Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan

Who was Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan?

Jeanne Louise Henriette Campan was a French educator, writer and lady-in-waiting. In the service of Marie Antoinette before and during the French Revolution, she was afterwards headmistress of the first "Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur", as appointed by Napoleon in 1807.

Her father was the highest-ranking clerk in the foreign office, and, although without fortune, placed her in the most cultivated society. By the age of fifteen she could speak English and Italian, and had gained so high a reputation for her academic accomplishments as to be appointed reader to Louis XV's daughters in 1768, and lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette in 1770. She was a general favourite at court, and when in 1774 she bestowed her hand upon Monsieur Campan, son of the secretary of the royal cabinet, the king gave her an annuity of 5,000 livres as dowry. The marriage was unhappy and the couple separated in 1790. Madame Campan was made First Lady of the Bedchamber by Marie Antoinette in 1786; and she continued to attend on her until the storming of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792, in which she was forcibly separated from the queen.