Elżbieta Szydłowska

Elżbieta Szydłowska, married surname Grabowska (1748 – 1 June 1810), was a member of the Polish nobility, a mistress and possibly the morganatic wife of the last King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski.

In 1789, she became a widow and possibly entered into a secret, morganatic marriage with the King,[3] 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.

[1] 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 Petersburg.

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.