Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
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Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, born Henriette Genet (October 2, 1752, Paris - March 16, 1822, Mantes) was a French educator and lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette before and during the French Revolution. Her father, whose name was Genest, was first clerk in the foreign office, and, although without fortune, placed her in the most cultivated society. At the age of fifteen she could speak English and Italian, and had gained so high a reputation for her accomplishments as to be appointed reader to the three daughters of Louis XV. At court she was a general favorite, and when she bestowed her hand upon M. Campan, son of the secretary of the royal cabinet, the king gave her an annuity of 5000 livres as dowry. She was soon afterwards appointed first lady of the bedchamber by Marie Antoinette; and she continued to be her faithful attendant till she was forcibly separated from her at the storming of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792.
Madame Campan survived the dangers of the Terror, but after the 9th of Thermidor finding herself almost penniless, and being thrown on her own resources by the illness of her husband, she bravely determined to support herself by establishing a school at St Germain. The institution prospered, and was patronized by Hortense de Beauharnais, whose influence lead to the appointment of Madame Campan as superintendent of the academy founded by Napoleon at Écouen for the educaticin of the daughters and sisters of members of the Legion of Honor. This post she held till it was abolished at the restoration of the Bourbons, when she retired to Mantes, where she spent the rest of her life amid the kind attentions of affectionate friends, but saddened by the loss of her only son, and by the calumnies circulated on account of her connexion with the Bonapartes.
She died in 1822, leaving valuable Mémoires sur la vie privee de Marie Antoinette, sulvis de souvenirs et anecdotes historiques sur les règnes de Louis XIV.-XV. (Paris, 1823); a treatise De l'Education des Femmes; and one or two small didactic works, written in a clear and natural style. The most noteworthy thing in her educational system, and that which especially recommended it to Napoleon, was the place given to domestic economy in the education of girls. At Écouen the pupils underwent a complete training in all branches of housework.
[edit] External links
- Memoirs Of Marie Antoinette at Gutenberg
- Works by Jeanne Louise Henriette Campan at Project Gutenberg
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The 1911 Britannica article, in turn, gives as its references Les Memoires de Madame de Campan (Paris, 1886), and histories of the time.
