Countess Maria Zofia Czartoryska née Sieniawska (1698–1771) was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 szlachcianka

Szlachta

The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...

 (noble lady).

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

Berezhany Castle

The Berezhany Castle round which the modern town of Berezhany has sprung up, was built on an island in the Zolota Lypa River in the 1530s and 1540s by Mikołaj Sieniawski as the main residence of the Sieniawski magnate family....

, 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

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 (Louis XV

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

 even invited Maria Zofia to Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

), Portuguese infante Dom Manuel de Bragança supported by the Habsburgs (proposed as the next King of Poland, due to the tenets of the Löwenwolde's Treaty

Löwenwolde's Treaty

The Treaty of the Three Black Eagles or the Treaty of Berlin , was a secret treaty between the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire and Prussia...

), Jan Klemens Branicki

Jan Klemens Branicki

Count Jan Klemens Branicki was a Polish nobleman, magnate and Hetman, Field Crown Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1735 and 1752, and Great Crown Hetman between 1752 and 1771....

, Franciszek Salezy Potocki

Franciszek Salezy Potocki

Franciszek Salezy Potocki was a Polish-Lithuanian noble . Knight of the Order of the White Eagle, awarded on August 3, 1750 in Warsaw....

, Jan Tarło and August Aleksander Czartoryski

August Aleksander Czartoryski

Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski was a Polish-Lithuanian noble , magnate, and founder of the family fortune.August became Major-General of the Polish Army in 1729, voivode of the Ruthenian Voivodship in 1731, General Starost of Podolia in 1750–1758, and a Knight of Malta...

, 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

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

.