Quick Facts
Biography
Countess Karolina Rozalia Tekla Sobańska (née Rzewuska) (born 1793/1795(?) – died 1885) was a Polish agent and noblewoman. She was a Russian agent, the mistress of the Tsarist general Jan Witt and a reputed lover of Poland's national poet Adam Mickiewicz.
Life
Karolina Sobańska belonged to the well-known szlachta family of Rzewuski. Sister of Ewelina Hańska, wife of Honoré de Balzac.
Karolinass first spouse was a Russian officer Stefan Cerkovic. In 1814, she married marszałek Hieronim Sobański h. Junosza and had one child: She had one daughter during her second marriage: Kostancja Honorata Sobańska (1814–1838), married to Prince Ksawery Franciszek Sapieha.
During the November Uprising of 1831, Jan Witt ruled Poland under war laws, and gave her the task to act as a spy in Russian service among to Polish rebels in Dresden i Saxony, a task she reportedly performed well, being able to forward several useful reports to the Russians.Considered a traitor in Russia and not quite trusted by the Russian Czar regardless of her service as a spy, she settled in Paris in France in 1836.
Her third spouse was a Frenchman Jules’a Lacroix.