Louise-Elisabeth, Marquise de Tourzel
Encyclopedia
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...
memoir-writer, noble and courtier. She was the last governess to the royal children
Governess of the Children of France
In France, the Governess of the Children of France , was charged with the education of the children and grand children of the monarch. The holder of the office was taken from the highest ranking nobility of France...
of King Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
.
Life
Louise Élisabeth was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, into the illustrious Croÿ family
House of Croÿ
The House of Croÿ is an international family of European mediatized nobility which held a seat in the Imperial Diet from 1486, and was elevated to the rank of Imperial Princes in 1594...
during the reign of 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...
. The Duchess's father was the Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
Louis Ferdinand Joseph of Havré
Havré
Havré is a village near the Belgian town of Mons in the province of Hainaut.- Gallery :...
and his mother the Princess
Princess
Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
Marie Louise of Montmorency-Luxembourg.
She was married in 1766, at the age of seventeen, to the Marquis de Tourzel. They enjoyed a happy marriage for twenty years, in which Louise Élisabeth bore six children. Her husband was killed in a hunting accident in 1786. She was a staunch supporter of the House of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
, and had this motto engraved on a ring she refused to part with: Lord, save the King, the Dauphin, and his sister!
French Revolution
In 1789, after the fall of the Bastille, many members of the Queen's intimate circle were forced to flee abroad. The Duchesse de Polignac, the queen's favouriteFavourite
A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...
and the governess to the royal children, was forced to emigrate to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
appointed Louise Élisabeth to the newly vacant post, with particular attention to be paid to the Dauphin, Louis-Charles
Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII , from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France; and from 1791 to 1793 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette...
. The Marquise was advised to curb the Dauphin's fear of loud noises, particularly the barking of the many dogs at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
.
From this intimate position, the Marquise de Tourzel was able to watch the disintegration of the Ancien Régime. After an angry mob of hungry women incited by revolutionaries stormed the Palace of Versailles
The March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles, also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were...
on October 5, 1789, the Marquise accompanied the royal family to live in the Tuileries Palace
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace was a royal palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
in Paris. Tourzel's loyalty was strong, and she refused to abandon the royal children as political strife in the nation dramatically increased. She even accompanied the King and his family on a dangerous attempt to flee Paris
Flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution...
for a royalist stronghold in Montmédy
Montmédy
Montmédy is a commune in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.-Citadel of Montmédy:In 1221 the first castle of Montmédy was built on top of a hill by the Count of Chiny. Montmédy became soon the capital of his territory - later it belonged to Luxembourg, Burgundy, Austria and...
. This attempt failed, and the entire party was dragged back to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by republicans.
After the abolition of the monarchy in 1792, Tourzel was separated from the royal family and imprisoned in La Force Prison
La Force Prison
La Force Prison was a French prison located in the Rue du Roi de Sicile, what is now the 4th arrondissement of Paris.Originally the private residence of the Duke of la Force, the structure was converted into a prison in 1780....
and the Prison Port-Libre. Also imprisoned at the same time were Tourzel's daughter, Pauline de Tourzel
Pauline de Tourzel
Pauline de Tourzel, was the Daughter of the Marquise de Tourzel, Louise-Félicité-Joséphine de Croŷ d'Havré, the last governess of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's children, who later, as Comtesse de Bearn, became a lady-in-waiting to the only survivor of the immediate royal family, Madame Royal,...
, and Marie Antoinette's most loyal friend, the Princesse de Lamballe. Shortly after their imprisonment, the three women found themselves victims of the September Massacres
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys...
, when thousands of incarcerated people in Paris were massacred by violent revolutionaries who were trying to rid the prisons of jailed aristocrats. Tourzel and her daughter were smuggled out of the prison by a mysterious gentleman, but Lamballe was not so fortunate. She was savagely murdered, and her decapitated head was then paraded around the city.
In January 1793, Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
was executed. In October, Queen Marie Antoinette was also sent to the guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
. Tourzel was devastated by their deaths, and she was equally shocked to hear of the death of Louis-Charles
Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII , from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France; and from 1791 to 1793 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette...
in 1795. Several times over the coming decades, Tourzel was accosted by various men pretending to be "Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII , from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France; and from 1791 to 1793 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette...
".
Post revolution
During the Bourbon RestorationBourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
, Tourzel was made a duchess by a grateful King Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
. She later published her memoirs, which are an invaluable historical account of the final days of the royal household. Her daughter, Pauline, became a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette's only surviving child, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duchesse d'Angoulême
Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France
Marie Thérèse de France was the eldest child of King Louis XVI of France and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette...
.
In fiction
The Marquise has featured in several novels about the French Royal family, including Trianon and Madame Royale by Elena Maria VidalElena Maria Vidal
Elena Maria Vidal is a historical novelist and noted blogger living in Easton, Maryland. She was born in Florence, Oregon and grew up in Frederick, Maryland...
, Flaunting, Extravagant Queen by Jean Plaidy and the Marie Antoinette romances by Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
. The character of the Marquise de Tourzel appeared in the 1956 French film Marie-Antoinette reine de France.