Countess Marie Walewska
| Marie Walewska | |
|---|---|
portrait by François Gérard
|
|
| Born |
7 December 1786 Kiernozia, Poland |
| Died | 11 December 1817 (aged 31) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | kidney illness |
| Spouse(s) | Athenasius count Colonna-Walewski (1805-1812) 1 child Philippe Antoine d'Ornano (1816-1817) her death (1 child) |
| Partner(s) | Napoleon I Bonaparte (1806-1810) 1 child |
| Children | Count Antoni Rudolf Bazyli Colonna-Walewski Count Alexandre Joseph Colonna-Walewski Rudolph Augustus d'Ornano |
| Parent(s) | Count Mathieu (Mateusz) Łączyński Eva Zaborowska |
Maria Countess Walewska (née Łączyńska; 7 December 1786 – 11 December 1817) was a Polish noblewoman and a mistress of Emperor Napoleon I. In her later years she married count Philippe Antoine d'Ornano, an influential Napoleonic officer.
Maria was born into a wealthy noble family in Kiernozia. Her father, who died before she was born, was a landowner and starosta of Gostyń; her mother came from the wealthy Zaborowski family. Maria had six siblings: Benedykt Jozef, Hieronim, Teodor, Honorata, Katarzyna and Urszula-Teresa. She grew up in her ancestral home, Kiernozia, where she also received her education. Nicholas Chopin, Frédéric Chopin's father, was one of her tutors.
In 1805 she married Athenasius count Colonna-Walewski, starosta of Warka district and a once-chamberlain to the last Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski. Walewski was a wealthy landowner, but was four times older than his young bride. Maria and Athenasius had one son, Antoni Rudolf Bazyli Colonna-Walewski, although it is believed by some historians that he was an illegitimate child, conceived shortly before Maria's marriage.
Maria met Napoleon for the first time in 1806 in Błonie, or in Jabłonna. According to Maria's own memoirs, she spoke briefly with the French emperor, but the meeting was inconclusive. However, Napoleon remembered her for her extraordinary beauty and requested to see her in Warsaw, intending to start an affair with her.
They met again at a ball hosted by count in his Warsaw residence. Although Maria was initially reluctant to become Napoleon's mistress, she was convinced to do so by the Emperor's aide, General Géraud Duroc (Grand Marshal of the Palace) and a number of Polish aristocrats, who hoped that she could influence the emperor to support Poland in its struggle to regain independence from Prussia, the Habsburg Empire and the Russian Empire. In her memoirs, Maria maintained that she forced herself to get involved with Napoleon for purely patriotic reasons:
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