Eugénie Pétain (née Hardon; 5 October 1877 – 30 January 1962) was the wife of the French military commander and political leader

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...

who ruled

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

between 1940 and 1944. Pétain was her second husband. She had previously been married to François de Hérain, a doctor who later became an artist. Under pressure from her family she had initially rejected a marriage proposal from Pétain and instead wed de Hérain, but this marriage ended in divorce by 1914. Her son from her first marriage

Pierre de Hérain Pierre de Hérain (24 July 1904 – 25 September 1972) was a French film director. Early life Pierre de Hérain was born as Pierre Déhérain on 24 July 1904 in Avilly-Saint-Léonard, Oise, France. His father, François de Hérain, was a painter ...

became a

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. She married Pétain on 14 September 1920, although their relationship had begun before this point and he was reported to have been at a hotel with her the night he was appointed to take command at the

Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun (french: Bataille de Verdun ; german: Schlacht um Verdun ) was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front in France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north ...

in 1916.Buckingham

References

Bibliography

* Atkin, Nicolas. ''Petain''. Routledge, 2014; * Buckingham, William F. ''Verdun 1916: The Deadliest Battle of the First World War''. Amberley 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Petain, Eugenie 1877 births 1962 deaths People from Seine-et-Marne Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Spouses of prime ministers of France