Maria Caterina Brignole

Maria Caterina Brignole
Princess of Condé Princess of Monaco
Spouse	Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé Honoré III, Prince of Monaco
Issue
Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco Prince Joseph
Full name
Maria Caterina Brignole
Father	Giuseppe Brignole Sale
Mother	Maria Anna Balbi
Born	7 October 1737(1737-10-07) Palazzo Rosso, Genoa
Died	18 March 1813(1813-03-18) (aged 75) Wimbledon, England
Burial	5 April 1813 Catholic Church of Somers Town, Wimbledon, England

Maria Caterina Brignole, (7 October 1737 – 18 March 1813) was the daughter of a Genovese nobleman. On 5 June 1757 she married Honoré III, Prince of Monaco, and became the Princess of Monaco. Her husband died in 1795, and in 1798 she married the French nobleman Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, and became the Princess of Condé.

Background

Maria Caterina was the daughter of Giuseppe Brignole Sale, Marquis of Groppoli, of a family whose members had occupied the position of Doge in Genoa, and Maria Anna Balbi. As her father was the Genovese ambassador to France, Maria Caterina and her mother frequented the salons of Paris and the royal court of Versailles where they were known for their beauty and appreciated for their excellent French. Her biographer, the Count of Ségur, called Maria Caterina "the most beautiful woman in France".

Maria Caterina fell in love with the Prince of Condé, Louis Joseph de Bourbon, but in 1755, her mother Anna proposed a marriage between her daughter and Anna's former lover, Honoré III of Monaco, who was almost 17 years older than Maria Caterina. Honoré III was the son of Louise Hippolyte, Princess of Monaco and her consort Jacques de Goyon de Matignon.

The family wanted to raise its status and forestall a marriage for Honoré arranged by the French court and designed to further French influence in Monaco. Honoré had declined many marriage proposals but was willing to marry Maria Caterina because of her beauty and her dowry and soon seduced her. Her father, however, disagreed because of the bad reputation of Honoré as well as the prospect of Honoré inheriting his fortune, but after an intervention of King Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, he gave his consent in 1757.

Princess of Monaco

Maria Caterina came to Monaco by boat in the company of the Genovese nobility. When they arrived, however, Honoré did not come aboard the ship to welcome his bride. When they asked him to do so, he replied that his status as a monarch demanded that she come to him instead. The Genovese entourage answered that Maria Caterina was a member of a ruling family of the Republic of Genoa and refused to do so. The ship was therefore stranded offshore for several days, until the predicament was resolved by the couple meeting halfway on a bridge between the boat and the shore.

The relationship was at first amiable, and the couple had two sons, Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco (born 17 May 1758) and Joseph de Monaco (born in 1767). Maria Caterina lived in Matignon, were she spent her days with the Prince de Condé, and seldom took part in the balls and court life. Honoré became more and more jealous, and demanded that she write down her thoughts for him. Once, she was alone for several hours with a handsome nobleman, who helped her to open a cupboard which had been stuck. After this incident, the jealousy of her husband worsened to the point where it was no longer endurable. In the meantime the Prince of Condé's wife, Charlotte Élisabeth Godefride de Rohan, whom he had married in 1753, died in 1760, and as time passed his relationship with Maria Caterina became more serious.

By 1769 she had begun to set up a home in the Hôtel de Lassay, an annex of the Prince of Condé's primary residence in Paris, the Palais-Bourbon.^[1] In 1770 her jealous spouse ordered the borders of Monaco closed in an attempt to prevent her from escaping. That same night, she went out on the balcony and did not return. It was discovered that she had managed to cross into France and had travelled all the way to Le Mans to the southwest of Paris where she had taken refuge in a nearby convent. Eventually she was able to return to Paris.

Due to Maria Caterina's illicit position as Condé's mistress the new French queen, the self-righteous, 18-year-old Marie Antoinette, offended the Prince of Condé by treating Maria Caterina poorly at court. But around that time (1774) Condé and Maria Caterina began the construction of the Hôtel de Monaco, to be her permanent home in Paris. It was in the rue Saint-Dominique, near the Palais Bourbon, and was completed in 1777.^[1] Honoré finally realized his relationship with Maria Caterina was completely finished and turned his attention to his own lovers. Maria Caterina wrote to her spouse that the marriage could be summarised by three words: greed, bravery, and jealousy.

Later life

Maria lived with Condé in France until the French revolution, when the couple left for Germany and then Great Britain. In 1795 Honoré died, and on 24 October 1798 she and Condé were married in London. The prince was the leader of the emigrant Condé army, and she used her great fortune to help finance the exiled French community's army.

She died in Wimbledon.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 7 October 1737 – 5 July 1757 Donna Maria Caterina Brignole
• 5 July 1757– 1770 Her Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco
• 1770 – 24 October 1798 Donna Maria Caterina Brignole
• 24 October 1798 – 18 March 1813 Her Serene Highness the Princess of Condé

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Braham (1980), p. 215.

Sources

This page is a translation of its French equivalent unless otherwise noted.

• Braham, Allan (1980). The architecture of the French enlightenment, pp. 210–219. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520041172. Limited view at Google Books.

Monegasque royalty
Vacant Title last held by Jacques Goyon de Matignon	Princess consort of Monaco 1757  – 1770	Vacant Title next held by Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz

See also

Persondata
Name	Brignole-Sale, Maria Caterina Di
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	7 October 1737
Place of birth	Palazzo Rosso, Genoa
Date of death	18 March 1813
Place of death	Wimbledon, England