Karolina Sobańska


Countess Karolina Rozalia Tekla Sobańska 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.
Karolina's 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, 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 named Jules Lacroix.