Princess Elà ¼bieta Izabela Czartoryska (21 May 1736 â 11 November 1816), better known under her married name of Izabela Lubomirska, was a politically influential Polish aristocrat, philanthropist and cultural patron.
She was the daughter of August Aleksander Czartoryski, one of the leaders of the Familia, and Maria Zofia Czartoryska. In her youth, she fell in love with her cousin, Stanisà Âaw August Poniatowski, later elected King of Poland as Stanislaus Augustus, but was unable to marry him due to the objections of her father, who thought him not sufficiently rich or influential.
Eventually, she married Stanisà Âaw Lubomirski on 9 June 1753, later Grand Marshal of the Crown, with whom she had four children: Julia Lubomirska, Konstancja Maà Âgorzata Lubomirska, Elà ¼bieta Lubomirska and Aleksandra Lubomirska.
She was a member of the Women's Adoption Lodge - Dobroczynnoà Âà(Charity) - of the Polish Freemasons from 1783. Because of her liking for blue, which she often wore, she was called the "Blue Marquise".
She was one of the biggest and the wealthiest landowners in the Commonwealth. Her properties included the palace in Wilanów (prior royal residence of John III Sobieski) near Warsaw, the (then called Rozkosz, translating as Plaisance), which she built for her daughter Aleksandra, and the in Mokotów (today's Szustra Palace). She laid the cornerstone for the building of the National Theatre in Warsaw and initiated the reconstruction of her husband's family estate, the à Âaà Âcut Castle, in the Rococo style.
Undoubtedly, she was one of the most outstanding women in Poland in the 18th century. She took a very active part in the politics of her camp, strove both for the acquisition of foreign courts and the masses of the Polish nobility. At first, she was very fond of her youth's presumed lover, Stanisà Âaw August, then she fought him passionately. Embittered by the failure of her actions at court, she moved to Paris, and after the outbreak of the revolution, she escaped to Vienna. Apart from her political activity, she distinguished herself as a progressive protector of peasants â she founded schools and hospitals in her estates.
She died on November 25, 1816, in Vienna. She was buried in the Währing cemetery in Vienna. On September 23, 1885, due to the liquidation of the cemetery in Währing, the coffin was transported to the Church of St. Stanislaus the Bishop in à Âaà Âcut, where it was buried again. Earlier, a monument of white Carrara marble was erected in the temple, funded by count Alfred Potocki.
In the à Âaà Âcut estate, she founded a distillery which exists today under the name Polmos à Âaà Âcut.