Grace Dalrymple Elliott (1754 – 1823) was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
courtesanA courtesan was originally a woman courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person. In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
who was resident in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
at the time of the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
and an eyewitness to events. She was once mistress of the Duke of Orléans, who was cousin to King Louis XVI.
She was arrested and held awaiting death by
guillotineThe guillotine was a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the victim's head from their body...
but was released after the death of Robespierre. She wrote an autobiographical account of her experiences entitled
Ma Vie Sous La Révolution published posthumously in 1859.
Early life
Grace Dalrymple was the daughter of an
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
lawyer, Hew Dalrymple. Her parents separated when she was an infant and she was placed in a French convent where she grew up. She became active in society circles, taking great lengths to dress and act accordingly, while becoming educated and staying abreast in world events. As recorded in art from the time, she was remarkably attractive, with beautiful facial features and an appealing figure. All of these attributes, along with her intelligence, became her trademark and helped her greatly when she entered into the life of
courtesan to royalty (see
http://shopfrick.org/shop/pcdalrymple.htm,
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bpor/ho_20.155.1.htm).
Life as a courtesan in Britain
In 1771 she made her debut in Edinburgh society and became renowned for her beauty.
She married the extremely rich and elderly Dr. John Elliott in that year, becoming Mrs. Grace Elliott. However in 1774 she fled Edinburgh with Lord Valentia after a scandal. Her own account would put her at 9 years old, but this is not believed to be true, and it is more likely she was entering her teen years.
She eventually received a divorce settlement and £12,000 in damages. However her brother kidnapped her and had her confined to another French convent.
Lord CholmondeleyGeorge James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley KG, GCH, PC , known as Earl of Cholmondeley from 1770 until 1815, was a British peer and politician.-Personal:...
, one of her many
benefactorA benefactor is a person who gives some form of help to benefit a person, group or organization , often gifting a monetary contribution in the form of an endowment to help a cause...
s, rescued her and brought her back to London where she became mistress and courtesan to several prominent and wealthy men.
Thomas GainsboroughThomas Gainsborough was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain.-Suffolk:...
painted her portrait in 1778 and this is now on display in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1782, she had a quiet and short intrigue with the
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
(afterwards
George IVGeorge IV was the king of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
), and gave birth to a daughter who used the name Georgina Seymour (1782-1813) but was baptised at St Marylebone as 'Georgina Frederica Augusta Elliott Daughter of His Royal Highness George Prince of Wales & Grace Elliott'. Grace was being kept by Lord Cholmondeley but declared that the Prince was the father of her child and the
Morning Post said in January 1782 that he admitted responsibility. However, when the child, which was very dark, was first shown to the Prince he is said to have remarked, "To convince me that this is my girl they must first prove that black is white". The Prince and many others regarded Lord Cholmondeley as the father, though the Prince's friends said that Charles William Wyndham (brother of Lord Egremont), whom she was thought to resemble, claimed paternity. Yet others thought she might have been fathered by
George SelwynGeorge Augustus Selwyn was a Member of Parliament in the Parliament of Great Britain.Selwyn was a man who spent 44 years in the House of Commons without being recorded as making a speech...
. Lord Cholmondeley brought up the girl and, after her early death in 1813, looked after her only child.
France, Louis-Philippe d'Orléans and imprisonment
George, Prince of Wales, introduced her to the French Duke of Orleans in 1784. The couple started an affair and in 1786 Grace settled in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. She remained there throughout the
revolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
. The duc sided with the revolutionaries, took the name Philippe Égalité, voted for the execution of his
cousin, the KingLouis XVI of France ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21...
and whipped up hatred against Louis's wife,
Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette ; was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I....
. Grace, on the other hand, supported the monarchy and she became a devoted follower of
Louis XVILouis XVI of France ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21...
and his family. His execution in 1793 devastated her.
France was plunged into a
reign of terrorThe Reign of Terror , also known as the The Terror was a period of violence that occurred four years and two months after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the...
and paranoia gripped the people. Despite his support for the revolution, the duke was executed because of his royal blood (he was descended from
Louis XIIILouis XIII reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.-Early life, 1601—1610:Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici . As son of the king, he was a Fils de France, and as the eldest son, the Dauphin...
). Grace was imprisoned, even though her affair with the duc was long over, due to a suspect letter in her possession from
Charles James FoxCharles James Fox was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
. She was a known royalist, and British as well. She was also suspected of having helped a fellow royalist, the
Marquis de ChampcenetzLouis René Quentin de Richebourg, marquis de Champcenetz was governor of the Tuileries Palace at the time of the French Revolution. He was the father of his namesake, the journalist Louis René Quentin de Richebourg de Champcenetz. He was the personal enemy of Louis Philippe, who nevertheless...
, escape the death sentence in Paris. She shared a cell with
Madame du BarryJeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...
, who had once been the mistress of King
Louis XVLouis XV ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death on 10 May 1774...
. The charge against her, of possessing a letter from an Englishman, was dropped on the grounds that it had not been opened (Elliot was merely to relay it to French Admiral Latouche-Treville) and that, when the jury opened it, it commended the French Navy's recent victory at Naples and the glory of the revolution.
Whilst in this prison, they heard the news that Marie Antoinette had been executed on 16 October 1793. Grace later wrote that the queen's
"greatness and courage" inspired all the prisoners to try and follow her example and meet their deaths with dignity.
Unfortunately many of the above stories come from Grace's own highly coloured, exaggerated and partly fictional
Journal of my life during the French Revolution (London: Richard Bentley, 1859) and the historian Horace Bleackley has shown that large sections of the journal have no basis in truth. She was never, for instance, in prison with Madame du Barry, and the records only show that she was imprisoned from December 1793 to 4 October 1794. Bleackley considered the beauty of 'Dally the Tall' as by no means superlative.
Later life
Although many of her friends met their deaths including
Madame du BarryJeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...
, Grace did not. She narrowly avoided death and was released after the Reign of Terror came to an end. In total she had been confined to four different prisons by the republican government.
In later years, rumour had it that she became courtesan to Napoleon Bonaparte, but had rejected his offer of marriage. She died a wealthy woman at Ville d'Avray, in present day
Hauts-de-SeineHauts-de-Seine is a département in France. It is part of the region of Île-de-France region, and covers the near western suburbs of Paris...
in 1823. True to her past, she died the mistress of the mayor of Ville d'Avray.
Film
A dramatic portrayal of part of her life is contained in the film
The Lady And The DukeL'Anglaise et le Duc is a 2001 feature film by French director Éric Rohmer.The film was inspired by Ma vie sous la révolution , the colourful memoirs of Grace Elliott, an Edinburgh-born royalist caught up in the political intrigue following the French Revolution...
(French title
L'Anglaise et le duc) by director
Éric RohmerÉric Rohmer is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. A key figure in the post-war New Wave cinema, he is a former editor of influential French film journal Cahiers du cinéma.Schérer fashioned his pseudonym from the names of two famous artists: actor and director Erich von Stroheim...
, France, 2001. English actress
Lucy RussellLucy Russell is an English actress, possibly best known for starring as Grace Elliott in Éric Rohmer's L'Anglaise et le duc . Her first starring role was in Christopher Nolan's Following....
played Grace and
Jean-Claude DreyfusJean-Claude Dreyfus is a French actor. He began his career in film acting in 1973 in the film Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard. Dreyfus is notable for his portrayal of a butcher in the black comedy Delicatessen by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet...
played the Duke of Orleans.
External links