef Ostrowski; they took office on 27 October 1917. They appointed Polish governments and took over the courts and schools from the occupiers, but every law needed the Governor-General's consent, and foreign policy and the army stayed in German hands.

Many Poles, as well as the Polish National Committee and the Entente, regarded the Council as a tool of the occupiers. As the Central Powers weakened it grew more independent of them. On 7 October 1918 it proclaimed Polish independence, soon took command of the Polish Armed Forces, on 11 November entrusted Józef Piłsudski with supreme military command, and on 14 November handed him all power and dissolved itself.