Background
Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou was born on October 4, 1738, in Paris, of an old Breton family.
Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou was born on October 4, 1738, in Paris, of an old Breton family.
About 1754, at age 17, she married Jean Baptiste, marquis de Montesson, who later died. Montesson's intelligence and beauty attracted the attention of French prince, Louis Philippe, whom she secretly married. For her husband's amusement, she set up a little theater and wrote and acted in several plays, including Mme de Chazelle. Montesson, who was imprisoned for some time during the Terror but was released after the fall of Robespierre, became a close friend of the empress Josephine and was a prominent figure at the beginning of the empire. Her poetry was published as Mélanges de poésie in 1782, and the French government gave her a pension. The best edition of her plays appeared in seven volumes under the title of Oeuvres anonymes in 1782–1785, although only 12 copies were printed.
Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou died on February 6, 1806, in Paris.
On October 11, 1757, Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou married the seventy-year-old widower Jean Baptiste, Marquis of Montesson, who died in 1769. On April 23, 1773, she secretly married Louis XV of France.