| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
She was born in Paris. Her father was a painter named Cordier. He seems to have deserted her mother, who then resumed her maiden name, Delaunay, which was also adopted by her daughter. She was educated at a convent at Evreux, of which Mme de la Rochefoucauld, sister of François de la Rochefoucauld, author of the Maximes, was superior. Here she became attached to Mme de Grieu, who, being appointed abbess of the convent of St Louis at Rouen, took her friend with her.
Mlle Delaunay lived there until 1710 in the enjoyment of the utmost consideration. There she held a little court of her own, which included Brunel, the friend of Fontenelle, the sieur de la Rey and the abbé Vertot. She describes her own first passion for the marquis de Silly, the brother of a friend with whom she was visiting. Her affection was not returned, but she entered on a correspondence with him in which she plays the part of director.
After the death of her patron, Mme de Grieu, poverty compelled her to enter the household of the duchesse du Maine at Sceaux in the capacity of femme de chambre. Her literary talent soon manifested itself in the literary court of the duchess, and secured for her, among other friendships, the somewhat undesirable admiration of the abbé Chaulieu. The duchess is said, but chiefly on the waiting-lady's own authority, to have been not a little jealous of her attendant. Enough, however, is known of the duchesss imperious and capricious temper to make it improbable that her service was agreeable. Mlle Delaunay, however, enjoyed a large share of her confidence and had a considerable share in drawing up the Mémoire des princes légitimes which demanded the meeting of the states-general.
She was implicated in the affair of the Cellamare conspiracy, and was sent in 1718Events May 15 James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun. July 21 Treaty of Passarowitz signed November 22 Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as " Blackbeard") is killed in battle when a British bo to the BastilleBastille is a French word meaning castle' or 'stronghold'. Used as a single word ("la Bastille" in French, "the Bastille" in English) it invariably refers to the former Bastille Saint-Antoine Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris. The storming of the Bas, where she remained for two years. Even here, however, she made conquests, though she was far from beautiful. Her own account of her love for her fellow prisoner, the chevalier de Ménil, and of the passion of the chevalier de Maisonrouge, her gaoler, for her, is justly famous. She returned on her liberation to the service of the duchess, who showed no gratitude for the devotion, approaching the heroic, that Mlle Delaunay had shown in her cause. She received no promotion and still had to fulfil the wearisome duties of a waiting-maid. She refused, it is said, André DacierAndre Dacier ( April 6, 1651 September 18, 1722), was a French classical scholar. He was born at Castres in upper Languedoc. His father, a Protestant lawyer, sent him first to the academy of Puy Laurens, and afterwards to Saumur to study under Tanneguy Le, the widower of a wife more famous than himself, and in 1735, being then more than fifty, married the Baron de Staal. Her dissatisfaction with her position had become so evident that the duchess, afraid of losing her services, arranged the marriage to give Mlle Delaunay rank sufficient to allow of her promotion to be on an equality with the ladies of the court.
On this footing she remained a member of the household. It was at this time that she became the friend and correspondent of Mme du Deffand. She died at GennevilliersGennevilliers is a commune of France, in the Hauts-de-Seine departement in the northwestern suburb of Paris. Economy Gennevilliers is the site of the main river port of Paris on the Seine river. Miscellaneous Gennevilliers was the birthplace of the actres.