Henriette Poincaré (born Henriette Adeline Benucci, (8 May 1858 – 19 May 1943) was the wife of French statesman
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to ...
.
Early life
Henriette Adeline Benucci was born in
Passy, France on 8 May 1858.
Her parents were Louise Mossbauer, a young servant and Raphael Benucci a coachman of Italian origin.
[François Roth, ''Raymond Poincaré'', ]Fayard
Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre.
In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayar ...
, 2001 ( and 9782213648095) She served for a time as a companion to old ladies of the bourgeoisie.
Marriage
She was married twice before her marriage to Raymond Poincaré.
Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1890; her second marriage ended with her husband's death in 1892.
She married Raymond Poincaré in a civil ceremony in Paris on 17 August 1904.
The marriage was secretly solemnised religiously on 5 May 1913, a few months after Raymond was elected to the presidency of France, in their apartment at 10 Rue de Babylone (
7th arrondissement of Paris) by the rector of the
Catholic Institute of Paris, Mgr. Baudrillart, who had been a high school friend of Raymond's.
When this secret leaked out, it gave the
Radicals a way to criticise Raymond.
The press also insulted Henriette for her love life.
Poincaré was a member of
Aéroclub féminin la Stella, founded by
Marie Surcouf.
In 1917, she was surprised in the garden of the
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace (, ) is the official residence of the President of France, President of the French Republic in Paris. Completed in 1722, it was built for Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, a nobleman and army officer who had been appointed g ...
by an
orangutan
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...
escaped from a circus that was then held at the nearby Rond-Point theater (or possibly, as another version of the incident has it, a chimpanzee escaped from his master's house, his master being a diplomat lodged near the palace).
[Bertrand Meyer-Stabley, ''Les dames de l'Élysée'', Perrin, 1999 (), p. 33]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poincare, Henriette
1858 births
1943 deaths
Spouses of presidents of France
Spouses of prime ministers of France