"The Duc de Lorraine seems very fond of my daughter. If only this love could endure, they will both be very happy. "But alas there is no such thing as eternal love", as they say in Clélie..... "
So wrote the Princess Palatine, in November 1698, shortly after her daughter Élisabeth-Charlotte d'Orléan's marriage to Leopold of Lorraine. Her insights were to prove all to perspicacious, for only a few years later the Duke acquired a mistress. It was this woman, the attractive and spirited Princess de Beauvau-Craon, rather than the long-suffering Duchess, who was to prove the enduring love of his life.
An affair of the heart?
There was never any doubt that Leopold was totally besotted. The Princess Palatine speculated that he had been drugged him with a love potion like the hapless Elector of Saxony, since he sweated agonies when his beloved was absent and visibly brightened whenever she entered the room [See Readings]
Leopold, though it seems out-of-character, even had recourse to the Muses to express his devotion. In 1883 Édouard Meaume discovered a manuscript notebook of 12 pages containing six pieces of love poetry written out in the Duke's own hand. Leopold celebrated his Iris in a language, which, though lacking in elegance had "je ne sais quel accent de passion forte et naive" Meaume speculated that the poems were composed on different occasions, then copied out in a fair hand for the pleasure of the recipient. He even found allusions to specific events, notably the Court's sojourn in France in 1718... (Meaume, p.99-106). This, however, is wishful thinking for, alas, the gallantry is borrowed! The verses all come from the Poesies of Fontenelle - one at least, "La Macreuse", was quite well-known in the later 18th century.
Portrait of a mistress
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| Miniature "from the collection of the Duc de Mouchy",reproduced as the frontispiece to Gaston Maugras, La Cour de Lunéville (1904) |
On his journey to Paris in 1718, Leopold contrived to bring both his wife and his mistress; it was on this occasion that the Princess Palatine saw for the first time the woman who had spoiled her daughter's happiness. Even she was uncharacteristically impressed:
At this time Anne-Marguerite was already well past the first flower of youth: La Palatine guessed she was still in her twenties though in fact she was 32. Like the Duchess, she must have begun to feel the burden of successive pregnancies which, in her case, were to result in twenty births in little over the same number of years - an unusually remorseless tally even by the standards of the age. The Princess however, still remained relatively immune to the ravages of aging and childbearing.
By all accounts Anne-Marguerite was as feisty as she was good-looking. Although she could be charming, she had a flair for melodrama and readily gave vent to fits of temper. According to d'Audiffret, her histrionics made her unpopular : "They call this woman, who is not liked, the flapping bonnet [la battant l'oeil], because she is always in a bad mood."
The correspondence of d'Audiffret for 1709 provides a brief but illuminating glimpse of the goings-on at the Lorraine court. At a period when Leopold's loyalties seemed questionable, Louis XIV instructed his emissary to keep him informed of the "smallest bagatelles". In reply d'Audiffret dutifully related the quarrels over the behaviour of Leopold's younger brother, the Prince Charles, Bishop of Osnabrück, and charted the ill-feeling which developed between Madame de Craon and the Bishop's mistress, the Marquise de Lunati-Visconti. He later reported that Madame de Craon had become insanely jealous of the newly widowed Duchess of Mantua, who had sought refuge in Lorraine in 1707 after her husband's territories had been overrun by the Austrians. Anne-Marguerite refused to see the Duke if this young woman ever reappeared at Lunéville. She put on a amazing display of hauteur, and sulked for three days, much to the easy-going Leopold's discomfiture: "The good prince found himself in the troubled state which is usual for him when she is in bad humour. He doesn't cope well with these storms". Even a gift of two thousand pistoles failed to improve her mood and it was not until the unfortunate Duchess was banished from the Court that Leopold was restored to her good graces. (The unfortunate Suzanne-Henriette of Lorraine, Duchess of Mantua, the daughter of Charles III, Duke of Elbeuf, died a few months later in December 1710, aged only 25.)
In October 1709 d'Audiffret relays a much more unsavoury saga: this time, it seems, Anne-Marguerite's had grounds for her fury:
A vexing adventure befell Mademoiselle d'Agencourt, which they attempt to hide, but will soon be made public. She gave birth to a child, which they say is the fruit of a secret flirtation, before her marriage, with the Duke of Lorraine. It is this which has Madame de Craon furious with anger and caused the bad feeling between them. It might be added that her husband, the marquis de Spada had some suspicion having one day found a button from the Duke's coat in the demoiselle's bed. (Letter to Louis XIV, 10th October 1709, Haussonville, Histoire de la réunion de la Lorraine à la France, Vol. 4 (1860), p.128)
The prince has not held out against the wrathful pride of Madame de Craon. He has been pardoned and an accommodation reached. The lady claims to have a fever and her door is firmly closed to everyone. The marquis de Spada has taken his wife away to an estate with an income of 2,000 livres, which the Duke of Lorraine has given him. (Dispatch of 26th October).
[See "Marguerite Françoise Charlotte de Saint Martin d'Agencourt" on Geneanet - none of the children listed here can be identified as the unfortunate infant in question.]
M. d'Audiffret closed his chronicle for 1709 with details of the Duke's gambling debts (to the tune of 300,000 livres) and of an extremely expensive set of earrings with diamond pendants which he had bought to smooth the ruffled feathers of his mistress. Everyone was enraged against Madame de Craon, who was thought to have absorbed all his money. (Letter of 24th December 1709. Haussonville, p.233). In 1712 d'Audiffret reported that the Duchess, fearing the scale of his losses, had asked Leopold to stop gambling; but had finally agreed that he could continue, so that Madame de Craon and her husband could redeem 20,000-25,000 livres that they claimed to have lost. D'Audiffret suspected the couple of bad faith and certainly, thanks to Leopold's indulgence, good fortune seemed rarely to desert them at the gambling table.
A wronged wife
Poor Élisabeth-Charlotte! Where Leopold's mistress was good-looking and full of confidence, his wife was ill-favoured and constrained: she was also the elder by ten years - and it showed.
In an effort to please her husband, the Duchess allowed Madame de Craon to dominate her personal household. As dame d'atour, La Craon presided over the Duchess's public toilette, and directed the women charged with dressing and arranging her hair. In 1713, when the Duchess's dame d'honneur died, the hated mistress took over this crucial position, which she retained until Leopold's death in 1729. In effect she became the Duchess's most intimate companion, surintendante and governante of her household - "The title of gouvernante suits her wonderfully well", commented the Princess Palatine ruefully, "since, together with her husband, she governs everything".
Attributed to Jacques Van Schuppen, The Duchess of Lorraine and her children with the Princess de Beauvau-Craon, Surintendante of the Duchess's household [detail]  |
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8235982f/f2.image
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8235983v/f1
In public at least, the Duchess endured her humiliation with great dignity and almost masochistic resignation. The Princess Palatine professed amazement that her daughter could possibly love her husband so well and yet not show jealousy.
Appearances were, however, deceptive. On 22nd August 1709 d'Audiffret revealed to Louis XIV that "une vive querelle" had occurred between the Duke and the Duchess on the subject of Madame de Craon, which the Duchess's confessor had been enlisted to appease. The comte d'Haussonville remarks justly that "the Duchess of Lorraine was, in reality, very jealous of Madame de Craon. More than once, she allowed the Duke to see how much she suffered as a result of such an ill-concealed liaison; but through gentleness of character and regard for her husband, she affected not to notice in public, or at least to mind very little" (p.127-8)
According to her mother Élisabeth-Charlotte clung pathetically to any sign of affection from Leopold. Ten years later, in 1719, the Princess of Palatine wrote:
I do not think that my daughter’s attachment to her husband is so strong as it used to be, and yet I think she still loves him very much: every proof of fondness which he gives her pleases her so much that she immediately sends word to me. He can make her believe whatever he chooses; and, although she cannot doubt the Duke’s passion for Madame de Craon, yet, when he says that he feels only friendship for her, that he is quite willing to give up seeing her, only that he fears by doing so he would dishonour her in the eyes of the public, and that there is nothing he is not ready to do for his wife’s repose, she receives all he says literally, beseeches him to continue to see Madame de Craon as usual, and fancies that her husband is tenderly attached to her, while he is really laughing at her. If I were in my daughter’s place, the Duke’s falsehood would disgust me more than his infidelity. (Letter of 16th October 1719, See Readings)
In later years, if her sexual jealousy declined, the Duchess's concern for her children's legacy grew more intense. Her true feelings are evident in her surviving correspondence with her friend the Marquise d'Aulède, which spans the years 1715 to 1738. On 16th August 1728 she writes of Leopold: "He thinks of establishing that race without thinking of his own. I say no more; but I resent it bitterly."; and on 23rd August she comments : "There is no king who has bestowed on their favourite a greater fortune than His Royal Highness has on M. de Craon. I hope that he will give as much consideration to the establishment of our children as he does to the children of those people. I will say no more...." . (Lettres à la marquise d'Aulède p.270-71). These letters show clearly that the situation had not changed a year before Leopold's death
Henceforth Marc was present at all the crucial events in the ducal family: in 1722 he travelled to the Hapsburg court on behalf of Leopold's son Francis to ask formally for the hand of the Archduchess Maria Theresa, and the following year he accompanied the boy to Vienna as his governor. Since the mission necessitated princely standing, Leopold procured for his favourite the titles of Prince of the Empire in 1723, and Grand d'Espagne in 1727. The Chambre des comptes in Lorraine was now obliged to address him as "tres cher féal et cousin". In his will Leopold named both Beauvau-Craon himself and the Prince de Lixheim, his son-in-law, to Francis's regency council.
Beauvau-Craon's contemporaries considered him to be scandalously rich. His acquisition of property and ostentatious building programme, confirmed suspicions that he was bleeding the Duke dry. "There has never been a king who has conferred on his favourite a greater fortune than His Royal Highness has on M. de Craon" complained the Princess Palatine; "the husband of that woman is the biggest rogue that one can find in the world; he is the ruin of the Duke of Lorraine". In d'Audiffret's view, "The state is on the edge of a precipice due to the immense profusions lavished on this family" (quoted in Anne Motta, Noblesse et pouvoir princier p.477).
In reality Marc's wealth is difficult to gauge with any exactitude, due to the scarcity of figures; According to d' Audiffret, he received 800 to 900,000 livres annually from the Duke's revenues. However, a memoir drawn up for Élisabeth-Charlotte at the beginning of her Regency in 1729, estimated that he could count on an assured income from rentes of no more than 60,000 livres. Another source suggests he had salaries and pensions amounting to 36,000 livres, plus gifts of horses and carriages. (See Motta, p.477). But, as Jonathan Spangler reminds us, by no means all the Beauvau-Craon fortune came directly from the Crown.
In terms of landed property, in Marc's lifetime, the family patrimony grew considerably through a mixture of judicious purchase and generous grants of estates and feudal titles by Leopold:
Anne Motta gives the list:
In 1709 he acquired the barony of Monthureux-sur-Saône and in 1711 the Duke bestowed on him the terre of Morley. For 1,100,000 francs he purchased from his sister the seigneurie of Haudonviller, which was elevated to a marquisate by letters patent of 21st August 1712. In 1713, Leopold conferred on him the terre of Jarville (including the seigneurie de Tomblaine). On 20th November 1720 Autrey was made into a barony; he was awarded feudal rights for Haroué, and in 1724 for the seigneurie of Étreval which had belong to the comte de Gournay. In January 1723 Marc received Villecey, also made into a barony. Finally in 1725 Leopold conceded to him the barony of Turquestein and Saint-George as well as the seignerie of Reichshoffen.(Motta, p.478)
The Beauvau-Craon at home
It was above all through architecture that the favourite showed his ambitions, with a series of glittering residences conceived as satellites to the ducal palaces. In 1711 at Haudonviller, the new Marquisate of Craon, Marc de Beauvau-Craon invested 800,000 livres in the construction of a maison de plaisance modelled on Louis XV's château at Marly. It was the first project undertaken by Boffrand for a private person. An avenue of lime trees connected the property directly with the palace at Lunéville, two miles away.
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| Maquette of the château at Haudonviller (present day Croismare) |
In Nancy Beauvau-Craon had constructed in 1715 a grand hôtel to the south of the Place de la Carrière. An enfilade of rooms went the length of the square, terminating in a 30-metre-long picture gallery. Considered one of the most beautiful aristocratic residences in the capital, the Hôtel de Craon rivalled the Duke's palaces, where work was interrupted at this date. In 1723 it was the Hôtel de Craon which hosted the visit of Prince Emmanuel of Portugal. Élisabeth-Charlotte wrote to the Marquise d'Aulède on 20th February 1723, "This house is much more beautiful than ours, for it is entirely completed and very well furnished"(Bonneval, ed., Lettres d'Élisabeth-Charlotte d'Orléans, p.147) .
See Sur les traces des Ducs de Lorraine. Lunéville : Cap sur Croismare et son château à deviner dans un joli cadre de verdure (estrepublicain.fr)
In Lunéville itself, although he had accommodation in the palace, Marc also had a second private residence designed for him by Boffrand. This town house was more modest but gave him a measure of independence in close proximity to the Château: the garden adjoined the park, with a discreet communicating gate between. (The property was demolished in 1772 when it was replaced by the present mansion, now 61 rue de Lorraine).
The most ambitious of the building projects was on the Beauvau-Craon ancestoral lands at Château de Haroué, where the work of reconstructing the old fortress was begun in 1721. Haroué still stands.
The death of Leopold
Fittingly enough, it was in the company of his favourite that Leopold met with the accident that brought about his premature demise. In March 1729 the two men went to inspect building work at Marc's latest property, the château de Mesnil, now part of the private school of Saint-Pierre-Fourier in Lunéville. The by-then portly Duke fell from his horse into a stream and, in some accounts, received a blow to his chest. He ought to have hurried home to consult his doctors but instead stayed in his wet clothes to hear a service in the nearby church of the Capuchins. He developed a fever and died a few days later.
The loss of their sponsor plunged the Prince and Princess de Beauvau-Craon into immediate crisis. According to d'Audiffret, the favourite expected retribution from the Duchess, now nominated as Regent, but, as ever, Élisabeth-Charlotte behaved with commendable restraint:
The Prince de Craon's situation is very sad: malicious and envious courtiers triumph at his humiliation. However, madame la Duchesse has treated him well, out of consideration for the memory of the late Duke of Lorraine who recommended him highly to her in a letter written on his deathbed. It would seem that the position of Regent has made her forget all the grievances she bore when she was Duchess. He tries to make himself agreeable by his assiduities and care, but every day new discovers concerning the benefits he has received make it difficult to heal the wound...The Princess de Craon has become ill from having bottled up her misery too violently..." (Dispatch of 5th May 1729, quoted Haussonville p.219-20)
In the event Beauvau-Craon was merely suspended for a time from his functions as Grand Écuyer and less exalted figures bore the brunt of the Duchess's ire - Marc's protegé Masson, the director of finances, was imprisoned and Lefebvre, First President of the Cours des comptes, dismissed.
The fortunes of the couple were soon rescued by the patronage of the new Duke Francis. In February 1736 Marc Beauvau-Craon joined his former pupil, now his master, in Vienna, to participate in Francis's formal engagement and marriage to the Archduchess Maria-Theresa. On his return to Lorraine, he acted as host to the newly arrived King Stanislas and to the wedding party of Élisabeth-Thérèse of Lorraine, Queen of Sardinia. In May 1737 he was named by Francis as his plenipotentiary to take possession of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Two years later he was formally appointed as Viceroy, recognised as "cousin du roi" by Louis XV and named by Charles VI to the Order of the Golden Fleece. In these years he presided over a small court at the Petti Palace dominated by loyal retainers from Lorraine, and played host to visitors at a new private residence, the Villa Patraïa, just outside Florence.
The Président de Brosses, passing through during his travels in Italy in 1739, testified to Anne-Marguerite's enduring charms:
Maugras, Dernières années du Roi Stanislas (1906), p.8-10.
It seems that Marc de Beauvau-Craon continued to lead an almost charmed life right to the end. The old gentleman, who had always enjoyed robust good health, finally fell ill in March 1754. He died at Haroué surrounded by his children and grand-children.
Anne-Marguerite herself lived on for almost twenty more years. The couple lie buried in the church in the village of Haroué. Their epitaphs indicate that the Prince died on 10th March 1754, aged 75; his wife survived him to July 1772; she was 86.
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| Wikimedia |
References
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5809104q
1st March 1718: Madame de Craon is my daughter's governante, and as a result she accompanied the duke and duchess on the trip that they made here. The title of gouvernante suits her wonderfully well, since, together with her husband, she governs everything. The journey to Paris cost the duc de Lorraine 100,000 écus......
It cannot be denied that his mistress, the Craon woman, is a very charming person, the more so since she is not a perfect beauty. She has the most attractive figure, a lovely skin and pretty colouring. She is very fair but her best points are her mouth and teeth. There are more beautiful eyes, but her expression is so gentle and modest, her air so likeable, that she has only to appear to give pleasure.
17th March 1718: We believed the Craon to be pregnant; but she wasn't; she took to her bed for the opposite reason. She is only twenty-eight (sic) and she does not look that old.
7th April 1718: Tomorrow my daughter leaves Paris with her husband... She loves him with all her heart but, all the same, shows no jealousy. I must admit that I cannot understand this, but I admire it.
19th April 1718: The duke of Lorraine once had a great passion for hunting; but now our Silvio has become a lover. He wants to hide his passion, but the more he wants it ignored, the more it is noticed. When he is supposed to be facing to the front, his head turns on his shoulders and his eyes stay fixed on Madame de Craon. It is amusing to watch. I cannot understand how my daughter can love her husband as she does, and not show jealousy. No-one could be more besotted than he is with the Craon.
2nd February 1719: All these awful mistresses are a curse. They cause misery everywhere; they are possessed by the devil. My poor daughter knows this well. Hers is a malicious woman who does everything she can to take her husband away from her totally.
5th February 1719: My daughter does not love her husband the way French women do; she loves him with all her heart, even though he is besotted with another woman. I believe that La Craon has made him swallow a love potion like the one La Neidschen gave the Elector of Saxony in Dresden, for when he does not see her he sweats in agony.
...In Lorraine they care for nothing; all is ruled by La Craon who only thinks only about placing her creatures and making money from everything.
26th February 1719: My confessor has been doing his very best to convince me that nothing in the least wrong is going on between the Duc de Lorraine and Mme de Craon. I replied, "Mon père, tell that to your monks in the cloister, who know nothing of the world. But never say such things to courtiers; we know only too well that when a young prince, in love, is master of a court; when he is with a beautiful young woman twenty-four hours a day, he is not there to pass the time of day - especially when her husband leaves as soon as the prince arrives. It is not true that there are always witnesses present, for servants can be made to leave with the wink of an eye. And if you think you are whitewashing their Jesuit confessors, you deceive yourself, because all the world knows that they tolerate double adultery." Father Lignière was silent, and he hasn't mentioned the matter since. ..The duc de Lorraine is ruining his own children to enrich those of la Craon and her husband; assuredly my daughter already experiences purgatory in this world.
10th March 1719: The Duke of Lorraine has for la Craon the greatest passion that I have ever seen in my life; when she enters the room, his face changes; when she is not there, he is fidgety and looks continually at the door; when she appears, he laughs and relaxes; it is an amusing spectacle.
21st March 1719: La Craon used to be my daughter's maid of honour, and that was when the duke fell in love with her. Craon was in disgrace at the time, for he had cheated dreadfully at gambling and was to be thrown out for a rogue. But as he was a clever fellow he soon noticed that his master had fallen in love with Mlle de Ligneville, though the Duke was keeping it a close secret. At this time my daughter's dame d'atour died, and the Duke knew how to turn events to make her the new dame d'atour. Craon is rich, the lady is hard up, and he proposes to marry her. The Duke was glad to give her to someone who would play up to him in this affair, so she became Mme de Craon and afterwards my daughter's dame d'atour. Then the old dame d'honneur died, and my daughter throught she was doing the Duke a great favour, and Craon too, by appointing her as dame d'honneur, and that's what brought her into déshonneur.
26th March 1719 [Condemning the indulgence of the Lorraine Jesuits]: "it is open adultery, and the more often the Duke and his mistress approach the communion table, the greater the scandal... Not long ago Craon bought an estate for eleven hundred thousand francs (Haudonvillers, raised to the marquisat of Craon in 1712) and everybody knows that that his family is as poor as Job. His must be ...the best paid position on earth.
16th October 1719: I do not think that my daughter’s attachment to her husband is so strong as it used to be, and yet I think she still loves him very much: every proof of fondness which he gives her pleases her so much that she immediately sends word to me. He can make her believe whatever he chooses. and, although she cannot doubt the Duke’s passion for Madame de Craon, yet, when he says that he feels only friendship for her, that he is quite willing to give up seeing her, only that he fears by doing so he would dishonour her in the eyes of the public, and that there is nothing he is not ready to do for his wife’s repose, she receives all he says literally, beseeches him to continue to see Madame de Craon as usual, and fancies that her husband is tenderly attached to her, while he is really laughing at her. If I were in my daughter’s place, the Duke’s falsehood would disgust me more than his infidelity.
12 June 1721: My daughter has hurt her foot and has suffered greatly from it. A large abscess developed which burst and let out a great deal of matter. I have had a letter from her saying how horribly she suffered because it was found necessary to perform a very painful operation on her. The poor woman lives in a state of constant torment. It cannot be pleasant for her to see that her surintendante is better loved than she is..... This woman's husband is the worst rascal in the world. He is completely ruining the Duke of Lorraine. My daughter can keep her counsel as far as the affection of her husband is concerned; but to see her children ruined by that villainous cockold of a Craon, that is what makes her suffer.
24th June 1721: My daughter, thank goodness, is completely recovered (from a recent illness). There is to be wedding in the court of Lorraine. A prince of the house, known as the chevalier de Lorraine - he is the son of the comte de Marsan - is to marry the second daughter of Madame de Craon. I say of Madame de Craon, for this at least is certain...
I wish that my daughter did not love her husband as much as she does; the duke only thinks about his favorites; he does not care about his own children. This causes my daughter much misery.
Translated from the French versions of the letters as they appear in the secondary sources. Where available I've used the English versions published in Maria Kroll, Letters from Liselotte, 1970.
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