Charlotte de Curton,
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
''de Vienne'' (1513-1575), was a French court official; she served as deputy royal governess to the French royal children.
Biography
Charlotte de Curton was the daughter of Gérard de Vienne and Bénigne de Dinteville, and married first in 1536 to Jacques de Beaufort, Marquis de Canillac (1490-1546), and second in 1547 to the chevalier d'honneur to queen
Catherine de Medici, Joachim de Chabannes, Seneschal of Toulouse (1502-1559).
She was appointed souse gouvernante or sub-governess to the royal children under the supervision of the
Governess of the Children of France The Governess of the Children of France (sometimes the Governess of the Royal Children) was office at the royal French court during pre-Revolutionary France and the Bourbon Restoration. She was charged with the education of the children and grandchi ...
. It was said about her by the historian Mongez that she had been "the gouvernante of seven queens and princesses".
After the marriage of the princesses Elisabeth, Claude and Mary Stuart, she supervised the upbringing of
Margaret of Valois in Vincennes and Amboise in collaboration with Henri Le Maignan. Margaret of Valois described her in her memoirs as "a wise and virtuous lady greatly attached to the Catholic religion", and pointed out her as the reason to why she never converted to Protestantism despite encouragement by her brother the duke of Anjou, who used to give her:
:"...Huguenot songs and prayers, which I used to hand over at once to Madame de Curton, my gouvernante, whom God had done me the favour to keep Catholic, and who would often take me to M. Cardinal de Tournon, who advised and strengthened me in the suffering of all things for the maintenance of my religion, and gave me prayerbooks and rosaries, in the place of those which had been burnt by my brother of Anjou."
When Margaret was engaged to
Henry of Navarre and his mother
Joan III of Navarre
Jeanne d'Albret (Basque: ''Joana Albretekoa''; Occitan: ''Joana de Labrit''; 16 November 1528 – 9 June 1572), also known as Jeanne III, was Queen of Navarre from 1555 to 1572.
Jeanne was the daughter of Henry II of Navarre and Margaret ...
visited the French court to negotiate, she complained that Margaret "is always attended by Madame de Curton (her gouvernante) so that it is impossible tor me to utter a word which the latter does not hear."
After Margaret's marriage to king
Henry III of Navarre
Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...
in 1572, Charlotte de Curton changed her position from that of governess to chief lady-in-waiting, a post she retained to her death in 1575.
References
* Hugh Noel Williams,
Queen Margot, wife of Henry of Navarre', New York, Harper and brothers, 1907.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curton, Charlotte de
1513 births
1575 deaths
Governesses to the Children of France
Household of Catherine de' Medici
Court of Charles IX of France
Court of Henry II of France