Madam de Montesson

Charlotte Jeanne Béraud of $the Hague of Riou, marchioness of Montesson , was born in 1738 and died in 1806.

Biography

Origin and marriage

It is originating in a family distinguished from Brittany. Charlotte Jeanne Béraud of $the Hague of Riou married very young person, towards 1754, the old marquis Jean-Baptiste de Montesson, who left it widowed in 1769, not without to have introduced it at the Court of Versailles.

Mistress of the duke of Orleans

Its fortune increased much by the death of his/her single brother, the marquis of the Hedge of Riou, entilhomme of the sleeve of the Duc of Burgundy and senior officer of gendarmerie, which was killed with the Bataille of Minden. Madam de Montesson remained widowed in 1769; its excellent reputation, its talents, its kindness and the kindness of its character made it seek in the world.

After the death of the duchess of Chartres in 1749, and little time before its widowhood, it became the mistress in title of Louis Philippe of Orleans (1725-1785) known as “ the Large ”, duke of Chartres then duke of Orleans in 1752, which it called “ Large-Father ”.

A difficult marriage

During years, the duke of Orleans tried to obtain Louis XV the permission to marry it. The duke of Chartres, wire of the duke of Orleans, was opposed to it resolutely. The king granted only in 1772 to it, and the condition express which the marriage was only Morganatique and which Mrs. de Montesson did not become duchess of Orleans, which made say that fault of having been able to make of the marchioness of Montesson a duchess of Orleans, the duke of Orleans had been made marquis de Montesson.

The bridal blessing was given the April 23rd 1773 in the vault of the hotel of Mrs. de Montesson to the roadway of Antin, by the priest of Saint-Eustace, of which it was parish, it had been authorized there by the archbishop of Paris, on the assent of the king, His Majesty “ wanting that the marriage remained secret, as much as making could be ”, i.e. as a long time as no child would be the fruit; To knowledge close to the circumstances which did not have to be made public, one can say that this marriage was ignored neither at the court nor at the city; and it was generally thought that Madam de Montesson, become the wife of the first prince of blood, without having the title and the row of princess, was in an extremely difficult intermediate position.

Their marriage was indicated a long time in the Roman calendar; but as he was not openly acknowledged in France, Louis XVI, by letters patent of the August 26th 1781, recorded two days after at the Parliament, authorized Madam de Montesson to proceed, as well in the courts as in the voluntary acts and contracts, under his only family names.

A discrete life

After the marriage, the duke of Orleans and his new wife had to flee the Palais Royal and Saint-Cloud, their situation being from now on incompatible with the obligations of the label. They lived discreetly between the Château of Raincy and the Château of Holy-Base, wedding gift offered to Mrs. de Montesson, located at Seine-Port (current Département of Seine-et-Marne), at the edge of the Seine, and where, in spite of several years of intrigue, it never had the honor of a royal visit.

It diverted her husband there by giving small comedies which it wrote - but that Carmontelle re-examined before they were played - and where husband and woman often played themselves: Marianne or orphan the , the Happy exchange, the romantic Lover , the voluntary Deaf person , the False virtue , etc With saying his/her niece M {{me}} of Genlis (which hardly liked it), the play of Mrs. de Montesson was as poor as its parts, but these representations less did not attract with Holy-Base the company the best selected one. It is said that from Alembert as far as planning to admit women with the French Academy went to make there enter Mrs. de Montesson.

Although supposedly private residence of Mrs. de Montesson and simple country house, one led large train to the castle of Holy-Base. An abundant domesticity composed a true civil and military house.

Live, spiritual and merry, Mrs. de Montesson was also the bienfaitrice of Seine-Port, encouraging the development of the village by important land attributions and making watch of much charity with regard to the needy ones. On a ground dependant on its field, it made arrange a great place to accommodate two annual fairs. It organized also a market every Thursday, made open new streets to develop the village. It yielded grounds to advantageous conditions with those which wished to be established with Seine-Port. It also created a firm Dutchwoman called the Flemish Vachette .

Towards the end of the lifetime of the duke of Orleans, Mrs. de Montesson took for lover the young person count de Valence, which could have been his/her son and who had married one of his small-nieces besides, Pulchérie de Genlis.

Become widowed one second time, in 1785, it was paid, after some discussions, of the Douaire which have-stipulated by its marriage contract. She was not less very affected by the sudden death of the duke and the humiliation which the king made him while prohibiting to him to carry its mourning in a conspicuous way and to make it carry to its servants. She made bury the heart of her husband in the church of Seine-Port and, forsaking Holy-Base, withdrew herself during one year with the convent of the Assumption.

French revolution

A new dispute being raised, Louis XVI signed in July 1792 an act by which he recognized the rights that it had with this douaire, like marries of the duke of Orleans.

The reserve which it kept throughout all its life, where it counted true friends without never exposing itself to excite the least enmity; the softness and the affability which were natural for him; perhaps also the memory of the benefits spread by it formerly in the poor class of the people: all contributed to save it greater dangers of the French revolution. One had not been able to entirely forget that in the excessively cold winter of 1788 with 1789, it had made remove the trees of its orangery and the plants which decorated the greenhouses of its gardens, so that these buildings became rooms of work open to the poor. They received there the food and of the helps of any species, at the same time as they found a shelter there. against the rigors of the season.

Later, it made raise in the church of Seine-Port a vault, the Saint-Louis vault, to receive the remainders of her husband, while envisaging to be made there bury itself, following what it sold Holy-Base and went to move into its house of the Rue of Provence where it resided until its death in 1806.

Briefly imprisoned under the Terror, it was released after the Thermidor 9.

Friend of Joséphine

She had been the friend of the empress Joséphine. She had formerly known Madam de Beauharnais, with whom her connection had been joined again during the Expédition of Egypt and in a voyage to water of Plombières. On his return the general Napoleon Bonaparte, traversing papers of his wife, distinguished several letters from Madam de Montesson.

She played a society man part of foreground, holding a living room very shining.

The affection of the first consul, become then emperor, was acquired with the person who judged it also favorably it made pay her douaire, which had sat on the channels of Orleans and the Loing. Madam de Montesson had better liked to be likely to lose the whole value of it, than to make it liquidate like her other-credits on the State.

In 1802, it was made arrange by Brongniart a peaceful retirement in a property called the mill of Romainville.

With died of the count of Bridge-to-Veyle, it had to fair the acquisition of its rich person dramatic library.

Death

She died in Paris the February 6th 1806. Funerals of Madam de Montesson were celebrated with much pump. The body remained in a burning chapel with the church of Saint-Roch during three days, which were necessary for the preparations of the translation.

According to his desire, its heir, the count of Valence, made it bury with Seine-Port, in the superb monument which shelters the heart of the duke of Orleans. But, ultimate affront, the inscription that made there engrave the king Louis-Philippe Ier does not mention its presence.

Varied talents

Madam de Montesson, remarkable by her character, her spirit and the singularity of her situation in the large world, was still characterized by not very common talents of approval. Raise Van Spaendonk, it left several tables of flowers worthy of the school of this large Master. She played well of the toothing-stone, sang so as to make the greatest pleasure and passed for an excellent actress of company. Such were finally the assiduity of its application, its order and its method in the distribution of its time, which it still could receive with continuation of the lessons of physics and chemistry of Misters Claude Louis Berthollet and Pierre-Simon Laplace, admitted until his death in its intimacy.

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