![Cappelaere Portrait Miss Haryett Howard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Cappelaere_Portrait_Miss_Haryett_Howard.jpg)
Harriet Howard, born Elizabeth Ann Haryett (1823–1865) was a mistress and financial backer of
Louis-Napoleon, later Napoleon III of France.
London
Elizabeth Ann Haryett was the daughter of a boot-maker and the granddaughter of the owner of the Castle Hotel in
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
. At the age of fifteen she ran off with
Jem Mason
James "Jem" Mason (1816 – 1866) was a champion English jockey. On 26 February 1839 he won the Grand National in Liverpool on a brown-bay racehorse called Lottery.
Born in Stilton, Cambridgeshire to a horse-dealing family he started riding ...
, a well-known jockey, to live with him in London. As his redheaded mistress and an aspiring actress, she renamed herself "Harriet Howard" and was referred to as "Miss Howard". At the age of 18 she took as her next lover and patron the married Major Mountjoy Martyn of the
Life Guards. Howard bore him a son, Martin Constantin Haryett, who at his baptism was presented as the child of her parents. The grateful Martyn bestowed a fortune on her and their son.
At a party given by
Lady Blessington
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (née Power; 1 September 1789 – 4 June 1849), was an Irish novelist, journalist, and literary hostess.''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and ...
in 1846, Howard met Louis Napoleon, the
Bonapartist pretender
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...
to the throne of France, at that time
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
d in London. He moved in with her. With her wealth, she supported his efforts and conspiracies to return to France. Napoleon brought his two sons (Alexandre Louis Eugène and Louis Ernest Alexandre) – from an affair during his 1840–1846 imprisonment at
Ham
Ham is pork from a leg cut of pork, cut that has been food preservation, preserved by wet or dry Curing (food preservation), curing, with or without smoking (cooking), smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. Lo ...
– into the household, where they were educated along with Martin.
Paris
In 1848 Napoleon returned to France and eventually became President. Howard with the three boys moved to the rue de Cirque adjacent to the
Palais de l'Élysée
Palais () may refer to:
* Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK
* ''Palais'', French for palace
** Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
**Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris
* Palais River in ...
, where she kept herself in the background as his mistress. She had a powerful enemy in Napoleon's cousin
Princess Mathilde to whom he was once engaged (1836) and who also had supported him financially. Howard continued to support his aspirations to become emperor and largely financed his
1851 Coup d'état.
One year later, after a confirming
plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, he became Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Soon, he was on a search for an empress, and Howard found herself cast aside. Napoleon, after having been rejected by
Carola of Vasa
Carola of Vasa-Holstein-Gottorp (''Caroline Friederike Franziska Stephanie Amalie Cäcilie''; 5 August 1833 – 15 December 1907), was by birth a titular Princess of Sweden and styled ''Princess of Vasa'' as member of the House of Holstein-Got ...
of Sweden and other high-standing members of the nobility, chose
Eugenie de Montijo. Howard was sent away to
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
when Napoleon announced this marriage, and her secretary desk was emptied of its compromising letters.
Countess de Beauregard
![ChateauBeauregardLaCelleStCloud](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/ChateauBeauregardLaCelleStCloud.jpg)
Howard's fortune was built up again, as Napoleon repaid his financial obligations. She was given the title ''comtesse de Beauregard'', owner of the
Château de Beauregard near the main route between
La Celle-Saint-Cloud
La Celle-Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the Yvelines department of the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is a western suburb of Paris, from the center.
Population
Transport
La Celle-Saint-Cloud is served by two stations on th ...
and
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
near Paris. Within six months of the marriage, Napoleon resumed his relationship with her. His wife, who found sex "disgusting", forbade him to see her, and he, being in need of an heir, had to submit.
Eventually in 1854, Howard married Captain Clarence
Trelawny, an English horse breeder who used her money for his business. The two sons of Napoleon she helped to raise returned to their mother. However, Harriet and Clarence's marriage was difficult and did not last – they divorced in 1865, the same year she died.
The relationship to her son Martin was also strained – at his 21st birthday party, he asked her publicly: "Now that I'm grown, Mother, won't you tell me who my father was?".
Martin was later made ''comte de Béchevêt'' by Napoleon III, married into
Hungarian nobility
The Hungarian nobility consisted of a privileged group of individuals, most of whom owned landed property, in the Kingdom of Hungary. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the late 12th century only high- ...
and had three children, Richard Martyn Haryett de Béchevêt, Grisilde Charlotte Haryett de Béchevêt and Marianne Josephine Haryett de Béchevêt. When Martin died in 1907, his son Richard inherited his title.
She died in her castle on 19 August 1865 at 6:30 pm.
[Archives Départementales des Yvelines.] She is buried alongside her son in the cemetery of
Le Chesnay
Le Chesnay () is a former commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from ...
, located less than 900 metres from the château (now almost totally destroyed).
References
Sources
* Betty Kelen: The Mistresses. Domestic Scandals of Nineteenth-Century Monarchs. Random House, NY, 1966
* Simone Andre Maurois: Miss Howard and the Emperor. Knopf, 1958.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Harriet
1823 births
1865 deaths
People from Brighton
English stage actresses
Mistresses of Napoleon III
English courtesans
19th-century English actresses