Renée-Caroline-''Victoire'' de Froulay de Tessé, marquise de Créquy de Heymont de Canaples d'Ambrières (1704 or 1714–1803), was a French woman of letters,
salonniére and alleged memoir writer. She was friends with
d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the '' Encyclopé ...
,
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
and
de Meilhan. The ''Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy'' is attributed to her but may be by Cousin de Courchamps.
Biography
De Créquy was born on 19 October 1714, at the château of Monfleaux (
Mayenne
Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ill ...
), the daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles François de Froullay. She was educated by her maternal grandmother, and in 1737 married Louis Marie, Marquis de Créquy (1705-1741) — author of the ''Principes philosophiques des saints solitaires d'Egypte'' (1779) — who died four years after the marriage.
De Créquy devoted herself to the care of her only son, who rewarded her with an ingratitude which was the chief sorrow of her life. In 1755 she began to receive in Paris, among her intimates being
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the '' Encyclopéd ...
and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
. She had none of the frivolity generally associated with the women of her time and class, and presently became extremely religious with inclinations to
Jansenism
Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...
.
D'Alembert's visits ceased when de Créquy adopted religion, and she was nearly seventy when she formed the great friendship of her life with
Sénac de Meilhan, whom she met in 1781, and with whom she carried on a correspondence (edited by
Édouard Fournier
Édouard Fournier (15 June 1819, Orléans – 10 May 1880, Paris) was a 19th-century French homme de lettres, playwright, historian, bibliographer and librarian.
Biography
Born into a locksmiths artist family, he studied at the Collège d'Orlà ...
, with a preface by
Sainte-Beuve in 1856). De Créquy commented on and criticized Meilhan's works and helped his reputation.
Although she was arrested, she survived the terror of the
Reign of Terror. She was arrested in 1793 and imprisoned in the convent of Les Oiseaux until the fall of
Robespierre (July 1794).
Souvenirs de la marquise de Créquy
The well-known ''Souvenirs de la marquise de Créquy'' (1710-1803) (a reliable description of the French royal court under Louis XV), printed in 7 volumes, 1834-1835, and purporting to be addressed to her grandson, Tancrède de Créquy, was the production of a
Breton
Breton most often refers to:
*anything associated with Brittany, and generally
** Breton people
** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany
** Breton (horse), a breed
**Ga ...
adventurer, Cousin de Courchamps. The first two volumes appeared in English in 1834 and were severely criticized in the ''
Quarterly Review
The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967. It was referred to as ''The London Quarterly Review'', as reprinted by Leonard Scott, f ...
''.
God Save the Queen
In her ''Souvenirs'', which consists mainly of accurate noble genealogies and court gossip from the reigns of
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
,
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...
,
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
and
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
, there is a tale for which the author of the ''Souvenirs'' is the sole authority. This story, widely believed in France, is her statement, with a detailed story to back it up, that Britain's national anthem, "
God Save the Queen
"God Save the King" is the national and/or royal anthem of the United Kingdom, most of the Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, bu ...
", was in fact written by
Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...
and sung by a French girls' school to greet Louis XIV. The French author of ''Souvenirs'' further states that the tune was later plagiarized by
Handel and sold to the British crown as their
anthem.
If it is true, as some have claimed, that the story about the sale of the anthem is actually from a much later tabloid, then this anachronism is a reason why the author of ''Souvenirs'' is sometimes placed in the company of forgers, alongside the authors of such works as the ''
Historia Augusta'', ''
De Situ Britanniae
''The Description of Britain'', also known by its Latin name ' ("On the Situation of Britain"), was a literary forgery perpetrated by Charles Bertram on the historians of England. It purported to be a 15th-century manuscript by the English monk R ...
'', and
Annio of Viterbo. If, on the other hand, the French tabloids of the 1850s published Madame de Créquy's story based on her memoirs, it's possible she believed the story to be true, or that the story is true.
References
;Attribution
*
External links
*
Facsimiles furnished by Gallica Bibliothèque numérique in France
''Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy''(Original text, in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crequy, Froulay, Victoire De
1714 births
1803 deaths
18th-century French writers
Créquy family
Literary forgeries
French women memoirists
18th-century French women writers
18th-century French memoirists
French letter writers
18th-century letter writers
French salon-holders
French marchionesses