Mary Anne Clarke

Adam Buck: Mary Anne Clarke, 1803

Mary Anne Clarke (born April 3, 1776 as Mary Anne Thompson , † June 21, 1852 in Paris ) was the mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany and, after she had to leave the United Kingdom, ran a literary salon in Paris .

Life

In 1803 she became the mistress of the Duke of York, who at the time was chief in command of the British Army. A scandal erupted in 1809 after it was discovered that Mary Anne Clarke was selling officer posts in the British Army . York then had to give up his command of the British Army, but was later acquitted and reinstated in his office. In 1813, Mary Anne Clarke was sentenced to prison.

After her release, she lived in France , where she ran a prestigious literary salon in Paris. Her daughter married Louis-Mathurin Busson du Maurier and was the mother of the cartoonist George du Maurier . She is also the great-grandmother of the writer Daphne du Maurier , who wrote the book Mary Anne about her great-grandmother .

literature

• Daphne du Maurier : Mary Anne . Roman (translated from English by NO Scarpi) Fretz & Wasmuth, Zurich / Stuttgart 1954 (as paperback: Mary Anne . Roman [translated by Margarete Bormann]. Knaur, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-426-60059-5 ).
• Clarke, Mary Anne . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 445 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).