Madame de Saint-Laurent
Madame de Saint-Laurent | |
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 Julie de Montgenêt de Saint-Laurent, 1800 | |
| Born | Alphonsine-Thérèse-Bernardine-Julie de Montgenêt de Saint-Laurent 30 September 1760 Besançon, France |
| Died | 8 August 1830 (aged 69) Paris, France |
| Burial place | Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris |
| Other names | Julie de Saint-Laurent Thérèse-Bernardine Montgenêt |
| Known for | Mistress of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn |
| Spouse | Baron de Fortisson |
| Parent(s) | Jean-Claude Mongenêt Jeanne-Claude Pussot |
Madame Alphonsine-Thérèse-Bernardine-Julie de Montgenêt de Saint-Laurent (30 September 1760 – 8 August 1830) was the wife of Baron de Fortisson, a colonel in the French service, and the mistress of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (father of Queen Victoria).
Madame de Saint-Laurent was born on 30 September 1760 in
On the formation of
History
While in
There is no evidence that the couple had children, despite the claims made by many families in Canada to descent from them.[1] Recent scholarship (particularly by Mollie Gillen, who was granted access to the Royal Archive at Windsor Castle)[2] has established that no children were born of the 27-year relationship between Edward Augustus and Madame de Saint-Laurent; although many Canadian families and individuals (including the Nova Scotian soldier Sir William Fenwick Williams, 1st Baronet)[3] have claimed descent from them, such claims can now be discounted in light of this new research.[1]
For twenty-eight years Madame de Saint-Laurent presided over the Duke's household, as a local chronicler records, "with dignity and propriety". She is described as having been beautiful, clever, witty and accomplished. Many of her letters will be found in Anderson's Life of the Duke of Kent (Quebec: 1870). After the Duke's marriage in 1818 to the Dowager Princess of Leiningen, Madame de Saint-Laurent retreated to Paris where she lived out her days amongst her family and friends.
She died in 1830 and was buried with her sister, Jeanne-Beatrix, Comtesse de Jansac, at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Legacy
She has given her name to two roads and a pond in the neighborhood of Prince's Lodge in Bedford, Nova Scotia:
- Julie's Pond or The Heart Shaped Pond - a man-made body of water built on order by Prince Edward at the foot of Kent Road in what is now Hemlock Ravine Park
- St. Laurent Place - short residential road in Prince's Lodge, Nova Scotia
- Julie's Walk, Bedford - short residential road in Prince's Lodge, Nova Scotia
References
Endnotes
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- ^ The Prince and His Lady – The Love Story of the Duke of Kent and Madame de St Laurent, Mollie Gillen, Griffin Press Ltd, 1970, pp. 25, 44
- ^ "Biography – WILLIAMS, Sir WILLIAM FENWICK – Volume XI (1881-1890) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
Texts
- Gillen, Mollie (1987). "MONTGENET, THÉRÈSE-BERNARDINE". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. VI (1821–1835) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- Mollie Gillen. The Prince and His Lady: The Love Story of the Duke of Kent and Madame de St Laurent. Formac. 2005.
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