Moberly–Jourdain Incident
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The Moberly–Jourdain incident (also the Ghosts of Petit Trianon or Versailles, / ''les fantômes de Versailles'') is a claim of
time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...
and
hauntings This is a list of locations that are (or have been) said to be haunted by ghosts, demons, or other supernatural beings throughout the world. Reports of haunted locations are part of ghostlore, which is a form of folklore. Argentina * Cinco ...
made by
Charlotte Anne Moberly Charlotte Anne Elizabeth Moberly (1846–1937) was an English academic, and first Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford. Her claimed time-travel book ''An Adventure'', written in 1911 with fellow academic Eleanor Jourdain, became a bestselle ...
(1846–1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924). In 1911, Moberly and Jourdain published a book entitled ''An Adventure'' under the names of "Elizabeth Morison" and "Frances Lamont". Their book describes a visit they made to the ''
Petit Trianon The Petit Trianon (; French for 'small Trianon') is a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 ...
'', a small ''château'' in the grounds of the
Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
, where they claimed to have seen the gardens as they had been in the late eighteenth century, as well as
ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
s, including
Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
and others. Their story caused a sensation and was subject to much ridicule.


Background

Charlotte Anne Moberly, born in 1846, was the tenth of fifteen children.. She came from a professional background; her father, George Moberly, was the headmaster of
Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...
and later
Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...
. In 1886, Moberly became the first principal of a hall of residence for young women, St. Hugh's College in
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
. It became apparent that Moberly needed someone to help run the college, and Jourdain was asked to become Moberly's assistant. Eleanor Jourdain, born in 1863, was the eldest of ten children.. Her father, the Reverend Francis Jourdain, was the vicar of Ashbourne in
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
. She was the sister of art historian Margaret Jourdain and mathematician
Philip Jourdain Philip Edward Bertrand Jourdain (16 October 1879 – 1 October 1919) was a British mathematician, logician and follower of Bertrand Russell. Background He was born in Ashbourne in Derbyshire* one of a large family belonging to Emily Clay and ...
. She went to school in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, unlike most girls of the time who were educated at home.. Jourdain was also the author of several textbooks, ran a school of her own, and after the incident became the vice-principal of St. Hugh's College.. Before Jourdain was appointed, it was decided that the two women should get to know one another better; Jourdain owned an apartment in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
where she tutored English children, and so Moberly went to stay with her.


Claims

Moberly and Jourdain recounted that they had decided to visit the Palace of Versailles as part of several trips around Paris, detailing how, on 10 August 1901, they travelled by train to Versailles. They remembered not thinking much of the palace after touring it, so they said they decided to walk through the gardens to the ''
Petit Trianon The Petit Trianon (; French for 'small Trianon') is a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 ...
.''. Upon reaching the ''
Grand Trianon The Grand Trianon () is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of Louis XIV as a retreat for himself and his ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of th ...
'' they found it was closed to the public. They recollected travelling with a
Baedeker Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on 1 July 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as "List of Baedeker Guides, Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to re ...
guidebook, but said they became lost after missing the turn for the main avenue, ''Allée des Deux Trianons'', and entered a lane, where they bypassed their destination. Moberly reported that she noticed a woman shaking a white cloth out of a window. while Jourdain recalled noticing an old deserted farmhouse, outside of which was an old plough. At this point they described a feeling of oppression and dreariness coming over them. after which men who they thought looked like palace gardeners told them to go straight on. Moberly described the men as "very dignified officials, dressed in long greyish green coats with small three-cornered hats".qtd. in . Jourdain recalled that she noticed a cottage with a woman holding out a jug to a girl in the doorway, describing it as a "''tableau vivant''", a living picture, much like
Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in London in 1835 by the French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. One of the early main attractions was the Chamber of Horrors, which appeared in advertising in 1843. In 1883, the restricted space of ...
waxworks. Moberly did not observe the cottage, but remembered that she felt the atmosphere change. She wrote: "Everything suddenly looked unnatural, therefore unpleasant; even the trees seemed to become flat and lifeless, like wood worked in tapestry. There were no effects of light and shade, and no wind stirred the trees."qtd. in . They reported reaching the edge of a wood, close to the '' Temple de l'Amour'', and coming across a man seated beside a garden kiosk, wearing a cloak and large shady hat.. According to Moberly, his appearance was "most repulsive ... its expression odious. His complexion was dark and rough.". Jourdain noted "The man slowly turned his face, which was marked by
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
; his complexion was very dark. The expression was evil and yet unseeing, and though I did not feel that he was looking particularly at us, I felt a repugnance to going past him." They said that another man whom they described as "tall ... with large dark eyes, and crisp curling black hair under a large sombrero hat" came up to them, and showed them the way to the ''Petit Trianon''.. Moberly said she noticed a lady sketching on the grass who looked at them after they crossed a bridge to reach the gardens in front of the palace.. She later described the lady as wearing a light summer dress and a shady white hat with much fair hair. Moberly reported that she thought she was a tourist at first, but the dress appeared to be old-fashioned. Moberly came to believe that the lady was
Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
. Jourdain, however, did not see the lady.. At their return to the palace, they reported that they were directed round to the entrance and joined a party of other visitors.. They said that after they toured the house, they had tea at the ''Hotel des Reservoirs'' before returning to Jourdain's apartment.


Aftermath

According to Jourdain and Moberly, neither woman mentioned the incident to one another until a week after leaving Versailles when Moberly, in a letter to her sister about their trip, started writing about the afternoon of the Versailles incident. She reportedly asked Jourdain if she thought the ''Petit Trianon'' was haunted, and Jourdain told her that she thought it was. Three months later in Oxford,. the pair said they compared their notes and decided to write separate accounts of what happened while also researching the history of the Trianon. They thought they might have seen events that took place on 10 August 1792, only six weeks before the abolition of the French monarchy, when the
Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...
palace in Paris was besieged and the king's
Swiss guard The Pontifical Swiss Guard,; ; ; ; , %5BCorps of the Pontifical Swiss Guard%5D. ''vatican.va'' (in Italian). Retrieved 19 July 2022. also known as the Papal Swiss Guard or simply Swiss Guard,Swiss Guards , History, Vatican, Uniform, Require ...
s were massacred. According to their narrative, they visited the Trianon gardens again on several occasions, but were unable to trace the path they took. Various landmarks, such as the kiosk and the bridge, were missing, and the grounds were full of people. Trying to come up with an explanation, they wondered if they had stumbled across a private party or an event booked that day. However, they found that nothing had been booked that afternoon. Through their research, they thought they recognised the man they reportedly saw by the kiosk as the Comte de Vaudreuil, a friend of Marie Antoinette, who herself Moberly had claimed to see. Convinced that the grounds were haunted, they decided to publish their story in a book ''An Adventure'' (1911) under the pseudonyms of Elizabeth Morison and Frances Lamont. The book, containing the claim that Marie Antoinette had been encountered in 1901, caused a sensation. However, many critics did not take it seriously on the grounds of the implausibilities and inconsistencies that it contained. A review of the book by
Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick (née Balfour; 11 March 1845 – 10 February 1936) was a physics researcher assisting Lord Rayleigh, an activist for the higher education of women, Principal of Newnham College of the University of Cambridge, and a le ...
in the Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...
suggested that the women had misinterpreted normal events that they had experienced.The review is reprinted in . In 1903, an old map of the Trianon gardens was found and showed a bridge that the two women had claimed to have crossed that had not been on any other map.. The identity of the authors of ''An Adventure'' was not made public until 1931. Both women claimed many paranormal experiences before and after their adventure.. In one of them, Moberly claimed to have seen in the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
in 1914 an apparition of the Roman emperor
Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...
, a man of unusual height wearing a gold crown and a toga; he was not observed by anybody else.. During the First World War, Jourdain, the dominant personality of the pair who had succeeded as Principal of St. Hugh's, became convinced that a German spy was hiding in the college.. After developing increasingly autocratic behaviour, she died suddenly in 1924 in the middle of an academic scandal over her leadership of the college, her conduct having provoked mass resignations of academic staff.. Moberly died in 1937. The story of the adventure was made into a
television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...
, the
Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...
Production, ''
Miss Morison's Ghosts ''Miss Morison's Ghosts'' is a 1981 British supernatural television drama broadcast by ITV starring Hannah Gordon and Wendy Hiller. It was made by Anglia Television, produced and written by Ian Curteis and directed by John Bruce.It is based on ...
'', written and produced by
Ian Curteis Ian Bayley Curteis (1 May 1935 – 24 November 2021) was a British dramatist and television director. Life and career Curteis was born in London on 1 May 1935, and began his career as an actor, joining Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in the m ...
and directed by John Bruce, in 1981, with
Dame Wendy Hiller Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation ''Rating the Movie Stars'', describ ...
as Moberly/Morison and
Hannah Gordon Hannah Campbell Grant Gordon
Film reference website
(born 9 April 1941) is a Scottish actress and presenter ...
as Jourdain/Lamont. The BBC broadcast a 90-minute radio dramatisation in 2004 and 2015.


Explanations and critiques

A non-supernatural explanation of the events was proposed by Philippe Jullian in his 1965 biography of the aristocratic decadent French poet
Robert de Montesquiou The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...
. At the time of Moberly and Jourdain's excursion to Versailles, Montesquiou lived nearby and reportedly gave parties in the grounds where his friends dressed in period costume and performed
tableaux vivants A (; often shortened to ; ; ) is a static scene (performing arts), scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or theatrical scenery, scenery, and may be s ...
as part of the party entertainments. Moberly and Jourdain may have inadvertently gatecrashed a gay fancy dress party that they confused for a haunting. The Marie-Antoinette figure could have been a society lady or a cross-dresser, the pockmarked man Montesquiou himself. It was suggested that a gathering of the French decadent avant-garde of the time could have made a sinister impression on the two middle-class Edwardian spinsters who would have been little used to such company. In a review of the history of the Moberly-Jourdain adventure and the extensive public reaction to it,
Terry Castle Terry Castle (born October 18, 1953) is an American literary scholar. Once described by Susan Sontag as "the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today," she has published eight books, including the anthology ''The Literat ...
noted with skepticism the claim that a shared delusion may have arisen out of a
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
folie à deux ''Folie à deux'' (), also called shared psychosis Berrios, G. E., and I. S. Marková. 2015. "Shared Pathologies. Pp. 3–15 in ''Troublesome disguises: Managing challenging Disorders in Psychiatry'' (2nd ed.), edited by D. Bhugra and G. Malhi. ...
between the two women. Castle concludes that, when all proposed explanations have been considered, a core of mystery remains as much in relation to the psychological dynamics of the pair as to any aspects of the paranormal associated with their story. Without fully endorsing the de Montesquiou explanation, Michael Coleman carefully examined the story and, in particular, the two published versions of the ladies' accounts (the earlier-written of which, from November 1901, had only previously been published in the second, small print-run, edition of ''An Adventure'' in 1913). Coleman concluded that the more widely available texts, as published in the 1911 and later editions, had been considerably aggrandized well after the events described and after the ladies had begun their investigations, while the original accounts had little or nothing to suggest a supernatural experience. He also questioned the rigour and reliability of the ladies' subsequent research, pointing out that few, if any, of their informants are named and that most of their literary and historical references were taken from unreliable sources. Psychologist Leonard Zusne suggested that it was a hallucinatory experience embellished over time by the two women finding out more about the history of the Palace. Brian Dunning of
Skeptoid Brian Andrew Dunning (born 1965) is an American writer and producer who focuses on science and Skeptical movement, skepticism. He has hosted a weekly podcast, ''Skeptoid'', since 2006, and he is an author of a series of books on the subject of s ...
concluded that "Moberly and Jourdain were simply human" and were mistaken. He notes that editions of ''An Adventure'' were embellished each time they were published, and inconsistencies in their memories were apparent. For example, in the second edition the pair wrote that Moberly did not mention the sketching woman to Jourdain until three months after their visit to Versailles, and Jourdain did not remember such a thing. In contrast, Moberly did not remember much of what Jourdain described. "It was only after much discussion, note-sharing, and historical research that Moberly and Jourdain came up with the time period as 1789 and assigned identities to a few of the characters they saw, including Marie Antoinette herself as the lady sketching on the lawn." As Moberly and Jourdain admitted they had been lost on the vast grounds of Versailles, Dunning notes that their descriptions of footbridges and kiosks could fit any number of existing structures. Dame Joan Evans, who owned the copyright to ''An Adventure'', accepted the Jullian explanation and forbade any further editions. However, after the work came out of
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
, it was republished in 1988 as ''The Ghosts of Trianon: The Complete 'An Adventure by Thoth Publication and again in 2008 by CreateSpace, both times crediting Moberly and Jourdain as the authors. Historian
Roy Strong Sir Roy Colin Strong, (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. ...
has noted that although the Moberly-Jourdain story has been debunked it "retained its hold on the public imagination for half a century".Strong, Roy. (1991). ''A Celebration of Gardens''. Timber Press. p. 362


See also

*
Time travel claims and urban legends Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compa ...
* ''
Miss Morison's Ghosts ''Miss Morison's Ghosts'' is a 1981 British supernatural television drama broadcast by ITV starring Hannah Gordon and Wendy Hiller. It was made by Anglia Television, produced and written by Ian Curteis and directed by John Bruce.It is based on ...
'', a movie about the incident. * "
The Girl in the Fireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 6 May 2006. Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Euros Lyn, the epis ...
", a fictional account of time travel from Versailles from the TV series ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
''.


References


Footnotes


Notes


Bibliography


"An Adventure" the 1911 first edition full text in pdf format

"An Adventure" the 1913 second edition full text and illustrations in pdf format
* . * . * . * * . * * * * * . * * . * . * .
Moberly and Jourdain papers at Oxford University


Further reading

*
Antony Flew Antony Garrard Newton Flew (; 11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) was an English philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught ...
. (1953)
''A New Approach to Psychical Research''
Watts & Co. pp. 142–47 *
Ian Parrott Ian Parrott (5 March 1916 – 4 September 2012) was a prolific Anglo-Welsh composer and writer on music. His distinctions included the first prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his symphonic poem ''Luxor'', and commissions by the BBC an ...
. (1966). ''The Music of "An Adventure"''. Regency Press. *
Joseph Jastrow Joseph Jastrow (January 30, 1863 – January 8, 1944) was a Polish-born American psychologist renowned for his contributions to experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illu ...
. (1935). ''Wish and Wisdom: Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief''. D. Appleton-Century Company. * J. R. Sturge-Whiting. (1938). ''The Mystery of Versailles: A Complete Solution''. Rider. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moberly-Jourdain Incident Culture of the French Revolution French ghosts 1901 in France History of the Palace of Versailles 20th century in Île-de-France