Elżbieta Szydłowska, married surname ''Grabowska'' (1748 – 1 June 1810), was a member of the Polish

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

, a mistress and possibly the morganatic wife of the last

King of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of Royal elections in Poland, free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electab ...

, Stanisław August Poniatowski.

Biography

Elżbieta Szydłowska was a daughter of Polish nobleman Teodor Kajetan Szydłowski,

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

of Płock, Lubicz coat of arms (1714–1792), and his wife, Teresa Witkowska, Nowina coat of arms (1722–1778). In 1768 she married a Polish noble,

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Jan Jerzy Grabowski (died 1789). Some of the children of this marriage are thought to have actually been children of the last

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

king, Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1789, she became a widow and possibly entered into a secret, morganatic marriage with the King, remaining known at

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

as his '' maîtresse-en-titre''. However, Wirydianna Fiszerowa, a contemporary who knew her, reported that tales of this marriage only circulated after Poniatowski's death, and were spread about by Elżbieta herself, but were not generally believed. She was thought to have exercised some influence on the king during his reign perceived as negative, which made her unpopular. In 1795, King Stanisław abdicated following the Third Partition of Poland, and lived in

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

under Russian watch until, in 1796,

Paul I of Russia Paul I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the Pauline Laws, laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules ...

invited him to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Elżbieta, with her two sons, Stanisław and Michał, took the king to Saint Petersburg to care for him there, and she lived with him until his sudden death in 1798. Afterwards, she returned to Warsaw, then under

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n rule following the Partitions, where she became a patroness of the '' Tableau vivant'' there. She died in Warsaw on 1 June 1810, survived by four of her children. She had three sons and two daughters with the king, and their second son, Michał Grabowski, distinguished himself in combat, eventually becoming a general in the army of the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

Issue

Her children were: * Stanisław * Michał * Casimir * Aleksandra (13 April 1771 – 12 May 1789), who married Franciszek Salezy Krasicki in 1787 * Izabela Grabowska (1776–1858), who married Walenty Faustyn Sobolewski in 1795 * Constance

References

* H. P Kosk generalicja polska t. 1 Oficyna Wydawnicza "Ajaks" Pruszków 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:Szydlowska, Elzbieta Mistresses of Stanisław August Poniatowski 19th-century Polish nobility 1748 births 1810 deaths 18th-century Polish nobility Morganatic spouses Szydłowski family