Madame Guillotine

Madame la Duchesse de Chaulnes by Carmontelle.

Madame la Princesse de Lamballe was not the only unhappy young wife at the court of Versailles when Marie Antoinette arrived there as a giddy young bride in 1770. One of her first ladies in waiting, the Duchesse de Picquigny (later to become Duchesse de Chaulnes) was also in a pretty depressing situation, which must surely have roused the sympathy of the young Dauphine.

Madame de Picquigny was born Marie-Paule Angelique d’Albert de Luynes in 1744, the daughter of the Duc de Luynes. She grew up in the beautiful château of Dampierre before being married at a young age to Louis-Joseph d’Albert d’Ailly, duc de Chaulnes.

Their marriage remained unconsummated and Marie-Paule, who seems to have had a turn for the melodramatic made the decision to always dress in white in order to signify her perpetual state of virginity. I’m not sure that this was an entirely dignified move either but it earned her a lot of respect at Versailles, where she was appointed one of Marie Antoinette’s first ladies in waiting and was amongst the entourage led by Madame de Noailles that welcomed her to France.