Amy Brown Freeman

Amy Brown Freeman (8 April1783-7 May1876) was the first wife of Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry ( 24 January1778-14 February1820), younger son of King Charles X of France and Marie Thérèse of Savoy.

Life

Amy was born Amy Brown on 8 April 1783 in Maidstone, Kent ,England to John L. Brown and Anne Deacon. Sometime before 1804, she married a Mr. Freeman by whom she had a son, John, born 5 December 1804. Nothing is recorded of her husband or his subsequent fate.

The Duc de Berry

She met the Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry in London after the Bourbon royal family was exiled to England in 1801 but the precise date is unknown. In 1806, Amy married Charles Ferdinand. They had two daughters :Charlotte Marie Augustine de Bourbon, Comtesse d'Issoudun (13 July1808-13 July1886) and Louise Marie Charlotte, Comtesse de Vierzon, Baronne de Charette (29 December1809-26 December1891). In 1814 upon the duke's return to France, he was constrained to divorce Amy for political reasons. He subsequently married Caroline Ferdinande Louise (5 November1798-17 April1870) eldest daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies. On 14 February1820 the duke was assassinated by a saddler, Louis Pierre Louvel ; on his deathbed, the duke asked to see Amy and his daughters, entrusting them to the royal family. Amy's son by her first marriage,John Freeman died 26 August 1866, and Amy herself died on 7 May 1876 at the age of ninety-three at the Chateau de La Contrie, France. Through her daughter the Baronne de Charette, Amy is the ancestress of Hervé de Charette (30 July1938) the French Foreign Minister from 1995-1997

Sources

# http://www.thepeerage.com.
# The French Royal Family: A Genealogy by Francois Velde.

References