View source for Louise Élisabeth de Croÿ

{{Short description|French writer and noble}}
{{Redirect|Tourzel|the place in France|Tourzel-Ronzières}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox noble
| name = Louise Élisabeth de Croÿ
| title = ''Duchess of Tourzel''
| image = French School - "Portrait de Louise Elisabeth de Croÿ d’Havré, marquise de Tourzel".jpg
| caption = 
| CoA = 
| tenure = 
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| birth_date = {{birth date|1749|06|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Paris]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1832|05|15|1749|06|11|df=y}}
| death_place = Paris, [[July Monarchy|France]]
| spouse = {{marriage|Louis François du Bouchet de Sourches, Marquis of Tourzel|1766|1786}}
| issue = Josephine de Tourzel (daughter)<br/> Louise de Tourzel (daughter)<br/>Yves de Tourzel (son)<br/>Madeleine de Tourzel (daughter)<br/>[[Pauline de Tourzel]] (daughter)
| father = Louis Ferdinand Joseph de [[House of Croÿ|Croÿ]], Duke of Havré
| mother = Marie Louise Cunégonde de [[House of Montmorency|Montmorency-Luxembourg]]
}}
'''Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ''' (''Louise Élisabeth Félicité Françoise Armande Anne Marie Jeanne Joséphine''; 11 June 1749 &ndash; 15 May 1832) was a French [[noblewoman]] and courtier, as the Marquise of Tourzel. She was the [[Governess of the Children of France]] from 1789 until 1792. Decades after the [[French Revolution]], Louise-Élisabeth published her [[memoir]]s, which presented a unique perspective on the royal family during the French Revolution. She later acquired the title of [[duchess]].

==Life==
Louise Élisabeth was born in [[Paris]], into the illustrious [[House of Croÿ]] during the reign of King [[Louis XV]]. She was the daughter of Louis Ferdinand Joseph de Croÿ, [[List of French dukedoms|Duke of Havré]] and his wife, Princess Marie Louise Cunégonde de [[House of Montmorency|Montmorency-Luxembourg]].

Louise Élisabeth was married in 1766, at the age of seventeen, to the Marquis de Tourzel. They enjoyed a happy marriage for twenty years, in which Louise Élisabeth bore six children; her husband was, however, killed in a hunting accident in 1786.<ref name="Memoir">{{cite book |title=Memoirs of the Duchess de Tourzel: Governess to the Children of France During the Years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1795 |last=Tourzel |first=Louise Élisabeth  |author2=François Joseph de Pérusse Des Cars |year=1986 |publisher=Remington & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsduchessd00ducgoog |quote=tourzel motto. }}</ref> She was a staunch supporter of the [[House of Bourbon]], and had this motto engraved on a ring she refused to part with: ''Lord, save the King, the Dauphin, and his sister!''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Youth of the Duchess of Angoulême |last=Imbert de Saint-Amand |first=Arthur |author2=Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand |author3=Elizabeth Gilbert Martin  |year=1915 |publisher=C. Scribner's sons |location=University of Michigan |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_089nAAAAMAAJ|quote=tourzel motto. |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_089nAAAAMAAJ/page/n128 118] }}</ref>

===French Revolution===
After the [[Storming of the Bastille]] in 1789, many members of [[Marie Antoinette|Queen Marie Antoinette]]’s intimate circle were forced to flee abroad. The [[Yolande de Polastron|duchesse de Polignac]], the queen's [[favourite]] and the governess to the royal children, was forced to emigrate to [[Switzerland]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The French Revolution |last=McCarthy |first=Justin Huntly |author-link=Justin Huntly McCarthy |year=1897 |publisher=Harper |location=Harvard University |url=https://archive.org/details/frenchrevolutio01conggoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/frenchrevolutio01conggoog/page/n113 101] |quote=polignac switzerland. }}</ref> Marie Antoinette appointed Louise Élisabeth to the newly vacant post, with particular attention to be paid to the dauphin, [[Louis XVII|Louis-Charles]]. The marquise was advised to curb the dauphin's fear of loud noises, particularly the barking of the many dogs at [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]].<ref name="Lost">{{cite book |title=The Lost King of France: How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette |last=Cadbury |first=Deborah |author-link=Deborah Cadbury |year=2003 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-32029-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5k5qQ2w_UqAC&q=%22marquise+de+tourzel%22+married&pg=PA50 }}</ref>

After an angry mob of women incited by revolutionaries [[Women's March on Versailles|stormed the Palace of Versailles]] on 5 October 1789, the marquise accompanied the royal family to live in the [[Tuileries Palace]] in Paris.<ref name="Lost"/> Tourzel's loyalty was strong, and she refused to abandon the royal children as political strife in the nation dramatically increased. She even accompanied the king and his family on the [[flight to Varennes]], for a royalist stronghold in [[Montmédy]].<ref name="Road">{{cite book |title=The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy |last=Price |first=Munro |year=2003 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-26879-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7GTMH8lFA8C&q=%22marquise+de+tourzel%22+varennes&pg=PA169 }}</ref> This attempt failed, and the entire party was brought back to [[Paris]].<ref name="Road"/>

After the abolition of the monarchy in 1792, Louise Élisabeth was separated from the royal family and imprisoned in the [[La Force Prison]], and soon the [[Prison Port-Libre]].<ref name="Last">{{cite book |title=Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France |last=Lever |first=Evelyne |author2=Catherine Temerson  |year=2001 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-28333-4 |pages=282–283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_VdPU55KCoC&q=lamballe+tourzel&pg=PA282 }}</ref> Also imprisoned at the same time was her daughter, [[Pauline de Tourzel]], and Marie Antoinette's personal friend, [[Princesse de Lamballe]].<ref name="Last"/> 

Shortly after their imprisonment, they found themselves targeted in the [[September Massacres]], when thousands of incarcerated people in Paris were massacred by mobs trying to rid the prisons of jailed aristocrats they suspected of treason. Louise Élisabeth and her daughter were smuggled out of the prison by a mysterious man, but Princesse de Lamballe was not so fortunate.<ref name="Lost"/> She was murdered, and her severed head was then paraded around the city.<ref name="fraser">{{cite book |title=Marie Antoinette: The Journey |last=Fraser |first=Antonia |author-link=Antonia Fraser |year=2001 |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=0-385-48949-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zx3EXUhJuAUC&q=lamballe+kiss |page=389}}</ref>  Louise Élisabeth and her daughter were advised by their rescuer, a "Monsieur Hardi", to leave Paris because Pauline had escaped the prison illegally and was in danger of arrest, and they left for the countryside, where they lived incognito in Vincennes and at the property of her son in Abondant outside of Dreux.<ref name="Memoir"/>

In January 1793, King [[Louis XVI]] was [[execution of Louis XVI|executed]].<ref name="History">{{cite book |title=Modern European History |last=Hazen |first=Charles Downer |year=1917 |publisher=H. Holt and company |location=Harvard University |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moderneuropeanh00hazegoog/page/n142 123], 135 |url=https://archive.org/details/moderneuropeanh00hazegoog |quote=louis xvi executed. }}</ref> In October, the former queen of France, Marie Antoinette, was also sent to the [[guillotine]].<ref name="History"/> Louise Élisabeth was devastated by their deaths, and she was equally shocked to hear of the death of Louis-Charles in 1795.<ref name="Lost"/> Several times over the coming decades, Louise Élisabeth was accosted by various men pretending to be "[[Louis XVII]]".<ref name="Lost"/>

===Later years===

As soon as Marie-Thérése-Charlotte was allowed visits again by the government, she was among the first who requested to see her in her prison cell in the Temple. It was Louise Élisabeth who informed Marie-Therese that she was to marry her cousin [[Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême]], on the request of the latter’s father.<ref name="Nagel, Susan 2008">Nagel, Susan. " Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter ". NY: Bloomsbury, 2008. {{ISBN|1-59691-057-7}}.</ref> She attended the wedding of Marie-Therese and Louis Antoine in [[Mitau]] in the June of 1799, and remained in Mitau for some time.<ref name="Nagel, Susan 2008"/> Because of her well-known sympathy for the Bourbon family, she was put under secret surveillance of [[Napoleon|Napoleon I’s]] secret police.<ref name="Nagel, Susan 2008"/>

During the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]], Louise Élisabeth was made a duchess by [[Charles X of France|King Charles X]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette During the Revolution |last=Webster |first=Nesta Helen |author-link=Nesta Helen Webster |year=1937 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's sons |location=University of Michigan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1k_AAAAMAAJ&q=+duchess }}</ref> She later published her memoirs, which are an invaluable historical account of the final days of the royal household.<ref name="Memoir"/> Her daughter, [[Pauline de Tourzel|Pauline]], became a [[lady-in-waiting]] to Marie Antoinette's only surviving child, [[Marie Thérèse of France|Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte]].

== Children ==

* Henriette Adélaïde '''Joséphine''' de Tourzel (4 November 1765  &ndash; 11 March 1837), married Armand Joseph de Béthune, Duc de Charest. She built the [[Château de Groussay]]. 
* Zoé Anne '''Louise''' de Tourzel (24 June 1767 &ndash; 3 August 1794), married Pierre François Balthazar of Sainte-Aldegonde, and had a son and a daughter. 
* Charles Louis '''Yves''' de Tourzel (27 August 1768 &ndash; 4 April 1815), Marquis de Sourches de Tourzel, married Augustine Du Pons and had two daughters. 
* Joséphine Marie '''Madeleine''' de Tourzel (20 October 1769 &ndash; 4 May 1838), married the Comte de Saint-Aldegonde, and had  two daughters. 
* [[Pauline de Tourzel|Marie Charlotte '''Pauline''' de Tourzel]] (15 October 1771 &ndash; 9 July 1839), lady-in-waiting to the [[Marie Thérèse of France]], married the Comte de Béarn and had a son and a daughter. 

==In fiction==
Louise-Élisabeth de Tourzel has been featured in several novels about the French royal family, including the Marie Antoinette romances by [[Alexandre Dumas]].

The novels include:

* ''Trianon'', by [[Elena Maria Vidal]]
* ''Madame Royale'', by Elena Maria Vidal
* ''Flaunting, Extravagant Queen'', by [[Jean Plaidy]]
* ''Ernestine'', by Michiel B.L. Korte

The character of Louise-Élisabeth appeared in the 1956 French film ''Marie-Antoinette reine de France''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marie-Antoinette reine de France |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048355/ |access-date=2008-10-20 |work=IMDb.com |publisher=IMDb.com, Inc.}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Louise Élisabeth de Croÿ}}

* {{Gutenberg author | id=36292}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ de Tourzel}}
* [https://archive.org/details/memoirsduchessd00ducgoog ''Memoirs of the Duchess de Tourzel''], Volume I {{in lang|en}}
* [https://archive.org/details/mmoiresdemadame00tourgoog ''Mémoires de Madame la duchesse de Tourzel''], Volume I {{in lang|fr}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-court}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Yolande de Polastron|The Duchess of Polignac]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Governess of the Children of France|Governess of the<br>Children of France]]|years=1789–1792}}
{{s-non|reason=Monarchy abolished}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croy, Louise-Elisabeth de}}
[[Category:1749 births]]
[[Category:1832 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:House of Croÿ|Louise-Elisabeth]]
[[Category:Governesses to the Children of France]]
[[Category:19th-century French memoirists]]
[[Category:18th-century French nobility]]
[[Category:18th-century French women educators]]
[[Category:18th-century French educators]]
[[Category:19th-century French women writers]]
[[Category:French women memoirists]]
[[Category:Louis XVII]]
[[Category:Court of Louis XVI]]
[[Category:French duchesses]]
[[Category:French marchionesses]]