00:06:03.400She was a beautiful person with amazing hair.1.00
00:06:05.860And even more so than that, like that would draw people to her just because she like looks lovely.0.99
00:06:10.680But also she had this really sweet personality.
00:06:14.080it was said she had a tender nature that seeped into people's souls overwhelming them such that
00:06:19.480most who met her became thoroughly enchanted so unlike someone like gabrielle who we talked about
00:06:25.000last week who was kind of like charismatic and like the fun girl at the party lambal was just
00:06:29.800like nice she like the word that i want to say and in the most complimentary way and i apply this0.75
00:06:35.180word to myself is basic she's just basic she wasn't a flirt she wasn't like she didn't have0.99
00:06:42.500mischievous glint in her eye. She was just basic. And that made people like her because she was1.00
00:06:48.320just nice. She was just like, there's nothing, there's no sort of like secret agenda going on
00:06:53.920there. Like if this is Mean Girls, she's the Amanda Seyfried character who also had beautiful
00:06:59.880hair really. So she's just kind of like, she's just nice to be around because there's like not
00:07:03.900a thought in her pretty head, but she's just nice. She's also, this is just like, it's dragging her,
00:07:10.560but like just so you get a sense like she wasn't witty she was just nice and i know people like
00:07:14.900that and i appreciate people like that she was also very intelligent she's well educated and
00:07:19.520she's also very religious and pious which is a thing that people liked young women to be in this
00:07:25.500time and era so she was married when she was 18 years old which next week we're going to be talking
00:07:31.800about marie antoinette who got married when she was 14 which is just so young so compared to that
00:07:36.740I feel like getting married at age 18 is like, you've grown some more brain cells and stuff.
00:07:41.620Like, I'm okay with this. The person that she was married to, and if you're a new listener,
00:07:46.280welcome. And if you're a longtime listener, you know that I like to pronounce French words and
00:07:50.260with gusto, will it be the correct pronunciation? I don't know. But as I've said, I am inspired in
00:07:55.980my French pronunciation by Jerry Orbach as Lumiere, the candelabra, and Beauty and the Beast. So I'm
00:08:00.300going to go for it. Lambeau was married to Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon-Panthievre. She's a
00:08:06.580princess, right? So she has to like, just because the way the class structure works, like she has0.69
00:08:11.000to marry somebody who's like at a similar level. And he is, Louis-Alexandre, was the grandson of
00:08:16.880Louis XIV's illegitimate, but then legitimized son, Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, the Prince of
00:08:22.600Lambeau. So he's descended from the legitimized, illegitimate son of King Louis XIV, who is like,
00:08:30.300like one king before now, like at this time we're in Louis the 15th time. So basically this husband
00:08:34.720is a prince. He's the Prince of Lambelle, heir to the greatest fortune in France. So her family,
00:08:40.380like last week we talked about Gabrielle Polignac, who wasn't, she was not royal, but she was noble
00:08:44.520and her family had like a title, but not a lot of money. Lambelle's family is rich. She marries0.58
00:08:48.740into an even more rich family. So she's just money problems are not happening on either side0.99
00:08:53.240of the family. And this marriage was actually suggested by the current King Louis the 15th.
00:08:57.540And both families were like, this is great. Like this will create an alliance between the house of Savoy, which is where she's from, and the house of Bourbon, which is where the husband is from. And so it was a wedding by proxy, which is a thing where, you know, instead of trying to get everyone's schedules to line up or whatever, you're like, let's just have the wedding and the bride and the groom won't actually be there at the same time, but somebody will stand in for them and it'll still count officially as a wedding.
00:09:18.700So she had this wedding by proxy and then something happens to her that is gonna, we'll talk about a similar thing happens to Marie Antoinette, which is like when a girl from one kingdom marries a guy from another kingdom, she has to be like, I am no longer part of this first kingdom. My nationality changes, my name changes. I'm gonna only wear clothes from that country now.
00:09:38.520So she had this wedding by proxy and then she traveled by carriage over the border between Savoy and France. And so what she did and Marie Antoinette does the exact same thing when she later marries. Next week, I'll talk about it. But Marie Antoinette was traveling from Austria to France. But so what Lambelle had to do was to leave her entourage, like all her servants and her family behind in Savoy and then cross over the border. And then she was met by her new French servants and household staff.
00:10:05.020And I presume she probably also had to do the same thing Marie Antoinette did is like change out of her Savoy clothes and into French clothes and be like, I'm French now.
00:10:12.780So this whole changeover happened on a bridge.
00:10:15.560And so this happens a few times in her life.
00:23:18.100in-laws who are friends of each other. And then 1770. So Marie Antoinette, 14 years old,
00:23:24.520arrives in France to marry the dauphin, the heir to the throne. And when she arrived,
00:23:30.940she was greeted by like local royals, like French royals. And Lambelle was one of them because she
00:23:36.560was a princess. And so the two of them got along pretty much right away. Marie Antoinette was 14,
00:23:41.600Lambal was six years older, so like in her early 20s. And one of the things I had in common was
00:23:46.960like having come from another country, coming to France, having to like learn what it was like
00:23:50.680there, being kind of like an outsider. Marie Antoinette later said that Lambal, this is a
00:23:55.680quote, is the only woman I know who never bears a grudge. Neither hatred nor jealousy is to be
00:24:00.520found in her. Like again, she's just like not a thought in her pretty little head. She's just0.57
00:24:04.560basic, nice person. And so Lambelle began attending court more often, I presume because
00:24:12.260Marie Antoinette was inviting her more often because she just like felt a vibe like Marie
00:24:16.100Antoinette really needed a friend. And she's like, this person seems nice. And like, she's not
00:24:20.420scheming. And she was also just really charmed by Lambelle. She overwhelmed her with attention
00:24:25.320and affection. And well, I mean, she just like saw that this is a cool person and she wants to
00:24:30.100be friends with her and she's 14 years old and a lot of people would behave like that.
00:24:33.180But part of it too is that Marie Antoinette had grown up, she was really close in age to her sister, Maria Carolina, and she really missed her. And she was used to having, like she and her sister grew up side by side, like arm and arm, like Kylie and Kendall Jenner. She was used to having someone, a young woman around her to be her friend. And so she's just like, Len Balkan filled that void for me. So that might be where some of her like excessive excitement about this friendship comes from.
00:24:56.080One of the people on the scene in the French royal court, and we're going to hear from him a lot because he's one of the people whose letters a lot of people use as a resource to explain the situation, was the Austrian ambassador, whose name was Count Mercy.
00:25:10.840And so he wrote, this is like a year after Marie Antoinette had been there.
00:25:14.460for some time past Marie Antoinette has shown a great affection for the princess of Lambelle
00:25:19.120the young princess is sweet and amiable and enjoying the privileges of a princess of the
00:25:23.440blood royal is in a position to avail herself of her royal highness's favor so what he's saying
00:25:28.420is that Marie Antoinette really likes Lambelle but like this is great this is fine if Marie
00:25:34.600Antoinette is going to take a favorite and find a bestie like it's another princess like this is0.63
00:25:39.080appropriate because station is very important in Versailles. 1773. This is three years after0.99
00:25:46.600Marie Antoinette has been there. Um, like the two of them, they're besties, they're hanging out.
00:25:50.500It's great. One of Lambelle's cousins married Louis the 16th. So Marie Antoinette is married
00:25:56.460to Louis the 16th. Louis the 16th has two younger brothers. Um, one of them is called the Count of
00:26:01.540Artois. He is, so there's Louis 16th and then his two younger brothers, Provence and Artois.
00:26:06.780And of the three of them, Artois is like the cool one.
00:26:12.460He's the one that some people said maybe he should be king instead of Louis.
00:26:16.020Anyway, so one of Lambeau's cousins married this guy, the cool brother, Artois.
00:26:20.600And then because of this, so her cousin was married to Marie Antoinette's brother-in-law.
00:26:25.360Effectively, Marie Antoinette was like, we're family now.
00:26:27.640So like we can spend even more time together because we're now related.
00:26:30.840So they form this kind of close circle of friends of kind of like the young, cool royals.
00:26:36.020So it's like Marie Antoinette, her husband, Louis, Lambelle, who is of course a widow, and then Lambelle's cousin, and the Count of Artois.
00:26:42.860Like they were just kind of like young people together who were kind of chill and had a nice time.
00:26:47.520During this era, Lambelle was described as being almost constantly by Marie Antoinette's side.
00:26:52.660Marie Antoinette's mother, Maria Teresa, was not super fan of this attachment because she didn't like royals having favorites or intimate friends.
00:27:02.440I don't know because maybe she thought that that would reflect badly on Marie Antoinette or she
00:27:07.540thought that this was kind of like in poor taste or something but Marie Antoinette needed a friend
00:27:11.600and she had one and even her mother was like well if she has to have a friend like if an intimate0.94
00:27:16.080friend is needed like Limbault is fine because of her rank this is fine. 1775 so Marie Antoinette
00:27:23.880has been at Versailles for about five years. Limbault by her side for most of it and this is
00:27:29.780when the king, Louis XV, who Lambeau almost maybe would have married, dies, Marie Antoinette's
00:27:35.760husband becomes the king, Louis XVI. And so because Marie Antoinette, that makes Marie Antoinette the
00:27:41.400queen because her husband is the king. And so she's now able to appoint people into jobs.0.92
00:27:45.600And so she appoints Lambeau the job of superintendent of the queen's household,
00:27:50.080which is the highest rank possible for a lady in waiting at Versailles. This office had been
00:27:55.860vacant for over 30 years because the position was expensive, superfluous, by which I mean
00:28:02.780unnecessary. And it gave so much power and influence to the person who gave it. Like
00:28:08.640it gave Lembal rank and power over all of the other ladies in waiting. All orders given by0.98
00:28:13.500any other female office holder had to be confirmed by her before it was carried out. It was such an1.00
00:28:18.660important, but it was a costly job because the salary was really high. But Marie Antuna was just0.84
00:28:24.760like, this is my best friend and I want her to have the best job. And so I'm going to give her
00:28:28.180this job. And just think what we know about Lambelle, who's just like, you know, she's great
00:28:33.040gowns, beautiful gowns, like pretty hair. She's nice. She's sweet. She's intelligent. We know0.94
00:28:38.180that. So Marie Antoinette, like part of this must've been like, she knew that Lambelle could
00:28:41.980do this job overseeing it, but it was also, this is a very controversial appointment because no
00:28:46.440one had been in this job. And some people thought that Lambelle's health issues maybe would get in
00:28:51.300the way of her being able to do this. She was also at this point in her mid-20s, mid-late 20s,
00:28:56.920but she was younger than a lot of the other people who she would be supervising. Those women0.95
00:29:01.300were annoyed because she would now be supervising them. So people were upset about it, but like,1.00
00:29:06.520what could you do? Marie Antoinette said to this and Lembal is a princess. So like you can say
00:29:11.440that it was inappropriate. The salary of this position was enormous for the time is 50,000
00:29:18.020crowns a year. And because the princess of Lambeau was the richest person in France,0.64
00:29:23.660and because France was in a lot of debt, because again, this is like 1775, they're not quite
00:29:29.220helping in the American revolution yet, but they will, but they have been in all these other wars
00:29:33.880of France, not doing great financially. So they were like, okay, so they're not already doing
00:29:39.180great financially. And Marie Antoinette is like, Hey, I'm re-implementing this job that costs 50,000
00:29:43.540crowns a year, this like pointless job. So Princess Lambelle was asked to renounce the0.99
00:29:48.580salary. Like just, could you do this as like a volunteer job? But she refused because, um,0.70
00:29:53.960because of the, because of the rank and just kind of like, it would be, she always wanted to do
00:29:59.260everything like correctly. And she's like, it would not be correct for me to do this and not
00:30:03.440take the salary. She's like, I will either have all the privileges of the office or I will just
00:30:07.580like step down and Marie Antoinette intervened and granted her the salary herself. This led to
00:30:14.240bad publicity because we talked about this in the last week with the Gabrielle Polignac,
00:30:21.520but there was a lot of haters on site who were looking for any reason to criticize Marie Antoinette
00:30:27.000and this made Marie Antoinette look bad and it made Lumbel look like she was greedy. And this
00:30:32.480is when people started making fun of her fainting spells and suggesting that maybe she was faking0.97
00:30:38.460it. So here's another hot update from Ambassador Mercy, who's got all the tea. Quote,
00:30:44.600Her Majesty continually sees the Princess de Lambelle in her rooms. This lady joins to much0.97
00:30:49.120sweetness of very sincere character, far from intrigue and all such worries. The Queen has0.90
00:30:53.780conceived for some time a real friendship for this young princess, and the choice is excellent
00:30:58.120for Madame de Lambelle is not at all identified with the interests of Madame de Promence and
00:31:04.220D'Artois. So they're just saying, even though she's from Savoy, she doesn't have any agenda.
00:31:08.400She's not trying to push anything on this. Mercy also says, all the same, I've taken the precaution
00:31:13.460to point out to the queen that her favoring goodness to the princess de Lambelle are somewhat
00:31:17.340excessive in order to prevent abuse of them from that quarter. So Marie Antoinette is just like,
00:31:22.820this is my bestie and I'm going to give her it's, I mean, there's so many nuances to this,
00:31:28.960like the Versailles of it all makes everything really more complicated. But I think we see this
00:31:32.660happening in like these days in Hollywood or something where somebody becomes a star and
00:31:37.160then they like hire their friend or their sibling is their assistant or like they let somebody live
00:31:41.500with them where it's just like, if somebody suddenly gets all this power and influence,
00:31:44.820they want, and they're a generous person, they want to bestow that upon their friends.
00:31:48.620But then it's like, can you trust all of your friends? Are your friends just using you? And
00:31:52.060in this case, Lambelle is not, but I can see why people might suspect that she was.
00:31:56.880So Marie Antoinette's mom, Maria Teresa, tried to discourage the friendship, um, because she was
00:32:01.900concerned that Lambelle, because she was from Savoy, would try to like pressure her to like do,
00:32:08.040I don't know, do stuff for Savoy. Um, but Marie Antoinette is just like, whatever, this is fine.
00:32:14.060What she said actually is the princess to Lambelle's friendship is the charm of my life.
00:32:18.740So, and I will mention also that Marie Antoinette's husband, Louis the 16th,
00:32:22.820also really liked Lambelle because she's just like a nice person.
00:32:26.580They just like being around a basic suite people.
00:32:29.320And there's not a lot of people like that at Versailles.
00:32:32.300But Lambelle, although she's like, I'll take this job.
00:32:34.880If you don't want to pay me, then I just won't take the job.
00:32:36.900And then she has the job, but she struggled initially with the role because,0.87
00:32:42.440and so part of it is that because her rank is she's a princess.
00:32:45.320was called a princess of the blood, which means her husband was illegitimate son of the previous
00:32:50.660king. So you're called princess of the blood. So because when you're a princess of the blood,0.71
00:32:54.540it's not appropriate for you to invite people to events. What she would do is she would just
00:33:01.080kind of announce that like, I will be receiving on a certain evening or like on behalf of Marie
00:33:06.320Antoinette, like Marie Antoinette will be receiving on a certain evening, but it wasn't seen as
00:33:09.920appropriate for a princess to issue invitations. That was like inappropriate, but this was tricky
00:33:15.300because part of her job as the superintendent of the household was to invite people to parties.
00:33:20.380So she's like, well, I can't invite them to the party. I'll just let people know
00:33:23.640Marie Antoinette will be receiving people. And so, but the guests that they wanted to come
00:33:28.440were confused. Is this an invitation or not? And so the parties were poorly attended,
00:33:34.380which bothered Marie Antoinette. And at this point, her other friend Gabrielle is on the scene
00:33:39.920and Gabrielle, so Gabrielle and Lambal did not get along. Marie Antoinette was like,
00:33:44.160this is my bestie. This is my new bestie. You should be each other's besties. And they did
00:33:48.120not get along at all. Especially Gabrielle, who's got like a bit more mischievousness to her.
00:33:54.900Like she would try to get in the way of Lambelle. Lambelle is just kind of like,0.99
00:33:58.740what's happening? Just like blink, blink. So Gabrielle was sort of suggesting that Lambelle
00:34:02.540was incompetent or she had messed up on purpose to embarrass the queen, trying to get Lambelle to
00:34:07.460be like on the outs with Marie Antoinette so that Gabrielle could get more power. But in the
00:34:12.660meantime, Marie Antoinette is just like, you're my two friends. And so we're going to hang out
00:34:16.020all together because I'm a queen and that's what I want to do. And so we're in 1775. And what was
00:34:24.880trending at the time was for women, for gals to be pals, for women to have fun without men,
00:34:31.640which I support. One thing that the girl squad would like to do, like not just Marie Antoinette
00:34:37.500her two besties but like women in general aristocratic and noble women and royal women0.52
00:34:42.860um they would like to go um on gondolas in the river just like floating around just like vibes
00:34:48.520one time the three besties were out on the river um and some barge men like the men who like drove
00:34:54.140the ships were like oh let's like pretend one of us fell in the river to like entertain
00:34:58.760marie antoinette but marie antoinette thought they're actually drowning and she was really
00:35:02.000distressed and she was panicked. Lambelle fainted, did not go overall. And so like we talked about
00:35:07.620last week, Lambelle having this power position of being Marie Antoinette's friend, she was able to0.95
00:35:13.680use that to help advance her family members. So she had a brother named Eugene who was her
00:35:20.640favorite brother and he was granted a post with his own regiment in the French Royal Army. Lambelle
00:35:27.320also got Marie Antoinette to give her brother-in-law
00:35:30.100to become the governor of a place called Poitou.
00:35:33.260And so this is all happening in Versailles.
00:47:56.380And so Lambelle was just sort of like insulted that she'd been there with Marie Antoinette during the measles and then was sort of pushed aside for Gabrielle.
00:48:03.460and just for like health reasons she's like i'm just going to take another break from versailles
00:48:07.340uh this time she went to take the waters in bourbon les bains and then she went to be with
00:48:13.060her father-in-law this nice guy he was in poor health and she wanted to spend time with him
00:48:17.400and then it's just like parent death era in 1780 marie antoinette's mother maria theresa died
00:48:23.800and lambelle rushed back to be with her so it was marie antoinette and her two besties were all just
00:48:28.500kind of like there together during the winter morning the death of marie antoinette's mother
00:48:32.240Lambelle had other friends, specifically this 16-year-old girl who she met named Stephanie
00:48:38.400Beatrix d'Embliment, who was Lambelle's lady-in-waiting, because she was also princess,
00:48:42.900so she had lady-in-waiting as well. And Stephanie was energetic, bubbly, and fun-loving. She also
00:48:47.860tended to speak her mind without thinking. And just like the energy, Lambelle enjoyed being
00:48:52.460around this youthful energy. In 1781, she's just excelling at her Freemason-type work.
00:49:00.500Lambaul was made grandmistress of the Scottish Lodge of Freemasons.
00:49:04.800And being the most wealthy woman in all France, she purchased her own home in a place called
00:49:08.980Passy, which is a village off of the Seine, which is known for its medicinal mineral spring.0.94
00:49:13.920So she can have a place with her own mineral spring for like the health benefits.
00:49:17.860At the same area in Passy, also staying at the time, Benjamin Franklin in town from America.
00:49:24.440He was also there, I think, in that specific region for the medicinal reasons.
00:49:29.400And Lembal really liked living there because she could be more secluded.
00:49:54.620one guy who recommended like maybe you could put a bed like put the patient's bed her bed
00:50:00.420into a cow stable so that the manure would like make the bed smell like manure and then the i'm
00:50:07.100not sure if then you put the patient in the bed or if you just bring the manure smelling bed in
00:50:10.760and the patient lies in the bed and like the vapors of like the manure would cure them it
00:50:15.520didn't it didn't cure anybody but these are the sorts of medical advice that she's getting
00:50:19.640Marie Antoinette gave birth again and Lambelle as superintendent of the household, like she was always there when Marie Antoinette gave birth, but Marie Antoinette had not seen her for a while and was shocked at how ill Lambelle looked, her frail, pale appearance.
00:50:32.280And then the affair of the diamond necklace happened.
00:50:36.400We will talk about this more in depth in future episodes, but also you could scroll back to find the episode I did about the affair of the diamond necklace.
00:50:43.200What this was, was this con woman named Jean de Lamotte made it seem like Marie Antoinette wanted to buy this diamond necklace.
00:50:51.200And this guy, Cardinal Rohan, became sort of the intermediary in all of it.
00:50:56.180And Marie Antoinette had nothing to do with it, but it all fell back on her because it was something that people believed that she was involved with.
00:51:02.700And it really devastated her, Marie Antoinette, to realize that people thought so little of her.
00:51:07.040Cardinal Rohan was this person who was involved in the affair, and he was very publicly arrested at Versailles.
00:51:13.200And that night, Lambelle wrote, I sat by her majesty's bedside the whole of the night after I heard what had been determined against the cardinal by the council of ministers to beg her to use all of her interest with the king to persuade him to revoke the order of the warrant for the prelate's arrest.
00:51:25.120To this, the queen replied, then the king, the ministers, and the people will all deem me guilty.
00:51:29.860Her majesty's remark stopped all further argument upon this subject.
00:51:35.060And I had the inconceivable grief to see my royal mistress rushing upon dangers, which I had no power of preventing her from bringing upon herself.
00:51:42.240So Lambelle, as much as it's like, you know, not a thought in her pretty head, it's like,
00:52:30.980So maybe it was just a charitable thing.
00:52:33.620But the fact that Lambelle, who's very recognizable with her blonde hair and her beautiful skin, it created widespread rumors at the time.
00:52:40.840People thought that Marie Antoinette had sent Lambelle there for some sort of sneaky reason.0.97
00:52:45.480We talked last time in the Gabrielle episode about how one of the ways that people who hated Marie Antoinette were trying to make her seem like this horrible monster person were using rumors of lesbianism.0.99
00:52:57.400not because anyone had ever seen evidence of lesbianism but because this was a way to make0.92
00:53:03.900marie antoinette seem just kind of like terrible because lesbianism was seen as terrible by most
00:53:08.840people at that time so the rumors that marie antoinette was having an affair with jean de
00:53:13.040lamotte this con artist and so to have lambal there and there were rumors that marie antoinette
00:53:16.580and lambal were having lesbian relationships so it's just kind of like is this some sort of just
00:53:20.860like lesbian grifter thing when they saw lambal going to see jean de lamotte in the prison anyway
00:53:26.620her health continues to deteriorate. So she went 1787 to England. She'd been advised by doctors0.84
00:53:32.360to go to Bath in England to take the waters, which is more just kind of like medicinal
00:53:37.020mineral waters. Marie Antoinette personally saw her to wish her farewell, which was unusual.
00:53:43.280Marie Antoinette didn't usually do this for most people, but because she did this and because
00:53:47.300everybody hated Marie Antoinette so much at this point and were so suspicious of her,0.89
00:53:50.440they thought that she was sending Lambelle to England for like spy reasons to like do some0.99
00:53:55.800sort of diplomacy spy shit. The main speculation was, so there was a minister who had been in0.89
00:54:01.960France called Cologne, who was in England. And so the rumors were maybe Lambelle was being sent
00:54:06.660to England to meet with him, to get him to not publish his memoirs. But in fact, Cologne was not
00:54:12.800in England at the time, but Lambelle did return with two copies of his memoirs. So like maybe
00:54:18.320that was a favor she did. I don't know, but she went to England because of her health issues.0.61
00:56:13.340the storm destroyed fields and vineyards plummeted the whole country into darkness no people died but
00:56:20.000lots of animals died and the grain harvests were destroyed this storm gave way to that was july
00:56:27.380so then august there was a huge heat wave and lambal among others fled paris to go to western
00:56:32.900france where it was a bit cooler lambal traveled incognito because she was remember she was famous
00:56:38.600Like people had the à la Lemballe game, like she had this beautiful, notable hair, but there'd been so many pamphlets about like, is she Marie Antoinette's lesbian lover?
00:56:46.160Like she was a well-known person and it just would be apparent that it is her because she would be traveling in this royal way.
00:56:52.460So she tried to travel incognito, but she was recognized, passed through tour, but in a good way, the whole city turned out to greet her.
00:57:00.200Because somehow, even though the monarchy, like the French monarchy, was more and more unpopular,
00:57:06.140Lambal herself was somehow not as hated as other people,
00:57:11.260potentially because of her good reputation, because of all the charity that she had done.
00:57:15.860Many saw her just as somebody with sound judgment who offered good advice to the queen,
00:57:53.520And she stayed with him, tending to him, doing her charity work, which she tended to, you know, poor people, people in need.
00:58:01.900And there's like an increasing amount of people in need because this hailstorm that had like destroyed all the crops.
00:58:07.120But simultaneous to all of this, like the pamphlets are getting even more extreme.
00:58:10.800The pamphlets being like Lambert, even though the people in tour and some like there was a lot of people who thought that she was an OK person.
00:58:17.860The pamphleteers were just like we saw so many pamphlets when we say that Marie Antoinette and Lambert are lesbians.0.82
00:58:23.000So let's just like keep doing this. Let's call Lambelle this like out of control, lesbian nymphomaniac. And then we're getting into the French Revolution of it all, which I don't want to dwell on the specifics of it because we're going to get into that in the Marie Antoinette episodes.0.99
00:58:38.020but um what happened next to her effectively personally is that marie antoinette's seven
00:58:46.780year old son died he'd been in fragile health for several years he died lambel attended the
00:58:52.600funeral and then went to switzerland i'm gonna guess for health reasons again and so she was
00:58:57.960out of town during the storming of the bastille which is kind of a lot of people say is kind of
00:59:02.820the beginning of the french revolution her father-in-law was feeling well enough to travel
00:59:06.300So she went on him to visit Northern France, where like, even though in Paris, like riots
00:59:11.380were breaking out and stuff in Northern France, where they were, things were pretty okay.
00:59:14.920Um, and that's where she was when the next kind of major step towards the French revolution
00:59:19.100happened, the women's March, where a group of, um, market ladies marched from Paris to0.79
00:59:24.860Versailles and then forced Marie Antoinette and the rest of the family to come back to
00:59:28.520Paris to live in the Tuileries palace.
00:59:31.020Um, but when Lambelle heard that it happened, got permission from her, like she was staying
00:59:35.600with her father-in-law who was ill and she's like i'll stay with you if you need me but like i feel
00:59:38.900like i need to go be with marie antoinette my bestie who's like going through a time her father-in-law
00:59:43.720was like that's cool you can go so she showed up she went to paris and when marie antoinette saw
00:59:48.880her the queen threw herself into her friend's arms and caught her up to speed with all the horrible
00:59:53.320stuff that was happening um and then in the tuileries palace where they were living um kind
00:59:58.720of court etiquette was reinstated lambal returned to her duties as the superintendent um and she
01:00:05.220was again always by the queen side during her card parties and at dinner when she was meeting
01:00:09.920with foreign diplomats lembell moved permanently into apartments nearby um and while the royal
01:00:16.340family was kind of like limited and where they could go lembell could come and go and so she
01:00:19.820left mostly just to go check in on her father-in-law who is still sick and so at tillery's
01:00:25.940palace she was able to have people over and so she hoped to um to gather like loyal nobles together
01:00:32.700to help the royal family so that like everything could go back to how it was before. So Lambelle's
01:00:39.480salon came to serve as like a meeting place for the queen and people who the queen was trying,0.76
01:00:44.000hoping to, went over to her side to like end the revolution and stuff. At the same time, Lambelle,
01:00:50.880who's, you know, never, don't underestimate her. She was also investigating the loyalty among the
01:00:56.360staff to see are any of them secretly double agents or what's going on. By this point, most
01:01:02.260of Marie Antoinette's acquaintances, really, not to mention friends had fled France, including
01:01:07.280Gabrielle had already taken off. Marie Antoinette was like, Lambelle, you know, by staying here,
01:01:11.980like you're going to get being close to me. You're going to get even more hatred, like
01:01:15.480leave if you think you should. And Lambelle is like, no, no, I'm loyal to you. You're the queen
01:01:19.840and also my bestie. And like, let's do this. So the night of June 20th, 1791, Lambelle was
01:01:27.380playing her usual card game with the queen. Queen bid her good night and said, you should maybe go
01:01:32.060spend some days in the country for the sake of your health. This was an unusual thing for her
01:01:36.340to say. And Lambeau was like, okay, I will do that. But also, was that a coded message?
01:01:41.820And it was. But Lambeau went to her villa in Passy. And there she received a secret note
01:01:47.980from Marie Antoinette revealing that the royal family was fleeing. They were doing a family
01:01:52.760von trap. They were trying to escape the Tuileries Palace. And so she told Lambeau to meet them in0.56
01:04:42.900And this is like different biographies I read had different takes on this part. Some were suggesting that Marie Antoinette didn't mean this because she'd said so many times don't come. So she wrote this because she had to. But also another biography I read suggested that Marie Antoinette really needed her support there. Like she was really in crisis and some of her advisors like really pushed her to do this, knowing that this would be helpful for Marie Antoinette.
01:05:05.840Lambeau struggled. It took her two weeks to decide what to do. And ultimately she did decide
01:05:10.100to return to Paris, but she would not take her ladies in waiting with her because she didn't
01:05:14.080want to put their lives at risk. She's putting her life at risk. Before she returned to Paris,
01:05:18.660she wrote her will. So like she knew she's walking into like a situation that could end with her
01:05:24.200death. In her will, she left her fortune and her belongings to her nephew and her father-in-law.
01:05:29.360And she also provided a pension for her hardworking doctor and also pensions for her two
01:05:35.020beloved ladies-in-waiting. And what she said was, the queen wants me, I must live and die
01:05:41.160near her. And as of November 4th, 1791, she was back in Paris. And Lambelle brought with her a
01:05:49.240gift from Marie Antoinette, which was a Spaniel named Cisbe, Cisbe, I think, a name that means
01:05:55.500it signifies faithfulness to death. Marie Antoinette renamed the name Mignon, which means
01:06:00.180cute. And like when Marie Antoinette, like when Lambelle had returned that other time,
01:10:16.960Sweet, good, and obliging, she showed us every little attention in her power.
01:10:20.900She said the kindest things to us every day,
01:10:23.000expressing the happiness she experienced by having us with her.
01:10:26.320And the women were in prison, but it's like they kept busy.
01:10:29.460They did needlepoint, sewing, or reading.
01:10:32.060She didn't have any of her panic attacks or feigning spells at this time.
01:10:35.580And she just worried all the time about the royal family.
01:10:37.920the guards were not allowed to tell them what was happening. She received letters from her
01:10:41.640beloved father-in-law, which raised her spirits because he was working tirelessly behind the
01:10:46.760scenes to free her, calling in every favor he had. Um, he sent messages every hour to check on her
01:10:52.280and that's letters. This is just not phones. He also tried to bribe. Um, so the commune is the
01:10:59.540name of the organization, the government at that time that put her in prison. He tried to bribe
01:11:04.800them, but they refused to let her out. And then I couldn't find much more about this, but a
01:11:09.620mysterious English man arrived, um, and who helped smuggle Pauline Tourzelle, one of the other women
01:11:16.360out of prison. But, um, Lambeau was too recognizable to be able to escape without attracting more
01:11:22.140notice, her famous blonde hair. And then 6 AM on September 3rd, five days before Lambeau's 43rd
01:11:28.820birthday. Six armed jailers entered her cell, asked their names, and then left. She was frightened
01:11:35.880and suspicious, so Lembell climbed onto a ledge to peer out. There's just like a little tiny window
01:11:39.940really high up to see what was going on inside, and she saw that there was like a scary mob
01:11:44.080outside calling for justice. Someone from the mob through this tiny window recognized her,
01:11:48.700I guess her blonde hair, and through a rock that actually hit her cheek at the window.
01:11:52.74011 a.m., a jailer forced them out of their cell. They were brought into a courtyard to wait with
01:11:56.820other frightened prisoners alongside shabbily dressed drunken men. What was happening is this
01:12:02.200is called the September Massacres. This is when a mob broke into a bunch of prisons and killed a
01:12:09.040bunch of prisoners. That is what this is. So Lambelle and the governess, her friend, Madame de
01:12:14.620Tourzel, found a quiet spot. Tourzel, who survived, later wrote, we clasped each other's hands and I
01:12:20.020can state positively that Lambelle displayed much courage and presence of mind, replying without
01:12:24.320hesitation to all the questions put by the monsters who joined us for the sole purpose of
01:12:28.460contemplating their victims before leading them to death. So what was happening at this prison,
01:12:34.160La Force prison, is that just a bunch of mob people had declared themselves a tribunal and
01:12:39.860then each prisoner was brought before the tribunal and then the tribunal would decide if they would
01:12:43.340live or die. And this is not a guillotine situation. This is a situation where if the
01:12:48.200tribunal decided that you would die, then you were just thrown out into this courtyard where the mob
01:12:52.880itself would kill you maybe they had weapons maybe they would just like kick you you'd be
01:12:59.660torn limb from limb this is not this is not the paris revolutionary government doing stuff this0.99
01:13:07.880is like mob purge shit so the prisoners were just like what is even happening um so word spread that0.97
01:13:15.700if they wanted to survive in order to not be murdered by the mob they had to avoid any sign0.99
01:13:20.780of loyalty to the king and queen. They had to get rid of any rings or medallions or tringets or
01:13:25.100anything that might hint that they were loyal to the king and queen. Lembal, so her, the other
01:13:29.200woman, Pauline de Torzell, managed to escape. I think the same secret English man showed up.
01:13:34.000Who is that? The Scarlet Pimpernel? I'm not sure. But Lembal is taken off to be questioned by the
01:13:39.020quote unquote tribunal. It was six men and they ordered her to swear that she loves liberty,
01:13:43.840inequality, and that she hates all kings and queens. Her father-in-law, who's just like,
01:13:48.840again, like he's doing everything he can. Somehow there's a person in the room who had been sent by
01:13:52.940the father-in-law or who the father-in-law had told what to say. And so this guy whispered to
01:13:56.760her that she should denounce the royal family, like say you don't like the royal family. But
01:14:00.920instead, Lambelle replied, I have nothing to answer. Whether I die sooner or later is a matter
01:14:05.120of indifference. To me, I have made the sacrifice of my life. And so the tribunal announced, let
01:14:10.660madame be set at liberty, which mean Lambelle thought that meant she was being freed, but
01:14:15.380actually set at liberty means you were going to be killed. As she headed to the door, her father-in-law's
01:14:20.660emissary whispered, like, say, vive la nation, and you might be saved. But she did not say this.
01:14:25.860And so Princess Lambelle stepped out into the courtyard where she saw piles of naked and
01:14:32.440mutilated corpses, limbs, because this was the result of the death sentence being carried out
01:14:38.800by the mob. And soon she was one of their other victims. One of the killers, one of the mob people
01:14:45.820who was tried years later, described her as a little lady dressed in white, standing for a
01:14:50.440moment alone before the mob fell upon her. So her legacy, Marie Antoinette's daughter recalled that
01:14:57.980when Marie Antoinette heard about the death of Princess of Lembel, quote, my unhappy mother did
01:15:02.300not even try to sleep. We listened to her sobs. Louis XVI said a prayer to Lembel's soul. So her
01:15:08.240father-in-law's agents had been told if any harm came to her, they were to follow her body to
01:15:13.080ensure that it's a proper burial. So these men, the father-in-law's agents infiltrated the mob.
01:15:18.020They saw she was killed by the mob. I'm not going to get into detail, but her head was chopped off.
01:15:23.220And so they saw her head was put on a pike to be paraded around because she was such a famous0.98
01:15:27.260person, her famous blonde hair and stuff. So these men followed the people, the pike bearers,1.00
01:15:33.540They went to like an ale house and what they were doing with the head is they wanted to take the head back to Hillary's palace to like on the pike.1.00
01:15:40.820So the Marie Antoinette would see it because they're like, kiss your lesbian lover's head or whatever.0.93
01:15:45.280But the people carrying the head on the pike stopped at an ale house because they were thirsty because it's hot.0.93
01:15:50.380And so the agents of the father-in-law got these guys drunk and then grabbed the head and then took the head.0.89
01:15:57.680And they were able to provide a proper burial for the head.
01:16:01.240allegedly in the cemetery of the hospital des enfants de la patrie in paris the day she died
01:16:09.540um like this day that the mob killed her the news reached her father-in-law's valet who hoped that
01:16:16.040it was just a rumor or gossip and not true and so he didn't tell the father-in-law but a few days
01:16:20.520later a letter arrived from paris confirming the news and the valet was still just like he can't
01:16:24.740take it he's he loves her so much he worked so hard to try and help her so the valet didn't tell
01:16:28.780the father, but he did tell Lambelle's sister-in-law. The sister-in-law was then tasked
01:16:33.420with telling the father-in-law about the death. So she got his whole staff to dress in mourning
01:16:37.700clothes and the eldest stood around his bed waiting, like their eyes were red, they were
01:16:41.540crying. And then the father-in-law woke up and saw them and they didn't need to say anything.
01:16:45.620He knew it was obvious what their news was. He never recovered from losing her. He later said,
01:16:51.260quote, I think I always hear her. I always think I see her sitting near the window in the little
01:16:55.640study where she used to sit from morning till night working for the poor. And this is the angel
01:17:00.580they have torn to pieces. So her death, as I mentioned, was one of what became known as the
01:17:06.920September massacres from September 2nd to September 7th, 1792. And these September massacres
01:17:12.480sparked an upsurge in murder and mayhem in Paris. Corpses just lay on the street and became so
01:17:19.700common that people walked over them without a second thought. So in terms of in media,
01:17:25.720when there's a Marie Antoinette movie, there's often a Princess de Lambelle character. So she
01:17:30.000was played by Mary Nighy in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette by Sophia Coppola. She's in the TV
01:17:37.520series Marie Antoinette played by Jasmine Blackborough. And also she's mentioned in the 1905
01:17:43.620children's book, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The main character, Sarah,
01:17:48.600is fascinated by the French Revolution and recounts what happened to the Princess de
01:17:53.180Lambal, her death to her friend. And that is the saga of the Princess de Lambal. As I often do on
01:18:02.120this podcast, when we do a biographical episode, I'm going to score her in four categories and
01:18:07.120then see where that lands her on our Fredegand Memorial Scandaliciousness scale. So in terms of
01:18:12.460scandalousness, it's tricky, like the same as when we were scoring Gabrielle de Polignac. She was such
01:18:18.120an upstanding person just like doing charity whatever it's like even the stuff she did like
01:18:24.760people thought she was scandalous you know all the pamphlets and things but like nothing i0.99
01:18:28.760i'm going to give her a one for scandalousness and that's because1.00
01:18:33.440of when she was in the tuileries palace she was like working so diligently to help the royal family1.00
01:18:38.880and that would have been seen as scandalous by the revolutionary forces if they knew that she
01:18:42.480did that and that's kind of ostensibly the reason why she was killed scheminess i don't like you
01:18:47.860know she did what she needed to do but she was not about schemes like when she you know she was0.99
01:18:54.780out of her depth being the superintendent of the household all she wanted to do was just like work1.00
01:18:59.480for the poor if only she had been allowed to become a nun in the first place she would have1.00
01:19:02.860maybe lived a much longer life like she did have scheming us towards the end again like trying to
01:19:07.780wrestle up support for marie antoinette and i respect that i support that but that doesn't
01:19:11.820i'm going to be benevolent like she would be and give her a three for scheminess entirely just for0.55
01:19:16.740that stuff because the whole rest of her life was just like, that's not her vibe. And there's
01:19:20.060nothing wrong with that. But she did do those schemes towards the end. Her significance.1.00
01:19:25.200She, I mean, she's, she's an indelible part of the Marie Antoinette saga. She's always in the
01:19:30.080movies. Um, I don't, she was always advising Marie Antoinette to just like chill out and not be0.75
01:19:37.900like people hate you, maybe better. Like her influence was good. Like, I don't think that
01:19:43.580she led to Marie Antoinette's downfall.
01:19:45.700Her significance, like her charitable work,
01:19:47.480you know, I would think that there's, you know,