Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil

Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil (22 April 1787 – 10 September 1851), by her second marriage duchess of Maillé, was a French lady of letters and memoir writer. She has left highly interesting memoirs in which her legitimist convictions are shown not to affect the sharpness of her political analysis.

Early life She was born in Tours, and raised in Paris in her family's Hôtel particulier (essentially a grand townhouse) at 85 rue du Faubourg St. Honoré.

With her cousin, the Marquise de Crillon, she founded the "Société du Château" which brought together a group that discussed art, music and literature. From 1832 until her death, she presided over a salon, a weekly gathering in her house, for writers, artists and politicians. She received her guests every Thursday in her house in Paris near Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the rue de Lille. She authored two narratives of the period: Souvenirs des Deux Restaurations, which was written between 1814 and 1830, and Mémoires (1832-1851), which chronicled life in Paris from the Restoration up to Napoleon III's accession and featured many of her famous contemporaries, including Honoré de Balzac and Alphonse de Lamartine.

Personal life Portrait of her granddaughter, Renée, the Countess de Ganay, by John Singer Sargent, 1885.

On 2 January 1811, she married Charles de Maillé de La Tour-Landry, 2nd Duke of Maillé (1770–1837). Her husband, who was eighteen years her senior, had been a widower since 1809 following the death of his first wife, Henriette Fitz-James (a daughter of the 5th Duke of Fitz-James). (From her husband's first marriage, he had three children: Armand Paul Claude Charles de Maillé de la Tour Landry (1795–1807), Claire Clemence Henriette Claudine de Maillé de la Tour Landry (1796–1861) (wife of the 2nd Duke of Castries and, reportedly, a lover of the novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac), and Armand Roger Claude de Maillé de la Tour Landry (b.) 1799). Both sons died, without issue, before their father, so the Duke's son from his second marriage succeeded to the Dukedom of Maillé in 1837.

Jacquelin de La Tour-Landry, 3rd Duke of Maillé (1815–1874), who married Jeanne d'Osmond (1827–1899), a daughter of Gen. Rainulphe d'Osmond, Marquis d'Osmond and Aimée Caroillon des Tillières. From this marriage, the family inherited the Claude Destillières fortune. Armand-Urbain de Maillé de La Tour-Landry (1816–1903), who married Jeanne Lebrun de Plaisance, a daughter of the 3rd Duc de Plaisance (himself a grandson of Charles-François Lebrun).

The Duke of Maillé died on 5 January 1837. The Duchess of Maillé died, accidentally, on 10 September 1851 while staying at the Rochefoucauld's Château de la Roche Courbon.

Descendants Through her son Jacquelin, she was a grandmother of Renée de Maillé de La Tour-Landry (1851–1933), who married Gen. Jacques de Ganay (1843–1899), a son of Charles-Alexandre, Marquis de Ganay and grandson of Count James-Alexandre de Pourtalès (a prominent banker and art collector who served as chamberlain to the King of Prussia Frederick William III).

Works Souvenirs des deux Restaurations. Journal inédit, presented by Xavier de La Fournière, 1984 Mémoires. 1832-1851, 1989