Princess de Lamballe

There never came to the quiet village of Catsfield a more tragic figure than the courageous Princess de Lamballe, friend of Marie Antoinette.

Little dreaming how soon and how terrible was to be her end, the lovely ill-fated Princess, closest, most faithful friend of the tragic French Queen and mistress of her household, came to Catsfield on a romantic mission in 1791.

The skies of France were lowering, and while the issue was unforseeable Marie Antoinette had a foreboding of ill, and entrusted the Princess with certain treasured mementos which, we are told, she desired to consign to the trusty hands of friends at Catsfield.

So confused and suspicious was Revolutionary public opinion that the Princess was declared to have come to England primarily to meet De Calonne, the ex-Comptroller General, to dissuade him from publishing secret statements damaging to the Queen. In reality Calonne was in Holland; her main purpose here was to appeal for help for the imperilled royal family of France.

To mask the true purpose of her mission it was announced that the gifted Frenchwoman merely intended to visit Bath, then a favourite resort of French invalids. She did go to Bath, and wrote to Madame de Lage, telling of the good the waters had done her, and of her coming visits to Blenheim, Oxford, and many country houses.

She made her will and renewed her service to Marie Antoinette, whose imprisonment she shared. Refusing to take the oath against the monarchy, she was delivered over to the mob, which treated her with a frightfulness probably unparalleled in the history of revolutions.

Peace and safety were assured her in England; she went back to what seemed her duty at Marie Antoinette's side, prepared for the worst. The sequel exceeded all conception of horror on the day of her death, less than a year after her romantic visit to Catsfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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