Alexandra Francis Rzewuska

Aleksandra Franciszka Lubomirska (nicknamed Rosalie by her father) (1788 in Kiev – 11 January 1865 in Warsaw) was a Polish aristocrat, artist and writer from the Lubomirski family. She was the daughter of Prince Alexander Lubomirski, Castellan of Kiev (Kijów), and Rozalia Lubomirska, née Chodkiewicz. Life In 1794 her mother, Rozalia, was living in Paris and was arrested during the Reign of Terror; her house was frequented by British spies and Girondin counter-revolutionaries. The seven year-old Rosalie was incarcerated with her mother, who was guillotined on 30 June 1794 aged 25. The child was left alone, at the mercy of the prison gaoler, who ill-treated her and almost refused her dry bread, the only food she had. Rosalie's father was a General in the French Army but was away just then and unaware of his little girl's fate. He heard of it at last and sent for her, and the person he commissioned to fetch her arrived three days before she was to have been sent to the Foundling Hospital of Paris. She was released after the Thermidorian Reaction (9 Thermidor, Year 11, 27 July 1794) and the death of Maximilien Robespierre the following day.