Elisabeth-Pauline de Lauraguais

Élisabeth-Pauline de Lauraguais , née Élisabeth-Pauline de Gand (born October 22, 1737 , † February 16, 1794 in Paris ) was a Belgian-French noblewoman who fell victim to the terror of the French Revolution .

Life

Élisabeth-Pauline de Gand was the daughter of Alexandre de Gand-Vilain and Françoise de La Rochefoucauld. Her uncle was the Marshal of France Louis de Gand de Mérode de Montmorency (1678-1767).

On January 11, 1755, she married Louis-Léon de Brancas , who in the same year received the title of Duc de Lauraguais from his father Louis II. De Brancas by his renunciation and in 1794 with the death of his father the title of Duc de Villars inherited. There are two daughters from the marriage:

• Pauline-Louise-Antoinette-Candide-Félicité de Brancas, born November 23, 1755 Paris, † August 10, 1812 Paris; ⚭ January 19, 1773 Paris Ludwig Engelbert von Arenberg , * August 3, 1750 Brussels, † March 7, 1820 Brussels, Duke of Arenberg ( House of Arenberg )
• Antoinette-Candide-Paule de Brancas, born September 24, 1756, † 1777, nun in the Abbaye-aux-Bois

Arlay Castle

In 1767 she inherited the Château d'Arlay in the town of the same name in the Jura department .

After a decade-long process, King Louis XV. part of the legacy of Philibert de Chalon , including Arlay Castle, awarded to Louis de Gand, the uncle of Elisabeth-Paulines. Since the castle was only in ruins, she decided to build a new castle. She buys the old buildings of a Paulaner convent, which was only a few steps away from the old castle and was now abandoned. She also used the ruins of the old Nozeroy Castle as a quarry.

In summer and autumn, Élisabeth Pauline de Lauraguais received the gentlemen, mayors and lay judges who were under their jurisdiction in Arlay. King Friedrich II of Prussia visited Arlay in 1775.

The terror

Since René-François Dumas (known as Dumas le Rouge ) headed the Société des Amis de la Constitution of Lons-le-Saunier , Elisabeth-Pauline has not stepped into Arlay: he was a person who knew her well, but she had her at the time his application as administrator of the castle was rejected.

She therefore decided to seek refuge in the Château d'Oignies in the Pas-de-Calais department , one of her many possessions.

She was arrested in the summer of 1793. Shortly after her arrest, René-François Dumas, who had just been appointed Vice-President of the Revolutionary Tribunal , took charge of her trial and then imposed the death penalty himself on September 28, 1793. On February 16, 1794 (18th Pluviôse II) she was guillotined on the Place de la Concorde in Paris .

literature

• Georges Dansaert: Élisabeth-Pauline de Gand-Merode-Isenghien, Comtesse de Lauraguais: une grande suzeraine au XVIIIe siècle. Th. Dewarichet, 1943
• Annie Gay: Ces Francs-Comtois qui ont fait l'histoire. 2018, ISBN 978-2-917875-98-8 , pp. 149–153