Rozalia Lubomirska
Rozalia Lubomirska (September 16, 1768 in Czernobyl – June 29, 1794 in Paris) was a Polish noblewoman, most noted for her death.
Born Rozalia Chodkiewicz, she was the daughter of Jan Mikołaj Chodkiewicz and Maria Ludwika Rzewuska, who was a daughter of hetman and writer Wacław Rzewuski.
She was married in 1787 (at the age of 19) to Prince Aleksander Lubomirski. A year later she bore their daughter, Aleksandra.
Known for her beauty, Rozalia travelled to France, where she was rumoured to have some romantic affairs. Anna Rajecka's painting Girl with a Dove comes from that period. The allegory of virginity and innocence was meant to contradict the widespread gossip.
Unhappy in her marriage, she decided to divorce her husband and didn't accompany him on his way back to Poland. During the Revolution she was arrested along with her child, and tried for alleged conspiracy against the Revolution, and cooperation with the royalists. As a result, the 26-year-old princess was sentenced to death and soon beheaded by guillotine, although her guilt was, and remained, widely questioned.
The death of a Polish national caused much concern among the Polish nobility who, prior to the Reign of Terror, openly cheered the Revolution. Lubomirska's husband, who returned to France to help her, as well as other Poles present in Paris at that time, vouched for her innocence. Among those who spoke in her defence were such great friends of liberty as Tadeusz Kościuszko, the Polish-American revolutionary, who was granted honorary French citizenship during the Revolution.
Following Rozalia's death, her daughter, Aleksandra Lubomirska, was released from prison and given under the guardianship of Izabella Leżeńska.
After her death, Rozalia became the subject of legends. According to one, her ghost appears in the Lubomirski's palace in Opole Lubelskie. The writer Adolf Dygasiński claimed he saw her ghost.
References
- Girl with a Dove at the National Museum in Warsaw (Polish)
- Listy Aleksandra i Rozalii Lubomirskich (Letters of Aleksander and Rozalia Lubomirski) (Polish)
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