Eliza Monroe Hay
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Elizabeth "Eliza" Kortright Monroe Hay (December 1786 – January 27, 1840) was an American socialite who acted as unofficial First Lady during her father James Monroe's presidency, as her mother's health kept her away from many
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
duties. She was married to prominent attorney George Hay.


Biography

Elizabeth “Eliza” Kortright Monroe was born to James Monroe and
Elizabeth Monroe Elizabeth Monroe ( ''née'' Kortright; June 30, 1768 – September 23, 1830) was the first lady of the United States from 1817 to 1825, as the wife of James Monroe, fifth president of the United States. Due to the fragile condition of Elizabe ...
( née Kortright) in December 1786 in Virginia. She spent much of her childhood in Paris 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 ...
, when her father was the American minister to France. She attended school at
Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur The maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur were the French secondary schools set up by Napoleon and originally meant for the education of girls whose father, grandfather or great-grandfather had been awarded the Légion d'honneur. Access is s ...
, the school set up by
Henriette Campan Jeanne Louise ''Henriette'' Campan (''née'' Genet; 6 OctoberMadame Campan, ''Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France'', 1752, Paris 16 March 1822, Mantes) was a French educator, writer and Lady's maid. In the service of Marie ...
, a former lady-in-waiting to
Marie Antionette 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 and ...
. While at the school, Hay "befriended many women of European
royal families A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papa ...
", including
Hortense de Beauharnais Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte (; , ; 10 April 1783 – 5 October 1837) was Queen consort of Holland. She was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I as the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Hortense later married Napol ...
, daughter of
Josephine de Beauharnais Josephine may refer to: People * Josephine (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Josephine (singer), a Greek pop singer Places *Josephine, Texas, United States *Mount Josephine (disambiguation) * Josephine Coun ...
and future mother of
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
. In 1803, at the age of 17, Hay returned with her family to the United States. By then, she was fluent in both French and English. In 1808, at the age of 22, she married attorney and judge George Hay, who was from Virginia. James Monroe assumed the presidency in 1817, when Hay was 31. During his administration, she often acted as unofficial First Lady when her mother was ill. Hay was "primarily remembered for her domineering style and insistence that every iota of protocol be followed." Her "influence over her father was marked." She was also rumored to be snobbish, difficult to work with, and to have "an already high opinion of herself." In the book ''Executive Privilege: Two Centuries of White House Scandals'', writer Jack Mitchell refers to Hay as a snob and "a bit of a society bitch." Hay and her husband had a daughter Hortensia, whose godmother was her mother's close friend
Hortense de Beauharnais Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte (; , ; 10 April 1783 – 5 October 1837) was Queen consort of Holland. She was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I as the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Hortense later married Napol ...
. Hortense, by then Queen Consort of the Netherlands, would send Hortensia presents, including oil portraits of herself, her brother Eugene, and Henriette Campan. The friendship with Hortense did not afford Hay an invitation to a ball at
Caroline Bonaparte Carolina Maria Annunziata Bonaparte Murat Macdonald (French: ''Caroline Marie Annonciade Bonaparte''; 25 March 1782 – 18 May 1839), better known as Caroline Bonaparte, was an Imperial French princess; the seventh child and third daughter of Ca ...
's
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, as "the sister of an Emperor could not be expected to receive the daughter of an honest republican." Hortensia married Lloyd Nicholas Rogers of Baltimore as his second wife, with whom she had three daughters. On September 21, 1830, Hay's husband George died, followed by her mother Elizabeth two days later. Her father James died less than a year later, on July 4, 1831. Following this string of deaths, Hay moved back to Paris, where she converted to Catholicism and joined a convent. While she was living in Paris,
Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He ...
sent her a bracelet he had blessed. The bracelet was "French silver-gilt, with a cameo setting of the head of Christ." Hay died in Paris on January 27, 1840, and was buried in the
Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Eliza Monroe 1786 births 1840 deaths 18th-century American people 19th-century American people 18th-century American women 19th-century American women American people of Dutch descent American people of English descent American socialites Cornell family James Monroe Eliza Monroe Hay Acting first ladies of the United States Children of presidents of the United States