Johann [3] Dorothea Sagan ; Dorothea von Biron , Duchess of Courland and Semigale , Countess de Perigord, Duchess of Sagan , Duchess of de Dino, Duchess of de Talleyrand de Courlande, comtesse Edmond de Périgord, duchesse de Dino, duchesse de Talleyrand, duchesse de Sagan , August 10 (23), 1793 , Friedrichsfelde Palace near Berlin - September 19, 1862 , Zagan , Lower Silesia, modern. Poland) - the famous aristocrat of the era of Alexander I , the lover of Talleyrand . She played an outstanding role in the French court during the era of Napoleon I and the Restoration.
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In 1817 she received the title of Duchess of Dino, in 1838 - the Duchess of Talleyrand, in 1843 she inherited the Duchy of Sagan from her sister Wilhelmina .
Content
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Marriage
- 1.2 Vienna Congress
- 1.3 Life with Talleyrand
- 1.4 Further life
- 2 Interesting Facts
- 3 In the literature
- 4 References
- 5 Literature
- 6 notes
Biography
The youngest daughter of the last Courland duke Peter Biron and Countess Dorothea von Medem , niece of the poetess Eliza von der Recke . As indicated, her real father, according to a common version, was her mother’s lover, Polish diplomat Count Alexander Batovsky [4] . After the death of Peter Biron in 1800, he inherited extensive possessions. She was educated under the guidance of Princess Louise Radziwill and the famous scientist Scipio Piattoli . She lived in her mother’s estate in Löbichau , where she made many acquaintances among the European elite. Already in her early youth, she was among the fans of the most famous people of her time and was dedicated to the secrets of European diplomacy.
Marriage
In search of a rich bride for his nephew, Talleyrand , a former lover of her mother, asked Emperor Alexander I to promote this marriage [5] . April 21-22, 1809 in Frankfurt am Main , the wedding of Dorothea with General Count Edmond Talleyrand de Perigord (1787-1872) took place. There were Napoleonic wars, and Dorothea, who was educated in Germany, was initially difficult in Parisian high society, since she was in the “camp of the enemy”, becoming a lady at the court of Napoleon I. Her three sisters were also anti-French. The marriage was not happy: although Dorothea gave birth to children, her husband was more involved in the game, war and other women.
Their children:
- Louis Napoleon (03/12/1811–1898), Duke de Talleyrand-Perigord [6]
- Dorothea (1812-1814)
- Alexander Edmond (12/15/1813-1894), Duke of Dino
- Josephine-Paulina (b.29.12.1820)
Congress of Vienna
The fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna , at which her husband’s uncle Talleyrand represented France, helped bring Dorothea closer, whose husband went to northern Italy to the location of his regiment, and the great diplomat. During their stay in Vienna, they live in the palace of Kaunitz , and apparently, it was then that she began to play an important role in the life of Tileran.
She probably became his mistress after 1815 . “Despite the huge difference in age (almost 40 years), Talleyrand found a student and assistant in a 20-year-old friend who can be trusted with the most secret information and, ultimately, a like-minded person and political ally. Often, such a connection caused a scandal in high society, but in this case the imperial court in Vienna was silent, realizing that too much depended on the reputation of the eminent diplomat. He was provided with luxurious apartments of the palace of Prince Kaunits , where Dorothea received many guests, captivating them with the splendor of her beauty and toilets, which were an example of exquisite taste. She skillfully negotiated, receiving valuable diplomatic information, and also helped Talleyrand keep secret correspondence. After the Vienna Congress, they returned to France together and no longer parted. ” [7]
On August 31, 1817, he received the title of Duke from Louis XVIII , and on December 2, the Duchy of Dino (an island near Calabria ) from the King of Sicily in gratitude for his help at the congress. Talleyrand passed Dino to his nephew, so Dorothea and her husband became the Dukes of Dino.
Life with Talleyrand
Since March 24, 1818, she began to live separately from her husband, although formally the marriage was dissolved only on November 6, 1824 .
July 3, 1820, together with Talleyrand, who was 39 years older than her, left to live in Paris from his castle, Valence, pregnant with her daughter Polina, whose paternity is often attributed not to her legal husband, but to his uncle. In 1827, she bought the Roscott castle, equipped it for a stay in the winter. It is a magnificent villa with an Italian terrace, where today is a four-star private hotel [7] . In 1837, she sold the Berlin Courland Palace ( German Palais Kurland ) on Unter den Linden , which belonged to her mother, Tsar Nicholas I.
In subsequent years, she had several more lovers and became famous as an amazing seductress. It is believed that she gave birth to three illegal daughters: the first from Klam-Martinitz in 1816, the future fate of the child is unknown (there is a version that she was Bozena Nemtsova , a well-known Czech writer, officially her mother was a housekeeper in the duchy of Sagan (according to another version, Bozena’s mother was Wilhelmina Sagan), then in 1825 to Antonin, and in 1827 to Julie Zelme.
Together with her sister Wilhelmina von Sagan, she converted to Catholicism in Rome in 1827 and took up charity work.
When Talleyrand became ambassador in London in 1830, she accompanied him on a trip, feeling more comfortable in England than in Paris, where the Saint Germain suburb never let her forget that she was a foreigner. In London, they lived until 1834.
Further Life
Upon the death of Talleyrand ( 1838 ), she inherited the title of Duchess of Talleyrand and all his colossal fortune. She left Paris and went in 1843 to the Duchy of Sagan (present-day Zagan ) in Silesia that she received from her sister. There she entered into a romantic relationship with Prince Felix Likhnovsky. (In 1842, Dorothea bought the duchy of Sagan from her sister Pauline and moved to live in her new possessions, and in 1845, after the death of her sister, she received the title of Duchess de Sagan from the King of Prussia).
On January 6, 1845, the King of Prussia approved her right of possession, with the privilege of inheritance on the female line (then Sagan was inherited by her son Louis Napoleon, Bonaparte’s godson, as well as the grandson of Boson de Talleyrand-Perigord, the future famous dandy). She gave her estate in Roscot ( fr: Château de Rochecotte ) to her daughter Pauline in 1847.
The Sagan estate included 130 buildings on 1200 hectares. Dorothea modernized and expanded the castle, took care of its subjects: founded a school, a shelter for street children, a hospital. Restored the Kreutskirche church in the neo-Gothic style. Her relocation led to a revival of cultural and charitable activities, and her palaces in Zagan and Zatoniu became important centers of political and cultural life in the area. She maintained close ties with a number of rulers and artists, including King Friedrich Wilhelm IV , Franz Liszt , Chopin and Alexander Fredro .
She reigned in these possessions until she suffered a car accident in June 1861, after which she died on September 19, 1862. Despite her desire, expressed in letters and testament, that her heart be buried in the grave of Talleyrand, she was buried in Kreutskirche in Sagan, next to her sister Wilhelmina and her son Louis.
Left a memoir. She painted well - she was a landscape painter, in 1820 the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts organized her exhibition.
Interesting Facts
- The French writer Francoise Sagan ( real name Francoise Quarenne ) took her pseudonym under the influence of a fragment from Marcel Proust (“ In Search of Lost Time ”), which refers to the Duchess (in Russian translation - “Duchess of Sagan”).
- The Paris Hotel de Sagan, where the grandson of Dorothea Boson de Talleyrand-Perigord has lived since 1873, now houses the Polish Embassy.
In the literature
- Dorothea Courland appears on the pages of the series of Juliette Benzoni "Marianne" and "Wolves of Lozarg."
Links
Literature
- Gaston Palewski. Le miroir de Talleyrand: lettres inedites a la duchesse de Courlande pendant le Congres de Vienne. ISBN 2-262-00014-X
- Philip Ziegler. Duchess of Dino (1962)
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 119377829 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ BNF ID : 2011 Open Data Platform .
- ↑ "Princess Johann Dorothea von Biron (1793-1862), Duchess von Sagan in 1840-1862. God was born on August 10 (23), 1793, was married in Frankfurt on April 12 (25), 1809 with Duke Alexander Edmund de Tayleran-Perigord d Dino, Duke de Tayleran (d. 1872). She died on the 70th year of birth in the city of Sagan ”( August aly allies of Russia )
- ↑ Batovsky Alexander Benedict (1760-1841), Count, politician, and diplomat, was the ambassador of the Seimas of Four, a member of the Friends of the People’s Constitution. During the uprising Kostyushki conducted diplomatic work aimed at helping France to the rebels. During the Duchy of Warsaw, he represented the Government Commission under Napoleon. Present at the signing of the constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw by the King of Saxony. After the fall of Napoleon in France. He returned to his homeland after the revival of the Kingdom of Poland.
- ↑ “At that time, I strove to marry my nephew Edmond Perigord. It was necessary to act in such a way that my choice of wife for him did not cause discontent of Napoleon, who did not want to let out of his jealous influence a young man who wore one of the most famous names in France. He believed that a few years earlier I had contributed to the failure of my countess Justine Noail, the countess, whose hands he asked me for his adopted son, Eugene Bogarne. Therefore, no matter what choice I made for my nephew, I had to meet the emperor's disapproval. He would not allow me to choose a bride in France, because he kept the brilliant parties that could be enclosed in her for the loyal generals. So, I turned my eyes abroad. In Germany and Poland, I often heard about the Duchess of Courland and knew that she was distinguished by the nobleness of her feelings, her high character, and her extraordinary courtesy and splendor. The youngest of her daughters was on marriageable age. This choice could not but please Napoleon, since he did not deprive the party of any of his generals, who all would inevitably be refused. He even had to flatter his vanity, forcing him to attract high-profile foreign names to France. This vanity prompted him shortly before to promote the marriage of Marshal Berthier with one of the Bavarian princesses. Therefore, I decided to ask for my nephew the hand of Princess Dorothea of Courland, and so that the Emperor Napoleon could not, having changed his mind or from a whim, take back the approval already given to him, I bowed the kind emperor Alexander, who was a personal friend of the Duchess of Courland, to ask her for my own nephew's hand of her daughter. I was lucky to get her consent, and the wedding took place in Frankfurt on April 22, 1809 "(Talleyrand. Memoirs)
- ↑ Genealogy of Talleyrands (link unavailable)
- ↑ 1 2 Elena Forst. Paris remembers the charm of Courland Dorothea (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment February 10, 2009. Archived February 15, 2009.