Maria Caterina Brignole

Maria Caterina Brignole (or Marie-Christine de Brignole; 7 October 1737 – 18 March 1813) was Princess of Monaco by marriage to Prince Honoré III.

Maria Caterina separated from her husband in 1770. Honoré died in 1795, and in 1798, she married Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé.

Life

Early life

Born into the illustrious House of Brignole-Sale, Maria Caterina was the daughter of Giuseppe Brignole-Sale, Marquis di Groppoli, and Maria Anna Balbi, daughter of Francesco Maria Balbi, who had been Doge of Genoa in 1732. As her father was the Genovese ambassador to France, Maria Caterina and her mother frequented the salons of Paris and the royal court of Versailles.

In 1755, a marriage was proposed between Maria Caterina and Prince Honoré III of Monaco. Honoré III had previously been the lover of her mother, but wished to marry to provide an heir to his throne, and was attracted by Maria Caterina's beauty. and refused to do so.

In 1769, Honoré III, who was informed of Maria Caterina's adultery, responded by returning to Paris and openly flaunted his lovers and his adultery, upon which Maria Caterina left Paris to seek asylum in the convent of Visitation in Le Mans under the protection of her uncle, who was the bishop there. The prince was the leader of the Condé army of émigrés. She used her great fortune to help finance the exiled French community's armed resistance. The émigrée court at Koblenz was dissolved in 1792, and the couple left for Great Britain.

In 1795, Prince Honoré died, and on 24 October 1798 she and the prince de Condé were married in London. The marriage was kept secret for a decade, the couple reportedly only becoming openly known as husband and wife as of 26 December 1808.

She suffered swelling in her legs at a party given by the Prince Regent at Carlton House and died at Wimbledon House in Wimbledon on 28 March 1813. Her body was laid out in state in one of the rooms and she was buried at the French émigré chapel, St Aloysius Church in Somers Town, London on 4 April.

Ancestry