The recently-discovered letters of the wealthy counter-revolutionary aristocrat, Innocente-Catherine de Rougé, dowager duchess d’Elbeuf (1707-94), offer a vivid and exciting new eye-witness perspective on the French Revolution and the Terror. Hostile witness to everything about the Revolution, from the noble revolt, the storming of the Bastille and the peasant revolution in 1788-91, through to the outbreak of war, the overthrow and trial of Louis XVI and the Terror in 1791-4, the duchess’s letters to an unknown friend offer an unparalleled real-time narrative by an aristocratic woman struggling to understand radical change. Though tempted by emigration to the Low Countries, the duchess was unusual among her contemporary fellow-aristocrats in remaining in France down to her death in 1794, based in her two homes in Picardy and at the heart of Paris. As well as providing a detailed account of all she saw and read, the correspondence also portrays the anguished mental and spiritual odyssey of a highly devout octogenarian woman, who persisted inplangently declaring her outspokenly counter-revolutionary views even as she approached her own death in conditions of great personal danger. The letters constitute a remarkable example of female life-writing at the heart of the Age of Revolutions from a unique perspective.

Sommaire :

Introduction : The Duchesse d’Elbeuf before 1789

The Duchesse d’Elbeuf’s Revolution

The hôtel d’Elbeuf and the Paris political world

Paris and Moreuil, 1788-91

Flirting with emigration, 1791-92

Paris under terror

The end of the line

The Text : form, style and genre

Note on the text

LETTERS AND NOTES

SECTION 1 : 1788-89

Summary

Letter 1. Paris, Saturday, 13 December 1788

Letter 2. Paris, Thursday, 22 January 1789

Letter 3. Paris, Tuesday, 10 February 1789

Letter 4. Paris, Tuesday, 24 March 1789

Letter 5. Paris, Thursday, 31 April 1789

Letter 6. Paris, Saturday, 9 May 1789

Letter 7. Paris, Friday, 22 May 1789

Letter 8. Paris, Monday, 15 June 1789

Letter 9. Paris, Wednesday, 24 June 1789

Letter 10. Paris, Thursday, 1 July 1789

Letter 11. Paris, Thursday, 16 July 1789

Letter 12. Paris, Wednesday, 22 July 1789

Letter 13. Moreuil, Saturday, 8 August 1789

Letter 14. Moreuil, Thursday, 10 September 1789

Letter 15. Moreuil, Wednesday, 14 October 1789

Letter 16. Moreuil, Saturday, 17 October 1789

Letter 17. Moreuil, Wednesday, 18 November 1789

Letter 18. Moreuil, Tuesday, 22 December 1789

SECTION 2 : 1790

Summary

Letter 19. Moreuil, Monday, 1 February 1790

Letter 20. Paris, Saturday, 10 March 1790

Letter 21. Moreuil, Thursday, 15 April 1790

Letter 22. Moreuil, Friday, 28 May 1790

NOTES 4-19 June 1790

Letter 23. Moreuil, Friday, 21 June 1790

NOTES 28 June-4 July 1790

Letter 24. Moreuil, Monday, 5 July 1790

NOTES 8-28 July 1790

Letter 25. Moreuil, Saturday, 31 July 1790

NOTES 4-28 August 1790

DELETED NOTES 3-9 September 1790

Letter 26. Moreuil, Monday, 30 August 1790

NOTES 31 August-28 December 1790

Letter 27. Moreuil, Wednesday, 29 December 1790

SECTION 3 : 1791

Summary

NOTES 2 January-7 February 1791

Letter 28. Saturday, Moreuil, 12 February 1791

NOTES 15 February-19 March 1791

Letter 29. Paris, Saturday, 19 March 1791

NOTES 23 March-27 April 1791

Letter 30. Paris, Friday, 29 April 1791

NOTES 1-16 May 1791

Letter 31. Paris, Monday, 16 May 1791

NOTES 21 May-30 June 1791

Letter 32. Paris, Thursday, 30 June 1791

NOTES 3-27 July 1791

Letter 33. Paris, Friday, 29 July 1791

NOTES 1-25 August 1791

Letter 34. Paris, Saturday, 27 August 1791

NOTES 29 August-3 September 1791

Letter 35. Paris, Monday, 5 September 1791

NOTES 8-14 September 1791

Letter 36. Tournai, Monday, 3 October 1791

Letter 37. Tournai, Monday, 7 November 1791

Letter 38. Tournai, Thursday, 25 December 1791

SECTION 4 : 1792

Summary

Letter 39. Tournai, Saturday, 7 January 1792

Letter 40. Tournai, Wednesday, 31 January 1792

Letter 41. Tournai, Wednesday, 29 February 1792

NOTES March 1792

Letter 42. Paris, Thursday, 22 March 1792

NOTES 8 April 1792

Letter 43. Paris, Monday, 9 April 1792

NOTES 11-26 April 1792

Letter 44. Paris, Monday, 16 April 1792

NOTES 17-28 April 1792

Letter 45. Paris, Tuesday, 24 April 1792

NOTES 25 April-25 May 1792

Letter 46. Paris, Thursday, 25 May 1792

NOTES 28-30 May 1792

Letter 47. Paris, Thursday, 31 May 1792

NOTES 31 May-16 June 1792

Letter 48. Paris, Saturday, 16 June 1792

NOTES 18 June-7 July 1792

Letter 49. Paris, Monday, 9 July 1792

NOTES 10-20 July 1792

Letter 50. Paris, Wednesday, 18 July 1792

NOTES 16-28 July 1792

Letter 51. Paris, Wednesday, 25 July 1792

NOTES 25 July-13 August 1792

Letter 52. Paris, Tuesday, 14 August 1792

NOTES 15-23 August 1792

Letter 53. Paris, Friday, 24 August 1792

NOTES 24 August-3 September 1792

Letter 54. Paris, Tuesday, 4 September 1792

NOTES 4-21 September 1792

Letter 55. Paris, Saturday, 22 September 1792

NOTES 25 September-13 October

Letter 56. Paris, Saturday, 15 October 1792

NOTES 16 October-20 November 1792

Letter 57. Paris, Thursday, 22 November 1792

NOTES 23 November-13 December 1792

Letter 58. Paris, Saturday, 15 December 1792

NOTES 16-26 December 1792

Section 5 : 1793-94

Summary

NOTES 4-21 January 1793

Letter 59. Paris, Tuesday, 22 January 1793

NOTES 24 January-1 March 1793

Letter 60. Paris, Friday, 1 March 1793

NOTES 3-29 March 1793

Letter 61. Paris, Friday, 29 March 1793

NOTES 1-9 April 1793

Letter 62. Paris, Wednesday, 10 April 1793

NOTES 12 April-13 May 1793

Letter 63. Paris, Tuesday, 14 May 1793

NOTES 16 May-5 June 1793

Letter 64. Paris, Wednesday, 5 June 1793

NOTES 10 June-6 July 1793

Letter 65. Paris, Wednesday, 10 July 1793

NOTES 13-31 July 1793

Letter 66. Paris, Friday, 31 July 1793

NOTES 1 August-20 September 1793

Letter 67. Paris, Friday, 20 September 1793

NOTES 24 September-20 October 1793

Letter 68. Paris, Monday, 22 October 1793

NOTES 31 October-5 November 1793

Letter 69. Paris, Wednesday, 6 November 1793

NOTES 7 November 1793-8 January 1794

APPENDIX : Other d’Elbeuf letters, 1793-4

1.To Jules-François Paré, minister of the Interior, 11 October 1793

2.To Georgette de Rougé du Plessis-Bellière, 26 October 1793.

3.To Paré, minister of the Interior, 11 December 1793.

4.To an unknown individual, early 1794.

5.To Rosalie de Rougé, 14 February 1794.

List of Persons Mentioned

Sources and Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Illustrations and Maps

Index

Colin Jones is Professor Emeritus, Queen Mary University of London and Visiting Professor, University of Chicago. He is the author of many books on French history, most recently Versailles (Head of Zeus, 2018) and The Fall of Robespierre : 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Alex Fairfax-Cholmeley is Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of several articles on Revolutionary justice and the Terror during the French Revolution and he also researches the eighteenth-century transatlantic via Revolutionary connections between France and Saint-Domingue/Haiti.

Simon Macdonald is an Associate Lecturer in Modern European History at University College London. His research focuses on transnational and cultural history, with particular reference to the French Revolution. He is the co-editor, with Pascal Bastien, of Paris et ses peuples au XVIIIe siècle (Paris :
Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2020).