Part 3.2 is the continuation of Chapter 3.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 3.2, which is quite short, the author relates an anecdote involving Louis XVI and her pet dog, discusses her relationships with the royal children, and notes the darkening shadows of the oncoming Revolution.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter 3, Part 2 (3.2)

I often used to encounter the King in the gardens of Versailles, and no matter how far away he was when I spotted him, I always ran to him.  When one day I failed to do so, he had me called.  I arrived all in tears.  

“What’s the matter, my little Adèle?”

“It’s your beastly guards, Sire, who want to kill my dog because he runs after your chickens.”

“I promise you that will never happen again.”

And indeed an order was issued to allow Mlle d’Osmond’s dog to chase the fowl. 

My successes were no less great with the young generation.  The Dauphin,²⁰ who died at Meudon, loved me extremely, and incessantly asked for me to come play with him, and the Duc de Berry²¹ got himself in trouble because at a ball he only wanted to dance with me.  Madame²² and the Duc d’Angoulême²³ favoured me less.  

The misfortunes of the Revolution put an end to my successes at Court.  I do not know if they acted on me in the way of a homeopathic remedy, but it is certain that despite these beginnings of my life, I have never had the instincts of a courtier, nor a taste for the society of princes.  Events had become too serious for anyone to be able to be amused by the antics of a child; 1789 had arrived.  

Notes:

20.  The first son of Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette; born in October, 1781, died in June, 1789.  

21.  Charles-Ferdinand, second son of the Comte d’Artois, born in 1778.

22.  Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, born in 1778.

23.  Louis-Antoine, eldest son of the Comte d’Artois, born in 1775.   

Part 3.3 will deal with the opening of the Estates General and the events of October, 1789.  Look for it here on the blog or on the Versailles Century Facebook page next week!

Part 3.1 is the beginning of Chapter 3.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 3.1, the author relates how, as the only non-royal child at Court, she was spoiled by members of the royal family, including the King and Queen.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter 3, Part 1 (3.1)

I was literally raised on the knees of the royal family.  The King and Queen above all heaped kindness on me.  At a time when, as I have already said, children were put out to nurse, then to be weaned, and then sent to a convent, and when, dressed as little ladies and little gentlemen, they only appeared, sulky and grumpy, to be put on display, I, with my cambric frock and a profusion of blonde hair that adorned a pretty little figure, was extremely striking. My father amused himself developing my intelligence, and I was quite sincerely found to be a little prodigy.  I had learned to read with such great facility that at three years old I read and declaimed Racine’s tragedies for my own pleasure and even, it was said, for that of others.   

It pleased my father to take me to the theatre at Versailles.  I was taken away after the first play so as not to keep me up, and I remember that sometimes the King would call me into his box to have me recount the play I had just seen.  I added my own reflections, which were usually a great success.  To tell the truth, one day I said to him in the midst of my literary remarks that I felt a great desire to ask a favour of him; encouraged by his indulgence, I confessed that, since my ears were going to be pierced the next day, I coveted two of the smallest pendants of the chandeliers in order to have some earrings made.

Part 2.8 is the conclusion of Chapter 2.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 2.8, the conclusion of Chapter 2, the author recounts the novel-worthy career of Mme de Victoire’s remarkable lady-in-waiting, Mme de Civrac.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter Two, Part 8 (2.8)

I have said that Mme de Civrac was Madame Victoire’s lady in waiting.  Her life is a novel.

Mlle Monbadon, the daughter of a Bordeaux notary, had reached the age of twenty-five.  She was tall, witty, and, above all, ambitious.  Her hand in marriage was sought by a country squire in the neighbourhood whose name was M de Blagnac.  He was a member of the bodyguard.  This man was poor, quite rustic, and incapable of appreciating her merits, but he wished to share the little fortune that she stood to inherit from her father.

The person who put the marriage forward emphasized M de Blagnac’s birth; he was a member of the house of Durfort.  Mlle Monbadon had the genealogical papers brought, and, satisfied by her inspection of them, married M de Blagnac.

Packing a small bag in addition to the portfolio in which she enclosed the genealogical parchments, she set off in a stage coach with her husband, and arrived in Paris.  Her first visit was to Chérin; she handed the papers over to him, and asked him to examine them scrupulously.  A few days later, she came back to collect them and obtained the assurance that the affiliation of M de Blagnac with the Lorge branch of the house of Durfort was thoroughly established.  She had a certificate to that effect delivered to her, and began to have herself called Blagnac de Civrac.  She wrote to the old Maréchal de Lorge to ask an interview of him.  She very modestly said that she was only passing through Paris, and she believed that her husband had the honour to be related to him.  As distant as the connection might be, it was such a great honour and source of happiness that she did not wish to return to her provincial obscurity without having claimed it.  If she dared to push her claims as far as being received just once by Mme la Maréchale, her gratitude would be beyond measure.

After a long gap, Part 2.7 of A Childhood at Versailles is now finished.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 2.7, the author addresses the importance of wit at the Court of Versailles, which she illustrates with several anecdotes.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter Two, Part 7 (2.7)

It was during one of these conversations in her rooms that Mme Adélaïde recounted to my father how her curiosity about the Man in the Iron Mask had been checked.  She had talked her brother, the Dauphin, into asking the King who he was.  The Dauphin duly asked the King, who said: “My son, I will tell you if you like, but you will have to swear the same oath that I swore myself never to divulge this secret to anyone.”

The Dauphin admitted that he only wanted to know it in order to tell his sister Adélaîde, and said that he would forego hearing the secret.  The King answered that it was just as well, for the secret, which he set store by keeping because he had sworn to do so, had never been of any great importance and was therefore of no interest.  He added that there were only two men living who knew the secret, himself and M de Machault.

It was on this day  288 years ago that the fabled French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur died in Paris.

Adrienne Lecouvreur at the time of her Comédie Française debut. Credit: Wikimedia.

During the evening the Chevalier said, insultingly and several times: ‘M. de Voltaire, M. Arouet or whatever you call yourself.’ In the end, Voltaire lost his temper and said that he was the first of his name while the Chevalier was the last of his.  This stung Rohan-Chabot on the raw. His grandmother had been the only child of the Duc de Rohan, an ancient family descended from the Kings of Brittany. She had married a Chabot; the family was no longer Rohan at all. The Chevalier, furious, lifted his cane and and said that such an insult could only be wiped out by a good hiding. Voltaire put his hand to his sword; Mlle Lecouvreur tactfully fainted away and the Chevalier left the box. (pp 43-44)

Poster for Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur. Credit: Aleardo Villa – http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/aleardo-villa-italian,-1865-1906-16-c-9j6cisvnfcMore information at Getty Images, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31296907.

Sources: The Wikipedia article “Adrienne Lecouvreur” and Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford.

It was on this day 271 years ago that Louis XV’s mother-in-law, Catherine Opalinska, died in Nancy, then still the capital of the autonomous duchy of Lorraine.

Catherine Opalinska, Queen of Poland and Duchess of Lorraine, painted by Van Loo circa 1725; credit: Wikimedia.

Born in 1680 into the powerful Opalinsky family in Poznan, Poland, she married Stanislas Leszczynski (1677-1766) in 1698. As his consort, she was twice Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania. Both times they were driven off their throne and exiled.  While the first exile, during the Great Northern War (1700-1721), resulted in poverty, the second, after the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1736), led to riches and comfort, since they were given the duchy of Lorraine as compensation for the loss of their Polish crown.

Their only surviving child, Marie Leszczynska (1703-1768), married Louis XV. Through their son, the Dauphin Louis (1729-1765), Catherine was the ancestress of Louis XVI, Louis XVII, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. Like her daughter, Catherine was very pious and given to good works, thus prompting her husband to remark that his wife and daughter were the dullest princesses in Europe.  Louis XV doesn’t seem to have been especially fond of his in-laws, but he did pay for a lavish funeral mass for Catherine at Notre Dame in Paris.

Funeral ceremonies for Catherine Opalinska in Notre Dame de Paris in 1747. Collection Hennin no. 8584, Etching and line-engraving, Department of Prints and Photographs, Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, courtesy of Wikimedia.

Catherine was a loyal, long-suffering wife. She stood by her husband through his shifting political fortunes, followed him through exile in half a dozen countries, shared his (relative) poverty in periods when he was crownless and landless, and tolerated his mistresses.

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It was on this day 261 years ago that the British admiral John Byng was executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch. His crime? He had failed to relieve the British garrison on Minorca, which thus lead to the island’s loss at the outset of the Seven Years War (1756-1763). The British had held Minorca since the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714).

Admiral Byng by an unknown engraver, circa 1756. Credit: Wikimedia.  

Although acquitted of personal cowardice, Byng was convicted by court martial of failing to live up to the Articles of War, mainly for not keeping his fleet together and taking his ships back to Gibraltar for repair in the wake of an indeterminate battle with French vessels instead of attempting to relieve the garrison on Minorca. Public opinion was outraged and George II refused to use his royal prerogative to grant mercy. In hindsight, it looks very much like Byng was a scapegoat for the humiliating loss of Minorca in one of the earliest actions of the Seven Years War.

Map showing Fort St. Philip near Port Mahon, Minorca, when it was under British rule. Credit: Wikimedia.

Voltaire satirizes this judicial murder in Candide.  The title character sees a senior naval officer being put to death and someone says, “Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres”/”In this country, it’s good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others.”

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng

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It was 251 years ago today that the Dauphine Marie-Josèphe, the widow of the Dauphin Louis, Louis XV’s only son, died at Versailles.  Her husband had predeceased her by 15 months. During their 19-year marriage they’d had a total of 13 children. Sadly, less than half of these little ones lived to adulthood. Among those who did were the future kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X.

A bust of the Dauphin Louis (1729-1765), husband of the Dauphine Marie-Josèphe,  in one of his sister Victoire’s rooms at Versailles.

Marie-Josèphe was a Saxon, the daughter of Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. She was brought to France to marry the Dauphin in 1746 when she was only 15. His first wife, a Spanish infanta, had died in the first year of their marriage. The Dauphin’s mother, Queen Marie Leszczynska, was opposed to the match because her father and Marie-Josèphe’s father had been rivals for the Polish crown, which the latter had won. There is a charming story that one day the young Saxon princess was seen to be wearing a portrait bracelet. The Queen asked to see it and was touched to find the portrait of her own father, King Stanislas. The Dauphine seems to have applied the same tact to her dealings with all her new family, and was therefore genuinely mourned after she died.

Stanislas Leszczynski (1677-1766), King of Poland and Duke of Lorraine, grandfather-in-law of the Dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe.

The Dauphin and Dauphine, along with Queen Marie Leszczynska, were the centre of the “moral” faction at court that disapproved of Louis XV’s libertine ways, and of worldly ways in general.  After their deaths, Louis XV’s eldest surviving daughter, Madame Adélaïde, became the leader of this so-called “Old Court.”

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A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 2.6, the author describes Mme Adélaïde’s rather fraught relationship with her chief lady-in-waiting, the Duchesse de Narbonne, who seems to have been a bit of a bully.  This Duchesse de Narbonne (1734-1821), born Françoise de Chalus, had been a mistress of Louis XV.  What’s not explained in the original footnote at the bottom of the page is that it’s possible that Mme de Narbonne’s two sons, including the Comte Louis de Narbonne mentioned in this excerpt, were the King’s sons, and therefore Mme Adélaïde’s half-brothers.  If true, it makes Mme de Narbonne’s hold over Mme Adélaïde more understandable.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter Two, Part Six (2.6)

Mme de Civrac hosted a salon for Mme Victoire that was suitably full of courtiers.  Mme de Narbonne, however, added hardly anything more to the princess’s service than did the people who were invited to meals. Her arrogant personality did not permit any other relations.  It was put about in libels of the time that the Comte Louis de Narbonne was Mme Adélaïde’s son.  That is false and absurd, but it is true that the princess made enormous sacrifices for him.  Mme de Narbonne, otherwise so imperious, submitted to every one of Comte Louis’ whims.  When he committed an extravagance and was short of money, Mme de Narbonne would be in an insufferable mood, which she took out mainly on Mme Adélaïde, making her home life intolerable.  After a few days, the poor princess would buy her peace and quiet back at at exorbitant price.  This is how Comte Louis found himself supplied with enormous sums that were procured without the least effort on his own part, and which he spent with equal ease. In any case, he was the most agreeable and the least malicious of men; a scamp, to be sure, but only because he was always indulged.

The following events occurred between 25 February and 2 March in different years of the Versailles Century (1682-1789).  I find most of them on the English or French wikipedias, but occasionally elsewhere.  Whenever possible, I link to further reading in English or recommend a print source.

The Ball of the Clipped Yew Trees, 25-26 February, 1745

It was on this night 273 years ago that Louis XV “hooked up” with Madame de Pompadour, who was then still Mme d’Étioles. The ball took place in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on the occasion of the wedding of the Dauphin, the King’s son and heir. It was a masked ball, as the King wished to remain anonymous. The festivities got underway at 11pm. Sometime later, eight gentlemen disguised as clipped yew trees entered the hall. One of them, of course, was Louis XV. I can’t do better than to quote Nancy Mitford’s retelling of the scene in her book ‘Madame de Pompadour’: