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 chambermaids 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.[2]
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.[2]
List of Dames d'atour to the queens and empresses of France
Dame d'atour to Catherine de' Medici 1547–1589
- 1547–1552 : Marie-Catherine Gondi [3]
- 1552–1559 : Madeleine Buonaiuti, Madame Alamanni, Mme de Gondi [4][5]
Dame d'atour to Élisabeth d'Autriche
- 1570–1574: Marguerite de La Marck-Arenberg
Dame d'atour to Louise of Lorraine 1575–1601
- 1575–1590: Louise de la Béraudière
Dame d'atour to Marie de' Medici 1600–1632
- 1600–1617: Leonora Dori[6]
- 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-Catherine de Senecey
- 1626-1630: Madeleine du Fargis
- 1630–1657: Catherine le Voyer de Lignerolles, Baronne du Bellay, Dame 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 as deputy)
- 1657–1666: Louise Boyer, duchesse de Noailles
Dame d'atour to Maria Theresa of Spain 1660–1683
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-Périgord, duchesse de Mailly
- 1781–1791: Geneviève de Gramont, comtesse d'Ossun
Dame d'atour to Joséphine de Beauharnais 1804–1809
- 1804–1809: Émilie de Beauharnais
Dame d'atour to Marie Louise 1810–1814
- 1810–1814: Jeanne Charlotte du Luçay
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", in: The Court Historian; vol. 14, number 1, June 2009
- Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, eds. The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe Leiden: Brill, 2013
- Catherine de Médicis
- Marie de Medicis and the French court in the XVIIth century
- 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