Thérésa Tallien

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Thérésa Tallien
Hainaut, Belgium
Known forLiaisons with high-profile men - and the role as symbol of the end of terror in France (Notre Dame du Thermidor)
Spouse(s)1 Marquis de Fontenay (annulled)
2 Jean-Lambert Tallien (annulled)
3 François-Joseph-Philippe de Riquet, Prince de Chimay
Children11, by various husbands and lovers

Thérésa Cabarrus, Madame Tallien (31 July 1773 – 15 January 1835) was a Spanish-born French noblewoman and socialite who became Princess of Chimay during her lifetime.

Life

Early life

She was born Juana María Ignacia Teresa de Cabarrús y Galabert in

Royal Bank of Spain, and was King Joseph I of Spain's Minister of Finance. In 1789, he was ennobled by King Charles IV of Spain with the title of count
.

From 1778 to 1783, Thérésa was raised by nuns in France. She was a student of the painter Jean-Baptiste Isabey. She returned home to the family castle briefly in 1785, and then her father sent her back to France at twelve years old to complete her education and get married.

The first of her many love affairs was with

Louis XVI. The newlyweds visited the royal court of Spain as well. On 2 May 1789 Thérésa had a son, Devin Théodore de Fontenay (1789–1815), whose father was perhaps Felix le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, brother of Louis-Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
.

Citizeness Tallien in a cell in La Force Prison, by Jean-Louis Laneuville, 1796. Her hair has been cut short and she is holding her locks in her hands.

When her husband fled at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, she resumed her

Jean Lambert Tallien, Commissioner of the National Convention at the theatre.[6] Some time later she began an affair with him. In December 1793 she appeared as the Goddess of Reason at a large parade organised in Bordeaux by Tallien and his fellow-Commissioner Ysabeau to celebrate the feast of Reason.[7]

Thermidor and Directory

In February 1794, Tallien was denounced by

9 Thermidor) Tallien had Theresa and Joséphine de Beauharnais freed from prison and became one of the leading figures in French political life. Thérésa was a moderating influence on her husband: after the outbreak of the Thermidorian Reaction, she earned the moniker 'Our Lady of Thermidor' (French: Notre-Dame de Thermidor)[4]
as the person who was most likely to intervene in favor of the detained.

Pregnant with their daughter, she married Tallien on 26 December 1794.[9] Their marriage was relatively short-lived however as Theresa began divorce proceedings against Tallien in February 1797. Tallien accompanied Napoleon to Egypt but was captured by the British on his voyage back to France and held prisoner. On his release in 1802, the divorce was finalised.[10]

Thérésa became one of the leaders of Parisian social life.

Talleyrand
commented: "Il n'est pas possible de s'exposer plus somptueusement!" ("One could not be more sumptuously unclothed!").

Marriage to Riquet

Paul Barras being entertained by the naked dancing of two wives of prominent men, Thérésa Tallien and Joséphine Bonaparte

After her divorce from Tallien Theresa had a brief flirtation with Napoleon.

Prince of Chimay after the death of his childless uncle in 1804. She spent the rest of her life first in Paris, then on the Chimay estates[1] (now in Belgium). After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, these became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
.

When Princesse de Chimay, by François Gérard, 1804[15]

She had become one of the most famous women of her age, and she resented this role. Once when she appeared at the Louvre accompanied by her children, so many spectators flocked to see her up close, that she had to escape down a staircase to save herself. The marriage to Caraman meant that she returned to the class in which she had been born - and educated.

The couple invited musicians such as

Charles de Bériot and Maria Malibran to Paris and later to Chimay, where Thérésa held a little court. Cherubini composed his Messe en fa majeur dite Messe de Chimay at their castle there in 1809, derived from a Kyrie and Gloria he wrote in 1808 for the village church of Chimay.[16]

Thérésa died in Chimay, where she was interred with François-Joseph de Riquet under the

Joseph de Riquet, first son of François-Joseph-Philippe, who became the seventeenth Prince of Chimay
in 1843.

Children

Thérésa bore eleven children by various husbands and lovers.

Issue by a man via an affair named Ferdinand Louis Félix Lepeletier.

  • Antoine François Julien Théodore Denis Ignace de Fontenay (Lepeletier) (1789–1815); had illegitimate issue.

Issue by Jean Lambert Tallien:

  • Rose Thermidor Laure Josephine Tallien (1795–1862), married Count Felix de Narbonne-Pelet in 1815;

Issue by Paul Barras:

  • Francis Barras, born in 1797, who died at 1833; had illegitimate issue.

Ouvrard was the father of five of her children, born during her marriage to Tallien and after her divorce:

  • Clemence Isaure Thérésa Ouvrard (1800–1884), married Colonel Hyacinthe Devaux, no issue; as a widow she became a nun;
  • Jules Adolphe Edouard Ouvrard de Cabarrus, Doctor Cabarrus (1801-1870), married Adélaïde de Lesseps (1803-1879);
  • Clarisse Thérésa Ouvrard (1802-1877), married Achille Ferdinand Brunetiere in 1826; had illegitimate issue.
  • Auguste Stéphanie Coralie Thérésa Ouvrard (1803-?), married Amédée Ferdinand Moissan de Vaux, son of the Baron of Vaux, in 1822.
  • Elisabeth Gabrielle Ouvrard (1804-1857)

She and Riquet had three children together:

Cultural references

As Teresa Cabarrús, she is a prominent character in Baroness Orczy's novel The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

She was played by Carolyn Jones in the 1954 film Désirée, starring Marlon Brando, and by Florence Pernel in the 2002 Napoléon (miniseries).

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Thérésa Tallien". monumentshistoriques.free.fr. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  2. ^ Gilles 1999.
  3. ^ Jumièges 1967, p. 11.
  4. ^ a b Paxton 1988, p. 184.
  5. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution 1989, p. 330.
  6. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution 1989, p. 373.
  7. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution 1989, p. 394.
  8. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution 1989, p. 407.
  9. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution 1989, p. 463.
  10. ^ Chronicle of the French Revolution 1989, p. 671.
  11. ^ Gueniffey 2015, p. 197.
  12. .
  13. ^ .
  14. ^ a b "Thérésa Tallien, "Incroyable", "Merveilleuse" et Première Dame!". Point de Vue (in French). 16 October 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  15. ^ a b Huguenaud, Karine (March 2005). "Madame Tallien". napoleon.org. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  16. ^ Cherubini: Mass in F (Chimay), Classical Music Review, accessed February 2018.
  17. ISSN 1536-8742
    .
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  20. .
  21. ^ d'), Laure Junot Abrantès (duchesse (1832). Memoirs of the Duchess D' Abrantés (Madame Junot). J. & J. Harper.