Maria Zofia Czartoryska

Who was Maria Zofia Czartoryska?

Countess Maria Zofia Czartoryska née Sieniawska was a Polish szlachcianka.

She married Stanisław Donhoff in 1724. After her father's death in 1726 Maria Zofia inherited his Ruthenian estates including 35 towns, 235 villages and Berezhany fortress, she was also the only inheritor of her husband's estates and of her mother's fortune. Among the candidates to the hand of one of the wealthiest women in Europe were Charles de Bourbon-Condé, Count of Charolais supported by France, Portuguese infante Dom Manuel de Bragança supported by the Habsburgs, Jan Klemens Branicki, Franciszek Salezy Potocki, Jan Tarło and August Aleksander Czartoryski, who eventually won the competition full of duels and speech encounters due to support of Augustus II, as the latter was afraid of increase of power of his opponents. She married August Aleksander Czartoryski on July 17, 1731 in Warsaw.