How Agnieszka Machówna Fooled Polish Nobility with a False Identity
A Tale of Deception, Ambition, and a Peasant’s Rise and Fall Agnieszka Machówna, a peasant from the village of Kolbuszowa in Poland, carved her name into history not through noble birth but through a cunning web of lies that duped Polish aristocrats and beyond. Born into humble circumstances, with a father who beat drums for the military and a mother who toiled as a servant in the grand Lubomirski Palace, her early life seemed destined for obscurity. Yet, her story is one of extraordinary ambition, fueled by an education rare for her class and a boldness that defied the rigid social hierarchy of 17th-century Poland. Tutored by a parish priest at the behest of Duchess Helena Tekla Lubomirska, she learned to read, write, and mimic the graces of the elite, skills she later wielded to pass as a noblewoman. After her mother’s death, she was raised by aunts, tending geese and enduring a harsh peasant existence, but her sights were set far higher. At 16, she wed Bartosz Zatorski, a court Coss...