Murder in France’s aristocratic high society

A murder so scandalous that it led to the abdication of the King of France and thus to the beginning of the Second French Republic was that of the Duchess Choiseul-Praslin in Paris on August 18, 1847. In 1824, Théobald Charles Laure de Choiseul, Duke of Praslin and Peer of France, married the daughter of the famous Marshal Sebastiani, Fanny Rosalba Altarice. The young lady was seventeen years old, the darling of society, who captured the hearts of the rich and powerful with all her grace and beauty. The duke himself was nineteen, but his eyes were often cold and unmoved by his wife’s passionate expressions. In fifteen years, she gave him 10 children, 9 of whom survived, which was both a sign of her fertility and the immense pressure under which women of that time lived. Over time, she lost her slim figure, became plump, and became impetuous in her emotions. Jealousy began to creep into the duchess’s heart when the young Englishwoman Miss Henriette Delucy arrived at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, which is said to have inspired Louis XIV to build Versailles. She was not only the governess of her children, but also the catalyst for the creeping decline of her marriage. Miss Delucy was the opposite of the warm-hearted duchess. She was cool, calm, and yet imbued with a seductive charm that soon captivated the duke. Here, in a house full of children and a frustrating longing for love, the duke began to be seduced by the coolness of the Englishwoman, who led him like a muse into the abyss of his inner world. Soon, the couple were only communicating with each other in writing. The Duchess’s letters became increasingly desperate, reflecting the struggle of a woman fighting for the survival of her relationship. The situation escalated when her father, the old Marshal Sebastiani, wrote an energetic letter to the Duke expressing his disappointment at his son-in-law’s behavior. He demanded the removal of the governess, and the duke felt compelled to give in to the pressure. But this was not the answer to their problems. On the contrary, it only set the stage for the inevitable. Four weeks after the dismissal, the duchess was murdered. It was August 18, 1847, when a servant heard the doorbell ringing from the duchess’s bedroom at around 4 or 5 in the morning. She had arrived with her husband and nine children at her father’s private villa at 55 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris at around 9 p.m. the night before. When the servant rushed to the bedroom and heard moaning, he wanted to check if everything was all right. But the door was locked, and he could only enter through the bathroom. In the bedroom, the duchess lay half-undressed in a huge pool of blood. The room was devastated, and all the evidence pointed to a bitter struggle. Since there were no signs of forced entry and nothing had been stolen, her husband, Duke Praslin, quickly came under the scrutiny of the authorities, who found blood on the duke’s dressing gown and hair from the dead woman between his clenched hands. From then on, the duke was the prime suspect, but he remained silent and kept his secrets to himself. Due to his status, he was only placed under strict surveillance in his palace and not taken to prison. The following scenario was quickly reconstructed. That night, the duke had entered his wife’s bedroom via the hallway between the two apartments. While she was sleeping peacefully, he stabbed her in the throat with a dagger. When the duchess awoke, she tried to defend herself vigorously with blows. In the process, one of her fingers was severed. Under the force of the blows, the blade of the dagger broke off and was later found in one of the duke’s drawers. Enraged by the broken blade, the duke struck her in the face with the butt of his pistol. He then left his seriously injured wife, who used her last ounce of strength to pull the bell cord to raise the alarm. When the servant discovered her, he called the duke, who appeared at the scene fully clothed. The duke sent for a doctor, but it was too late to save his wife. She died shortly afterwards. The duchess had been brutally assaulted, suffering over 30 stab wounds to her neck and chest, as well as blows to her face with a blunt object, which turned out to be the duke’s pistol. Ten days after the murder, he collapsed during questioning. He had taken arsenic and died shortly afterwards, thus evading trial. This dramatic turn of events caused the reputation of the July Monarchy to plummet, as many felt that a high-ranking nobleman could not be held accountable and that the system had failed. The Duke’s suicide caused considerable public outrage. The press was quick to spread the scandalous details of the Duke’s life, and the reporting contributed to the further destabilization of the July Monarchy. There were calls for the government to have done more to protect the duke from himself and to keep the justice system functioning. This inability to hold influential men accountable was interpreted by many as a sign of the decline of political authority. Just six months after this scandal, the Revolution of 1848 broke out, forcing the king to abdicate and ushering in the Second French Republic. To this day, myths persist that the duke only faked his death and fled abroad, only to pass away many years later. For in the early hours of the morning, as the earth was being shoveled over his grave, the duke was seen alive. Behind closed doors, old friends and acquaintances speculated about the circumstances that had driven the duke to flee. Rumor had it that another man had been buried in place of the duke. A clever deception to hide the shame of his murder and the disgrace brought upon the family. But no one could prove it. The duke, who was supposed to have died in the eyes of the world, was now said to be living incognito, yet in constant fear of discovery. The case of the Duke of Praslin is not unique. It is symbolic of the challenges and difficulties that came with aristocratic life. Behind the glamour and splendor of life in the upper aristocracy often lay personal tragedies, affairs, and scandals. These aspects make the story of Charles Théobald de Choiseul-Praslin an insightful chapter in French history, showing how the pressures of aristocratic life can tear down even the best masks. The story of the Duke of Praslin and his family is a fascinating example of how power, money, and passion are intertwined and what devastating consequences this can have. The murder of the duchess and the subsequent suicide of the duke were grist to the mill for republican politicians, who skillfully used this scandal to force King Louis-Philippe to abdicate.