Zofia Potocka - Biography

Biography

Born in Bursa, Zofia Clavone was a daughter of Konstantin and Maria Clavone. Her mother, who supported herself by selling vegetables, sold her in 1772 at the age of twelve to the Polish ambassador in Constantinople, who provided the Polish monarch with prostitutes: her sister was sold to a Turkish pascha She was the mistress of the ambassador until 1778, when she became a prostitute and called herself Sophie de Tchelitche. In 1779, she was bought by a Polish Commander, Józef Witt, who married her. They had two sons, Jan and Kornel. Witt sent her to Paris with the princess of Nassau-Siegen to be cultivated in polite society. She made a great success in Paris, where she was called La Belle Phanariote and famous for her remark: "My eyes hurt". She was called the most beautiful woman in Europe. During her stay in Paris, she had an affair with the two younger brothers of the French monarch, the count de Provence and the count of Artois

In 1787, they traveled to Istanbul, where they were at the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War. A year later, she was present in the camp of the favorite of Catherine the Great, Grigory Potyomkin, and became his lover, a relationship which lasted until his death During the siege of Chotin, her spouse, then governor of Kamenets, managed Potemkin's spy net in southern Poland and upheld spy contacts in Chotin, though this task was likely managed by Zofia, as her sister was married to the pascha of Chotin. Potemkin made her spouse governor of Cherson and likely used her as an agent among the Poles and Turks. She was introduced as the official lover of Grigory Potyomkin on a ball during his visit in Saint Petersburg 1791. She was sent away by Aleksandra von Engelhardt at the death of Potemkin.

In 1798 she married secondly the Polish szlachcic Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, with whom she had had an affair in Jassy, after he managed to help her acquire a legal Catholic divorce with great difficulty. The wedding was a double rite; Catholic and Orthodox, because of the religion of the bride, and in addition was an expression of loyalty to the Empress Catherine. They had eight children. She also had many lovers and illegitimate children. During her marriage, she also had a love affair with her step son, Szczęsny Jerzy Potocki, who was likely the father of her son Boleslaw. Her spouse founded the Park Sofijówka for her for a cost of 15 million złoty.

After the death of her spouse in 1805, she ended the affair with her stepson and spent her time devoted to her children According to Polish civil law, a widow received a refund of her dowry and participation in her husband's property. Due to her lack of dowry, she was given little inheritance after Potocki, whose only rightful heirs were the sons of his first marriage. She, however, managed to keep almost the entire property, with the support of her former stepson Felix Potocki, which was her lover, and the Tsar's governor Nikolai Novosiltsov, which was also her lover