Alexandrine Le Normant d'Étiolles

Alexandrine-Jeanne Le Normant d’Étiolles (10 August 1744 – 15 June 1754) was the daughter of Madame de Pompadour, the maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She died in childhood.

Life Alexandrine-Jeanne Le Normant d’Étiolles was born on 10 August 1744 to Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles and his wife Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson. She was named after her mother’s friend, author and salon host Claudine-Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin. It is possible that her parents were first cousins, as her mother’s biological father may have been Charles-François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem (who became Madame d’Étiolles’ guardian when her legal father, her mother’s husband, went into exile). Alexandrine had one sibling, an older brother named Charles-Guillaume-Louis (born December 1741, died before December 1742) who had already died by the time she was born.

Alexandrine’s mother aimed to become the maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV. She achieved this by March 1745. However, to be introduced at court, she needed a noble title. The King and Madame d’Étiolles decided that she should separate from her husband, and the proceedings were initiated by 9 May. Madame d’Étiolles requested custody of her nine-month-old daughter. She was then made marquise of Pompadour and began to be known as Madame de Pompadour. Monsieur d’Étiolles was devastated and angered, threatening suicide, but soon accepted the situation. He started a new family with his mistress in 1754. Her education was supervised by the novelist Claud Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, her mother’s friend and former teacher. At the age of six, Alexandrine was placed at the Convent of the Assumption in the rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, where many daughters of the aristocracy were raised, in order to prepare her for a career at court. Before entering, she spent a week with her mother in Marly-le-Roi. Madame de Pompadour was worried to leave her child in Paris but considered convent schooling important for her later success. She continued to spend time with her as often as possible.

Marriage plans Her mother started arranging for Alexandrine a marriage that could integrate their family into the aristocracy. Pompadour’s first proposal was an illegitimate son of the King, Charles de Vintimille, Count of Luc. He was three years older than Alexandrine and the two occasionally played together. However, Louis XV did not agree to the plan. Pompadour then negotiated with Antoine de Vignerot du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu about a union between Alexandrine and the Duke’s son and heir, Armand-Emmanuel, Count of Chinon. Richelieu refused the idea, saying that as his wife was related to the House of Lorraine, the match would need to be approved by the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I of Lorraine. He argued that the imperial court (headed by Empress Maria Theresa) would never agree to one of the Emperor’s relatives marrying a girl of middle-class origins, although this was probably an excuse for her own unwillingness. Although Pompadour could hope for an advantageous marriage for her daughter, the highest-ranking families did not want to be related to her. In the summer of 1752, she agreed with her close friend, Michel-Ferdinand d’Albert d’Ailly, Duke of Chaulnes, that Alexandrine would marry his only child, Louis-Joseph d’Albert d’Ailly, Duke of Picquigny. They decided that the wedding would take place when Alexandrine was thirteen. It was also rumoured that her uncle Marigny wanted to marry Alexandrine himself.

Death Contemporary portrait of Alexandrine by François-Hubert Drouais. On 14 June 1754, Alexandrine (still living at the convent) became ill with a high fever and convulsions. It was initially thought that she had indigestion. The nuns informed her parents; most biographies state that her father rushed to her, although Margaret Crosland claims there is no proof of this. Pevitt says that Pompadour was at the Château de Choisy with the King and could not leave to see her daughter, which made her feel hopeless about the future.

Alexandrine was buried in the Convent of the Assumption. Four months after her death, her body was transferred to the Capuchin Convent in Paris, where her mother had purchased a vault for the family. Her grave was inscribed, ‘Here lies Alexandrine-Jeanne, daughter of Messire Charles-Guillaume Le Normant and Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, Dame de Crécy, etc’. Pompadour often visited the grave to pray. The remains of her maternal grandmother, Madeleine de La Motte, were also taken there, and Pompadour herself would later be interred there. The vault was damaged during the Revolution and the surrounding buildings rebuilt, inhibiting access to the tomb which, as of 2024, is under the rue de la Paix in Paris.

Footnotes