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So last week I made a fun discovery. I've been researching my family history and learned that this spectacular dame is my 8th-great grandmother. Claudine Guérin de Tencin (1682-1749). Novelist, courtesan, and all-round scandalous woman. She led quite the life. A short thread.
She was brought up in a convent in Grenoble. But life in holy orders was not for her and at 20 she petitioned Pope Clement XI to let her break her vows - which she'd already done, enthusiastically, by having a teenage affair with Irish exile and Jacobite, Arthur Dillon.
Along with her sister (my 9th great aunt) she established a salon in Paris, which quickly gained a reputation as a place for "wits and roués" as one article says. It was here that she began an affair with Louis-Camus Destouches - general in the royal army - and the two had a son.
Claudine abandoned the baby on the steps of Saint-Jean-le-Rond (pictured), which was demolished in 1748. I don't think Claudine ever saw her son again, but Louis-Camus secretly funded the boy's education. The boy grew up to have quite the life himself... But more on him later.
Meanwhile, she continued to have a wild old time at the court of Louis XV at Versaille. She had several prominent lovers, an archbishop. Claudine was even briefly imprisoned at La Bastille (seen here, somewhat later) after one of her lovers committed suicide in her house.
The most famous of her lovers was Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu - King Louis' best friend. Eyebrows were raised at the influence she had over him. Although not as many as at the rumour she slept with her own brother (which she neither confirmed or denied).
But her life was more than just scandalous affairs. Claudine was also a writer. She wrote some of the first historical novels in the French language. Most famous of them is the popular Mémoires du comte de Comminge (1735), based on Romeo and Juliet.
Claudine died in 1749, seemingly after having just about as much fun as it was possible to fit into the life of an 18th century French aristocrat. But that's not where the story ends. For now we return to the life of her abandoned son - Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783).
The boy turned out to be a genius. Literally. By studying the strings of a violin, he came up with the solution to something called the wave equation, which is still used in fields such as acoustics and electromagnetics. Here's an explanation of it from the BBC website.
Jean is my 7th great-grandfather. My wife thinks there's a resemblance, which I can't see, but then I have not recently tried on a powdered wig. She also thinks I have Claudine's eyes, which I will accept because they were very pretty.
That branch of my family seem to have left France entirely not long after Jean died - I presume because of the revolution. There's a story I'd love to know more about. But for now, I'm off to write some scandalous historical fiction. It's what 8th-great grandma would have wanted.
