Françoise de Chalus (bap. Chalus, 24 February 1734 - Paris, 7 July 1821), was a French noblewoman and courtier. She was the mother of

Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara Louis Marie Jacques Amalric, comte de Narbonne-Lara (August 1755 – 17 November 1813) was a French nobleman, soldier and diplomat. Born at Colorno in the Duchy of Parma, Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara, was possibly the illegitimate son of King ...

, possibly by king

Louis XV of France Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), 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 maturity (then defi ...

. She was the lady-in-waiting of

Louise Élisabeth of France Louise most commonly refers to: * Louise (given name) Louise or Luise may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Songs * "Louise" (Maurice Chevalier song), 1929 * "Louise", by The Yardbirds from the album '' Five Live Yardbirds'', 1964 * "Louis ...

in 1749–59, and the influential favorite lady-in-waiting of

Princess Marie Adélaïde of France Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for t ...

in 1764–1800.

Life

Françoise de Chalus was the daughter of Gabriel de Chalus, seigneur de Sansac, and Claire Dégéraud de Solage.

Lady-in-waiting to Louise Élisabeth

On 10 July 1749, she married a noble of Spanish descent Don Jean François, 1er duc de Narbonne-Lara Grandee of Spain 1st Class, Lieutenant General of the Army, Commander in Name of the King of the Dioceses of Castres, Albi and Lavaur, 1st Gentleman of the House of H.R.H. the Duke of Parma (Aubiac, Lot-et-Garonne, 27 December 1718 - 12 August 1806). Her spouse was a member of the Spanish entourage of

, who visited the French court at that time. Françoise de Chalus left France for the Duchy of Parma in Italy with her spouse in the retinue of Élisabeth of France, and served for ten years as her lady-in-waiting.

Circumstances around her son

In 1755, she gave birth to her second son,

. It is alleged that Louis XV was the biological father of the child. According to documents of the Military Archive, her husband Jean François de Narbonne-Lara had been wounded 8 years earlier in the War of the Austrian Succession (1747), becoming from that moment on unable of having any offspring. The baptism of Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara is another indication of that paternity. His name was Louis, and his contemporaries remarked about the similarities between Louis and the King.

Lady-in-waiting to Adélaïde

Upon the death of Élisabeth of France in 1759, Françoise de Chalus settled in France, and in 1764, she succeeded the marquise de Civrac as ''

dame d'atour ''Dame d'atour'' () was an office at the royal court of France. It existed in nearly all French courts from the 16th-century onward. The ''dame d'honneur'' was selected from the members of the highest French nobility. They were ranked between th ...

'' to

Madame Adélaïde Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

; she was promoted to ''

dame d'honneur 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 Dame d'honne ...

'' after the duchesse de Beauvillier in 1781. She reportedly rivaled with the duchess de Civrac, dame d'honneur of

Madame Victoire Victoire of France (Marie Louise Thérèse Victoire; 11 May 1733 – 7 June 1799) was a French princess, the daughter of King Louis XV and the popular Queen Marie Leszczyńska. She was named after her parents and Queen Maria Theresa, ...

, in an attempt to distance the two sisters. After the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, she belonged to what was called the "Old Court" of the ''Mesdames'' at Bellevue. She was described as haughty and imperious, and while Civrac successfully hosted parties in the name of Madame Victoire, Narbonne (Françoise de Chalus) was reportedly not as successful, as her temperament did not attract people socially. A rumor claimed that it was in fact Madame Adélaïde who was the biological mother of Louis de Narbonne by an incestuous relation to her father, Louis XV. There is nothing to indicate that these rumors were true, though Louis de Narbonne was appointed the chevalier d'honneur of Adélaïde, and was reportedly her spoiled favorite as well as the son of her favorite lady-in-waiting, and she reportedly "made enormous sacrifices to his caprices". His mother reportedly regularly made Adélaïde pay his debts: :"Mme. de Narbonne, imperious as she was, was entirely dominated by the whims of her son Comte Louis. When he had committed any foolishness and was in want of money, her ill-temper was unbearable, and she vented it chiefly upon Madame Adelaide, making her house intolerable. After a few days the poor Princess would buy back her peace of mind in hard cash. In this way the Comte de Narbonne became possessed of enormous sums, which he procured without the least trouble and accepted as easily."Boigne, Louise-Eléonore-Charlotte-Adélaide d'Osmond,
Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne (1781-1814)
', London, Heinemann, 1907

Exile

Françoise de Chalus was the only lady-in-waiting Adélaïde allowed to accompany her from the Palace of Versailles after the

Women's March on Versailles The Women's March on Versailles, also known as the Black 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 of ...

on the outbreak of the French Revolution on 6 October 1789. In February 1791, she belonged to the large retinue that accompanied Adélaïde and her sister Victoire from France to Rome. During their stay in Rome in 1791–96, the court of the Mesdames were divided into two rival factions led by the head lady-in-waiting of Madame Adélaïde, de Narbonne, and her colleague in the court of Madame Victoire, Angélique Victoire, Comtesse de Chastellux, who were called the Narbonne faction and the Chastellux faction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalus, Françoise de 1734 births 1821 deaths 18th-century French people Mistresses of Louis XV French ladies-in-waiting French duchesses