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| Antonin Nompar de Caumont Duke of Lauzun @Wikipedia |
Son of: Gabriel, Comte de Lauzun & Charlotte de Caumont, daughter of Henri-Nompar de Caumont, Duc de La Force.
Husband of:
1. Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier
2. Genevieve de Durfort.
First encounter with Mademoiselle.
"By the time Mademoiselle returned from her first exile in 1657, Antonin had begun to make his mark on the far more treacherous battlefields of the court. Here, too, his family connections served him well. His Gramont cousins were members of the king's entourage, and Lauzun's cultivation of Mazarin's nieces, the Mancini sisters, brought him into proximity with the king at play. Mademoiselle and Antonin crossed paths briefly during the carnival season of 1659. One evening, Mademoiselle, two ladies of the court, and the king's brother, Philippe, attended a masquerade dressed as peasant girls from the Bresse. The 'shepherds' who escorted them included the comte de Guiche, son of marechal de Gramont and a favorite of Philippe's, and Guiche's cousin Puyguilhem."
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| Antoine Nompar de Caumont Duc de Lauzun @Wikipedia |
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Antonin Nompar de Caumont, Duc de Lauzun, born in 1632, arrived in Paris under the name of Marquis de Peguilain, and, according to St. Simon, was 'a little beau, well made, with an open and intellectual countenance; full of ambition, whims and fancies; envious of every one; never satisfied with anything; always anxious to exceed his limits' without any literary taste or knowledge; naturally irritable, misanthropical, and abrupt; very profuse in his habits; constitutionally ill natured; eminently jealous; a warm friend when he thought proper to be so, which was rare; a ready enemy even towards those who were indifferent to him; clever in detecting defects and in discovering and bestowing ridicule; a merciless quizzer; extremely and dangerously brave; a clever courtier, according to circumstances, haughty to insolence or pliable to servility; in short, to define his character in three words, as his actions have proved him, the boldest, most dexterous, and the most cunning of men.'" (Louis the Fourteenth, and the Court of France, Vol. 2: 454)
A ladies' man with a slovenly appearance.
"Throughout the 1660s, Antonin belonged to the small group of courtiers who surrounded Louis XIV in his pursuit of private pleasures. He also acquired a reputation of his own as a ladies' man, his name linked with some of the same women found on Louis XIV's long list of conquests. The attraction cannot have been physical. Judging by his portraits, his features were plain and his nose was often reddish or inflamed, possibly from some medical problem not diagnosed in the seventeenth century. His blond hair, often unkempt, was beginning to gray prematurely; not unlike Conde, he was notorious for his slovenly appearance." (La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France: 1627-1693: 177)
An attractive personality with a flashing wit.
"Antonin's attraction lay not in his person but in his personality: until the end of his very long life---he died at ninety in 1723---he was famous for his flashing wit and devastating bons mots. He would lead his prey on, demolish him or her with an unexpected Sally, and withdraw from a circle of laughing spectators before the victim could recover his (or her) balance. He was the master of the practical joke and turned many a solemn ceremony into comedy by persuading a participant to commit some faux pas. Saint-Simon, who later became Lauzun's brother-in-law, recorded a number of these episodes, and bore witness to the effectiveness of Lauzun's wit and charm. Lauzun combined these qualities with others that made him less appealing: a short temper, a domineering personality, which extended to physical assaults on women, and an egotism that interfered with his extraordinary effort to be the most visible and obsequious of Louis Xiv's courtiers. This was particularly evident in the pursuit of women, where he had the effrontery to undertake a rivalry with the king." (La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France: 1627-1693: 177)
A ladies' man with a slovenly appearance.
"Throughout the 1660s, Antonin belonged to the small group of courtiers who surrounded Louis XIV in his pursuit of private pleasures. He also acquired a reputation of his own as a ladies' man, his name linked with some of the same women found on Louis XIV's long list of conquests. The attraction cannot have been physical. Judging by his portraits, his features were plain and his nose was often reddish or inflamed, possibly from some medical problem not diagnosed in the seventeenth century. His blond hair, often unkempt, was beginning to gray prematurely; not unlike Conde, he was notorious for his slovenly appearance." (La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France: 1627-1693: 177)
An attractive personality with a flashing wit.
"Antonin's attraction lay not in his person but in his personality: until the end of his very long life---he died at ninety in 1723---he was famous for his flashing wit and devastating bons mots. He would lead his prey on, demolish him or her with an unexpected Sally, and withdraw from a circle of laughing spectators before the victim could recover his (or her) balance. He was the master of the practical joke and turned many a solemn ceremony into comedy by persuading a participant to commit some faux pas. Saint-Simon, who later became Lauzun's brother-in-law, recorded a number of these episodes, and bore witness to the effectiveness of Lauzun's wit and charm. Lauzun combined these qualities with others that made him less appealing: a short temper, a domineering personality, which extended to physical assaults on women, and an egotism that interfered with his extraordinary effort to be the most visible and obsequious of Louis Xiv's courtiers. This was particularly evident in the pursuit of women, where he had the effrontery to undertake a rivalry with the king." (La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France: 1627-1693: 177)
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| Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont Princesse de Monaco @Wikipedia |
His lover was:
Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont, Princess de Monaco.Reference for Duc de Lauzun.
(1747-1793)
French general and politician
Comte de Biron 1747, Marquis de Gontaut 1758, Duc de Lauzun 1766, Duc de Biron and Pair de France 1788, Marquis de Chatel, Marquis de Caraman, Baron Lesquelen, Commander of the Army of Flanders 1791, Commanding General of the Army of the Rhine 1792, Lieutenant General 1792, Commander of the Army of Italy 1793, Commander of the French Revolutionary Army 1793.
"'Perhaps in the pages of biography there never has yet appeared a more romantic or amiable character than that which was exhibited by this unfortunate nobleman. Born to the possession of illustrious rank and educated in the most polished court of Europe; the idol of its women, the example for its men; it is not singular that his mind should have been strongly tinctured with a taste for chivalry.'" (Oatmeal for the Foxhounds)
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| Amelie de Boufflers |
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"The French aristocracy of the last half of the eighteenth century was held to be a model of grace and elegance, and in its ranks there was not other man to compare with Armand-Louis de Gontaut, known in all courts and boudoirs of Europe as the Duc de Lauzun, and to be afterwards known in the camp by his title of Duc de Biron. He was thirty-four years of age, as handsome as he was chivalrous, and known to be a lady-killer, and an unfaithful husband to Amelie de Boufflers, whose society he left to follow frailer beauties into England and even into Poland. . . ." (The Edinburgh Review, Volume 161)
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| Armand-Louis de Gontaut Duc de Lauzun |
"Born on April 13, 1747, Armand was the son of the Duc de Gontaut and his wife Antoinette-Eustachie de Crozat, who died in giving birth to him. Armand was a handsome and charming boy adored by all who knew him, including Queen Marie Antoinette. The Duc loved women, and they loved him. He had many affairs and soon acquired the reputation of a libertine. As a teenager, he fell in love him. As a teenager, he fell in love with the Comtesse de Stainville, the sister-in-law of his aunt, the Duchesse de Choiseul, who strongly disapproved of the liaison." (History and Other Thoughts)
". . . Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, later Duc de Biron (1747-1794), belonged to one of the oldest families of the French nobility. His Memoirs, written in 1784-1784, give a frank account of his amorous exploits, his military adventures, and the courtly intrigues in which he was involved during the first thirty-five years of his life. He subsequently fell out of favour at the court of Louis XVI, and became instead a supporter of the Duc d'Orleans, joining the National Assembly in 1789 as an enthusiast of the Revolution. In 1791 he was given command of the Army of the North, and thereafter styled himself Biron, Citizen General of the Army. His failure to deal with the situation in the Vendee in a manner satisfactory to the Tribunal led to his arrest and eventual execution on New Year's Day, 1794." (Introductions and Reviews:449)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . He is an 'old-timer' at twenty-eight. . . Maturity is beginning to erase Lauzun's fatuousness; his advancing baldness already reaches from his high, narrow forehead down to a neatly rolled and powdered fringe. Drooping lips accentuate this seasoned roue's listless smile set beneath a large aquiline nose. Behind him stretch endless tales of love and money. His exceptional charm rests on a precocious air of world-weariness that every woman vows to dispel." (Manceron & Wolf, c1977, p. 251)
"Lauzun was born in Paris, April 13, 1747 and died there December 31, 1793. Handsome, endowed with brilliant intellectual qualities, surrounded by all the prestige which birth and fortune can give, he became part of that frivolous, gay, witty, corrupt society of which that of the Regency was the model and which was to continue its sway --- though not so openly --- through the reign of the unhappy Louis XVI, and finally come to a terrible and bloody end during the Revolution. . . ." (Memoirs of the Duc de Lauzun: viii)
Persona & Character.
". . . Enjoying all the advantages of birth and fortune, joined to a handsome person, a ready wit, a mind accomplished by reading, agreeable, and elegant manners, and a generous and prodigal nature, the Marquis de Lauzun early entered into one of these mariages de convenance, in which the inclinations of the parties were seldom at that day consulted in France. Frivolous, light, and volage, the young bridegroom
Love Life.
" . . . Nevertheless, on the first night of Adele de Ponthieu all Paris flocked to the theatre, and among the crowd the very soul of Parisian gaieties---the Duc de Lauzun, surrounded by his victims. They nearly reached the number of Don Juan's---among them Mesdames d'Esparbes, de Beauvau, du Barry, de Gramont, and also Madame de Stainville, who, in despair at Lauzun's desertion, ran away with the actor Clairval---an escapade which carried her straight off to a convent. In a loge grillee, discreetly hidden, was also Eugenie, the Duke's Manon Lescaut, a young person who rather bored him by her too serious devotion. On that night, however, Lauzun had eyes only for Lady Sarah Lennox. . . ." (The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 28: 49)
Mutual consent to touch.
"One must say for the Duc de Lauzun: there is nothing particularly displeasing about his love-affairs, especially during his younger life. He never seems to have made love to a woman unless he really liked her, and truly wanted to touch her; and unless she really liked him, and wanted him to touch her. Which is the essence of morality, as far as love goes." (Introductions and Reviews:97)
Scandalous memoirs of amours.
"The memoirs which he left behind him, and which were published thirty years after his death, finish with the American war. . . He scandalously reveals all his amours, and possibly boasts of triumphs and successes which he never obtained. To believe his own account, no woman could resist him, and he vaingloriously records that Madame d'Esparbes, Madame de Grammont, Madame de Stainville, Lady Sarah Bunbury (sister of the Duke of Richmond), Madame Charden, the Princess Chartoriska, Miss Mary Anne Harland, Mademoiselle de Hartfield, Lady Barrymore, Mrs. Browne, and Miss Staunton, were among his victims. Not content with scandalizing these ladies of high degree, and with hinting that the Queen of France (Marie Antoinette) on more than one occasion exhibited a partiality for him, he must needs also proclaim that he was the favoured swain of Perdita, Mrs. Robinson, the first mistress of the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV), and that he travelled with her from Paris to Calais on her departure from France. The authenticity of these memoirs was at first doubted, and many of the relatives and friends of persons whose names are unwarrantably introduced into these pages propagated the idea that they were spurious; but it is now well ascertained that they were written by Lauzun, a man who, notwithstanding these shameful revelations, was said by Talleyrand, in the Chamber of Peers, to have had 'tous les genres d'eclatsbeau, brave, generaux, et spirituel." (Allon: 475)
Supping with the mistress at night.
" . . . Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun . . . had found the 'kind of life that suits me best.' This was 'to be under fire all day, and then to sup with my mistress at night.' The fire on that occasion had come from Corsican soldiers led by Count Paoli, who were defending their island from the French invaders, and the mistress was eighteen-year-old Madame Chandon, 'a gift of the gods.' True, the jealousy of her much older husband, the island's governor, 'was somewhat disturbing to my happiness' but nothing serious. Since then Lauzun's list of conquests had grown to include Lady Sarah Bunbury 'with her dazzling white bosom and the freshness of a rose,' (before her marriage she had been Lady Sara Lennox with whom the youthful George III had been infatuated); Madame du Barry, 'called the Angel, because of her heavenly countenance' (and soon to be mistress to Louis XV); Miss Paddock, a young English courtesan who kept him company at Calais where his regiment was stationed pending the invasion of her country; Madame Dillon and Princess Czartoryska, ornaments of the beau monde; and, or so it was rumored, Queen Marie Antoinette herself. . . . " (The People's War: Original Voices of the American Revolution: 508)
His lovers were:
1) Aimee de Coigny, Duchesse de Fleury (1769-1820)
French woman of the world & salonniere.
"Anne-Francoise-Aimee de Franquetot de Coigny (1769-1820), only child of the comte de Coigny, was a famous beauty, also known as the duchess de Fleury. Her first husband was Andre-Hercule-Marie-Louis de Rosset de Rocozel de Perignan, marquis, duc de Fleury, whom she married in 1784 and divorced in May 1793. Her second marriage was to Claude-Philibert-Hippolyte de Nouret, comte de Montrond. She was divorced from him in 1802 and was known thereafter as Mme Aimee de Coigny. . . ." (Byron's "Corbeau Blanc": The Life and Letters of Lady Melbourne: 423)
French woman of the world & salonniere.
"Anne-Francoise-Aimee de Franquetot de Coigny (1769-1820), only child of the comte de Coigny, was a famous beauty, also known as the duchess de Fleury. Her first husband was Andre-Hercule-Marie-Louis de Rosset de Rocozel de Perignan, marquis, duc de Fleury, whom she married in 1784 and divorced in May 1793. Her second marriage was to Claude-Philibert-Hippolyte de Nouret, comte de Montrond. She was divorced from him in 1802 and was known thereafter as Mme Aimee de Coigny. . . ." (Byron's "Corbeau Blanc": The Life and Letters of Lady Melbourne: 423)
"Madame de Coigny was the woman with whom Lauzun was most obsessed. His affair with Perdita caused a little rift between him and three of his other mistresses, but he managed to remain on good terms with Coigny despite the fact that this farewell to Mary caused him to miss a dinner engagement with her. . . ." (Perdita: The Literary, Theatrical, Scandalous Life of Mary Robinson: 162)
2) Anne-Thoynard de Jouy, Comtesse d'Esparbes et de Lussan.
"The Comtesse d'Esparbes had thoroughly initiated him, or 'put him into the world. She had him to read aloud to her as she lay in bed; though even then, he was still so backward that only at the second reading did he really come to the scratch. He was still seventeen. And then the Countess threw him over, and put him still more definitely into the world. . . . " (Introductions and Reviews: 97)
Duc de Lauzun Hits on Comtesse d'Esparbes: "Lauzun had long been intimate with Mme. d'Amblimont and Mme. d'Esparbes. After the various fruitless love affairs of which the vicissitudes have been narrated, it struck him that he was wandering far in search of consolation while it lay close at hand, and he resolved to pay his court to one of his fair friends. He decided in favour of Mme. d'Esparbes, who, like all women of her time, was absolutely free from prejudice.
Comtesse d'Esparbes' Physical Traits & Personal Qualities.
". . . Mme. d'Esparbes was short and red-haired, with short-sighted, dull blue eyes, and a somewhat mis-shapen nose; but her complexion was dazzling, her mouth and teeth perfect, her hands exquisite, altogether a very attractive little person. At the suppers in the King's private room it was she who with dainty fingers prepared cherries for his Majesty, deftly peeling them, for him to eat after rolling them in sugar." (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louix XV: 39)
Aftermath.
"But if the conquest was easy it was very short-lived. In the course of the next year (1764) Lauzun found himself.
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| Gabrielle de Chimay Vicomtesse de Cambis |
3) Gabrielle de Chimay, Vicomtesse de Cambis (1729-1809)
Daughter of: Alexandre-Gabriel de Henin Lietard, Prince de Chimay & Gabrielle de Beauvau-Craon.
Wife of: Jacques-Francois-Xavier-Regis-Ignace de Cambis, Vicomte de Cambis (1727-1792)
"Since his marriage Lauzun had constantly met, at the Marechale de Luxembourg's, the Vicomtesse de Cambis, sister to the Prince de Chimay and to Mme. de Caraman: 'An elegant figure, cleverness and grace, with a great deal of art and love of dress, made her an agreeable woman,' and he had paid her some attention. Mme. du Deffiant had a fairly good opinion of her. 'This Cambis pleases me,' she wrote; 'she has, to be sure, a cold, dry nature. I feel a certain wish to please her which enlivens me. She will never be a friend, but I find her good company. Mme. de Genlis, who probably had found her match in Mme. de Cambis, has left a less flattering portrait of the lady: 'A person whose mere wit repelled me was Mme. de Cambis; she was pretentious in every possible way. She was strongly marked by the small-pox, her features were common, her figure fine enough; she wore the most scornful and impertinent air that anyone ever dared out up on before the world.' Mme. de Cambis and Lauzun had gone beyond a few unimportant skirmishes, but they liked each other's wit, when one day Lauzun, being on duty at Versailles, to pass the time went to pay his respects to Mme. de Boisgelin: 'A monster of ugliness, but pleasant enough, and as gallant as if she had been pretty. The conversation turned on Mme. de Cambis. After a few more or less trivial remarks, Mme. do Boisgelin, striking her forehead, exclaimed: 'Let us make her come here; write her a line. I have reason to believe that she likes you very much, and she will come.' Lauzun followed this advice and hastily wrote there few lines: 'M. de Lauzun commands Mme de Cambis sto come and keep him company at Versailles, where he is now on duty and bored to death'; and a courier was despatched to Paris with this impertinent message. The most astonishing part of the story is not Lauzun's amazing indiscretion---there were plenty of such scatterbrains at Court, capable of any folly---but the very unexpected attitude assumed by Mme. de Cambis. Far from being indignant at suach a cavalier proceeding, the lady immediately ordered her carriage and set out for Versailles, where she arrived four hours later and was very warmly welcomed." (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV.: 119)
Izabella Flemming's other lover was:
Nikolai Repnin (1734-1801).
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| Izabela Flemming Princess Czartoryska |
4) Izabela Fleming, Princess Czartoryska (1746-1835)
Polish patriot, patron, writer, art collector and museum founder.
Founder of Poland's 1st museum, Czartoryski Museum
Daughter of: Count Jerzy Detloff Fleming and Princess Antonina Czartoryska.
Wife of: Wife of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (1734-1823) mar 1761
" . . . Apart from attending race meetings and winning trophies with his horses, he spent most of his time in England in pursuit of women, including one of the great loves of his life, the Princess Isabelle Czartoryska (1746-1835), by whom Lauzun was thought to have a son. . . . " (Lawrence: 454)
" . . . Lauzun travelled to England in 1767, primarily to advance his affair with Lady Sarah Bunbury . . ., and again in 1772 and 1777. Apart from attending race meetings, and winning trophies with his horses, he spent most of his time in England in pursuit of women, including one of the great loves of his life, the Princess Isabelle Czartoryska (1746-1835), by whom Laiuzun was thought to have had a son. Miss Rutherford notes of the Princess that 'scandal did not allow all her numerous children the same paternity'. . . ." (Introductions and Reviews: 454)
" . . . Apart from attending race meetings and winning trophies with his horses, he spent most of his time in England in pursuit of women, including one of the great loves of his life, the Princess Isabelle Czartoryska (1746-1835), by whom Lauzun was thought to have a son. . . . " (Lawrence: 454)
" . . . Lauzun travelled to England in 1767, primarily to advance his affair with Lady Sarah Bunbury . . ., and again in 1772 and 1777. Apart from attending race meetings, and winning trophies with his horses, he spent most of his time in England in pursuit of women, including one of the great loves of his life, the Princess Isabelle Czartoryska (1746-1835), by whom Laiuzun was thought to have had a son. Miss Rutherford notes of the Princess that 'scandal did not allow all her numerous children the same paternity'. . . ." (Introductions and Reviews: 454)
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| Nikolai Repnin |
Nikolai Repnin (1734-1801).
Russian Major-General and diplomat.
"In 1763, Emperor Peter III sent him to Prussia as ambassador. The same year, Catherine transferred him to Poland as minister plenipotentiary; in Warsaw he was rumored to have had an affair with Izabela Fleming (and to have fathered Adam Jerzy Czartoryski)." (Wikipedia)
" . . . Prince Repnine fell madly in love with Princess Czartoriska, and to please her went so far as to disobey the Empress's orders. He was disgraced and obliged to leave the country. He adored the Princess, he had sacrificed everything for her and followed her in her journeys across Europe, without any effect, it would seem, being produced on the mind of Prince Adam, her husband." (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV: 296)
Prince Repnin's physical appearance &personal character.
"He was modestly enjoying his triumph when presently a lady entered the room whose hair was better dressed and her clothes better put on than was characteristic of most Englishwomen. Somewhat surprised, he inquired who she was, and learnt that she was a Pole, the Princess Czartoriska. 'Of middle height but perfect shape, with the most beautiful eyes, the most beautiful hair, the most beautiful teeth, a very pretty foot, very dark, much marked by the small-pox and devoid of colour, gentle in her manner and inimitably graceful in her slightest movements, Mme Czartoriska esd s ptoof that without being pretty a woman may be charming.' (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV: 295)
"Repnine was a man of parts and distinction, who played an important role in the history of his country. His grandmother was a Calmuck, and the traces of his descent were visible in his features as well as in his temper. His countenance, though singular, was not altogether displeasing; his manners and actions were dignified, and in company he showed much liveliness and wit. . . ." (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV: 296)
"In 1763, Emperor Peter III sent him to Prussia as ambassador. The same year, Catherine transferred him to Poland as minister plenipotentiary; in Warsaw he was rumored to have had an affair with Izabela Fleming (and to have fathered Adam Jerzy Czartoryski)." (Wikipedia)
" . . . Prince Repnine fell madly in love with Princess Czartoriska, and to please her went so far as to disobey the Empress's orders. He was disgraced and obliged to leave the country. He adored the Princess, he had sacrificed everything for her and followed her in her journeys across Europe, without any effect, it would seem, being produced on the mind of Prince Adam, her husband." (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV: 296)
Prince Repnin's physical appearance &personal character.
"He was modestly enjoying his triumph when presently a lady entered the room whose hair was better dressed and her clothes better put on than was characteristic of most Englishwomen. Somewhat surprised, he inquired who she was, and learnt that she was a Pole, the Princess Czartoriska. 'Of middle height but perfect shape, with the most beautiful eyes, the most beautiful hair, the most beautiful teeth, a very pretty foot, very dark, much marked by the small-pox and devoid of colour, gentle in her manner and inimitably graceful in her slightest movements, Mme Czartoriska esd s ptoof that without being pretty a woman may be charming.' (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV: 295)
"Repnine was a man of parts and distinction, who played an important role in the history of his country. His grandmother was a Calmuck, and the traces of his descent were visible in his features as well as in his temper. His countenance, though singular, was not altogether displeasing; his manners and actions were dignified, and in company he showed much liveliness and wit. . . ." (The Duc de Lauzun and the Court of Louis XV: 296)
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| Lady Sarah Lennox @Wikipedia |
Lover in 1767.
" . . . Lauzun travelled to England in 1767 primarily to advance his affair with Lady Sarah Bunbury...and again in 1772 and 1777. . . ." (Lawrence: 454)
" . . . Lauzun travelled to England in 1767 primarily to advance his affair with Lady Sarah Bunbury...and again in 1772 and 1777. . . ." (Lawrence: 454)
6) Therese de Clairmont d'Amboise, Comtesse de Stainville.
"He was well in love with Madame de Stainville, when his father married him at last, at the age of nineteen, to Madame de Boufflers, apparently, liked Lauzun no better than he liked her. Madame de Stainville calls her a 'disagreeable child.; She did not care for men: seems to have been a model of quiet virtue: perhaps she was a sweet, gentle thing: more likely she was inwardly resentful from the day of her birth. One would gather that she showed even more contempt of Lauzun, and physical repugnance to the married state. They never really lived together." (Introductions and Reviews: 97)
7) Madame Chandon.
7) Madame Chandon.
8) Madame Dillon.
"Comtesse Dillon, nee Lucie de Roth or Roothe. Her beauty had first struck Lauzun, in 1763, when he had met her at a ball at the marechale de Mirepoix. Mlle. de Roth had married comte Arthur Dillon, who distinguished himself in America, and who was to die on the scaffold in 1794. She herself died in 1782, while Lauzun was in America." (Memoirs of the Duc de Lauzun: 364)
9) Jeanne Vaubernier, Madame du Barry.
"Jeanne Vaubernier and Lauzun . . .met one evening at the opera and set up the beginning of a flirtation. . . but his flirtation with Mlle. Vaubernier went no further, and having failed this to drown his sorrows, he again fell into a stare of melancholy." (Memoires of the Duc de Lauzun: 160)
10) Mademoiselle Julie.
9) Jeanne Vaubernier, Madame du Barry.
"Jeanne Vaubernier and Lauzun . . .met one evening at the opera and set up the beginning of a flirtation. . . but his flirtation with Mlle. Vaubernier went no further, and having failed this to drown his sorrows, he again fell into a stare of melancholy." (Memoires of the Duc de Lauzun: 160)
10) Mademoiselle Julie.
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| Francoise de Raucourt @Wikipedia |
11) Francoise de Raucourt (1756-1815)
French actress & singer.
[Bio]
" . . . Lauzun was then arrested and imprisoned first in the Abbaye prison in Paris, and then in Sainte-Pelagie. Here, he had an affair with an actress of the Comedie Francaise called Mademoiselle Raucourt." (History and Other Thoughts)
12) Marie Antoinette of Austria, Queen of France.
"As to Lauzun's relations with Marie Antoinette, it is difficult to decide as to the truth of his claims. Some of his contemporaries have confirmed it; others have denied it vehemently. Yet to-day when we know his conceited character, his fatuity, what he says with regard to the unfortunate Queen's conduct towards him may still retain some malignity, but should not be credited. One sees in it only the false and contemptible insinuations of a presumptuous fellow disappointed in his hope, and whose wounded vanity seeks a vengeance unworthy of a gallant man." (Memoirs of the Duc de Lauzun: viii-ix)
13) Marianne Harland.
" . . . Two years earlier the English ladies caught his eye. Sixteen-year-old Marianne Harland too over from twenty-year-old Sarah Bunbury, 'with a dazzling white bosom and the freshness of a rose.'...." (Manceron & Wolf: 252)
14) Mary Robinson.
14) Mary Robinson.
"Though Mary refused the Duke of Chartres, she was unable to resist his dashing friend the Duke of Lauzun. Armand Louis de Gontaut (later Biron) was a soldier and a philanderer. . . Mary's Memoirs dismiss as a disgrace to human nature on account of his vices, whilst at the same time acknowledging that 'the elegance of his manners rendered him a model to his contemporaries.' Lauzun's memoirs, by contrast, claim that he had a brief affair with her: She was gay, lively, open, and a good creature; she did not speak French; I was an object to excite her fancy, a man who had brought home great tidings, who came from the war, who was returning there immediately,; he had suffered greatly, he would suffer more still. She felt that she could not do too much for him; and so I enjoyed Perdita, and did not conceal my success from Madame de Coigny.'" (Perdita: 162)
15) Miss Paddock.
15) Miss Paddock.
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