Jean-Baptiste Cléry was the personal valet

Valet

Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...

 to King Louis XVI.

Before the Revolution

First serving as secretary of the Princess of Guéménée, he was made valet of the dauphin (who would become Louis XVII).

During the Revolution

Cléry became the valet of Louis XVI when he was imprisoned in the Temple

Temple (Paris)

The Temple was a medieval fortress in Paris, located in what is now the IIIe arrondissement. It was built by the Knights Templar from the 12th century, as their European headquarters. In the 13th century it replaced earlier works of the Vieille Temple in Le Marais...

 until January 21, 1793. Although he was arrested on September 25, 1793, he avoided the fate of the guillotine and was freed on July 27, 1794.

After the Revolution

Cléry became valet to the Count of Provence (future Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...

) and gave him his journal detailing the events of the revolution. His journal gave an account of what he saw of his touching farewell with his family. The journal was published and was well received, and later led to Cléry's being knighted by Louis XVIII. The popularity and pro-royalist sentiments generated by the memoirs led the French government to release a distorted copy of the book.

Cléry moved to Austria and purchased an estate where he stayed until his death in 1809.

External links

• The Ruin of a Princess which contains Madame Elisabeth's life and letters, Narrarative of Madame Royale and Journal of the Tower of the Temple by Cléry.
• Faithful Servant by Will Bashor.