Franciszka Corvin-Krasińska

Franciszka Corvin-Krasińska (1742, Maleszowa – 30 April 1796 in Dresden), was a Polish noblewoman and the morganatic wife of Charles of Saxony, Duke of Courland, the son of King Augustus III of Poland.

She was the daughter of the Polish nobleman Stanisław Corvin-Krasiński (1717–1762) and Aniela Humiecka. Wratislaw Corvin (fl.) in 1224, and the family's patriline traces to Slawek Corvin, (fl. 1412–1427), who became hereditary lord of Krasne and founded the village of Wold Krasińska in 1460. His grandson, Jan Corvin-Krasiński is the ancestor of both the Krasne-Krasiński line, which obtained the title of Imperial Count in 1560 and became extinct in the 20th century, and the cadet branch of Corvin Krasiński, founded by his son Andrea (fl. 1588) and subdivided into several lines, the eldest of which descended from Gabriel and ended with Stanislaw Corvin-Krasiński, who had four daughters, including Franciszka.

Franciszka was born at Maleszowa castle, but the family moved to Warsaw, where she would meet her future husband, Charles of Saxe-Courland. Charles was a younger son of Augustus III of Poland, who was also hereditary Elector of Saxony. His elder siblings included Maria Josepha, wife of the Dauphin Louis, eldest son of Louis XV of France; Maria Amalia, queen consort of Carlos III of Spain; the Elector Friedrich Christian, whose son would become first King of Saxony in 1806; Maria Anna, consort of Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, Prince Albert of Saxony, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands; and Prince Francis Xavier of Saxony, whose morganatic marriage to Countess Chiara Spinucchi generated the Counts von der Lausitz who fled France during the Revolution and settled in Rome.

As Franciszka was noble, but did not belong to a reigning or immediate dynasty, she married Charles secretly and never shared his dynastic title. In response to the persistence of Charles and advocates at the Saxon royal court, although the marriage was only recognized as morganatic, in June 1775 Franciszka was given her own title of princess by Emperor Joseph II, heritable by her children.

The couple had two daughters: Maria Theresia (born and died 1767) and Maria Christina (born Dresden, 7 December 1770 – died Paris, 24 November 1851), who first married, on 24 October 1797 at Turin, Carlo Emanuele of Savoy, Prince of Carignano, head of the cadet branch of the dynasty which reigned as kings over Sardinia and Piedmont. Her son inherited the Sardinian throne in 1831 as Charles Albert I, and her grandson would become King of Italy as Victor Emmanuel II in 1861. After the Prince of Carignano's death, Maria Christina was wed 1 February 1816 to Jules Maximilien Thibaut, Prince de Montléart, who refurbished Wilhelminenberg Castle.

Franciszka likely died of breast cancer.

Franciszka has been the subject of a novel by Klementyna Hoffmanowa.