Marie-Aurore de Saxe

Marie-Aurore de Saxe as Diana.
Portrait attributed to Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, ca. 1777.
Currently displayed in the Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris.

Marie-Aurore de Saxe (20 September 1748 – 26 December 1821), known after her first marriage as Countess of Horn and after the second as Madame Dupin de Francueil, was an illegitimate daughter of Marshal Maurice de Saxe and grandmother of George Sand.

A notable free-thinker, she was adept to philosophers like Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Buffon, her life was marked by the vicissitudes of history and personal dramas.

Life

Origins and Youth

Maurice de Saxe, Marie-Aurore's father.
Marie Rinteau de Verrières, Marie-Aurore's mother.

Claude-Louis Rinteau, a lemonade merchant, and his wife, Marie-Anne Dupuy are the parents of two daughters: Marie[1] and Geneviève.[2] Desiring to ensure a brilliant career to his children, but above all to ensure his own success, Claude-Louis Rinteau uses Maurice de Saxe,[3] Marshal of France, known for his military victories, but also for his agitated love life.[4] A great lover of theatre, he ordened that during his campaigns a group of actors followed him to support the morale of his troops. Claude-Louis Rinteau knew that the prettiest actresses are used by the pleasure of Marshal de Saxe and without scruples, he offered him his two daughters during the year 1747.[5] Claude-Louis Rinteau in return obtained his appointment as military storekeeper, who proved to be a big source of profits. But his greed had a cost for Maurice of Saxony, who was accused of embezzlement and misappropriation[6] and thanks of his position he could escape from prosecution, but justice must find culprits. Therefore, look towards his subordinates, Claude-Louis was put in prison.[7] While the "bon père de famille" meditated his fate in a dungeon in Brussels, Marie (aged 17), and Geneviève (aged 13), entered into the world of entertainment at the Theatre of the Army.[8] They adopt a stage name from which both sisters will be known in history: Mesdemoiselles de Verrières.[9] Maurice de Saxe first sets his eyes on the very young Geneviève, but this was a short-lived affair. The oldest sister, Marie, a remarkable beauty and vivid spirit, could seduced the old soldier. She soon became in his mistress and was installed in Le Marais near the Rue du Parc-Royal at Paris. From the affair, a daughter was born on 20 September 1748. She was baptized a month after her birth, on 19 October in the Church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais. The child was registered as a daughter of certain Jean-Baptiste La Rivière, in fact a non-existed person,[10] and was named after her paternal grandmother, Maria Aurora von Königsmarck. Her godpfather was the adjutant of the Marshal of Saxe, Antoine-Alexandre Colbert, marquis de Sourdis,[11] and the godmother was her aunt Geneviève. The Marshal de Saxe show any interest in the fate of his illegitimate daughter and bequeathed him nothing, just like the other children that he leaves behind. Marshal Maurice de Saxe, in turn, was as a product of the affair between Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, with the Countess von Königsmarck.

Petition send in the name of Marie-Aurore to the Dauphine, born Maria Josepha of Saxony, 1755.

Marie Rinteau, who with her affair with Maurice de Saxe gained certain notoriety, continues her sentimental conquests. Jean-François Marmontel and the fermier général, Denis Joseph Lalive d'Épinay, where among her lovers. The latter spend continuously on her, and installed both demoiselles de Verrières in the Quartier d'Auteuil[lower-alpha 1] after the death of Maurice de Saxe on 30 November 1750 at the Château de Chambord. From her affair with Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, Marie Rinteau gave birth a son on 31 October 1750 at Paris, called Charles-Godefroy-Marie de Beaumont.[lower-alpha 2] Marie-Aurore was always under the sole care of her mother, but not for long.

One of the nephews of the Marshal de Saxe, the Count of Friesen, known in France under the name of Comte de Frise,[14] provided some financial help to Marie-Aurore, but his death in 1755 deprived the illegitimate daughter of Maurice de Saxe from all support. A petition was addressed to the Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony the same year in favor of Marie-Aurore, providing her existence and ensured her education. King Louis XV granted a pension of 800 livres to the demoiselle Aurore.[15][16]

Following the death of the Count of Friesen, Marie-Aurore (aged 7) was separated from her mother by command of the Dauphine, a niece of the Marshal and mother of three future French Kings: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X. Since them, Maria Josepha provides care and education to her cousin. She place Marie-Aurore in an institution for young girls, firstly at the Ursuline convent in Saint-Cloud and later in the Maison royale de Saint-Louis in Saint-Cyr,[17] founded by Madame de Maintenon.

Recognition

Official recognition of Marie-Aurore as daughter of the Marshal de Saxe by the Parlement of Paris, 15 May 1766. Source: Archives nationales (France).

The Dauphine also decided Marie-Aurore's future by organizing her marriage with Comte Antoine de Horn.[18] In order to perform this marriage and be considered valid, her baptismal certificate must be amended so the name of her real father appears. Marie-Aurore appealed to the Parlement of Paris and on 15 May 1766, after a serious investigation, the sentence established that Marie-Aurore was the natural daughter of Maurice, comte de Saxe, Marshal of the camps and armies of France and Marie Rinteau.[19] Being finally recognized, Marie-Aurore was authorized to carry the surname de Saxe. Her marriage with the Comte de Horn took place on 9 June 1766 at Paris; however, eight months later (20 February 1767), her husband was killed in a duel at Sélestat, aged 44. According to her granddaughter George Sand, this union was a mariage blanc and thus was never consummated.[20]

Marie-Aurore de Saxe dressed as a shepherdess, ca. 1770.
Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil, Marie-Aurore's second husband.

Maria Josepha of Saxony died on 13 March 1767 at Versailles, devastated after the death of her husband the Dauphin Louis fifteen months before. Deprived of her protectors, the pension that Marie-Aurore receives as a widow, doesn't allowed her to cover her expenses. She turns initially to Voltaire, an admirer of her father, who recommends her to approach to the Countess of Choiseul, but this was unsuccessful. Then, Marie-Aurore returned to live with her mother, Marie Rinteau. During this period, she learned to singing, comedy plays and discovers a mundane lifestyle.[21] However, she didn't follow the example of her mother and aunt, who in parallel with their careers of actresses, had a life of courtesans. Marie-Aurore maintain an irreproachable conduct. But on 22 October 1775 at Paris, Marie Rinteau died aged 45. Marie-Aurore then retired with a servant to the English convent at Fossés Saint-Victor street in Paris. She was frequently visited there by Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil, a 62-year-old[22] rich financier and friend of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Louis-Claude wasn't a stranger to Marie-Aurore, since she had already met with her mother; in fact, he was an old lover of Geneviève Rinteau. Louis-Claude asks for the hand of Marie-Aurore, who hesitates; however, she eventually became seduced by his grace, his spirit and amiable character. The wedding was celebrated in London on 14 January 1777 at the chapel of the French Embassy in England, in order to avoid a credible opposition. The fear of the spouses was probably not only from their respective families but mostly from the Court of France, protector of the daughter of the Marshal de Saxe. Three months later, the newlyweds returned to France to validated their marriage at Paris on 15 April 1777[23] in the Church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais. Years later, Marie-Aurore fondly remembered her husband to their granddaughter, Aurore Dupin de Francueil, better known under the literary pseudonym of George Sand:[24]

An old love more than a young man, she said, and it's impossible not to love who loves us perfectly. I called him my husband my old father. Thus he wanted and never called me her daughter, even in public. And then she added, is that we were never in the old days!...This is the revolution that brought the old age into the world. Your grandfather, my child, was beautiful, elegant, neat, graceful, fragrant, cheerful, kind, affectionate and even-tempered until the hour of his death.

Madame Dupin de Francueil

Marie-Aurore and her son Maurice.

On 9 January 1778, Marie-Aurore gave birth a son, called Maurice-François-Élisabeth Dupin de Francueil in Le Marais district of Paris;[25] his baptism took place on 18 January, being his godfather the Marquis François de Polignac and his godmother Élisabeth Varanchan, by marriage Madame de Chalut. The only child of Marie-Aurore and Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil, he was named after his maternal grandfather, the Marshal de Saxe, and both godparents.

The couple spends part of the year at Châteauroux in 1783, when Louis-Claude manages the inheritance of his father Claude Dupin. They settled at Château Raoul, the former home of the Princes of Chauvigny, and led a lavish lifestyle well above of their means. In their house, they had a large service with a stable, a cavalry and kennels with several dogs. They also celebrated receptions and concerts. Louis-Claude Dupin invests in cloth factories that enrich the Berry citizens without being profitable for the owner. They also have a particular Hôtel located at the nº 15 of the Rue du Roi-de-Sicile at the parish of Saint-Gervais. Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil died in his home in Paris on 6 June 1786.[26] For the second time, Marie-Aurore was a widow, but this time with a 8-years-old son. Her first task was to pay the considerable debts of her late husband, who left her in a modest position, but could live with an income of 75,000 livres. After her husband's death, Marie-Aurore and her son leave Châteauroux moved to their home at the Rue du Roi-de-Sicile in Paris. During this time, she hired a young tutor to complete the education of her son, Jean-Louis-François Deschartres.[27]

During the revolutionary period, Marie-Aurore decided to acquire a property far away from the bloody events taking place in Paris. Her relations and habits attached her to the Berry area, so her choice was a mansion in Nohant-Vic near La Châtre. With the remains of her fortune, on 23 August 1793 she bought the property for a total of 230,000 livres[28] to Pierre Philippe Péarron de Serennes, an old infantry officer and Governor of Vierzon, cousin of the family Dupin de Francueil. The property is not limited to the château de Nohant, but the purchase also includes residences like la Chicoterie and several farms; in all her new domain covers more than 240 hectares.[29]

The Revolution and the Empire

Marie-Aurore de Saxe, a freethinker, lives in a convulsed time. She saw the French Revolution without terror, as she was imbued with the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, being a follower of philosophers such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Buffon. While still in Paris and busy with her son, Marie-Aurore moved to the nº 12 of the Rue Saint-Nicolas, property of Monsieur Amonin. In these troubled times, in the middle of the Reign of Terror, she hid her values and papers of nobility in the apartment of a gentleman, Monsieur de Villiers. Under a decree, it was forbidden to conceal wealth, especially gold, silver and jewelery. Following a denunciation, a search takes place at night, on 25 November 1793. The goods are found and Marie-Aurore de Saxe was arrested the same day and imprisoned at the English convent. This ancient religious establishment, where she lived after the death of her first husband, was now a prison. If Marie-Aurore indeed had concealed valuables, she also hid incriminating papers which implicated her in the escape of several nobles, like the Comte d'Artois (future King Charles X). These papers aren't found but the risk of a second search was great. Her son and Deschartres forced their way into the apartment under seal to destroy the documents. The revolutionary government didn't survive the fall of Robespierre and Marie-Aurore like many other prisoners, was released on 21 August 1794. From the beginning of September 1794, Marie-Aurore returned to her estate of Nohant and continues with Deschartres the education of Maurice.

Determined to follow the example of his grandfather, Maurice Dupin becomes a soldier during the general conscription of 5 September 1798. He began his military career with the coming to power of General Bonaparte, to Marie-Aurore's dismay. He participated in the Napoleonic Wars and became a Lieutenant and head of the 1st Regiment of Hussars. Unbeknownst to his mother, he secretly married a commoner, Sophie-Victoire-Antoinette Delaborde, in Paris on 5 June 1804. This hasty marriage was due to Sophie's advanced state of pregnancy; one month later (1 July), she gave birth to a girl in Paris named Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, the future George Sand.[30]

Family Tragedies

Maurice Dupin de Francueil, Marie-Aurore's son.

In March 1808 Maurice Dupin, adjutant of Joachim Murat, was in Spain. Sophie was seven months pregnant, but decides to join her husband in Madrid with her little daughter Aurore, despite the strong opposition of Maurice.[31] This unnecessarily moving endangers the whole family, especially Sophie with her advanced pregnancy. As for the situation in Spain, it is more than dangerous, due to the state of war. Nevertheless, mother and daughter arrived in May, after a difficult journey. On 2 May, the people of Madrid rebelled and French troops suppressed the revolt in blood. Maurice's fears were justified. His second child, a son named Auguste, was born in Madrid on 12 June 1808, but he was blind. After the departure of Murat to the throne of Naples, Maurice and his family take the way back and have to stop in Nohant, where they reach by the end of July. On 8 September 1808, Auguste died of exhaustion and disease consequence of the trip to Spain. Another drama will cast over the family. Eight days after the death of his son (16 September), Maurice died accidentally in a riding accident on the road from Châteauroux to Nohant. Marie-Aurore never recovered from the tragic death of her son.

Marie-Aurore wrote to her friend, François Robin de Scévole about the death of Maurice. The most touching correspondence of a mother who has just lost her only son, a few days after the disappearance of her little grandson. The emotion and distress of Marie-Aurore is such that the letter written in the château de Nohant was wrongfully dated 12 September 1808, when Maurice died on 16 September. At the end of the page, Marie-Aurore's tears leave traces visible even today.[32] Her seal in the header of the letter, is black:[33]

Monsieur de Scévole, Indre to Argenton:
I want to write to you myself, my friend, and I can't! You hear my cries, you see my tears, my despair. What can I tell you? I am still alive. Alas, to suffer, to weep, to go dwell on the grave of my child. It's there, close to me: he is deaf to my pain. This silence is stopping me to died! What shall I do now in life? More tomorrow! A frightful void, the bottom of which I find only the shadow of my dear Maurice! You know how much I loved him, despite his excess and troubles! Farewell, you see, my tears are blinding me, I succumb to my misfortune! However, I am still sensitive to the part of you and Madame de Scévole, well want to take and I'm sure you regret my dear son. Oh my God! What a pity!
Marie-Aurore and her granddaughter received General Louis Pierre Alphonse de Colbert at Nohant in 1815. Gouache over paper by Alphonse Lalauze, 1930.

Now, the only link that connects Marie-Aurore with her late son will be her granddaughter, Aurore. A bitter custody battle between mother and grandmother began. Finally, Sophie-Victoire Delaborde relinquished the legal guardianship of her daughter on 28 January 1809 in favor of Marie-Aurore, after a monetary transaction and an annual pension. Aurore Dupin was raised by her grandmother and François Deschartres, the former tutor of Maurice, retook his old post this time with his daughter. Marie-Aurore prefers to spend the winter months in Paris and she buys an apartment in the Rue des Mathurins, near the house of her daughter-in-law. Despite her rights to visit, Sophie Delaborde doesn't have permission to take her daughter Aurore to her own home. However, this agreement will be amended thereafter. Marie-Aurore lavishes the most attention to her granddaughter and introduced him to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This affection was mutual, Aurore was devoted to her grandmother and her delicate and cultivated mind.

Death certificate of Marie-Aurore de Saxe, dated 26 December 1821 at the Château de Nohant.

Marie-Aurore's health declines, and aware that she was near the end, she had the purpose to marry her granddaughter quickly, because as her sole heiress, she couldn't handed alone the lands and estate of Nohant. In January 1821, a wedding project was planned with one of Aurora's cousins-in-law, Auguste Vallet de Villeneuve,[34] holder of the marquisate of Blanc and a widower since 1812. However, the intended groom was 42 years old, while Aurore was only 16. Furthermore, Marie-Aurore designates a testamentary provision, under which she designed a legal guardian of her granddaughter. Her choice was Count René Vallet de Villeneuve, Auguste's older brother and owner of the Château de Chenonceau.

Marie-Aurore had an attack of apoplexy at the end of February 1821. During the rest of the year, Aurore took care of her grandmother. Marie-Aurore de Saxe died at Nohant on 26 December 1821 and her last words were to her granddaughter: You lose your best friend. She was buried in a private plot located at Nohant next to her son. Her granddaughter and her descendants were later buried there.[35]

Marie-Aurore de Saxe by George Sand

George Sand in her autobiography, Histoire de ma vie, describes the origins of her grandmother, Marie-Aurore de Saxe, after researching in archives and libraries. She cites in particular the judgment of the Parlement of Paris dated 15 May 1766 and the work of Jean-Baptiste Denisart, attorney at the Châtelet in Paris, Collection de décisions nouvelles et de notions relatives à la jurisprudence actuelle, in his edition of 1771, Volume III, page 704:[36]

The demoiselle Marie-Aurore, natural daughter of Maurice, comte de Saxe, Marshal General of the camps and armies of France, was baptized as a daughter of Jean-Baptiste de la Rivière, citizen of Paris, and Marie Rinteau, his wife. When the demoiselle Aurore was close to marry, the Monsieur de Montglas was appointed her guardian by the sentence of the Châtelet, on 3 May 1766. There was troubles for the publication of marriage edicts, because the demoiselle Aurore wasn't to be name a daughter of Monsieur de la Rivière or a child of unknown parents. The demoiselle Aurore presented a petition to the court in order to modificated the sentence of the Châtelet. The court, answering the request of demoiselle Aurore, who provides full proofs, both testimony of Monsieur Gervais, who helped her mother to give birth, and persons who are present at the baptismal font, etc..., that she was the natural daughter of the comte du Saxe and he always known her for his daughter; Monsieur Massonet was appointed as the first tutor, and finally, following the consistent findings of Monsieur Joly de Fleury, General Counsel, on 4 June 1766, was made the decision to reversed the previous rule of 3 May; in consecuence, Monsieur Giraud, prosecutor in the court, was chosen as the new tutor of demoiselle Aurore, in her position of natural daughter of Maurice, comte de Saxe, with the responsibility of maintained and kept that condition and possession thereunder; in so doing, ordered the baptismal act registered in the records of the parish of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais of Paris, on the date of 19 October 1748, said extract containing: Marie-Aurore, girl, presented to the said day to baptism by Antoine-Alexandre Colbert, Marquis of Sourdis, and Geneviève Rinteau, godparents, will be amended and, instead of Jean-Baptiste de la Rivière, citizen of Paris, and Marie Rinteau, his wife, who followed the name of Marie-Aurore, daughter, will be added these words: natural of Maurice, comte de Saxe, Marshal General of the camps and armies of France, and Marie Rinteau; and by the bailiff of our said court bearer of this judgment, etc...

This book was later reprinted with updates and notable corrections, like the edition of 1784. This time, George Sand also specifies the parentage of Marie-Aurore de Saxe with her natural father, Marshal Maurice de Saxe:[36]

Another irrefutable proof that my grandmother would have claimed before public opinion, it's the proved resemblance that she had with the Marshal de Saxe, and the kind of adoption that made her the Dauphine, daughter of King Augustus, niece of the Marshal, mother of Charles X and Louis XVIII. This princess placed her in Saint-Cyr and took charge of her education and her marriage, telling her to see defense and attend her mother. At fifteen, Aurore de Saxe left St. Cyr to be married to the comte de Horn, bastard of Louis XV and the king's lieutenant at Schelestadt. She saw him for the first time on the eve of her wedding and had great fear, thinking she saw the walking portrait of the late king, because the comte looked fearfully exactly to him.

Notes

  1. ↑ One of the lovers of Marie Rinteau was Denis Joseph Lalive d'Epinay (1724-1782), fermier général, husband of the famous woman of letters, Madame d'Epinay, born Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Esclavelles, offers two properties to the young demoiselles de Verrières, one in Auteuil in 1753[12] and another in the old Hôtel Saint-Florentin at the Rue de la Ville-l'Évêque in Paris.[13] Denis Joseph Lalive d'Épinay and his friend Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil are frequent visitors of the Rinteau sisters, including during the holidays. Louis-Claude Dupin later became the lover of Madame d'Epinay and sired two children with her, and after their separation, she became a friend of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
  2. ↑ Charles-Godefroy-Marie de Beaumont was the half-brother of Marie-Aurore. His father, Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne, takes care of his education and chose his surname after one of his domains that he owned in Normandy, Beaumont-le-Roger. He entered in the seminary of Évreux and became a priest. After a stint in Normandy region, in the land of his ancestors to Breuilpont, he was appointed the priest of Tartas in the Landes from 1780 until 1792. The Abbot of Beaumont later returned to Paris and lives successively in the Rue de Lille, the Quai Malaquais and finally at the Rue Guénégaud. In 1819 he bought a house in Brunoy, near Corbeil in the department of Seine-et-Oise, where he resides mainly in the summer and where he died on 5 March 1823. George Sand dedicate a brief biography to him in 1875, in the second volume of her Œuvres autobiographiques, entitled: Mon grand-oncle, who was published in the newspaper Le Temps on 2 January 1876.

References

  1. ↑ Marie-Geneviève Rinteau was born in Paris, in the parish of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, on 6 January 1730 and died in Paris, in the parish of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine-de-la-Ville-l'Évêque, on 22 October 1775.
  2. ↑ Geneviève-Claude Rinteau was born in Paris, in the parish of Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles, on 13 February 1734 and died in Paris, in the parish of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, on 23 September 1791.
  3. ↑ Maurice de Saxe, comte de la Raute (1696-1710) later comte de Saxe (1710-1750), was born on 28 October 1696 in Goslar and died on 30 November 1750 at the Château de Chambord.
  4. ↑ Gaston Maugras: Les demoiselles de Verrières, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1890, 276 p. online, chap. II: Origine des demoiselles de Verrières, p. 28.
  5. ↑ Jean-François Marmontel in his memoirs mentions about Marie Rinteau that she was protected by the Marshal and was one of his mistresses; it was given to him at the age of seventeen. Jean-François Marmontel (preface by Maurice Tourneux): Mémoires de Marmontel : mémoires d'un père pour servir à l'instruction de ses enfans, vol. I, t. I, Paris, La Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1891 (1st ed. 1800), 330 p. online, chap. Livre IV: Liaisons de Mademoiselle Marie Verrière, p. 221.
  6. ↑ René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson: Journal et mémoires du marquis d'Argenson, vol. V, Paris, ed. Vve Jules Renouard, 1863, 532 p. online: Novembre 1748, p. 280.
  7. ↑ Gaston Maugras: Les demoiselles de Verrières, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1890, 276 p. online, chap. II: Le maréchal de Saxe et sa troupe de comédie, pp. 31-32.
  8. ↑ In biographies of George Sand can be well established the occupation of her great-grandmother Marie Rinteau, who become in a young debutante in the Opera. Thérèse Marix-Spire: Les romantiques et la musique : le cas George Sand, vol. I, Paris, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1954 (reprinted 20 January2008), 714 p. online: George Sand et la musique, influences lointaines, p. 70.
  9. ↑ This alias was spelled with or without the "s" and the particle will be added in 1751. The demoiselles de Verrières were also changed this surname name several times.
  10. ↑ Survey of the Parlement of Paris dated 15 May 1766. Source: National Archives, collection of 11 May to 28 May 1766, folios 110 verso and 112 recto.
  11. ↑ Paris Archives: extract from the baptism certificate of 19 octobre 1748: Marie-Aurore, fille, présentée le dit jour à ce baptême par Antoine-Colbert, marquis de Sourdis, et par Geneviève Rinteau, parrain et marraine [...].
  12. ↑ Lucien Perey and Gaston Maugras: La jeunesse de madame d'Épinay : d'après des lettres et des documents inédits, Paris, ed. Calmann-Lévy, 1898, 588 p. online, chap. XII: "Les demoiselles Verrière à Épinay", p. 381.
  13. ↑ Thérèse Marix-Spire: Les romantiques et la musique : le cas George Sand, vol. I, Paris, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1954 (reprinted 20 january 2008), 714 p. online, "George Sand et la musique, influences lointaines", p. 71.
  14. ↑ The comte de Frise took over the succession of the Marshal de Saxe and lived at Chambord since 1750 for the next five years. He also inherits from the Marshal all his farms and horses.
  15. ↑ On this subject on the website of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the aforementioned document: Pétition de Marie-Aurore de Saxe à Madame la Dauphine [retrieved 20 May 2015].
  16. ↑ Roger Pierrot, Jacques Lethève, Marie-Laure Prévost, Michel Brunet and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (dir.) (praface by Georges Le Rider): George Sand : visages du romantisme, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, coll. "Catalogue d'exposition", 20 January 1977, 208 p. (BnF nº FRBNF34702163), online), chap. 1: "Prélude XVIIIe siècle", p. 5.
  17. ↑ Nathalie Desgrugillers: Ma grand-mère Marie Aurore de Saxe : Correspondence inédite et souvenirs, Clermont-Ferrand, Éditions Paleo, coll. "La collection de sable", 15 June 2011, 178 p., "Repères biographiques", p. 8.
  18. ↑ Antoine de Horn, born on 8 September 1722 at Mussy-la-Ville, was allegedly an illegitimate son of Louis XV of France.
  19. ↑ Extract of the registers of the parish of Saint-Gervais dated 13 April 1779: L'année mil sept cent quarante-huit au mois d'octobre, le samedy dix-neuf du dit mois a été baptisée Marie-Aurore, fille naturelle de Maurice, comte de Saxe, maréchal des camps et armées de France, et de Marie Raintau, demeurant rue du Parc Royal, étant née du vingt septembre dernier.
  20. ↑ George Sand: Histoire de ma vie, vol. I, Paris, ed. Calmann-Lévy, 15 April 1847 (1st. ed. 1856), 508 p. online, chap. II: "Aurore de Saxe", p. 35.
  21. ↑ Nathalie Desgrugillers: Ma grand-mère Marie Aurore de Saxe : Correspondance inédite et souvenirs, Clermont-Ferrand, ed. Paleo, coll.: "La collection de sable", 15 June 2011, 178 p., "Repères biographiques", pp. 9-10.
  22. ↑ Louis Dupin de Francueil was born in Châteauroux on 6 November 1715 and died in Paris on 6 June 1786.
  23. ↑ Paris Archives: Marriage certificate. Document: V3E/M 344. Paris Archives, 18 boulevard Sérurier 75019.
  24. ↑ George Sand: Histoire de ma vie, vol. I, Paris, ed. Michel Lévy Frères, 15 April 1847 (1st. ed. 1856), 274 p. online, chap. II: "M. Dupin de Francueil", p. 58.
  25. ↑ Paris Archives: Birth certificate. Document: V3E/N 812. Paris Archives, 18 boulevard Sérurier 75019.
  26. ↑ Paris Archives: Death certificate. Document: V3E/D 508. Paris Archives, 18 boulevard Sérurier 75019.
  27. ↑ Jean-Louis-François Deschartres was born in Laon in 1761 and died in 1828 in an asylum for old people, the Maison royale de santé in Paris. He also held the position of mayor in Nohant.
  28. ↑ Christophe Grandemange: Le château de Nohant : Maison de George Sand, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, ed. Alan Sutton, coll. "Provinces Mosaïques", 14 June 2010, 160 p., "Les jours heureux", p. 16.
  29. ↑ Archives nationales (France): Étude notariale de Me Charles Denis de Villiers - notary act from 23 August 1793 - document MC/ET/XXIX/619 - Vente à Marie-Aurore de Saxe, veuve de Louis-Claude Dupin, de la terre de Nohant online
  30. ↑ Maurice Dupin sired two children before his marriage, both born in La Châtre: a son, Hippolyte Chatiron (5 May 1799 – 23 December 1848) and a daughter, Jeanne Félicitée Molliet (31 May 1800 – 26 September 1883), either of whom he never recognized.
  31. ↑ George Sand: Histoire de ma vie, vol. 2, Paris, ed. Calmann-Lévy, 15 April 1847 (1st ed. 1856), 502 p. online, chap. XII: Départ pour l'Espagne", p. 180.
  32. ↑ Nathalie Desgrugillers: Ma grand-mère Marie Aurore de Saxe : Correspondance inédite et souvenirs, Clermont-Ferrand, ed. Paleo, coll.: "La collection de sable", 15 June 2011, 178 p., "La mort de Maurice", p. 96.
  33. ↑ Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris: correspondence between Madame Dupin de Francueil and Monsieur de Scévole. Document D129 - fonds George Sand.
  34. ↑ Nathalie Desgrugillers: Ma grand-mère Marie Aurore de Saxe : Correspondance inédite et souvenirs, Clermont-Ferrand, ed. Paleo, coll.: "La collection de sable", 15 June 2011, 178 p., "Chronologie", p. 30.
  35. ↑ George Sand (1804 – 8 juin 1876): Enclos privé dans sa propriété de Nohant-Vic (Indre) (in French) [retrieved 22 May 2015].
  36. 1 2 George Sand: Histoire de ma vie, vol. I, Paris, ed. Calmann-Lévy, 15 April 1847 (1st ed. 1856), 508 p. online, chap. II: "Aurore de Saxe", pp. 33-34.

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