Louise-Emmanuelle de Châtillon, known as ''Princesse de Tarente'' (1763-1814) was a French noble,

memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

and court official. She served as lady-in-waiting (''

Dame du Palais The Dame du Palais, originally only Dame, was an historical office in the Royal Court of France. It was a title of a lady-in-waiting holding the official position of personal attendant on a female member of the French Royal Family. The position ...

'') to

queen Marie Antoinette of France Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child an ...

from 1782 to 1792. Her memoirs about her life during the

French revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

has been published.

Life

Louise-Emmanuelle de Châtillon was born to Louis Gaucher, duke de Châtillon, and Adrienne-Emilie-Félicité de la Baume le Blanc de La Vallière. She was a grand daughter of

Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc, ''duc de Vaujours'', '' ''duc de La Vallière' (9 October 1708 – 16 November 1780), was a French nobleman, bibliophile and military man. The present '' duc d'Uzès'' and ''duc de Luynes'' descend from him. ...

, the famous writer. In 1781, she married Charles Bretagne Marie de La Trémoille, prince de Tarente and duke de la Trémouille. The couple had one daughter, Charlotte (26 October 1788 – 15 February 1791). In 1786, she was appointed one of 15 ''

dame du palais The Dame du Palais, originally only Dame, was an historical office in the Royal Court of France. It was a title of a lady-in-waiting holding the official position of personal attendant on a female member of the French Royal Family. The position ...

'' to queen Marie Antoinette.

Revolution

After the outbreak of the

, her spouse emigrated and joined the émigré army under the Prince of Condé. Louise-Emmanuelle accompanied the royal family from Versailles to Paris after the

Women's 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 ...

in October 1789, and continued to serve the queen in the Tuileries. Reportedly, she was perhaps the female colleague with whom the

princesse de Lamballe Princesse (French 'princess') may refer to: *"Princesse", single hit for Julie Zenatti * Princesse (Nekfeu song) * La Princesse 15-metre (50-foot) mechanical spider designed and operated by French performance art company La Machine. See also * P ...

was most friendly, and was a frequent guest of Lamballe's salon in the ''

Pavillon de Flore The Pavillon de Flore, part of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, France, stands at the southwest end of the Louvre, near the Pont Royal. It was originally constructed in 1607–1610, during the reign of Henry IV, as the corner pavilion between ...

'', where Lamballe was known to recruit aristocratic loyalist contacts for the royal cause. During the

Demonstration of 20 June 1792 The Demonstration of 20 June 1792 (french: Journée du 20 juin 1792) was the last peaceful attempt made by the people of Paris to persuade King Louis XVI of France to abandon his current policy and attempt to follow what they believed to be a mor ...

, she, alongside Princess de Lamballe, Madame de Tourzel, the Duchess de Maillé, Mme de La Roche-Aymon,

Marie Angélique de Mackau Marie Angélique de Mackau née ''de Fitte de Soucy'' (1723-1801), was a French court office holder. She was royal governess to Élisabeth of France (1764–1794) and later to the children of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette from 1771 and ...

Renée Suzanne de Soucy Renée Suzanne de Soucy née ''de Mackau'' (1758-1841), was a French court office holder. She was royal governess to the children of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette from 1781 and 1792. Life She was the daughter of baron Marie Henri Louis ...

, Mme de Ginestous, and a few noblemen, belonged to the courtiers surrounding the queen and her children for several hours when the mob passed by the room shouting insults to Marie Antoinette.

The 10 August

During the

10 August (French Revolution) The Insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a defining event of the French Revolution, when armed revolutionaries in Paris, increasingly in conflict with the French monarchy, stormed the Tuileries Palace. The conflict led France to abolish the mona ...

, she and the rest of the ladies-in-waiting of the queen was left in the queen's chamber after the royal family left the palace only in the company of Princess de Lamballe and Madame de Tourzel. According to Madame de Campan, the Princesse de Tarente was devastated to be left in the palace, but still managed to compose herself enough to open the doors to the chamber to the mob.Madame Campan, Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Project Gutenberg This convinced the mob that the royal family was not there and that there was no need from them to break in, which may have saved the life of the women. When the mob entered to chamber where the ladies-in-waiting were gathered, the Princesse de Tarente, according to Pauline de Tourzel, approached one of the revolutionaries and asked for his protection.''Memoirs of the Dutchess de Tourzel, governess to the children of France during the years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1795'', 1886 Reportedly, when the rebels entered the queen' bedchamber, the lady-in-waiting of the princesse de Lamballe, countess de Ginestous, became hysterical, fallen on her knees and begged for mercy, upon which the Princesse de Tarente, herself composed, had turned to the young Marseillais who led the rioters and said: "This poor lady is, as you see, hysterical: will you kindly see her to a place of safety; And this young girl also", indicating Pauline de Tourzel, "I confide to your honour; kill me if you will, but treat her with respect", upon which he replied: "We do not fight with women; go, all of you, if you choose." According to Pauline de Tourzel, he then escorted her and Princesse de Tarente out. Following this example, the rest of the ladies-in-waiting departed the palace in about the same way, and all passed safely out. de Tarente and Pauline de Tourzel was escorted from the palace by the rebel, who left them on the street; where they were discovered by a mob who brought them to prison. The prison director allowed them to leave, and de Tarente brought Pauline de Tourzel with her to her grandmother, from which she could later be united with her mother.Memoirs of the Dutchess de Tourzel, governess to the children of France during the years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1795, 1886

The September Massacres

Because she was known as a personal confidante of the Princesse de Lamballe, who was suspected of having recruited contacts for the royal absolutist cause in her salon, de Tarente was arrested and interrogated regarding the people she met in the salon of the princesse de Lamballe at the Tuileries.Hardy, B. C. (Blanche Christabel),
The Princesse de Lamballe; a biography
', 1908,

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

She denied having participated in or having been aware of any treasonous plots, and after having refused to testify to any treasonous acts committed by Marie Antoinette, she was detained in prison from 27 August onward.Souvenirs de la princesse de Tarente, 1789-1792 Because of this, she was still in the

prison de l'Abbaye The Prison de l’Abbaye was a Paris prison in use from 1522 to 1854. The final building was built by Christophe Gamard in 1631 and made up of three floors, flanked by two turrets (or more exactly, '' échauguettes''). It was the scene of a porti ...

during the

September Massacres The September Massacres were a series of killings of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by '' fédérés'', gu ...

, when people's tribunals summarily trialed and executed the inmates in the prisons of Paris. The prison staff, however, tried to subdue the violence as much as possible, particularly in regard to the female prisoners of prison de l'Abbaye, of which only two out of 200 women prisoners where ultimately executed. In the case of de Tarente, she was escorted to the tribunal by prison staff intending to protect her, and was particularly assisted by one Monsieur Chancy, who told her what to say so as to turn the tribunal sentence to her advantage. She answered that she had been imprisoned since 27 August; that she had been interrogated and her home searched since but no incriminating evidence had been presented against her, and that she was separated from her husband and did not know where he was nor cared of it. She was acquitted from all charges by the people's tribunal and escorted home to her mother at the Hotel de Châtillon.

Later life

During the Reign of Terror in 1793, de Tarente emigrated to England and lived on a pension given to her by the sister of Marie Antoinette,

Maria Carolina of Austria Maria Carolina Louise Josepha Johanna Antonia (13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814) was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. As '' de facto'' ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw th ...

. In 1795, she unsuccessfully applied for a position as lady-in-waiting to

Marie Thérèse of France Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in T ...

. She left England in company of her brother-in-law Marie François Emmanuel de Crussol for the court of Russia around March 1797, where she was a

dame d'honneur Dame d'honneur or Dame d’honneur was a common title for two categories of French ladies-in-waiting, who are often confused because of the similarity. Dame d'honneur can be: * Short for Première dame d'honneur, which were commonly shortened to ...

of the tsarina Maria Feodorovna. She returned to France in 1801, and remained for three years, but she did not wish to live there because of the traumatic memories of the revolution, and preferred to return and spend the rest of her life in Russia, where she was a central figure in the circles of the French emigres around countess Varvara Golovina.

Works

* ''Souvenirs de la princesse de Tarente, 1789-1792''

References

* Nagel, Susan. " Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter ". NY: Bloomsbury, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chattillon, Louise-Emmanuelle de, Princesse de Tarente 1763 births 1814 deaths French ladies-in-waiting French memoirists French women memoirists House of Châtillon House of La Trémoille Princesses of Taranto 18th-century memoirists