Louise d'Esparbès de Lussan

Pastel of Louise d'Esparbès de Lussan by Alexandre Kucharski

Marie Louise d’Esparbès de Lussan, by marriage vicomtesse then comtesse de Polastron (Bardigues, 19 October 1764 – London, 27 March 1804) was a member of the Esparbès de Lussan family and the mistress of the comte d’Artois, who later reigned as Charles X of France.

Life

The daughter of Louis François d’Esparbès de Lussan and Marie Catherine Julie Rougeot (1746–1764), she was a lady-in-waiting to queen Marie Antoinette. She was educated at the Pentemont Abbey alongside many other daughters of the aristocracy.^[1] She married Denis de Polastron (1758–1821), half-brother to Yolande de Polastron, countess, then duchess of Polignac, governess of the royal children (known as the Enfants de France) and intimate friend of the queen.

The comte d’Artois was a great lover of beautiful women and first saw Louise at the Versailles court. He became so lastingly attached to her that he made her his "favorite" in title (though he had no children by her). When she died of tuberculosis in 1804, the comte d’Artois was so deeply attached to her that he decided to swear a vow of perpetual chastity. His private life after her death became blameless, and he also became devoted to religion, often enthusiastically supporting the Ultramontanist movement within France's Roman Catholic Church.

Sources

(in French) Georges Bordonove, Charles X : dernier roi de France et de Navarre, Paris, Pygmalion, coll. « Les Rois qui ont fait la France », 1990 ISBN 978-2-85704-323-2
(in French) André Castelot, Charles X : La fin d’un monde, Paris, Perrin, 1988 ISBN 978-2-262-00545-0
(in French) Yves Griffon, Charles X : roi méconnu, Paris, Rémi Perrin, 1999 ISBN 978-2-913960-00-8
(in French) Éric Le Nabour, Charles X : le dernier roi, preface by Alain Decaux, Paris, Éditions Jean-Claude Lattès

Bibliography

(in French) Jules Bertaut, Les Belles Émigrées, Paris, Club du meilleur livre, 1953
(in French) Monique de Huertas, Louise de Polastron : le grand amour du comte d’Artois, Paris, Perrin, 1983 – ISBN 2-262-00301-7
(in French) Frédéric de Reiset, Louise d’Esparbès, comtesse de Polastron, Paris, Émile Paul, 1907

↑ Bertaut, Jules (1953). Les belles emigrées: la comtesse de Polastron, Madame de Flahaut, la comtesse de Balbi, la marquise de la Tour du Pin, la princesse Louise de Bourbon-Condé. Club du meilleur livre. p. 36.

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