Jeanne Louise Henriette (Genet) Campan (1752 - 1822)

Born 2 Oct 1752 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Ancestors

Wife of Pierre Dominique Berthollet — married 11 May 1774 in Versailles, Île-de-France, France

Died 16 Mar 1822 at age 69 in Mantes, Seine-et-Oise, France

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Biography

Henriette (Genet) Campan is Notable.

Henriette Campan was a French educator and memorialists. She is known for being the first headmistress of the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur, having been appointed by Napoléon in 1807.

Jeanne Louise Henriette Genet, born 2 October 1752 in Paris, was the daughter of Edme Jacques Genet and Marie Anne Louise Cardon. She was the elder sister of Citizen Genet, ambassador of France to the United States during the Revolutionary period.

Henriette was named Reader to King Louis XV's daughters in 1868, at age 16, before becoming a chamber's maid to the young Dauphine Marie-Antoinette in 1770. In 1786 she was promoted to the post of First Chamber's Maid. She attended Marie-Antoinette at Versailles and later at the Tuileries during the Revolution.

Jeanne Louise Henriette Genet married Pierre Dominique François Berthollet, known as "Campan" on 11 May 1774 at Saint-Louis parish in Versailles.^[1] Their only son, Henri, was born ten years later.^[2]

After the storming of the Tuileries, Mme Campan was separated from Marie Antoinette and found her own home pilfered and destroyed. She took refuge with her sister Madame Rousseau in the countryside. After her other sister, Madame Auguié, also a former chamber's maid to Marie-Antoinette, committed suicide to avoid being arrested, Henriette Campan raised her three nieces. One of them, Aglaé Louise, would later become the wife of Marshall Ney.

After the end of the Reign of Terror, Mme Campan founded a boarding school for girls, the "Institution Nationale de Saint-Germain". The school was a huge success, counting amongst its pupils Napoléon's step-daughter Hortense de Beauharnais and his sisters Caroline and Pauline Bonaparte. General Napoléon Bonaparte and his wife Joséphine visited the school on three formal occasions in 1796, 1798 and 1802.

In 1807, Napoléon appointed Mme Campan headmistress of the "Maison Impériale d'Ecouen", a school for young daughters of menbers of the Légion d'honneur, now known as the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur. This first Légion d'honneur school was established in the castle of Ecouen. Mme Campan remained headmistress until the school was closed by the new regime in 1814. Mme Campan retired to Mantes, where she spent the rest of her life. The Maisons d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur, however, were reinstated just two months after being closed (although not in Ecouen) and continued to flourish.

Madame Campan died on 16 March 1822 in her house, 497 rue Tellerie in Mantes (now Mantes-la-Jolie, Yvelines)^[3]. She left valuable Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie Antoinette, published posthumously in 1823, as well as treatises on education.

Sources

1. ↑ acte de mariage: Archives départementales des Yvelines: Versailles, Saint-Louis, M, 1774-1774, Cote en ligne 1112627, vue 37, Lien vers l'image consulté le 24 février 2018
2. ↑ Acte de baptême d'Antoine Henry Louis Bertholet (extrait): Archives de Paris, Actes de l'état-civil reconstitué cote 5Mi1 66, Naissances du 28/10/1784 au 31/10/1784 vue 41
3. ↑ Acte de décès: D 1822 Mantes #1137, Archives des Yvelines cote 5MI278BIS, D 1821-1830 (Mantes-la-Jolie) Lien vers l'image

See also:

• Henriette Campan at WikipediaFrançais, English