Early Life
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.
Read more about this topic: Marie Walewska
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“When I was in high school I thought a vocation was a particular calling. Here’s a voice: “Come, follow me.” My idea of a calling now is not: “Come.” It’s like what I’m doing right now, not what I’m going to be. Life is a calling.”
—Rebecca Sweeney (b. 1938)