Henriette Louise de Waldner de Freundstein

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Henriette Louise de Waldner de Freundstein (or Waldner de Freunstein), Baronne d'Oberkirch (born June 5, 1754 at Schweighouse-Près-Thann, in Alsace; died June 10, 1803) is known for having written her Mémoires, which end in 1789.

Her parents were François Louis Waldner de Freundstein, Baron and later Count de Waldner and Wilhelmine Auguste Berckheim de Ribeauvillé. She married Baron Charles Frédéric Siegfried d'Oberkirch. They had a daughter, Marie-Philippine Frédérique Dorothée (1777-1827), who married in 1798 Count Louis Simon de Bernard de Montbrison. Their grandson edited and published the Mémoires in English in 1852 and in French in 1854.

The Baronness lived in and wrote about court society in her native Alsace, in Vienna, and (most importantly) in Paris and Versailles; her trips to the court of Louis XVI occurred in 1782, 1784, and 1786. She was a childhood friend of the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg), later the Empress of Russia, and of Goethe, who dedicated a musical comedy to her in 1776.

She offers great insight into high society during the end of the ancien régime.

[edit] References

  • Memoirs of the Baroness d'Oberkirch, Countess de Montbrison. Written by herself, and edited by her grandson, The Count de Montbrison. In Three Volumes. London: Colburn and Co., 1852.
  • Mémoires de la Baronne d'Oberkirch sur la Cour de Louis XVI et la Société française, avant 1789; Dédiés a sa Majesté Nicholas 1er, Empereur de toutes les Russies, publiés par le Comte de Montbrison, petit-fils de l'auteur. [2 volumes] Brussels, Comptoir des éditeurs, 1854