Catherine Radziwill

Princess Catherine Radziwiłł
Spouse(s)	Prince Wilhelm Radziwiłł Karl Emile Kolb-Danvin
Issue Nicholas Radziwiłł Wacław
Full name Ekaterina Adamovna Rzewuska, Princess Radziwiłł, Mrs. Kolb-Danvin
Noble family	Radziwiłł
Father	Adam Adamowicz Rzewuski
Mother	Anna Dmitrievna Dashkova
Born	On March 30, 1858 Saint Petersburg
Died	5 December 1941(1941-12-05) (aged 83) New York City

Princess Catherine Radziwiłł (Polish: Katarzyna Radziwiłłowa; 30 March 1858 – 12 May 1941) was a notable Polish aristocrat. Born in Russia into the House of Rzewuski, her maternal family was the illustrious Dashkov-Vorontsov. Carefully educated, in 1873 she married the Polish Prince Wilhelm Radziwiłł.

She was a prominent figure at the Imperial courts in Germany and Russia, but became involved in a series of scandals. She combined her love for the luxury of the courts, social life, gossip and intrigue with her literary talent and she is notable as the author of two dozen books on European royalty and the Russian court in particular most notably: Behind the Veil at the Russian Court (1914) and her autobiography It Really Happened (1932).

Princess Catherine Radziwill was born in St. Petersburg as Countess Ekaterina Adamovna Rzewuska, a member of the House of Rzewuski, a Polish family of warriors, statesmen, adventurers and eccentrics. She was the only child of the Russian General Adam Adamowicz Rzewuski (1845—1911), who took part in the Crimean war, and his second wife Anna Dmitrievna Dashkova, a daughter of the writer Dmitry Vasilyevich Dashkov, Tsar Nicholas I's minister of justice. Catherine's mother, who belonged to some of Russia's most notable families: Dashkov, Stroganov, Pashkov and Vasilchikov, died while giving birth to her. Catherine's father married for a third time and provided her with three half-brothers including Stanislaw Rzewuski, who became a novelist and literary critic. The Rzewuski was a family of notable writers including Catherine's great-great-grandfather Wacław Rzewuski, her uncle Henryk and her aunts Ewelina, wife of Honoré de Balzac, and Karolina, who kept a literary salon in Paris.