Marie Thérèse ''Françoise'' de Choiseul (8 December 1766 – 27 July 1794) was a French noblewoman and a Monegasque princess, married to

Prince Joseph of Monaco Prince Joseph Marie Jerôme Honoré of Monaco (10 September 1763 – 28 June 1816) was the second son of Honoré III, Prince of Monaco, and Maria Caterina Brignole and the younger brother of Prince Honoré IV. Joseph served as regent of Monaco ...

in 1782.

Life

She was the daughter of Jacques Philippe de Choiseul, Duke of Stainville, and Thérèse de Clermont, and the niece of

Étienne François, duc de Choiseul Étienne François, Marquis de Stainville, Duc de Choiseul, KOHS, OGF (28 June 17198 May 1785) was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. From 1758 to 1761 and from 1766 to 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong ...

, the chief minister of

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 reache ...

. On 6 April 1782, she married

. The marriage was described as a happy one. In March 1793, Monaco was annexed to Revolutionary France, and the members of the former ruling dynasty became French citizens. In parallel, her spouse spent most of his time abroad to negotiate foreign loans, which made him a suspect of counter-revolutionary activities and thus made whole family suspected of being traitors. He became, in fact, involved in the royalist uprising in Vendée. Marie Thérèse de Choiseul was arrested in the absence of her spouse, as was his father, his brother and his sister-in-law. Arrested in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on charges of conspiracy, Marie Thérèse was imprisoned with her family in the

Sainte-Pélagie Prison Sainte-Pélagie was a prison in Paris, in active use from 1790 to 1899. It was founded earlier than that, however, in 1662, as place for "repentant girls" and later "debauched women and girls." The former Parisian prison was located between the ...

. Her small daughters were left in the care of their governess. She was condemned to death. To delay the execution, she pretended to be pregnant, but was discovered not to be with child. She admitted having lied about her pregnancy, but explained that she had done so to delay the execution only for a day, so that she may have time to cut off her own hair and give it to her daughters as a memory, rather than have it cut by the executioner. She applied for a meeting with

Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville Antoine Quentin Fouquier de Tinville (, 10 June 17467 May 1795) was a French lawyer and public prosecutor during the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. Biography Early career Born in Herouël, a village in the ''département'' of the Aisne, ...

, and spent her last day in his waiting room, but was forced to leave without having had time to meet him. Her execution on 27 July would be one of the last during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

; the following day, the

Thermidorian Reaction The Thermidorian Reaction (french: Réaction thermidorienne or ''Convention thermidorienne'', "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term, in the historiography of the French Revolution, for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespie ...

saw the violent fall of the

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

government, which saw the executions of

Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...

as well as

René-François Dumas René-François Dumas, born 14 December 1753 in Jussey, in the bailiwick of Amont (now in Haute-Saône), was a revolutionary French lawyer and politician, regarded as a "Robespierrist", who died on 28 July 1794 (10 Thermidor) at Paris. Biograph ...

, the prosecutor in the princess's trial.

Issue

* Princess ''Marie Camille'' Grimaldi of Monaco (22 Apr 1784 – 8 May 1879); married René, Marquis of La Tour-du-Pin, and had issue. * Princess ''Athénais'' Grimaldi of Monaco (2 June 1786 – 11 September 1860); married Auguste Le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois, and had no issue. * Princess Delphine Grimaldi of Monaco (born 22 July 1788); died young.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choiseul, Marie Therese de 1767 births 1794 deaths Marie Therese French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution Place of birth missing House of Grimaldi Executed French women