Dame d'atour
Dame d'atour was an office at the royal court of France. It existed in nearly all French courts from the 16th-century onward. The dame d'honneur was selected from the members of the highest French nobility.
History
At least from the tenure of Isabeau of Bavaria as queen, there had been a post named demoiselle d'atour or femme d'atour, but this had originally been the title of the queen's chamber maids and divided to several people.[1]
The office of Dame d'atour was created in 1534, and was one of the highest ranked offices among the ladies-in-waiting of the queen and given only to members of the nobility.[2]
The dame d'atour had the responsibility of the queen's wardrobe and jewelry and supervised the dressing of the queen and the chamber staff of femme du chambre.[3]
When the dame d'honneur was absent, she was replaced by the dame d'atour as the supervisor of the female personnel of the queen.[4]
List of Dame d'atour to the queen of France
Dame d'atour to Louise of Lorraine 1575-1601
- 1575-1590: Louise de la Béraudière
Dame d'atour to Marie de' Medici 1600-1632
- 1600-1601: Madame de Richelieu
- 1601-1617: Leonora Dori
- 1617-1619: Vacant
- 1619-1625: Nicole du Plessis de Mailly, marquise de Brezé
- 1625-1631: Duchesse d'Aiguillon
Dame d'atour to Anne of Austria 1615-1666
- 1615-1619: Luisa de Osorio (jointly with de Vernet)
- 1615-1626: Antoinette d'Albert de Luynes, Dame de Vernet (jointly with de Osorio)
- 1626-1626: Marie de la Rochefoucauld de Bauffremont, marquise de Séneçay
- 1626-1630: Madeleine du Fargis
- 1630-1657: Catherine le Voyer de Lignerolles Bellay de la Flotte
- 1637-1639: Marie de Hautefort, 'Madame de Hautefort' (deputy dame d'atour, first term)
- 1643-1644: Marie de Hautefort, duchesse de Schomberg (second term)
- 1657-1666: Louise Boyer, duchesse de Noailles
Dame d'atour to Maria Theresa of Spain 1660-1683
- 1660-1683: Anne-Marie de Beauvilliers, comtesse de Bethune
Dame d'atour to Marie Leszczyńska 1725-1768
- 1725-1731: Anne-Marie-Francoise de Sainte-Hermine, comtesse de Mailly
- 1731-1742: Francoise de Mailly, duchesse de Mazarin
- 1742-1768: Amable-Gabrielle de Noailles, duchesse de Villars
Dame d'atour to Marie Antoinette 1774-1792
- 1774-1775: Adelaide-Diane-Hortense Mancini-Mazarin, duchesse de Cossé
- 1775-1775: Laure-Auguste de Fitz-James, Princess de Chimay
- 1775-1781: Marie-Jeanne de Talleyrand-Perigord, duchesse de Mailly
- 1781-1790: Geneviève de Gramont, comtesse d'Ossun
Dame d'honneur to Marie Louise 1810-1814
- 1810-1814: Jeanne Charlotte du Lucay
See also
- First Lady of the Bedchamber, British equivalent
- Maid of the Bedchamber
References
- ↑ Caroline zum Kolk, "The Household of the Queen of France in the Sixteenth Century", dans The Court Historian, volume 14, number 1, june 2009
- ↑ Nadine Akkerman &, Birgit Houben: The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe
- ↑ Nadine Akkerman &, Birgit Houben: The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe
- ↑ Nadine Akkerman &, Birgit Houben: The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe
- Mathieu Da Vinha & Raphaël Masson: Versailles: Histoire, Dictionnaire et Anthologie
- Anselme de Sainte-Marie & Ange de Sainte-Rosalie: Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la Maison Royale de France