Margaret de Flahaut (1788-1867): A Scotswoman at the French Court

This biographical study of Margaret, Duchess of Flahaut, reveals her to have been the more interesting of the two, relying on her brains, political judgment, and artistic taste to guide her husband's career. Their letters confirm their successful marriage and strengthened bond, with Talleyrand, the duchess de Dino, and the Duke of Wellington as targets. Margaret was a superb hostess, describing menus, entertainments, and sightseeing in Rome and Paris. She was a lifelong liberal in politics and upholder of Whig principles, sharing her husband's admiration for Napoleon and supporting Napoleon III.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 28 March 2019
Publisher: John Adamson Publishing Consultants

While the life of her husband, the dashing Napoleonic general and diplomat Charles de Flahaut, is well known, Margaret has remained in the shadows. Yet, this biographical study, based on unpublished and intimate correspondence in the Archives Nationales, Paris, reveals her to have been the more interesting of the two. It shows how much he depended on her brains, political judgment, and artistic taste, as well as her fortune, to guide him in his career. More than that, their letters to each other also confirm that she made a success of her controversial marriage and that the bond between them was strengthened through all the vicissitudes of their life together. A faithful and sincere friend, she could be an implacable enemy: Talleyrand's companion, the duchesse de Dino, whom she dubbed "that horrid little serpent," and the Duke of Wellington, "that bully," were favorite targets. Her lively, observant, but wicked pen takes us with her on visits to Talleyrand at Valencay, to the marquis de Lafayette, to the duchesse de Praslin at Vaux-le-Vicomte, to house parties in stately homes of England and Scotland—Arundel, Woburn, Bowood, Chatsworth, Grimsthorpe, and Drummond Castle. Acknowledged as a superb hostess, her descriptions of the menus and entertainments organized in her homes in Scotland, London, and Paris and at the Flahaut embassies in Vienna and in London capture the flavour of those cosmopolitan gatherings. Her guests were also drawn to the display of her fine French furniture and collection of works of art, acquired during her years in Paris, which set a new fashion in decoration. Interesting, too, are her accounts of sightseeing in Rome before the city of the Grand Tour changed into the capital of united Italy. The enjoyable social life in the continental watering places is also described.

Weight: 930g
Dimension: 168 x 238 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781898565161