Background
Elżbieta Szydłowska was a daughter of Teodor Szydłowski, voivode of Płock, a Polish nobleman, and his wife, Teresa Witkowska.
Elżbieta Szydłowska was a daughter of Teodor Szydłowski, voivode of Płock, a Polish nobleman, and his wife, Teresa Witkowska.
Some of the children of this marriage are thought to have actually been children of the last Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 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 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 under Russian watch until, in 1796, Paul I of Russia invited him to Saint St. Petersburg. Afterwards, she returned to Warsaw, then under Prussian rule following the Partitions, where she became a patroness of the Tableau vivant there.
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.