Catherine Radziwill

Princess Catherine Radziwiłł (Polish: Katarzyna Radziwiłłowa; 30 March 1858 – 12 May 1941) was a Polish-Russian aristocrat. She was a prominent figure at the Imperial courts in Germany and Russia, but became involved in a series of scandals. Combining her literary talents with her love for the luxury of the courts, social life, gossip and intrigue, she wrote two dozen books on European royalty and the Russian court, including Behind the Veil at the Russian Court (1914) and her autobiography It Really Happened (1932).

Biography

Princess Catherine Radziwiłł was born in St. Petersburg as 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 (1801–1888), and his second wife, Anna Dmitrievna Dashkova (1831–1858), a daughter of the writer Dmitry Dashkov, Tsar Nicholas I's minister of justice. Catherine's mother, who died while giving birth to her, belonged to some of Russia's most notable families: Dashkov, Stroganov, Pashkov and Vasilchikov. Catherine's father married for a third time and provided her with three half-brothers, including the novelist Stanislaw Rzewuski. The Rzewuski was a literary family, which included Catherine's great-great-grandfather, Wacław Rzewuski and her uncle, Henryk, both writers. Her aunt Karolina kept a literary salon in Paris; her aunt Ewelina was the wife of Honoré de Balzac.