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 and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Stanisław August Poniatowski.
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Biography
Elżbieta Szydłowska was a daughter of Polish nobleman Teodor Kajetan Szydłowski, voivode of Płock, Lubicz coat of arms (1714–1792), and his wife, Teresa Witkowska, Nowina coat of arms (1722–1778). In 1768 she married a Polish noble, General Jan Jerzy Grabowski (died 1789). While all children from this marriage were legalny recognized by her husband as his own, some (if not all) of them are presumed to have actually been children of the last Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth king, Stanisław August Poniatowski.
Possible marriage with the King
Stanisław Wasylewski based on reports by diarists and genealogists, claimed there existed the wedding document that says Elżbieta and King Stanisław married in 1785; however the document is now missing and, if authentic, would mean Elżbieta committed bigamy. In 1789 Grabowski died, leaving Elżbieta free to remarry, but if any marriage ever took place between her and the monarch (whether before or after the death of her first husband), it was never publicly announced. Jerzy Besala speculates that if Stanisław indeed married his mistress, he might have wanted to keep it secret to avoid potential unrest among nobles, as happened before in Polish history when ruler was committing mésalliance, like in cases of Casimir the Great and Krystyna of Praga, Władysław Jagiełło and Elisabeth of Pilica, or Sigismund August and Barbara Radziwiłł.