Septimanie d'Egmont (née Jeanne Louise Armande Élisabeth Sophie ''Septimanie'' de Vignerot du Plessis) (1740 in
Languedoc - 14 October 1773), was a French
salonist
A salon is a gathering of people held by an inspiring host. During the gathering they amuse one another and increase their knowledge through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "e ...
.
Biography
Born the daughter of
Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis
Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (; 13 March 1696 – 8 August 1788), was a French soldier, diplomat and statesman. He joined the army and participated in three major wars. He eventually rose to the rank of Marsha ...
,
Duke of Richelieu, and Princess
Élisabeth Sophie de Lorraine
Élisabeth Sophie de Lorraine (Marie Élisabeth Sophie; 1710 – 2 August 1740) was a French noblewoman and the second wife of Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, the notoriously lecherous Duke of Richelieu.
Biography
She was born in 1710 and was ...
(daughter of
Joseph, Count of Harcourt
Joseph de Lorraine (Anne Marie Joseph; 30 April 1679 – 29 April 1739) was a member of the House of Lorraine and Count of Harcourt. He was styled ''prince de Guise'' before becoming Count of Harcourt.
Biography
Born to Alphonse Henri, Count of ...
), a French ''
prince étranger'', she was raised with her paternal aunt in a
Benedictine convent. In 1755 she was married to Casimir
Pignatelli,
Count of Egmont.
She hosted a salon which gathered "the literary celebrities of the days", including
Voltaire and
Rousseau, and was a center of opposition to
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August 1743 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed, by guillotine, during the French Revolution due to accounts of treason—particularly being ...
. Through her close friendship with the Swedish ambassador to France,
Ulrik Scheffer
Ulrik is a male name, a Scandinavian form of Ulrich. Ulrik may refer to:
*Ulrik Frederik Christian Arneberg (1829–1911), Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party
*Albert Ulrik Bååth (1853–1912), Swedish poet
*Ulrik Balling (born 1975), ...
, she came to know the future
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia.
Gustav was a vocal opponent of what ...
during his visit to
Paris in 1771. Thereafter she maintained a correspondence with him during his reign.
She advised him to "repress the strife of the raging parties", advocated a "monarchy restrained by laws" and greeted
his coup of 1772 with joy, especially its non-bloody character. She called Gustav III "The hero of my heart", and it is considered likely that she had influence "upon the enlightened, humanistic, in many ways liberated direction of the early reign of Gustav III".
[Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 6. Degeberg - Egyptolog]
Ancestry
References
Sources
*
Marie-Célestine-Amélie-de Segur Armaille, Comtesse d', ''La comtesse d'Egmont, fille du maréchal de Richelieu, 1740-1773. D'après ses lettres inédites à Gustave III'', Perrin et Cie, 1890.
* Jean-Claude Hauc, "Septimanie d'Egmont, princesse républicaine" in ''Trois femmes des Lumières'', Les Editions de Paris, 2010.
Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 6. Degeberg - Egyptolog
* Beth Hennings, Grevinnan d'Egmont och Gustav III (1920)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vignerot Du Plessis, Jeanne Sophie De
1740 births
1773 deaths
French salon-holders
French untitled nobility
People of the Ancien Régime
18th-century French people