Under the Restoration, all the monarchical hopes of the Bourbons rest on the Duke and Duchess of Berry.
In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of History", Jean des Cars tells you about the romantic journey of this couple marked by scandal and tragedy.
Louis XVIII had no children, the future of the monarchy therefore rests on the son of his brother, the Duke of Berry, and his wife Caroline. In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of history", Jean des Cars looks back on the eventful fate of the couple from Berry.
At the beginning of February 1820, it was very cold in Paris.
What does it matter!
It is the season of balls and carnivals.
The Duchess Caroline de Berry gives one on January 28 at the Elysée Bourbon.
A magnificent celebration.
But strangely, she does not dance: her husband, Duke Charles, has just forbidden her!
We must not see this as misplaced jealousy: Caroline has just announced that she is pregnant, he wants her to take no risk!
Since hearing the news, the Duke of Berry, usually so fiery and happy, has not been the same.
He is sullen, he gets carried away for nothing.
He grinds black as if he sensed some misfortune.
On Sunday February 13, there were several big balls in Paris but the couple decided to spend the evening by the fire then go quietly, around 10 a.m., to the opera, then located near the current rue Le Peletier.
Caroline really wants it.
Charles too: this evening, one of his mistresses, the dancer Virginie Oreille, will be on stage.
A date after the show is looming.
After the intermission, the Duchess feels tired.
Her husband gallantly accompanies her to his car.
He did not even put on his coat, delighted to be able to find Virginie in the process.
After closing the door of his car, he turns to his wife, saying: "Goodbye Caroline, we will meet again soon".
But just as he is about to enter the opera house, a man appears like an arrow, stabs him and runs off down the street.
The duke exclaims: "I am murdered! This man killed me! I am dead, I hold the dagger!"
He finds the strength to rip the blade from his chest.
Lackeys run after the assassin whom they catch up with.
Berry is supported by his squire Ménard.
Caroline has seen it all.
She rushes to her husband who says to her: "Caroline… Come, let me die in your arms…"
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The injured man is carefully brought up to the living room which adjoins the lodge.
This is where Virginie Oreille should have joined him.
We install it as best we can.
Court doctors are called immediately.
They start by bleeding him when he is already losing all his blood!
A disaster !
Meanwhile, the show has ended, but the audience, who heard the news, remains put.
The Duke and Duchess of Orleans, cousins of the victim, who were in the room, arrive first.
The Angoulême family followed, the brother and sister-in-law of the dying man, then his father, the Count d'Artois.
Caroline, who replaced her bloodstained dress with a simple knit dress brought to her from the Elysee Palace, does not leave her husband.
A bishop, close to the royal family, Mgr de Latil, confesses Charles and gives him extreme unction.
The duke gets up and has the strength to say to his wife: "I must tell you that I had two children before I knew you".
Serene, she replies: "Let them come. I will take care of them like my own daughter."
We run to find, rue des Mathurins, Amy Brown, the English mistress and her two daughters, Louise and Charlotte, born in 1808 and 1809. Only these are taken to their father.
He then confesses to having had two other children and asks that they be taken care of as well.
And all of a sudden, he stands up with force to say aloud, so that everyone can hear him: "Caroline! Take care of the child you are carrying!", As if he wanted to cut it short. to any possibility of slander about this pregnancy.
The Duke's agony is endless.
King Louis XVIII, his uncle, did not arrive until around five in the morning.
The man is huge.
They drag him painfully to where his nephew is.
Berry asks him for the pardon of his murderer.
It goes out at six in the morning.
He was 42 years old.
Caroline is overwhelmed with distress.
She faints.
We bring her back to the Elysee Palace where she cuts her long blond hair so that part of her locks are placed in her husband's coffin.
The next day she was taken to the Château de Saint-Cloud, whose apartments were in mourning: the armchairs, the walls and the stools were covered with black crepe.
The death of the Duke of Berry is a real tragedy.
In this delicate period of the Restoration, the royalists are devastated by the death of the one who embodied the future of the Bourbons.
Indeed, Louis XVIII has no children.
But his brother and potential successor, the Comte d'Artois, has two sons.
The eldest, Angoulême, who married Madame Royale, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the only survivor of the Temple prison, has no children and no hope of having any.
As for the youngest, the Duc de Berry, he had only one daughter with his wife Caroline.
All the hopes of the monarchy therefore rest on the unborn child, whose existence we have just learned ...
The wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Berry
In 1815, Louis XVIII recovers his throne after the Hundred Days.
He considered himself king of France since the death of little Louis XVII in the Temple.
For five years, this man has been the widower of Marie-Joséphine de Savoie.
We have seen that after his brother Artois and his nephew Angoulême, the heir to the throne will be the Duke of Berry.
He is the only one able to ensure the descendants of the Bourbons.
However, at 37, he is still not married.
It is therefore urgent to find him a wife worthy of this restored monarchy ... twice because of Napoleon!
It is all the more important that the Duke of Orleans, head of the younger branch of the Bourbons, already has two sons.
The Duke of Berry was only 11 years old in 1789 when he left for an emigration with his father.
He fought as soon as his age allowed him before living a life of penniless emigrant in London.
He is a lover of life and of women.
He has a fiery, almost childish temperament.
It does not lack charm.
It remains to find him a wife of high rank, and Catholic!
It is said that it was Talleyrand who went to look for the Neapolitan branch of the Bourbons.
This is hardly original since the current Duke of Orleans, son of Philippe Egalité, has already chosen his wife from the Bourbon-Siciles, King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies having consented to his daughter Marie-Amélie marrying Louis -Philippe, yet the son of a regicide (his father voted for the death of Louis XVI).
Talleyrand offers the Duke of Berry Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, a niece of the Duchess of Orleans.
Marie-Caroline is the daughter of King François I of Naples and of the two Sicilies.
She was born in 1798 in Caserta, the Neapolitan Versailles.
She had a childhood shaken up by the occupation of Naples by French troops.
The family will be driven out twice, first by revolutionary troops in 1799 then by those of Joseph Bonaparte in 1806. The Bourbon Sicily do not regain their throne until after the fall of Napoleon.
During these interludes, the family went into exile in Sicily.
Marie-Caroline was raised by her father's second wife in the midst of a dozen half-brothers and half-sisters.
Their parents prioritize the happiness of their children over their education and instruction.
It is just when the Bourbon Sicily regain their throne of Naples that Louis XVIII sends his favorite, Blacas, as ambassador extraordinary in charge of asking for the hand of the young girl.
The latter is horrified by the sinister Blacas, pompous and solemn.
She finds it ridiculous!
As for Blacas, he considers Marie-Caroline badly brought up and lazy.
She will say: "We Sicilians are ignorant like carp. Imagine that I spent my first childhood in Sicily and that I did not even learn Italian!"
She has wit!
She is small (1.50 m), has the elongated face and the Habsburg lippe of her mother.
Her beautiful blue eyes suffer from a slight squint but her charm and cheerfulness make her delicious.
She is alive, sparkling.
We will call her "the pretty ugly"!
On April 24, 1816, in the cathedral of Naples, the marriage by proxy of Marie-Caroline was celebrated with the Duke of Berry, represented by a half-brother of the bride.
A month later, the new Duchess of Berry embarks aboard "La Christine", escorted by two Neapolitan ships and three French vessels.
And there, a miracle!
The two future spouses exchange letters which will familiarize them with each other.
They will, truly, fall in love by mail order!
At each stopover, Marie-Caroline receives a letter from Charles and at each stopover, leaves a letter for him.
The tone changes from letter to letter: no more "Monseigneur" or "Madame", we call each other by his first name and, little by little, Marie-Caroline becomes Caroline.
Charles is initially afraid of their age difference: she is 17 years old.
He is afraid, with his 38 years, to seem very old to him… We end up talking on a familiar note and Charles is more and more in love.
On June 12, he told her: "I am burning to see you my Caroline… My heart is beating and I think it will beat much harder when my lips press your pretty cheeks."
A real intimacy going as far as complicity is created between them during this interminable crossing.
Arrived in Marseille, Caroline must comply with a quarantine limited to ten days because she comes from a plague country.
After which, it will make its official entry into France through a border crossing materialized by a carpet in the beautiful City of Marseille.
Another fifteen days of travel to endure speeches, bands, songs, rains of flowers and quantities of triumphal arches.
Caroline smiles.
She is cheerful, gracious and never shows the slightest sign of fatigue.
Finally, on June 15, 1816, in the forest of Fontainebleau, at the Saint Hérem roundabout, she met the royal family.
Two tents have been pitched, one decorated with the lily of France, the other with the arms of the kingdom of Naples.
A carpet connects them.
The two processions face each other and stop in front of their respective tents.
It is expected that they will meet halfway but for the first time (and not for the last!), Marie-Caroline shakes up the protocol.
After asking if the rug was international, she literally flies away.
She leaps before throwing herself at the feet of Louis XVIII who is dazzled by this blond elf crowned with pearls.
As for Charles, he finds Caroline much better than in all his portraits and feels how much he will love her.
The next day, it is the triumphal entry into Paris and the day following the wedding.
It is celebrated at Notre-Dame whose interior is adorned with a blue, white and gold decoration.
The bride is radiant in a dress of white tulle embroidered with silver adorned with sumptuous jewels.
A sumptuous dinner then takes place at the Tuileries, in Diane's gallery.
At midnight, the newlyweds go to their home, the Elysée Palace, renamed the Elysée-Bourbon.
King Louis XVIII then declared: "The Duke of Berry is in love with his wife but he is not the only one! We are all rivals!"
A very well matched couple
The Duke and Duchess of Berry had illustrious predecessors at the Elysée: Mme de Pompadour, Murat, Joséphine, Marie-Louise and even Napoleon during the Hundred Days.
Charles kept some of the furniture, but everything was re-upholstered and care was taken to erase the imperial bees and replace them with lilies.
Caroline has her House with her ladies of honor and finery.
She also has a squire who is very attached to her, the Comte de Mesnard.
He is 30 years older than her, is a Peer of France and deeply royalist.
The couple get along very well.
their correspondence had brought them together, their marriage made this accomplice passion a reality.
Caroline is happy and fulfilled by her husband.
She discovered Paris with delight.
Charles shows him the nearby Champs-Elysées, takes him to elegant restaurants like Tortoni, the Café Anglais, or the Véfour.
He also leads her to Bagatelle.
His father, the Comte d'Artois, had this delightful pavilion built by the architect Bélanger in two months, in 1778, following a bet with Marie-Antoinette.
He gave it to his son.
The only absolute rule, not to be transgressed, is the obligation to dine with the family every evening at the Tuileries.
We are asked to respect the time, which is not easy for Caroline but above all… we are dying of boredom!
Quickly, the Duchess becomes pregnant.
She gives birth on July 13, 1817 to a little girl who will only live two days.
The mother is in great grief.
To console her, Charles bought the Château de Rosny, near Mantes, on the banks of the Seine.
It is the old castle of Sully.
It is not a coincidence.
To erase the bad memories of the Revolution, the Restoration chose Henri IV as a model.
On Saint-Louis Day, August 25, 1818, the king inaugurated an equestrian statue of his ancestor on the Pont-Neuf.
It was cast in bronze from imperial statues including that of the Vendôme column.
The sculptor Quesnel, an ardent Bonapartist, took his revenge by slipping a small statue of Napoleon into the Béarnais' right arm!
A month later, Caroline gave birth prematurely to a little boy who did not survive either ... It was only a year later, on September 21, 1819, that she gave birth to a healthy little girl.
We call her Louise.
Caroline, as soon as she gives birth, exclaims: "After the girl, the boy!"
The couple are happy but the incorrigible Charles has not given up on his mistresses.
There is Virginie Oreille, the pretty dancer at the opera, but also Marie-Sophie Delaroche, who gave her a son named Ferdinand in 1817 and Louise Barré, daughter of an employee of the duke's venery, who gave birth to a girl she dares to name… Caroline!
Finally, there is the English mistress, Amy Brown, who gave him two daughters and which he settled in Paris.
Caroline is far from knowing everything but there are rumors.
She is horribly jealous and makes terrible scenes to her husband.
They are, one like the other, capable of violent anger.
Exasperated but not very proud of himself, having no intention of changing his life, Charles then asks his friend the Prince of Castelcicala, ambassador of the Kingdom of Naples in Paris, to calm his wife!
The prince speaks to the Duchess in Italian, with forceful gestures.
He assures her that all men have mistresses, that their wives know it and are perfectly satisfied with it!
According to the diplomat, this is a general situation to which the only exception is the Duke of Angoulême, who is clearly not a model of seduction ... Stung, Caroline asks if the Duke of Orleans, too, has mistresses.
A surrealist dialogue follows:
- "Undoubtedly, Madame! Who do you take him for?"
- And my aunt knows that?
- Certainly, Madame!
Madame la Duchesse d'Orléans is too wise to take offense. "
Caroline is convinced by the ambassador.
This does not take anything away from her jealousy but she will henceforth avoid upsetting her husband on this subject ... She therefore gave birth in September 1819 to little Louise and in February 1820, she was pregnant again at the time of her murder. husband, as I told you at the beginning of this episode.
According to custom, she will not attend the funeral of the Duke of Berry, one month after his death, at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
Her heart should have been placed in the Val de Grâce chapel, but Caroline managed to keep it.
She will build a chapel in the park of Rosny to receive it.
As for the duke's assassin, Louvel, a young cellar worker fervent Bonapartist, he dreamed of extinguishing the race of the Bourbons.
He acted alone and had followed the Duc de Berry for a long time.
Judged by the House of Peers, he will be guillotined the following year, on June 6, 1820, contrary to the wishes of his victim.
After her stay in Saint-Cloud, the Duchess did not return to the Elysée-Bourbon.
She moved to the Tuileries where her pregnancy was watched with vigilance.
Will the future of the dynasty be assured?
Bibliographic resources:
Laure Hillerin,
The Duchess of Berry, the rebellious bird of the Bourbons
(Flammarion, 2010)
Monique de Huertas,
La Duchesse de Berry, the adventurous mother of the last King of France
(Pygmalion, 2001)
Edmond Duplan,
Marie-Caroline, Duchess of Berry
(France-Empire, 1996)
Jean des Cars,
Tragic couples in history
(Perrin, 2020)
"At the heart of History" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Production: Timothée Magot
Director: Jean-François Bussière
Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier
Graphics: Karelle Villais