Lucie de la Tour du Pin
Lucie de la Tour du Pin deserves a section to herself; she is such a special person and I hope people will read more about her either in her own book, Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin translated by Felice Harcourt (Journal d’une Femme de Cinquante Ans 1778-1815) or the excellent book by Caroline Moorhead, Dancing to the Precipice. Fanny Burney wrote about her when she was in Brussels in 1815
“I was visited here by the highly accomplished Madame de la Tour du Pin, wife to the favourite nephew of Madame d’Henin; a woman of as much courage as elegance, and who had met danger, toil and difficulty in the Revolution with as much spirit and nearly with as much grace, as she had displayed in meeting universal admiration and homage at the Court of Marie Antoinette, of which she was one of the most brilliant latter ornaments.
Her husband at this time one of the French Ministers at the Congress at Vienna; whence as she learned a few days after my arrival at Brussels, he had been sent on an embassy of the deepest importance and risk to La Vendee, or Bordeaux. She bore the term of that suspense with an heroism that I greatly admired, for I well knew she adored her husband. M. la Tour da Pin had been a prefect of Brussels under Bonaparte, though never in favour, his internal loyalty to the Bourbons was well known. But Bonaparte loved to attach great names and great characters to his government , conscious of their weight both at home and abroad, and he trusted in the address of that mental diving-machine, his secret police, for warding off any hazard he might run, from employing the adherents of his enemies.”
Henrietta-Lucie Dillon born in Paris in 1770 daughter of Arthur Dillon (2nd son of Henry, 11th Viscount Dillon of Roscommon, an Irish peer) and his French wife and second cousin, Lucie de Rothe. Her mother, who was a lady of the household of Queen Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, died when Lucie was 12 and her father was in America, “fighting at the head of the first battalion of his Regiment”, as she says in her Journal. He had inherited the ownership and was Colonel of the Dillon regiment (raised by the 7th Viscount to follow James II into exile), which served France during the American Revolutionary War, mainly in islands such as Martinique, San Domingo, St. Eustace and St. Kitts. “During her last days, my mother was surrounded with care. The Queen came to see her and every day a groom or page was sent from Versailles to fetch news of her.” Lucie was thereafter brought up by her unpleasant, tyrannical grandmother.
Engraving of Lucie when young
“my reputation for beauty was due entirely to my figure and my bearing, not at all to my features. My greatest beauty was my thick ash-blond hair…I have never expected to be thought beautiful and have therefore never suffered that demeaning jealousy which I have seen tormenting so many women…”
-Lucie (Marquise de la Tour) describing herself at a young age
Marquise de la Tour’s Marriage
“I was told unfavourable things about him. I had never seen him. I knew that he was short and ugly, that he had contracted debts, that he had gambled and so on…but my mind was made up…My grandmother was astounded…she could not understand how I could prefer him to M. de l’Aigle. Frankly I could not have explained it myself. It was an instinct, a guidance from above. God had destined me for him! And since that decision, which my sixteen-year old lips uttered almost despite myself, I have felt that I belonged to him, that my life was his. I still bless Heaven for that decision.”
Various eligible suitors begged for her hand in marriage but she had decided on Fréderic-Séraphin de Gouvernet (later Marquis de La Tour du Pin). Before returning to the West Indies her father had identified him as the most suitable husband for his young daughter. Fréderic-Séraphin de Gouvernet was a young aide-de-camp, well-liked by his fellow officers, who had served with Lafayette in America. But at that time Lucie’s grandmother vetoed the match. However, Lucie had been intrigued by the stories her father told of him. She claimed to have had a presentiment when she was travelling with her grandmother from Narbonne where her great uncle was Archbishop and they passed through the vast Le Bouilh estate near Bordeaux which belonged to the family de la Tour du Pin.
She married at 17, Her dress was very simple“a gown of white crêpe and fine Brussels lace, and pinners, for in those days one wore a bonnet, not a veil. I had a cluster of orange blossoms in my hair and another at my waist..” A few days later she was presented to the Queen at Versailles and from then on she went to Versailles nearly every week. She describes the ceremonial of the Sunday Courts and the behaviour of all those in attendance, ending up with “Unnoticed the spirit of revolt was rampant in all classes of society.
Princess d’Henin
Her husband’s aunt, Mme d’Henin (later, a friend of Fanny Burney, see Flight to Brussels) took Lucie under her wing.
“As she took me out into society, this was both pleasanter and more convenient, for it was not customary in those days for a young lady to go alone into company during the first year of her marriage… we went nearly every day to the theatre. The plays finished early enough for people to go out to supper afterwards. My aunt and I had permission to sit in the Queen’s boxes.”
She describes the people in her Aunt’s circle – “It consisted of four very distinguished ladies: Mme d’Henin; the Princess de Poix (nee Beauvau); the Duchesse de Biron, the Maréchal de Luxembourg and the Princesse de Bouillon…They had all been linked since their youth in a friendship…they were all what we then called ‘philosophes’ or free-thinkers.” She gives a sketch of Mme d’Henin:
“At the time of my marriage , Mme d’Henin was thirty-eight. At the age of fifteen, she had married the seventeen-year old Prince d’Henin, younger brother of Prince de Chimay. They were much admired as the handsomest couple ever seen at Court. During the second year of her marriage Mme d’Henin caught smallpox and this illness, for which there was then no effective treatment, left on her face weeping scars which were never cured.
When I first met her, she was still very beautiful, with lovely hair, charming eyes, teeth like pearls, a magnificent figure and a most aristocratic bearing. Her marriage contract had stipulated separation of property and she lived with her mother until the latter’s death. Although M. d’Henin had an apartment in Mme de Monconseil’s house, and was not separated in law from his wife, he none the less lived with an actress of the Comédie Française, a Mlle Raucourt, who ruined him.”
During this time from 1789 Lucie writes about her very active social life, mainly around the Court, and the backgrounds of the people she is mixing with. She writes
“Never had people been so pleasure-seeking as in the spring of 1789, before the meeting of the States-General. For the poor, the winter had been very hard, but there was no concern for the misery of the people…looking back on our blindness, I can understand it in young people like myself, but find it inexplicable in men of the world, in Ministers, and above all, in the King.”
Versailles
The Revolution
Lucie was at Versailles on July 14 1789.
“The next morning, my aunt and I went early to the Château. My aunt went to collect what news she could and I went to visit my father-in-law for the same purpose. From him I learned what had happened: the capture of the Bastille, the revolt of the Régiment des Gardes Françaises, the deaths of M. de Launay, M. de Flesselles and many other less well known people, the badly-timed and pointless charge on the Place Louis XV by a squadron of the Royal Allemand commanded by the Prince de Lambesc. The following day, a deputation from the people forced M. de la Fayette to put himself at the head of the newly-formed Garde Nationale.”
Lucie’s father-in-law reluctantly accepted the post of minister for war soon afterward, and she and Frédéric moved into an apartment in the ministry. They entertained the delegates to the recently renamed National Assembly, responsible for designing a new constitution for France, some of whom were future revolutionary leaders:
“So long as we were at Versailles, the men always wore formal dress at these dinners and I remember M. de Robespierre in an apple-green coat, with his thick white hair wonderfully dressed.”
On October 5, three or four hundred women advanced on Versailles from Paris demanding bread. Lucie’s account of those events includes economical remarks about the king and queen. Louis XVI, she remembered, “consulted everyone” as to the best course of action, and Marie Antoinette, though equally uncertain of what to do, “could not bring herself to undertake a flight by night.”
An interesting paragraph by Lucie on Queen Marie-Antoinette:
“When the Queen returned to Paris, she gave up her boxes at the theatre, an expression of resentment which, though very natural, was most unfortunate. It made the people of Paris more hostile than ever towards her. This ill-starred princess either did not know how to consider people’s feelings or was not prepared to do so. When she was displeased, she allowed it to be evident, regardless of the consequences, and this did great harm to the King’s cause. She was gifted with very great courage, but little intelligence, absolutely no tact and, worst of all, a mistrust – always misplaced – of those most willing to serve her…
During the last days of December 1790, he (M.de la Tour du Pin) was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary in Holland, but it was agreed that he would not take up his new duties until the King had accepted the Constitution.”
Lucie recounts continuous riots in Paris, shifting loyalties and alliances, secret betrayals, the unfortunate flight of King Louis XVI and his family. Then at the beginning of October 1791 the de la Tour du Pins went at last to The Hague. But it was not long before riots and political upheavals in Holland and Belgium caused Lucie’s husband to be dismissed. She made her way back to Paris through frightening riots and upheavals and when she finally arrived she wrote the following.
“In Holland, I had been spoiled, admired and flattered. Returning to France, I had scarcely crossed the border when the Revolution was all about me, dark and menacing, laden with danger.
I returned, it is true, to the very same room from which I had set out so light-heartedly only fifteen months before, but the light-heartedness had gone.
Looking critically at my past life, I reproached myself for its futility. Some presentiment of other fates in store made me resolve very firmly to put away for ever the thoughts of carefree youth, the far from disinterested flatteries of the world and the vain successes to which I had aspired.
A bitter sadness gradually filled my heart as I realised the frivolity of the life I had led until then…
From that day forward, my life was different, my moral outlook transformed.”
Execution of Louis XVI 1793
“On the morning of the 21st January, the gates of Paris were closed and orders were given that no reply was to be made to those outside who asked the reason why. We guessed the reason only too well, my husband and I, and from a window of our house overlooking Paris, we listened for the rattle of musketry which would give us some hope that so great a crime would not be committed unchallenged. We stood there in a shocked silence hardly daring to say a word to one another. We could not believe that such a price would be exacted… At half-past ten, the gates were opened and the life of the city resumed its course, unchanged…”
On 1st April 1793 Lucie and Frédéric left Paris, arriving at their estate in the south west, Le Bouilh, about 2 weeks later. They were there for 4 months, leading a very peaceful, quiet life. She writes about her husband very differently from her description of him before the marriage:
“There was no flaw in our domestic happiness, it was more complete than it had ever been. My husband’s perfect good humour, his adorable nature, his pleasant wit, combined with the mutual trust which bound us and our complete devotion to one another, ensured our happiness despite the dangers which surrounded us. None of the disasters which threated had power to alarm us so long as we could bear them together.”
But Le Bouilh was sequestered, and they hid in Bordeaux, but the terror increased, reaching its climax when not a day passed without executions. Lucie could hear the roll of drums which marked the fall of each head. They realised it was no longer safe for them in France.
Lucie and the children in America
Farm house in Stony Point, NY, 1765
Troy, New York, 1838
America
They were able to get on a boat, the Diana, 150 tons with one tall mast. 60 days later they arrived in Boston, husband, wife, 4 year old son and baby daughter. Constructive as always, Lucie said her recreation while on the boat was to help the cook.
“In Boston, I sold everything we had that would fetch money. As the Diana had made the crossing in ballast, no charge had been made for our luggage and we had brought a considerable amount. We now reduced it by more than half, clothing, materials, laces, a piano, music, porcelain, everything that would be superfluous in a small household…”
Somehow letters reached them in Boston, though they had no definite address. Most important was one from a Mrs Church, a close friend of Mme. d’Henin, with an introduction to her immensely rich Dutch family in Albany, New York. Her father, General Schuyler had distinguished himself in the War of Independence. The trip took 2 weeks, but the most severe blow for Lucie at this time was to learn of the execution of her father. (They learned later that her father-in-law was executed two weeks after.) However, she was able to appreciate the beauty of the country – “unbroken forest, fifty miles wide, …it offered a spectacle which I had never before seen: a forest in every state of growth, from the tree which was a mere shoot just showing above ground, to the tree which had fallen from age”. She describes rhododendrons, roses, mosses, streams with “every kind of water plant … in full flower. This unspoiled nature enchanted me to such an extent that I spent the entire day in ecstasy.”
Lucie, Frédéric and their children went to live with a farming family to learn the routine.
“I resolved to equip myself to run my houses as well as any good farmer’s wife. I began by accustoming myself to never remaining in bed after sunrise. In summer, I was up and dressed by three o’clock in the morning.”
The difference between this and life at Versailles!! The place they were able to buy was on the road between Troy and Schenectady, in present-day New York State.
“It was on a hill overlooking a wide stretch of country, and we thought it a very pleasant situation. The house was new and pretty…Only a part of the land was in cultivation. There were 150 acres under crops, a similar area of woodland and pasture, a small kitchen garden of a quarter of an acre filled with vegetables, and a fine orchard…One day, towards the end of September, I was out in the yard, chopper in hand, busy cutting the bone of a leg of mutton which I was about to roast on the spit for our dinner…with the help of Cuisine Bourgeoise …Suddenly from behind me, a deep voice remarked in French: ‘Never was a leg of mutton spitted with greater majesty.’ Turning quickly round, I saw M. de Talleyrand and M. de Beaumetz.”
Also travelling with M. Talleyrand was an eccentric Englishman, Mr Law.
“After dinner, Mr Law took M. de Talleyrand by the arm and led him into the garden…M.de Talleyrand, taking my husband and me into a corner of the drawing-room, told us that Mr Law had said to him, using these very words: ‘My dear friend, I like those people(meaning us), very much and it is my intention to lend them a thousand louis. They have just bought a farm. They need cattle, horses, negroes and so forth. So long as they live in this country, they will not repay my loan…Then he added ’’That woman, so well bred! Who does her own cooking….who milks the cow….who does her own washing. I find it unbearable…the thought of it kills me…’
It became possible for M. de la Tour du Pin to obtain from funds from Holland but he would have to go to Philadelphia. M. de Talleyrand, involved in the arrangements, suggested that they both come to New York and stay with Mr Law. Lucie had been ill with a persistent fever and it was thought that she should consult some doctors.
She describes a visit from Alexander Hamilton and family (now famous of course from the rap musical “Hamilton”).
“In New York, I met all the Hamilton family again. I had been in Albany when they arrived there in a waggon driven by Mr Hamilton himself. He had just retired from the Ministry of Finance to resume his legal practice, a profession more likely to enable him to leave some kind of fortune to his children. Mr Hamilton was then between 36 and forty years of age. Although he had never been in Europe, he spoke our language like a Frenchman and his distinguished mind and the clarity of his thought mingled very agreeably with the originality of M. de Talleyrand and the vivacity of M. de La Tour du Pin. Every evening these three distinguished men, in company with Monsieur Emmery, a member of the Constituent Assembly, Mr Law and two or three other persons of note, met after tea and sat on the verandah conversing together until midnight, or even later, under a beautiful starry sky and in a temperature of forty degrees. Whether it was Mr Hamilton telling of the beginnings of the War of Independence, the details of which have since been blurred by the insipid memoirs of that simpleton, La Fayette, or whether it was Mr Law talking to us of his years in India, of the administration of Patna where he had been governor, or his elephants and his palanquins, or whether it was my husband raising some argument over the absurd theories of the Constituent Assembly which M. de Talleyrand readily accepted, the talk never ran dry. C x “
Back to France May 6 1796
The years in America were the happiest of Lucie’s life, but when they learned that property in France was being restored to owners who had been condemned and the sequestration was removed from Le Bouilh, her husband was keen to return to France. Lucie says,
“the arrival of these letters at our peaceful farm had somewhat of the effect of a firebrand…France had left me only memories of horror. It was there that I had lost my youth, crushed out of being by numberless, unforgettable terrors. Only two sentiments had remained alive in me, …love of my husband and love of my children…M. de La Tour never realised the intensity of my regret…I set only one condition on our departure: that our negroes should be given their freedom.”
Back in France and at Le Bouilh, she writes that the financial position
“was another constant worry. I will not go into details of our ruin …I only know that when I married, my father-in-law was understood to have an income of eighty-thousand francs. Since the Revolution, our losses amounted to at least 58,000 francs a year…”
To England 1797
Lucie and Frédéric were in Paris in September 1797 when the coup d’etat of 18 Fructidor happened. In recent elections, the Royalists had won the majority of seats in the Legislative body and they were threatening a restoration of the monarchy. Three of the five members of the Directory, the government of the French First Republic aided by the military staged the coup d’etat and ousted the monarchists from the legislature. The following Decree ordered all émigrés who had returned to French soil to leave Paris within 24 hours and France within a week. Lucie and her husband decided to go to England where Lucie had many Dillon relatives. To her great joy, they did not stay in London but went to the country home of her aunt Lady Jerningham in Cossey, Norfolk.
“Vaccine (against smallpox) had recently been discovered, and when my aunt learned that my children had not yet been inoculated with it, she undertook to have it done and sent to Norwich for her own surgeon to perform the operation.”
Once again to France 1799
1799 Revolution in France. The Directorate (government) fell and Napoleon rose to power. Once again Lucie and her husband were tempted to return to France.
“In Paris, I found that many of my acquaintance had already returned from abroad. All the young men were beginning to turn to the rising sun – Mme Bonaparte – who was living at the Tuileries in apartments that had been entirely re-decorated, as if by the wave of a wand. She already bore herself like a Queen, but a very gracious, amiable and kindly one. Although not outstandingly intelligent, she well understood her husband’s plan: he was counting on her to win the allegiance of the upper ranks of society. Josephine had, in fact, given him to understand that she herself had belonged in those circles; this was not quite true. I do not know if she had been presented at Court or had had the entrée at Versailles – though the rank of her first husband M. de Beauharnais, would certainly have made this possible. However, even if she had been presented, she would have belonged to that class of lady who, after their first presentation, returned to Court only on New Year’s Day… All in all, she was extremely pleasant and I saw clearly that the First Consul had left her to deal with the feminine side of the Court… Everyone was hastening to gather about the rising star and I know of no one besides myself who refused to become a Lady-in-waiting to the Empress Josephine.”
From this time onwards Lucie and her family suffered constant financial difficulties. “On his return, M. la Tour du Pin (as he now was) had found his father’s affairs and his own in such great disorder and so much ill luck had dogged everything he undertook that, despite his intelligence and ability, everything turned out badly for him.” He was dependent on finding paid diplomatic posts. Lucie was able to promote his career under Napoleon, who was looking for aristocrats to lend legitimacy to his power and, from 1804, his court. Frédéric’s first post was as Prefect of Brussels. Even more opportunities to promote her husband came, when in 1808 Lucie’s half sister, Fanny Dillon, married Général Bertrand, Napoleon’s favourite aide-de-camp, later Grand Marshal of the Household. Général Bertrand’s suit had long been favoured by Napoleon but it had taken many years for Fanny to agree. Lucie says,
“She had yielded in part to his constancy and in part to the renewed persuasions of the Emperor to whom one could refuse nothing, so gracefully and so winningly did he set about obtaining what he wanted…”
When plotting against M. la Tour du Pin in Brussels resulted in his dismissal, Lucie went straight to Paris, managed to get an interview with Napoleon and although she couldn’t persuade him to reappoint her husband in Brussels, she did persuade him to make M. la Tour du Pin the Prefect in Amiens. They were in Amiens in 1814, when Napoleon was defeated and Louis XVIII came back to France from England. Great excitement ensued in Amiens when the King and his sister Madame stayed at the Prefecture with M. and Mme la Tour du Pin en route to Paris.
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838)
M. de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet is 7th from the left in this picture.
Bourbon Restoration 1814
Napoleon had been defeated by the forces of Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Austria at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. He was also being threatened by Wellington from Spain. After much negotiating and wrangling, on April 4, 1814, Napoleon finally abdicated by the Treaty of Fontainebleau. Talleyrand suggested Louis XVIII, a Bourbon, as the new king of France. This suggestion was accepted. Lucie’s son, Humbert was staying at M. de Talleyrand’s house in Paris at this time and at 6 o’clock in the morning, M. Talleyrand tapped him on the shoulder and told him to go “wear a white cockade” and shout “Long live the King”.
It was decided to hold a Congress in Vienna and Talleyrand, the master fixer, arranged for M. la Tour du Pin to be one of the ambassadors for France. Lucie was not able to accompany him so she remained in Paris where she went to balls, parties and visited friends, including Mme de Staël about whom she wrote:
“She entertained brilliantly, and with much kindness, all the notables from European countries who flocked to Paris during the winter of 1814-1815. ..I happened to be in Mme de Staël’s drawing-room on the evening the Duke of Wellington arrived in Paris…”
Lucie had known the Duke of Wellington as a child and was greeted by him “as an old friend”. News of the landing of Napoleon in Golfe Juan spread through Paris. It was decided the King would leave Paris and Lucie decided to go to Brussels. She describes all the difficulties of getting money. She got a receipt from the Minister of Finance for her husband’s salary and took it to her man of business
“to have it changed into gold. It was after nine o’clock when I left my man of business, and he told me to come back at eleven o’clock, …I went to say goodbye to Mme d’Henin, who had also decided to leave. I found her with M. de Lally, in a state of indescribable confusion: packing, gesticulating urging on her portly friend.”
Lucie’s journey to Brussels passed without incident. How different it was from the journey of Mme d’Henin and Fanny Burney (See Flight from Paris to Brussels).
Brussels
In Brussels, Lucie continued her active social life and she and her husband were at the famous ball given by the Duchess of Richmond on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. Fanny Burney mentioned Madame de La Tour Du Pin many times in her Brussels reports, usually adding “she was a Miss Dillon, & descendant from the famed Lord Falkland” but around May 18 1815, she says:
“About this time, I made myself some happiness in witnessing that of Madame de La Tour Du Pin & of Madame d’Henin, in the safe return of M. de La Tour Du Pin from his perilous undertaking in La Vendee, of announcing the outlawry of Buonaparté. His life had been in the most eminent danger, & he owed his escape from fearful captivity, at least, to the private good services of the famous General Marechal Massena (in command at Marseilles).”
After 1815
Lucie de La Tour du Pin’s journal ends here. She intended writing a second volume but it was never finished. Her life from 1815 to 1853 when she died in Pisa, Italy, continued to be clouded by money shortages, especially after her husband died in 1837. But the most distressing times were when 3 of her surviving children died – the most heartbreaking being the death of her eldest son, Humbert, in a foolish duel. Humbert, asked his father for advice about the insult that had been given, saying that it was a fellow officer whom he was advising…“what touches his honour touches mine also. What ought he to do?”
Poor M. la Tour de Pin answered “Challenge the aggressor”.
M. de La Tour du Pin was made a peer of France by the King and he went as Minister to The Hague. Lucie went with him, then to Turin where he was Ambassador in 1820. They remained there until he retired in 1830. With the turmoil in Paris and the abdication of the King, they decided to go to Le Bouilh. But their son, the only surviving child, Aymar was imprisoned for plotting and taking part in the Legitimist movement which continued to support the claims of the elder branch of the House of Bourbon after the revolution of 1830. When he was freed he continued to support the Legitimist cause and when it failed he had to go into hiding. M. de la Tour du Pin was fined and imprisoned for three months for defending his son in public and Madame de La Tour du Pin joined her husband in prison. The family went into exile in Lausanne where M. de la Tour died n 1837 aged 78. Madame de la Tour du Pin went with Aymar to Italy, to Pisa where she lived until her death. Only after his mother had died, did Aymar marry, Caroline de La Bourdonnaye-Blossac with whom he had one son, Humbert de La Tour du Pin de Gouvernet who lived until 1943.
Lucie de La Tour du Pin’s Memoirs provide a fascinating record of France and French society during an extraordinarily turbulent time. She knew the aristocracy, royalty and many of the people involved in government. She wrote the memoirs when she turned 50 in 1820, long after the events, so it does not have the immediately recorded conversations that Fanny Burney was able to include in her diaries. Of course, Lucie would not have had time to write up a diary; she was much too active but she had a good memory for the significant events.
It was a remarkable life and she was a remarkable woman. For the first half of her marriage she was constantly pregnant, losing some of the children before birth and others at birth. But this did not stop her very active life; she charmed all who met her, and supported and promoted her husband whom she loved with devotion all of their lives together. This love and Lucie’s religion supported her throughout the trials of financial anxiety, death and exile. A sad life, but she filled it with charm, intelligence, honesty and energy.